Eli Yishai
Eliyahu (Eli) Yishai (in
Hebrew אלי"ו (אלי) ישי) (born
December 26,
1962) is the leader of the
Haredi Sephardi Shas party in
Israel. He was appointed head of the party after former leader
Aryeh Deri was indicted for fraud. As of
May 4,
2006, he is the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Employment and Deputy Prime Minister.
Born in
Jerusalem, Israel, he was a member of the Jerusalem City Council from 1987-1988.
First elected to the
Knesset in
1996, Yishai was the
Israeli Minister of Interior in 2001-2003,
Israeli Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, and Deputy Prime Minister. Despite the numerical weakness of his party's roughly 12-member delegations in the
Knesset, its role as
swing faction regularly gains it participation in the cabinet.
He is married and has six children.
He came under fire in February 2006 when he told reporters that "homosexuality is clearly a disease", and wished gays and lesbians a "speedy recovery". [
1]
