Veteran politician Yossi Sarid died on Friday evening at the age of 75.
Sarid, who was a member of parliament from 1974 to 2006 and served in the government of Yitzhak Rabin which signed the Oslo accords with the Palestinians in the 1990s, died of a heart attack at his home in Tel Aviv.
Zionist Union leader Yitzhak Herzog paid tribute to an “important leader of the Israeli peace camp, a leader whose clear and sharp voice always sounded obstinately and fiercely, with a brave unwavering truth, which he believed with all his heart.”
Environment minister then education minister, Sarid led the Meretz party from 1996 to 2003 and, even after his retirement from politics, continued to write regular newspaper columns.
Sarid was also an outspoken champion of secularism and strongly opposed the privileges granted by the Israeli state to haredim, which include generous subsidies to religious schools as well as exemptions from military service.
He led Meretz out of government in 2000 in a row over religious education.
Born in 1940 when Israel was still under British mandate, Sarid worked as a journalist for Israeli army radio before making his first steps into politics as ruling party spokesman in the 1960s.
Asked to sum up his own legacy in a 2014 interview with a Tel Aviv University student magazine, Sarid said it was as someone who had never been afraid to voice unpalatable truths.
“I made a name for myself in my different positions as someone who is determined to go against the wind when it’s bad, to swim against the stream if it’s dirty, and is prepared to pay the price for his determination.”
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