Ariel Sharon

Ariel Sharon
אריאל שרון
Official portrait, 2001
11th Prime Minister of Israel
In office 7 March 2001 – 14 April 2006[nb]
President	Moshe Katsav
Deputy	Ehud Olmert
Preceded by	Ehud Barak
Succeeded by	Ehud Olmert
Ministerial portfolios
1977–1981	Agriculture
1981–1983	Defense
1984–1990	Industry and Trade
1990–1992	Housing and Construction
1996–1999	National Infrastructure
1998–1999	Foreign Affairs
2001–2003	Immigrant Absorption
2002–2003	Industry and Trade
2002	Foreign Affairs
2003	Communications Religious Affairs
Personal details
Born	Ariel Scheinerman(n) (1928-02-26)26 February 1928 Kfar Malal, Mandatory Palestine
Died	11 January 2014(2014-01-11) (aged 85) Ramat Gan, Israel
Political party	Liberal (1973–1974)[1] Shlomtzion (1977) Likud (1977–2005)[2] Kadima (from 2005)
Spouses	Margalit Zimmerman ​ ​ (m. 1953; died 1962)​ Lily Zimmerman ​ ​ (m. 1963; died 2000)​
Children	3
Alma mater	Hebrew University Tel Aviv University
Profession	Military officer
Signature
Military service
Branch/service	Haganah Israel Defense Forces
Years of service	1948–1974
Rank	Aluf (major general)
Unit	Paratroopers Brigade Unit 101 Golani Brigade
Commands	Southern Command Paratroopers Brigade Unit 101 Golani Brigade
Battles/wars	1947–1949 Palestine war Reprisal operations Suez Crisis Six-Day War Yom Kippur War
Ariel Sharon's voice Recorded 21 January 1999
n.b. ^ Ehud Olmert served as acting prime minister from 4 January 2006

Ariel Sharon (Hebrew: אֲרִיאֵל שָׁרוֹן [aʁiˈ(ʔ)el ʃaˈʁon] ^ⓘ; also known by his diminutive Arik, אָרִיק; 26 February 1928 – 11 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the 11th prime minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006.^[3]

Born in Kfar Malal in Mandatory Palestine to Russian Jewish immigrants, he rose in the ranks of the Israeli Army from its creation in 1948, participating in the 1948 Palestine war as platoon commander of the Alexandroni Brigade and taking part in several battles. Sharon became an instrumental figure in the creation of Unit 101 and the reprisal operations, including the 1953 Qibya massacre, as well as in the 1956 Suez Crisis, the Six-Day War of 1967, the War of Attrition, and the Yom-Kippur War of 1973. Yitzhak Rabin called Sharon "the greatest field commander in our history".^[4] Upon leaving the military, Sharon entered politics, joining the Likud party, and served in a number of ministerial posts in Likud-led governments in 1977–92 and 1996–99. As Minister of Defense, he directed the 1982 Lebanon War. An official enquiry found that he bore "personal responsibility" for the Sabra and Shatila massacre of Palestinian refugees, for which he became known as the "Butcher of Beirut" among Arabs. He was subsequently removed as defense minister.^[5][6]

From the 1970s through to the 1990s, Sharon championed construction of Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. He became the leader of the Likud in 1999, and in 2000, amid campaigning for the 2001 prime ministerial election, made a controversial visit to the Al-Aqsa complex on the Temple Mount, triggering the Second Intifada. He subsequently defeated Ehud Barak in the election and served as Israel's prime minister from 2001 to 2006. As Prime Minister, Sharon orchestrated the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier in 2002–03 and Israel's unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Facing stiff opposition to the latter policy within the Likud, in November 2005 he left Likud to form a new party, Kadima. He had been expected to win the next election and was widely interpreted as planning on "clearing Israel out of most of the West Bank", in a series of unilateral withdrawals.^[7][8][9] Following a stroke on 4 January 2006, Sharon remained in a permanent vegetative state until his death in 2014.^[10][11][12]

Sharon remains a highly polarizing figure in Middle Eastern history. Israelis almost universally revere Sharon as a war hero and statesman, whereas Palestinians and Human Rights Watch have criticized him as a war criminal, with the latter lamenting that he was never held accountable.^[13][14]