Chaim Joseph Zadok

Haim Joseph Zadok (, born Haim Wilkenfeld; 2 October 1913 – 15 August 2002) was an Israeli jurist and politician.

Early life Zadok was born in 1913 in Rava-Ruska in Eastern Galicia in Austria-Hungary (now Ukraine). He studied philosophy and Jewish studies at the University of Warsaw. He was a member of the Gordonia youth movement in Poland and in the "Poale Zion Federation" Party.

In 1935, he immigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine and joined the Hagana and the Jewish Settlement Police. He studied law at the Hebrew University and was certified as a lawyer. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, he joined the IDF as a lawyer in the office of the Chief Military Prosecutor. In 1949, he joined the legislative department of the Ministry of Justice as a deputy of the Attorney-General, a position he held until 1952. While in this position, he drafted the Nazis and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law.

Career In 1958 he was elected to the Knesset for Mapai. He was chairman of the Knesset House Committee, member of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, chairman of the Subcommittee on Constitutional Affairs, and member and chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. He was involved in the passing of the Law on Inquiry Commissions and the Basic Law: the Government, as well as in attempts to pass basic laws on Legislation and Civil Rights, sections of which were later passed in the Basic Laws on Human Dignity and Freedom and Freedom of Occupation. From 1965 to 1966 he was Minister of Industry and Trade. He also spoke out against the granting of a pardon to the members of the Jewish Underground and opposed the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. He called for negotiations with the Palestinians and fought against the Law for the Direct Election of the Prime Minister.

He was a member of many public committees, including the Shamgar Commission, which considered the definition of the role and appointment of the Attorney-General, and he chaired committees that considered the regulation of police activity, the religious councils and the press. In 1991, he was one of the founders of the Israel Democracy Institute and served as the first chairman of its board of directors. In 1993, he was made president of the Press Council. He held liberal views that ruled out government intervention in the free press. He was given the Israel Democracy Institute Award by the IDI. He was cited as one of the Labor Party's greatest leaders by Yossi Sarid and Binyamin Ben-Eliezer.

Streets are named after him Netanya, Rehovot and Tel Aviv.

Publications “Law and Government”, edited with Abraham Ben Naftali (1971) “Issues in Government in Israel” (1978)