002

003
004
005 PEOPLE
006
007
008
009
010
011
012
013
014
015
016
017
018
019
020
021
022
023
024
025
026
027
028
029
030
031
032
033
034
035
036
037
038
039
040
041
042
043
044
045
046
047
048
049
050
051
052
053
054
055
056
057
058
059
060
061
062
063
064
065
066
067
068
069
070
071
072
073
074
075
076
077
078
079
080
081
082
083
084
085
086
087
088
089
090
091
092
093
094
095
096
097
098
099
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
 Redemption
How Amram Mitzna went from local to national
politics and back again
By Samuel Sokol
Photography by Avi Levine
Rough Start
The first thing one notices upon meeting
Amram Mitzna is that he does not speak
like a politician. Rather, he speaks with the
casual tones of a man more used to issuing
commands than negotiating behind closed
doors.
Mitzna was elected as head of the Israeli Labor
party in 2002 and was considered to be the
most dovish Prime Ministerial contender to
date. Prior to politics, he’d enjoyed a lengthy
and decorated military career, in which he
advanced to the rank of Major General and
commanded the planning branch of the
Israeli Defense Forces.
Upon exiting the army he quickly dived into
politics and was elected by a landslide margin
as the mayor of Haifa in 1993 as Labor’s
candidate. Haifa has always been a Labor
stronghold, and the move was identified as a
leaping board onto the National stage.
Running for Prime Minister against another
former general, the tremendously popular
incumbent Ariel Sharon of the center-right
Likud party, Mitzna was fighting a lost
battle. Consequently, he brought Labor
to one of its lowest points, garnering only
nineteen out of one hundred and twenty
seats in the Knesset. For a party that for
decades dominated Israeli politics, this
showing was unacceptable. The daggers
were immediately drawn and it was only
a question of time till he resigned as top
dog of the Labor party. He resigned in
2003 and was succeeded by Shimon Peres.
Mitzna stuck around till 2005, continuing
legislative work in the Knesset, but the sting
of defeat was ever-present.
In the eyes of the public, Mitzna was done.
He was merely filling a seat and showing
up for votes. Mitzna, however, was not
content to sit on a shelf, collecting dust.
01
Sick of intrigue-laden politics he decided to
leave national politics and set his sites on a
different goal.
Yeruham
The town of Yeruham was one of Israel’s
earliest development towns, created to settle
the frontier during the first years of the
state. Mostly populated by North African
Jews in the early years, it has struggled to
survive from day one.
By 2005, this small, isolated town of less
than ten thousand people in the southern
Negev desert was bankrupt, its citizens
were moving away and businesses were
closing down. Yeruham led the region in
unemployment with a rate of 14.3 percent.
Called a “backwater” by the influential daily
newspaper Ha’aretz, Yeruham seemed to
have lost all hope.
With Yeruham mired in deep debt, Baruch
Elmakaias, the incumbent mayor, was
dismissed in an unprecedented manner by
Israel’s central government and replaced
for a period of five years by an emergency
committee led by Mitzna.
Mitzna describes the situation, “People that
could, left town and the town, that from
the beginning was a very remote one in the
periphery of the country, geographically and
socially, became the most unprivileged place
in Israel.”
Inside his barebones office, Mitzna offers
me a cup of mint tea and speaks about
the change he has initiated. “The reason
any progress has been made in Yeruham
[since my arrival] is because I’m working
like a bureaucrat and not a politician. By
bypassing the electoral game, and not being
beholden to any pressure groups or public
polls, I am free to do what I feel is necessary,
without having to worry about re-election.”
Another Israel Review
002
003
004
005 PEOPLE
006
007
008
009
010
011
012
013
014
015 Turnaround infrastructure and revitalization projects.
016
017
“We got a lot of help from the government
018 In fact, Mitzna, for all his history as a which allowed us to pay our debts and
019
020 commander, is a modern and progressive to reach fiscal balance,” Mitzna states,
021
022 politician, and for all his failings in the “Unfortunately now, the situation is not
023
024
national theatre, he has bloomed in a local as it was the last four years because the
025 setting. The former mayor of Haifa has government is cutting the budget across the
026
027 rediscovered his roots. board in all the municipalities.”
028
029
It is easy to see that Mitzna is revitalized by The former commander has also been trying
030
031
the struggle to bring Yeruham back from to supplement decreasing government
032 the brink. As he describes his self-appointed handouts by capitalizing on his name
033
034 mission “[I] decided from the beginning recognition to fundraise abroad. The city
035
036
that our challenge is not just to bring back of Yeruham maintains ties with the Jewish
037
038 “Sick of intrigue-laden normality. It was to put Yeruham on [a] Federation of Miami through the Jewish
039 runway which will bring it to prosperity. A Agency, and Mitzna has made several
040
041
politics he decided to fundamental change of image is required to successful fundraising trips.
042
043
leave national politics allow it to continue even after the committee
044
045 and set his sites on a will leave.”
Part of what makes his administration so Results:
different goal.”
046
047
048 successful, he argues, is his openness and
049
050
willingness to bring the community into The community center, closed for lack of
051 governance. He has established several funds, has been reopened, a technological
052
053 citizen committees on issues facing the town park was recently completed and put on the
054
055 and has implemented an open door policy in market and the chief construction engineer
056
057
his municipality offices, as well as organizing of both the World Trade Center and Disney
058 a yearly community wide meeting where the World, Hy Brown, has decided to open the
059
060 citizens can debate the issues. main manufacturing facility for his start-up
061
062 Municipal funding comes from a company Real-Housing in Yeruham.
063
064
combination of taxes and grants from Israel’s Mitzna has also overseen the opening of
065 central government. Mitzna proudly relates two new schools for the town’s Orthodox
066
067 how he has brought tax collection levels community and has shored up the crumbling
068
069 up to ninety percent, which has helped infrastructure.
070
071
supplement the emergency funds allocated It remains to be seen what lasting impact
072 by the Israeli government. Mitzna’s work will have. While he has
073
074 He claims, however, that the emergency stemmed the tide of emigration, and the
075
076 funds allocated when he was appointed town has begun seeing businesses and
077
078
to his position are insufficient and he has residents return, his success has been partly
079 begun haunting the various ministries in built upon personal connections and his
080
081 Jerusalem, using his name and contacts own name recognition.
082
083 to bring in additional revenue to fund his It is hoped that the changes, in encouraging
084
085
086
087
088
089
090
091
092
093
094
095
096
097
098
099
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122 02
123
124
125
126
127

business growth and especially in the self-
image of the Yeruhamites, will be enough
to make the town’s improvements self-
sustaining.
One thing is for certain, Mitzna, while
shunning popularity, has an approval rating
most politicians would die for.
The local residents are very happy with
Mitzna and are very vocal in their support
of their appointee mayor. When asked about
their thoughts on next November’s election,
when Amram Mitzna will step aside to
allow the locals to take charge of their city
once again, residents said that a Yeruham
without Mitzna would be impossible. In
their consideration, he must remain at the
helm. When I asked a local shopkeeper and
his customers if they minded that he was an
outsider, the only response was to point to
the community center across the way and
rhetorically ask, “He reopened the center
and he brought back business, didn’t he?”
The mayor makes no bones about being
an outsider. He maintains a small flat in
Yeruham, and returns to Haifa on Thursdays
to spend the weekend with his family.
However, Mitzna uses this position to his
advantage and is fond of pointing out that
by being an outsider, he can be concerned
with the wellbeing of the community as
a whole and that this is the secret to his
success
03
Business
Yeruham weathered the recent economic
downturn fairly well, according to Mitzna.
This was due to the conservative nature
of the businesses operating in the town.
American firms such as Agis-Perrigo, the
producers of Careline cosmetics, operate
in Yeruham, and with the benefits that the
Israeli government offers to firms willing
to operate in the periphery, Mitzna hopes
that the new technological park he built will
soon fill up with high-tech ventures..
Redemption goes both ways
04
For a man who claims that he felt useless in
the Knesset, Yeruham was a godsend. The
former soldier feels that public service is an
integral part of his worldview and that if he
cannot affect things on a macro-level, he
would like to see himself helping out on a
local level.
Even Mitzna’s harshest critics cannot but
acknowledge that Mitzna did not decide to
leave his family behind in Haifa and spend
his golden years in a small town in the
Negev for personal glory.
1. Amram Mitzna overlooking the desert
In finding his cause, Mitzna has not only 2. Channel 1 crew interviewing the mayor
helped to redeem the town of Yeruham, but 3. Mitzna in his chamber
also his own image. /// 4. Signage on the way from Yeruham
Another Israel Review