COHEN, RAN

(1937- )

   Born in Iraq, he immigrated (see ALIYA) to Israel in 1950. He is chairman of the Beit Or Aviova Organization for the rehabilitation of drug users. First elected to the Knesset in 1984 on the Citizens' Rights and Peace Movement (CRM) list, he became a member of the CRM executive committee and chairman of the party's faction in the Histadrut. He served as deputy minister of construction and housing from June 1992 to January 1993. On 17 May 1999, he was reelected to the 15th Knesset on the Meretz list and was appointed minister of industry and trade in the government headed by Ehud Barak. Reelected to the 16th Knesset on the Meretz list in 2003, he was defeated by Joseph (Yossi) Beilin in a one-on-one race for leadership of the reconfigured Yahad-Social Democratic Israel party that was formed out of Meretz in May 2004. He was reelected to the Knesset in March 2006.