1. Gilad Menashe Erdan is an Israeli politician and diplomat who served as Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations from 2020 through 2024.
35 Facts About Gilad Erdan
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Gilad Erdan was a member of the Knesset for Likud from 2003 to 2020, and holder of several ministerial positions, including Minister of Environmental Protection, Communications, Home Front Defense, Interior, Minister of Public Security, Minister of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy and Minister of Regional Cooperation.
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Gilad Erdan is of Romanian Jewish and Hungarian Jewish descent.
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Gilad Erdan attained the rank of captain during his military service in the Adjutant Corps of the IDF.
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Gilad Erdan is married with four children, and when in Israel, he lives in Kiryat Ono.
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Gilad Erdan began his political activity in opposition to the Oslo Accords, during his legal studies in the early 1990s.
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When Likud won the elections in 1996, Gilad Erdan was appointed as an advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and as director of the Department for Public Inquiries to the Prime Minister's Office between 1996 and 1998.
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In February 1998, Gilad Erdan was elected by a vast majority as the chairman of "Young Likud", and served in this position for 6 years.
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Gilad Erdan was first elected to the 16th Knesset in the 2003 elections.
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Gilad Erdan remained in Likud and after winning fourth place in the party's primaries, retained his seat in the 17th Knesset in the 2006 elections despite Likud's collapse from 40 to 12 seats in the Knesset.
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Gilad Erdan commented that "Israel does not take orders from Obama" and that "citizens of Israel have decided that they will not become the fifty first US state".
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Gilad Erdan initiated a "pollution has no borders" policy which included reducing Israel's Greenhouse Gas Emissions, increasing water desalination, in an effort to make Israel the world leader in water recycling.
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Gilad Erdan imposed limitations on the import and export of living monkeys for medical purposes, resulting in the closure of the "Mazor Farm", a disputed monkey-breeding farm.
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In May 2009, Gilad Erdan was declared "man of the decade" by Or Yarok, a prominent road safety NGO in Israel, for his lasting efforts to reduce traffic accidents and fatalities.
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Gilad Erdan was appointed as a member of the Security Cabinet.
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On 22 April 2014, after several ongoing disputes with the defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, on matters of authority, Gilad Erdan announced his resignation as the minister of home front defense, and called the prime-minister to dissolve the ministry entirely.
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In November 2014, Gilad Erdan was appointed minister of interior following Gideon Sa'ar's resignation.
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Gilad Erdan was again appointed as a member of the Security Cabinet.
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Gilad Erdan's appointment came eleven days after he initially refused to join Netanyahu's cabinet, claiming he wasn't offered enough tools to make a real change as a Minister.
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However, following the submission of the bill, a senior delegation from Facebook arrived in Israel to meet with Gilad Erdan, agreeing to work together in order to improve the detection and removal of inciting material online.
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In 2018, Gilad Erdan initiated new legislation intended to partially de-criminalize the use of Cannabis for recreational purposes.
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The reform, which was recommended by a professional committee appointed by Gilad Erdan, was called "Responsible Decriminalization", since it didn't go all the way to legalize Cannabis, but instead made private recreational use punishable by fines.
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The rationale for this move, explained Gilad Erdan, was to prevent unnecessary arrests and criminal records on one hand, while retaining deterrence from usage of Cannabis in the public sphere.
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Minister Gilad Erdan established The Child Online Protection Bureau which created a hotline and intelligence agency to protect children and teens online.
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On 11 May 2020, following the 2020 elections to the Knesset, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that Gilad Erdan would become Israel's next Ambassador to the UN and become Israel's Ambassador to the United States after the 2020 presidential election.
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On 17 May 2020, Gilad Erdan was sworn in as Regional Cooperation Minister of Israel in the 35th Government.
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On 7 June 2022, Gilad Erdan was elected to serve as one of the vice-presidents of the General Assembly for its seventy-seventh session as a representative of the Western states.
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Gilad Erdan claimed that the UN Security Council was "silent" about the Hamas-led attack on Israel, and said that he would wear the star "as a symbol of pride".
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On 8 December 2023, Gilad Erdan thanked the United States for vetoing a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
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Gilad Erdan thanked US president Joe Biden for "standing steadfastly" with Israel.
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In December 2023, Gilad Erdan accused American investor and philanthropist George Soros of supporting pro-Palestinian organizations "that seek the destruction of the State of Israel as a Jewish state".
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Gilad Erdan leaked Spokesman Stephane Dujarric's video message notifiying him of the decision, which he decried as "simply outrageous and wrong".
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Gilad Erdan stated that "[Israel's] army is the most moral in the world" and accused Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of being a terrorist ally with a hatred against Israel.
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Outside the Knesset, Gilad Erdan was elected in 2005 as chairman of Al Sam, a non-governmental non-profit organization dealing with drug issues of youths, and established the Lobby for Soldiers Missing in Action.
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Gilad Erdan was a member of the Israel Broadcasting Authority's General Assembly.