Yuli-Yoel Edelstein is an Israeli politician who served as Minister of Health from 2020 to 2021.
27 Facts About Yuli Edelstein
2.
Yuli Edelstein was born in Chernivtsi in the Soviet Union to a Jewish family.
3.
Yuli Edelstein's grandfather had taught himself Hebrew at the age of 70 and used to listen to the Voice of Israel on a shortwave radio.
4.
When Edelstein's grandfather died, Yuli began to study Hebrew and read books such as Exodus by Leon Uris.
5.
In 1977, during his second year of university, Yuli Edelstein applied for an exit visa to emigrate to Israel.
6.
In 1984, he and other Hebrew teachers were arrested on fabricated charges, Yuli Edelstein himself being charged with possession of drugs, and sentenced to three years.
7.
Yuli Edelstein was then sent to Siberian penal colonies and did hard labor, first in Buryatia and then in Novosibirsk.
8.
Yuli Edelstein broke several bones after falling from a construction tower.
9.
Yuli Edelstein was due to be transferred back to Buryatia, but his wife, Tanya, threatened to go on hunger strike if he was returned there.
10.
Yuli Edelstein was released in May 1987, on the eve of Israeli Independence Day, the next to last of the refuseniks to be freed.
11.
Yuli Edelstein then emigrated to Israel, moving to the West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut.
12.
Yuli Edelstein did his national service in the Israel Defense Forces, attaining the rank of Corporal.
13.
Yuli Edelstein was elected to the Knesset in 1996, and was appointed Minister of Immigrant Absorption in Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud-led government.
14.
Yuli Edelstein claimed that the investigative commission found such claims unsubstantiated.
15.
Yuli Edelstein was re-elected in 1999, and was appointed Deputy Immigrant Absorption Minister by Ariel Sharon in 2001.
16.
Yuli Edelstein retained his seat in the 2003 elections, shortly after which Yisrael BaAliyah merged into Likud.
17.
Yuli Edelstein retained his seat in the 2009 elections after being placed twelfth on the party's list, and was appointed Minister of Information and Diaspora in the Netanyahu government.
18.
Yuli Edelstein was re-elected in 2013 after being placed on the eighteenth spot of the Likud Yisrael Beiteinu list.
19.
Yuli Edelstein's nomination was approved by all members of the party's parliamentary caucus excluding Rivlin, who chose to abstain.
20.
Yuli Edelstein was elected to the third place on the Likud list ahead of the 2015 election.
21.
Yuli Edelstein was re-elected to the Knesset and then as Speaker, with 103 Members of the Knesset voting in favor and 7 abstaining.
22.
Ahead of the April 2019 election, Yuli Edelstein was elected to the second place on the Likud list.
23.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel appealed to the Supreme Court, which ordered Yuli Edelstein to convene the Knesset.
24.
In December 2014, in an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Yuli Edelstein warned world leaders against creating a Palestinian state that he thought would go to war with Israel.
25.
Yuli Edelstein criticized US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders for saying that US military aid to Israel should instead be diverted toward aid to Palestinians in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
26.
Yuli Edelstein was married to Tatiana Edelstein, who was a Zionist activist, for 33 years.
27.
In June 2016, Yuli Edelstein married Irina Nevzlin, chair of the board of directors of The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot and President of the NADAV Foundation.