14 Facts About Zevulun Orlev

Zvulun Zevulun Orlev was born in Rehovot during the Mandate era.

Zevulun Orlev studied humanities and social sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and then trained to be a teacher at Moreshet Yaakov College.

Zevulun Orlev fought in the Six-Day War, participating in the capture of East Jerusalem.

Zevulun Orlev sustained a knee injury and underwent rehabilitation for two years.

Zevulun Orlev later served as a reservist during the 1982 Lebanon War.

Zevulun Orlev worked as Director General of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Director General of the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Zevulun Orlev was first elected to the Knesset in the 1999 elections on the National Religious Party list.

Zevulun Orlev then succeeded in taking control of the party, resulting in Eitam and Levy leaving to form the Renewed Religious National Zionist Party, which would later join the National Union.

Zevulun Orlev won second place on the new party's list, and retained his seat in the subsequent elections.

In 2009 Zevulun Orlev sponsored a Private member's bill that called for a years imprisonment for any person who denied Israel to be a Jewish and democratic state, a law that would have criminalized calls by members of the Arab minority for Israel to be a state for all its citizens.

Zevulun Orlev was criticized for proposing a bill that would mandate divorced fathers to pay child support until their children reached age 22, though he later retracted and stated he would not pursue the bill.

Zevulun Orlev proposed a Private Members Bill to override an Israeli Supreme Court ruling ordering the demolition five buildings in an Israeli settlement.

Zevulun Orlev announced that he would retire from politics after he ran unsuccessfully in the 2012 The Jewish Home leadership election.

Zevulun Orlev is a co-president of the international Mizrachi movement, which the National Religious Party and its successor Jewish Home represents in the political arena.