Daniel Atar was born in
Afula,
Israel, to
Jewish parents who had
immigrated from
Morocco in 1956. During his
IDF national service he served in the
Golani Brigade. He fought in the
1982 Lebanon War. He continued to serve in the army reserves, becoming a
lieutenant colonel. In 1994 he was elected leader of
Gilboa Regional Council. While serving in that role he ran for the interim leadership of the
Labor Party in
2003, winning 21.9% of the vote. In 2009, Atar was detained and investigated along with five other municipal workers for fraudulently receiving goods and mismanagement of campaign funds. but did not become a Knesset member as the party won only 15 seats. Although he was next in line to replace
Binyamin Ben-Eliezer following his retirement from politics, he gave up his seat for
Raleb Majadele. Prior to the
2015 elections he was placed 15th on the
Zionist Union list, an alliance of Labor and
Hatnuah. He was elected to the Knesset as the alliance won 24 seats. In October 2015 Atar was elected head of the
Jewish National Fund. He was replaced in the Knesset by
Yael Cohen Paran, the head of the
Green Movement. In 2020 Atar was accused of being party to the illegal spending of 100 million shekels to purchase lands in the West Bank without the permission of the Jewish National Fund Board. ==Personal life==