Ezra's family came originally as immigrants from
Iraq and settled in
Palestine. He was born in
Jerusalem and attended high school in the
Hebrew University Secondary School. He served in the
Israeli Defense Force between 1955 and 1958 in the
Nahal. He studied geography and political science at the
University of Haifa. He worked for the
Shin Bet from 1962 to 1995. After leaving the service, he served as an advisor to then Minister of Internal Security,
Moshe Shahal.
Political career Ezra was elected to the Knesset in the
1996 elections on the
Likud list, and retained his seat in the
1999 and
2003 elections. After
Ariel Sharon beat
Ehud Barak in the
2001 election for Prime Minister, Ezra was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Security. He was given his first full ministerial position after the 2003 elections when appointed Minister in the Ministry of the Prime Minister's Office. When
Binyamin Elon was sacked as
Minister of Tourism in July 2004, Ezra replaced him, initially as Acting Minister (the position was made permanent at the end of August). From September 2004 he also held the position of Acting
Minister of Internal Security after
Tzachi Hanegbi resigned in the face of corruption allegations. This ministerial post was also made permanent in November, and Ezra oversaw the evacuation of the
Amona settlement in February 2006. In November 2005 he was attacked during a rally in
Sderot against
Israel's unilateral disengagement plan over his support for it. In January 2005 he was replaced as Tourism Minister by
Avraham Hirschson. When Sharon founded
Kadima in late 2005, Ezra joined him, picking up the Environment Ministry portfolio from Labor's
Shalom Simhon. After the
2006 elections he was appointed Minister of Environmental Protection by
Ehud Olmert. In April 2007 he opposed plans to build a solar energy plant near
Dimona to avoid harm to a nature reserve. He has also overseen the expansion of
container deposit legislation to cover 1.5 litre bottles. He retained his seat again in the
2009 elections, having been placed twelfth on the Kadima list. However, he lost his place in the cabinet as the Likud-led coalition formed the government. On 17 May 2012, aged 74, Ezra died of lung cancer after a two-year battle with the disease. He was succeeded by
Akram Hasson. ==References==