Ronnie Bar-On

(1948 - )

Ronnie Bar-On was born in Tel Aviv in 1948. He completed his IDF service with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and served as Justice in the Military Court of Appeals in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. An attorney by profession, he holds a law degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Bar-On has served, among others, as Chairman of the Council for the Organization of Sport-Gambling (1998-2001), member of the Central Committee of the Israel Bar (1995-2003) and the Jerusalem Regional Committee of the Israeli Bar, as well as a member of the Council for the Administrative Courts, the Advisory Commission to the Government Companies Authority, and the Public Defenders Commission. In addition, he served as Chairman of Administration of Beitar Yerushalayim and a member of the Administration of the Israel Football Association.

Elected to the 16th Knesset in 2003, he served as Chairman of the House Committee, and a member of the Constitution, Law and Justice and State Control Committees, as well as a substitute member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and a member of the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on Violence in Sports and of the Environmental Lobby.

In January 2006, Ronnie Bar-On was appointed Minister of National Infrastructures and Minister of Science and Technology.

In May 2006, reelected to the Knesset on the Kadima list,  Bar-On was appointed Minister of the Interior, serving until July 2007 when he was appointed Minister of Finance, a position he held until 2009.

In the lead-up to the 2013 elections, Bar-On announced that he would not be contesting his seat and subsequently retired from political life.

He is married and the father of three.

Sources: Israeli Foreign Ministry