Amir Peretz, 50, was born in Morocco, and immigrated to Israel at the age of four.

In the mid 1970s, his leg was crushed in an army training accident and he was offered the task of running a gas station, but refused as he was not prepared to be anyone's boss on the grounds that it would constitute exploitation.

In the 1980s, Peretz became head of Sderot Council and in 1995 he was elected chairman of the Histadrut Labor Federation after serving as head of the organization's wing of union of professionals.

In 1988, Peretz was elected to the Knesset as a member of the Labor Party. In January 1999, he resigned from Labor and established the "One Nation" workers party, which won two Knesset seats in the elections held that year.

Peretz is married with four children and lives in Sderot.

Knesset career Member of 12th Knesset as MK for Ma'arach Member of 12th, 13th and 14th Knessets as MK for Labor Party Member of 14th and 15th Knessets as MK for One Nation

Member of Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee; Labor and Welfare Committee; State Control Committee (12th Knesset) Chairman of Labor and Welfare Committee (13th Knesset) Member of Constitution, Law and Justice Committee (14th Knesset) Member of House Committee; Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women; Committee for Foreign Workers; Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on Social Disparity (15th Knesset)

Public service Head of Sderot Regional Council Member of the Higher Education Council Member of the Labour Party Bureau Chairman of the Histadrut (from December 1995) Member of Peace Now

E-mail aperetz@knesset.gov.il