Hi-Tech billionaire Erel Margalit’s publicist disseminated his speech before the protesters that surrounded the Knesset on Monday, in which he declared: “With this piece of legislation, the social contract between all the people of Israel is violated. Winning an election doesn’t give anyone the right to dismantle Israeli society and to shatter the values of equality and democracy. Make no mistake—the fight for democracy in Israel is a fight for the character of the Jewish people.”
It made me wonder what would be Margalit’s unique connection to the “social contract.” So I looked it up (so you won’t have to).
Margalit was born in 1961 in Kibbutz Naan, the eldest son of Itzik, an Armored Corps officer and the founder of the Society for Community Development, and Miki, a teacher.
Kibbutz Naan was among the recipients in the labor movement of German reparation money, beyond reparations that were paid to kibbutz members who donated them, too, to the kibbutz. This influx of millions, which completely skipped over the other Israel, Jews from Arab countries who subsisted in poverty in distant relocation camps and peripheral “development towns.” Little Erel Margalit benefited socially from being the son of a well-connected career military officer, and economically from being born in a settlement that was favored by the Ben Gurion government for reparation boosts.
Now, mind you, Kibbutz Naan was not located on the border, where it would be counted on to repel an advancing enemy. It was right outside Rehovot, 30 km from the nearest Arab town. Its right to the German money was decided based on its membership in the labor movement.
When Erel Margalit was 8, he left with his family for a two-year mission in Detroit, Michigan, on behalf of the Jewish Agency. Do count how many Moroccan olim were picked in those years to represent to Jewish State abroad. On with the social contract: In 1971, the family returned to Israel, and when Erel was 14, they moved to the luxurious French Hill neighborhood in Jerusalem. It’s not Rehavia, but it’s very nice.
After his release from military service, Margalit studied philosophy and English literature at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, while managing his family’s PVC factory. He also joined the Executive MBA program at the Hebrew University. He then completed his Master’s and Ph.D. in philosophy at Columbia University. His 2007 doctoral thesis was titled, hold on to your seat: “The leader as an entrepreneur in the historical process.”
Upon his return to Israel at the age of 29, Margalit was appointed by Jerusalem Mayor and Ben Gurion’s protégé Teddy Kolek, to be in charge of business development and to lead the technological field at the Jerusalem Development Authority. Must find a job for Itzik Margalit’s boy.
In 1993, Margalit established the venture capital fund JVP (Jerusalem Venture Partners) through a government initiative program. It has been an enormous success! In addition to its headquarters in Jerusalem, the fund has offices in New York and Paris and manages billions, which it invests in more than 30 Israeli and international start-up companies. Since its establishment, the fund has conducted 26 exits worth many billions of dollars.
Between 2006 and 2017, Margalit dabbled in Labor party politics, even attempted a run to lead the party, served a couple of terms as MK, and left.
You see what you can accomplish in Israel if you stick by the social contract? And now those people who were not born in Kibbutz Naan are threatening to shove their sticky fingers into Erel Margalit’s excellent adventure merely because more Israelis voted for them than for the politicians on his side. You would be upset, too, right?
Speaking to the protesters that were gathered outside the Knesset, Margalit told the right-wing majority inside: “You want a closed society. You want a nation that sees the other as an outcast. Our Jewishness is no less spiritual than yours. For us, Jerusalem is not a divided city but a united one.”
Indeed, the French Hill neighborhood is technically on the eastern part of Jerusalem…
Margalit concluded: “From here in Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish people, we say: We won’t lose our democracy. We won’t allow a dictatorship. We will preserve the State of Israel as an open, democratic nation that is connected to its citizens.”
And on that, he is absolutely right. Israel will be preserved as an open, democratic nation that is connected to its citizens – just not by Erel Margalit.
