Former Minister Pesach Grupper
Former Minister Pesach GrupperFlash 90

Former Agriculture Minister Pesach Grupper passed away Monday night at the age of 88.

Grupper was born on August 21, 1924, in Yafo. When he was 14 his family moved to Atlit, near Haifa. He headed the Atlit Local Council between 1959 and 1962 and again between 1969 and 1971.

Grupper was first elected to the Knesset in 1974 as a member of the Likud party. He was a member of the Knesset’s Economics Committee, the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and the Labor, Welfare and Health Committee.

In August 1981, Grupper was appointed as Deputy Minister of Agriculture. With the establishment of the 20th government headed by then-Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir, Grupper was appointed Minister of Agriculture.

His tenure in the Knesset was characterized by his activities on behalf of the Farmers’ Lobby, as well as in helping to establish communities throughout the land of Israel.

In 1990 Grupper and four other Likud MKs left the party to form the Party for the Advancement of the Zionist Idea (later renamed New Liberal Party). The party ran in the 1992 elections but failed to cross the electoral threshold.

Grupper will be laid to rest on Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. in the cemetery in Atlit.