Avi Gabai

Early life and career

Gabbay was born in the Baka neighbourhood of Jerusalem, the seventh of eight children born to Moïse and Sara Gabbay, Jewish emigrants from Morocco and originally from Casablanca. His father worked for Bezeq, and in his youth he would also work at his father's company during his vacations. He studied at the Geulim primary school, where he was identified as a gifted child, and attended high school at the prestigious Gymnasia Rehavia. After graduating from high school, he did his national service in the Israel Defense Forces in the Intelligence Corps, reaching the rank of lieutenant. After leaving the army, he completed a BA in economics and an MBA at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Gabbay began his career by working for the Ministry of Finance for four and a half years.

Business career

In 1998, he joined Bezeq as an assistant to CEO Ami Harel. Soon afterwards, he was appointed Vice President of Human Resources, and shortly after that, became the Vice President of Economics and Regulation. In 2003, he was appointed CEO of Bezeq International. In 2007, after Bezeq CEO Yaakov Gelbard was forced to resign, Gabbay was appointed CEO of Bezeq. He served in this position until he left the company in 2013. During his 14 years of working with Bezeq, Gabbay became wealthy, and is thought to have earned about 50 million shekels ($14.1 million). Shortly before entering politics, he tried and failed to buy control of El Al, Israel's national airline.

Kulanu Party

Prior to the 2015 Knesset elections he was amongst the founders of the new Kulanu party. Despite not being elected to the Knesset, he was appointed Minister of Environmental Protection in the Netanyanu government. On 27 May 2016, he submitted his resignation from the government in protest at the appointment of Avigdor Lieberman as Minister of Defense and the coalition's shift to the right.

Labor party

On 29 December 2016, Gabbay announced he would join the Israeli Labor Party, and on 4 March 2017 announced he would run for the Labor Party leadership in the intra-party election for the leadership of the Israeli Labor Party, held on July 2017. The announcement was unusual because he was not a sitting Knesset member at the time. In the first round Amir Peretz came first with 32.7% and Gabbay came second with 27.08%; In the second round on 10 July Gabbay won with 52.4% of the vote. Since Gabbay is not a Knesset member, he will lead the party from outside of the Knesset. In addition, usually the head of the largest opposition party in the Knesset gets the official title of Leader of the Opposition. Because Gabbay is not a current Knesset member, he worked out a deal with Issac Herzog, that Herzog, as the outgoing leader of the Labor Party, will retain the title of Leader of the Opposition in the Knesset.

Israeli-Palestinian conflict

In his political plan, published during the 2017 Labor leadership primaries, Gabbay expressed support for a two-state solution, with the Palestinian state being demilitarized and the settlement blocs and Jordan Valley remaining under Israeli control. The Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem would become Area B. Palestinian refugees would receive compensation. The bilateral agreement with the Palestinians would be part of a regional agreement, with the aim of strengthening the moderate Sunni axis vis-à-vis Iran and the Shiite axis. The IDF would be deployed along the Jordan River until the conflict is resolved, maintaining Israeli freedom of action in the West Bank. Construction in the settlements outside the main blocs must be frozen, in order to channel the money so that it will priorities the periphery and settlement blocs, not isolated settlements ("Dimona and not Amona").

Economy

According to the social-economic plan he published during the 2017 Labor leadership primaries, Gabbay supports an increase in expenditure on social benefits and services along with public sector efficiency measures. He supports the reduction of inequality between central Israel and the periphery, and between Jews and Arabs in the education system. He opposes teachers in the public school system being employed by third-party labor contractors. According to the plan, he supports the public health system and a complete separation with private healthcare, instead favoring expanding public health spending to the OECD average. According to Gabbay, public transport can be a social tool that reduces inequality and contributes to social mobility, and he supports additional investment of NIS 100 billion in public transport over a decade, and supports public transportation over private in infrastructure and accessibility.

Gabbay supports the expansion of the social networks protecting all employees, and is in favor of linking wages to the Consumer Price Index. He also favors linking wages of soldiers serving in combat units to the minimum wage. According to his plan, an equitable taxation system must be created in order to deal with the trends of inequality and deep gaps in Israeli society; in order to reduce the cost of living in Israel, he proposed that there should be an increase in market competition, a reduction in bureaucracy and competition among kosher agencies should be created. In order to cope with the increase in housing prices in Israel, Gabbay proposes building 300,000 housing units within five years, adopting models of affordable housing and changing the planning process in order to shorten the time of construction of apartments.

Religion and state

Gabbay stated support for public transportation on Shabbat, Reform conversions, the Western Wall compromise, and against the "Hadata" (הדתה, "religionization") of schools by the activities of the various associations (Amutot)On the issue of enlisting Ultra orthodox Haredim, on the other hand, he declared that this was unrealistic.

Education

Gabbay called for reform in the education system in which all streams of education for each sector will be united into one educational stream.

Personal life

Gabbay lives in the Tel Baruch neighborhood of Tel Aviv. He is married to Ayelet, an immigrant from Australia. She is a former high-tech career woman who now works as a teaching coordinator and English teacher at a Tel Aviv high school. They have three sons. His family are described as "Likud-voting". He is a sports enthusiast and has participated in several marathons.