Shochat, Avraham (Beige)

(1936- )

   Born in Tel Aviv, he studied as a construction engineer at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. He was one of the founders of the southern city of Arad and former head of its local council. First elected to the Knesset in 1988 on the Israel Labor Party list, from 1992 to 1996, he served as finance minister. He was appointed finance minister again on 6 July 1999 by Ehud Barak; in August 2000, he was also assigned the national infrastructure portfolio. In the 2003 election, he lost his Knesset seat. After leaving the Knesset, Shochat was commissioned to produce a report on tuition fees for Israeli university students. His report, published in July 2007, recommended raising fees for bachelor's degrees by 70 percent and increasing government funding for higher education by New Israel Shekel (NIS) 1.5 billion.