Menachem Savidor, a former speaker of the Knesset and a member of its Likud faction, died of a heart attack at Ichilov Hospital here Wednesday, at the age of 70.
Savidor entered political life in 1977 when Likud unseated the Labor Party after 30 years of governing Israel.
He was elected speaker in 1981 and was also, for a time, director general of the Transport Ministry and of Israel Railways.
He was forced out of Likud in 1984 after he supported an opposition call for a secret ballot, which led to the breakup of the Likud-led coalition.
Savidor was born in Russia and came to Palestine in 1940, traveling via China and Japan.
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