Yisrael Kessar, a 53-year-old Yemen-born Jew, was appointed by the Histadrut Executive Committee today as the new Secretary General of the trade union federation. He was also named chairman of the Hevrat Ha’ovdim, the Histadrut holding company and will head the Lavon Institute, the research institute of Histadrut.
Kessar, who was brought to Palestine from Yemen by his parents at the age of two, succeeds Yeroham Meshel who is retiring after nearly 10 years as the head of Histadrut. Meshel had been grooming Kessar for some time to take over the office. The younger man served previously as Deputy Secretary General and head of Histadrut’s trades union department. He also served for a time as Histadrut Treasurer.
Kessar was appointed in an open vote. The Likud minority faction walked out of the Executive Committee meeting after their demand for a secret ballot was rejected.
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