Abraham Burg

Avraham "Avrum" Burg (Hebrew: אברהם "אברוּם" בוּרג; born 19 January 1955) is an Israeli author, politician, and businessman. He was a member of the Knesset, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Speaker of the Knesset, and interim President of Israel. He was the first Speaker of the Knesset to have been born in Israel after its declaration of independence in 1948. A member of the Labor Party when he was a member of the Knesset, Burg announced in January 2015 that he had joined Hadash. Since the 2000s, Burg has expressed views described as post-Zionist, a label he self-identified with in 2011. He is in favor of Israel negotiating with Hamas, and has called on his country to abandon Herzelian Zionism (characterizing it as a scaffolding that should be removed) in favor of a form of Cultural Zionism, also citing the civic nationalism of France as an example to follow.[edit]