Weizman Shiry

Shiry was born in Beersheba in 1956 to parents who had made aliyah from Iraq and was named after Chaim Weizmann. He served in the Hermesh unit of the IDF. He then turned to business and headed several industrial companies, including a real estate company and a juice company which he purchased in 2007 for NIS 5 million.

He entered politics in 1984. His political activity included his membership in the internal institutions of the Labor Party, as well as serving as chairman of the party's Negev district. He was on the party's list for the 1996 legislative elections, but failed to win a seat.

In 1999, he was first elected to the Knesset and served as chairman of the Joint Committee for the Defense Budget. In August 2002 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense, under Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, and maintained this position for three months, until the party's withdrawal from the coalition. He remained in the Knesset until the expiration of its term, in 2003. In January 2006 he re-entered the Knesset, replacing Shimon Peres, and served until the expiration of the Knesset's term in April 2006.

In April 2009 he was appointed temporary secretary-general of the Labor Party. As of June 2009, he lives in Azorei Hen in north Tel Aviv with his wife, Riki, and their three children.