Yossi Sarid: Sharp-tongued politician and vocal critic of the Israeli government’s policies in the West Bank

‘All in all I tried to keep my hands and conscience clean,’ he said. ‘Sometimes I even managed it’

Sarid : ‘All in all I tried to keep my hands and conscience clean,’ he said (EPA)

Celebrated for the firmness of his determined moral stance and his willingness to pay the political price for that determination, the politician and news commentator Yossi Sarid, who has died of a heart attack, was often referred to as Israel’s moral compass. He was a mordant critic of the country’s policies in the West Bank, and remarked last year that “I made a name for myself as someone who is determined to swim against the stream if it’s dirty.”

Sarid began his political career as a media aide to the Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol before entering the Knesset as a member of the left-leaning Alignment Party, and was later part of the Ratz and Meretz parties. He served in the Knesset between 1974 and 2006, serving as Minister of Education and Minister of the Environment. As Meretz leader he served for two years as Leader of the Opposition .

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that though they disagreed on many issues he respected Sarid, who was “a unique voice in Israeli politics, an opinionated and acerbic individual.”

Last year, in a conversation with Haaretz readers, Sarid was asked about what he considered his greatest achievement. He replied: “It’s not up to me to list, like a grocer, my achievements in the government and the Knesset. Others will testify to [my triumphs] at my funeral, if they want. I am grateful in my heart that even when I had to compromise, my compromises weren’t too rotten. All in all, I tried to keep my hands and conscience clean, and sometimes I even managed [to do so]. And after 35 years of public life, this too is an accomplishment.”

Yossi Sarid, politician and columnist: born 24 October 1940; married Dorit (three children); died 4 December 2015.