Yisrael Galili (weapons designer)

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Yisrael Galili , born: Balashnikov , (* 1923 in Mishmar HaYarden , Palestine ; † March 9, 1995 in Giw'atajim ) was an Israeli weapons designer.

Balashnikov's family came from the Soviet Union ; he himself was born in Mishmar HaYarden in 1923 on the territory of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine . In 1940 he completed a business school from. During World War II he served in the British Army , after which he joined the paramilitary Hagana , where he was responsible for manufacturing weapons. In 1948 he became an employee of the arms company Israel Military Industries . Among other things, he worked with Uzi Gal on the development of the Uzi submachine gun .

In the 1967 Six Day War , the Israelis realized that the opposing AK-47 assault rifles worked significantly better than the weapons used by the Israelis. Balashnikov converted captured AK-47s to the 5.56 × 45 mm NATO caliber . These prototypes won the tender for new infantry armament. However, the similarity of the surname Balashnikov and the AK-47 developer Kalashnikov was considered a disadvantage. Since Balashnikov was considering a name change anyway, he changed his surname to Galili. Together with Yaakov Lior , Galili developed the IMI Galil assault rifle named after him from the prototype , which was introduced by the Israel Defense Forces .

In 1973 Galili received the Israel State Security Award. He worked for Israel Military Industries for 44 years and was an expert on light weapons .

Galili died of a heart attack in 1995 in Giw'atajim , a suburb of Tel Aviv .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Gary Paul Johnston, Thomas B. Nelson: The World's Assault Rifles , Ironside International Publishers, 2016, ISBN 9781619846012 , pp. 1324-1336 [1]
  2. ^ A b Creator of Galil Assault Rifle Dies March 12, 1995, Jewish Telegraphic Agency [2]
  3. ^ A b Israel Yearbook and Almanac, Volume 50 , Verlag IBRT Translation / Documentation Limited, 1996, p. 286 [3]
  4. ↑ a b Yisrael Galili, Weapons Inventor, 72 , New York Times , March 11, 1995 [4]
personal data
SURNAME Galili, Israel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Balashnikov, Israel (birth name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli weapons designer
DATE OF BIRTH 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Mishmar HaYarden League of Nations mandate for Palestine
DATE OF DEATH March 9, 1995
Place of death Giw'atajim