Schlomo Hillel

Shlomo Hillel as Minister of Police with officers of the Israeli police

Schlomo Hillel ( Hebrew שלמה הִלֵל; * April 23, 1923 in Baghdad , Kingdom of Iraq ) is a former Israeli diplomat and politician . He was a minister on several occasions and was spokesman for the Knesset for several years .

Life

MP and diplomat

Hillel came to Palestine through his parents' alija in 1933 and later studied political science , economics and administration at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem . After staying in Iraq in 1946 as an envoy for Zionist underground activities, he was actively involved in organizing illegal emigrations from Iraq, Lebanon and Syria to Israel between 1948 and 1949 . He was also a co-founder of Kibbutz Maagan Michael in 1949 and an envoy to Egypt in 1951 .

After his return to Israel he became a member of the Knesset for the first time on December 21, 1952 and represented the interests of the Mapai in it until July 6, 1959 . During this time he was also a member of a number of committees such as the Constitutional, Legal and Legal Affairs Committee.

He then entered the diplomatic service and was initially ambassador to Guinea between 1959 and 1961 , before he was accredited as ambassador to the Ivory Coast , Upper Volta , Dahomey and Niger until 1963 . After a subsequent employment as a member of the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York City between 1963 and 1967, Hillel was finally Deputy Director of the State Department for Middle Eastern Affairs from 1967 to 1969 .

On November 7, 1969 Hillel was re-elected to the Knesset and represented the interests of the Avoda for more than 20 years until July 13, 1992.

Minister and President of Parliament

On December 15, 1969, he was appointed by Prime Minister Golda Meir as police minister in their cabinet and also held this position in the subsequent government of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin until June 20, 1977. He was also initially from June 3 to October 29 1974 and then again from January 16, 1977 to June 20, 1977 Minister of the Interior.

He was then chairman of the Knesset Committee on Home Affairs and the Environment from June 1977 to July 1981, before he was Speaker of the Knesset from August 13, 1984 to November 21, 1988, and thus President of Parliament.

In 1989, Hillel was also the chairman of the world board of Keren Hajessod , the society of the Zionist movement founded in 1921 as the central financial organization for the construction of Palestine. In 2007 he was awarded the Shofar of Freedom Award .

In 1986 he received the Yitzhak Sadeh Prize .

Publications

• Ruach Kadim: Be'Shlichut Machtartit Le'Aretz Aravit , 1985
• Operation Babylon: Israel's Secret Service in Iraq , ISBN 3-7751-1736-9 , 1992

Web links

• Entry on the homepage of the Knesset