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Shlomo Hillel

Shlomo Hillel (Hebrew: שלמה הלל‎), is a former Speaker of the Knesset and Israeli Government Minister.

Born in Baghdad on 23 April 1923, and immigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine with his family in 1933. He was educated in the Herzliya Hebrew High School of Tel Aviv, and later studied Political science, Economics and Public Administration in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Upon graduation from high school he commenced his agricultural training in Kibbutz Degania Alef, and later in Pardes Hana. He was the secretary of the group which later established Kibbutz Ma'agan Michael. In 1945, during their training, the group was approached by the Haganah, and was asked to man an ammunition factory. Ayalon Institute was established in Rehovot. For fear of discovery by the British Mandate of Palestine forces, the factory was built under ground, and was disguised as a laundry facility. The Ayalon Institute was one of the first facilities of the Israel Weapon Industries.

Hillel was a key figure in Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, the airlifting of 120,000 Iraqi Jews from Iraq to the newly found state of Israel from 1950 to 1952. In 1984 He published Operation Babylon (also East wind, Hebrew: רוח קדים‎), a memoir of the operation, which was later translated to English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Arabic.

He was a member of the 2nd and 3rd Knessets for Mapai in the years 1952-1959. He served as the Israeli ambassador to Guinea(1959-1961), and to Côte d'Ivoire, Dahomey, Republic of Upper Volta, and Niger (1961-1963). In the years 1963-1967 Hillel was a member of the Israeli Delegtaion to the United Nations, and then returned to Israel to serve as the Deputy Director of the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry (1967-1969).

In 1969 he was re-elected to the Knesset for the Alignment. He served consecutively from the 7th Knesset until the 12th Knesset. He was Minister of Police in 1969-1977 and Interior Minister in 1974 and 1977. In 1984 he was elected Speaker of the 11th Knesset. In 1993, along with Aryeh Eliav and Ezer Weizman, Hillel participated in the election of the Labor party's candidate for the presidential election. Weizman was the elected candidate, and was later elected 7th President of Israel.

In 1988 Hillel was awarded the Israel Prize, for an exceptional contribution to the Israeli state and society. He currently serves as president of the Society for Preservation of Israel Heritage Sites.

[edit] Published work

• Operation Babylon- The Story of the Rescue of the Jews of Iraq, 1984

[edit] References

• MKlink|id=380
• Former Speaker of the Knesset Shlomo Hillel: I am still optimistic, an interview with Hillel, 02-11-2007, Hebrew.
• Shlomo Hillel, Labor party website, Hebrew.

v • d • e Speakers of the Knesset Yosef Sprinzak • Nahum Nir • Kadish Luz • Reuven Barkat • Yisrael Yeshayahu • Yitzhak Shamir • Yitzhak Berman • Menachem Savidor • Shlomo Hillel • Dov Shilansky • Shevah Weiss • Dan Tichon • Avraham Burg • Reuven Rivlin • Dalia Itzik