Gideon Ben-Yisrael

Gideon Ben-Yisrael (Hebrew: גדעון בן-ישראל‎, 6 March 1923 – 18 December 2014) was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Mapai and Rafi in the 1950s and 1960s.

Gideon Ben-Yisrael
Date of birth(1923-03-06)6 March 1923
Place of birthHaifa, Mandatory Palestine
Date of death18 December 2014(2014-12-18) (aged 91)
Place of deathTel Aviv, Israel
Knessets4, 5
Faction represented in Knesset
1959-1961Mapai
1962-1965Mapai
1965Rafi

Biography

Born in Haifa during the Mandate era, Ben-Yisrael joined the Haganah, and between 1938 and 1940 was a recruiting officer in Jerusalem. During World War II he volunteered for the Jewish Brigade, and following the war he helped to smuggle holocaust survivors into Palestine.[1] He then fought in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and was wounded in the Battle for Jerusalem. He was demobilised from the IDF as a major.

After the war, he studied economics and international relations at the London School of Economics. He returned to Israel in 1953 and served as secretary of the Beersheba Workers Council, and was head of Labor Relations in the Ministry of Labour. He also lectured on labour relations at Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University, and was a member of the co-ordinating committee of the Histadrut trade union, and chairman of its Organisation and Workers Council section.

In 1955 he married Ruth Ne'eman, sister of Yuval (later a government minister), who went on to become a law professor. They had two children, Marit and Sivion.

In 1959 he was elected to the Knesset on the Mapai list. The following year he received a graduate law degree from the Tel Aviv branch of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Although he lost his seat in the 1961 elections, he returned to the Knesset on 28 August 1962 as a replacement for the deceased Herzl Berger.[2] He was amongst the Mapai members that broke away to form Rafi in 1965, and lost his seat in the elections later that year. He went on to serve as chair of the Labor Party's unions section, and was a member of the party's central committee and secretariat.

In 1996 he became chairman of the Pensioners' Union in the Histadrut, a position he held until his death in December 2014.[1]

Ben-Yisrael died in Tel Aviv from natural causes.[3] He was buried at the Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv.[4]

gollark: Although I can outtype most people on my laptop anyway sso I don't particularly need it.
gollark: I stole the code from lyric's git repo for the English typerace and inverted it.
gollark: Orbit is one of my favourite … locations? Sets of locations? Sets of *momenta*?
gollark: I don't think I called any.
gollark: Orbital kana antimemetic strikes possibly?

References
  1. Former Mapai and Rafi MK Gideon Ben Yisrael dies at 92 The Jerusalem Post, 18 December 2014
  2. Knesset Members of the Fifth Knesset Knesset website
  3. "Gideon Ben-Yisrael, Head of Pensioners Union, Dies at 92". Israel National News.com. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  4. Firebrand fighter for senior citizens’ rights Gideon Ben-Yisrael dies at 91 The Jerusalem Post, 21 December 2014
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