Yigal
Allon (Hebrew: יגאל אלון,
born October 10, 1918, died February 29, 1980), commander
of the Palmach, was an Israeli politician, serving as
one of the leaders of Mapai and the Alignment, acting
Prime Minister of Israel, member of Knesset and government
minister from the tenth through the seventeenth Knessets.
Alon was born in Kfar Tavor and studied at the Kadoori
Agricultural High School. As a young man he joined the
Jewish Settlement Police as a police officer. In 1937
he was one of the founding members of Kibbutz Ginnosar
on the Sea of Galilee. At the same time he joined the
FOSH (Field Companies) of the Haganah. Later became
commander of the Palmach. Following the establishment
of the state of Israel, he became a Major General in
the Israel Defence Force. Upon his retirement from military
service, he joined Mapai, the country's leading left-wing
party which later became the Alignment.
He served as:
Minister of Labour (1961-1967),
Deputy Prime Minister (1967-1974),
Minister of Immigrant Absorption (1967-1969),
Minister of Education and Culture (1969-1974), and
Minister of Foreign Affairs (1974-1977).
He also served briefly as interim Prime Minister of
Israel following the death of Prime Minister Levi Eshkol
on February 26, 1969 to March 17, 1969 when Golda Meir
took office.
At the time of his sudden death in 1980, Allon was a
candidate for the leadership of the Alignment, challenging
the incumbent party head Shimon Peres.
Allon was the architect of the Allon Plan, a proposal
to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank with
a negotiated partition of territories.
Yigal Allon's name is commonly given to a major road
in the West Bank, leading north-eastwards from Jerusalem,
named the Allon Road. |
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