HILLEL, SHELOMO

HILLEL, SHELOMO (1923– ), Israeli politician and diplomat; member of the Second, Third, and Seventh to Twelfth Knessets and Speaker of the Eleventh Knesset. Hillel was born in Baghdad and immigrated with his family to Palestine in 1933. He studied at the Herzlia Gymnasium in Tel Aviv and was a member of kibbutz Ma'agan Mikha'el, 1941–58. After leaving the kibbutz he settled in Jerusalem and studied economics and public administration at the Hebrew University. In 1946–51 he was involved in organizing the exit of the Jews of Iraq, leading "Operation Ezra and Nehemiah" in the early 1950s, which involved the mass exodus of most of Iraq's Jews to Israel. In 1948–49 he was also involved in organizing illegal immigration from Syria and Lebanon. Hillel was elected to the Second Knesset on the *Mapai list, resigning from the Third Knesset to be appointed Israel's first ambassador to Guinea, where he served in 1959–61. In 1961–63 he served as ambassador to the Ivory Coast, Upper Volta, Niger, and Dahomey. In 1963–67 he was a member of the permanent Israeli delegation to the United Nations, while also holding the position of director of the African Department in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. In 1967–69 he served as deputy director general for Middle Eastern Affairs.

After being reelected to the Knesset in the elections to the Seventh Knesset on the Alignment list, Hillel was appointed minister of police in 1969, holding the position until 1977. He also served briefly as minister of the interior in 1974 and again in 1977, giving way to Joseph *Burg when the nrp joined the government of Yitzhak *Rabin. In the Ninth Knesset he served as chairman of the Knesset Interior and Environment Committee. In the Tenth Knesset he served on the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and in the Eleventh, elected in 1984, was elected speaker of the Knesset. In this post he promoted education for democracy both among youths and adults and acted to stop mk Rabbi Meir *Kahane from presenting racist legislation. During his term as speaker, legislation was passed to prevent lists rejecting Israel as a Jewish and democratic state or advocating racism from running in Knesset elections. After leaving the Knesset in 1988 he was chosen to serve as head of the Foundation Fund in the Jewish Agency. He retired in 1998. Throughout his active political career Hillel supported increased representation for Sephardi members on the Labor Party list and the demand for the return of Jewish property left behind in the Arab states. He is the author of Operation Babylon (1987).

[Susan Hattis Rolef (2^nd ed.)]