- Pinhas Lavon
MKs
Date of birth =12 July 1904
Place of birth =Kopychyntsi ,Austria-Hungary
Year of Aliyah = 1929
Date of death =24 January 1976
Place of death =Tel Aviv ,Israel
Knesset(s) = 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th
Party =Mapai
Former parties =
Gov't roles = Minister of AgricultureMinister without Portfolio
Minister of DefensePinhas Lavon ( _he. פנחס לבון, born
12 July 1904 , died24 January 1976 ) was anIsrael i politician, minister and labor leader, best known for theLavon Affair .Early life
Lavon was born in
Kopychyntsi in what was previously Galicia inAustria-Hungary (now inUkraine ). He studied law at theUniversity of Lviv , where he organized Histadrut organizations in the region. He madealiyah and moved to Mandate Palestine in 1929.Political life
Lavon was elected to the first Knesset in 1949, and was appointed Minister of Agriculture in
David Ben-Gurion 's second government.He retained his seat in the 1951 elections, and in 1952 was appointed
Minister without Portfolio . Following Ben-Gurion's resignation, he was appointed Minister of Defense in 1954. However, following theLavon Affair in which he was accused of involvement in terrorist bombings inEgypt , he resigned from the cabinet.Nevertheless, he remained an MK following elections in 1955 and 1959, and was later 'absolved' of any involvement in the Egyptian bombings. He retired from public life in 1964 after a long-standing discord with Ben-Gurion and died in
Tel Aviv in 1976.External links
* [http://www.pinhas-lavon.com Pinhas Lavon website]
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