Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit ( he, בכור-שלום שטרית, 1895 – 28 January 1967) was an Israeli politician, minister and the only signatory of the

Israeli declaration of independence The Israeli Declaration of Independence, formally the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel ( he, הכרזה על הקמת מדינת ישראל), was proclaimed on 14 May 1948 ( 5 Iyar 5708) by David Ben-Gurion, the Executiv ...

to have been born in the country. He served as Minister of Police from independence in 1948 until shortly before his death in 1967, making him the longest-serving cabinet member in the same portfolio to date.

Biography

Sheetrit was born in

Tiberias Tiberias ( ; he, טְבֶרְיָה, ; ar, طبريا, Ṭabariyyā) is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's F ...

in 1895 during the time of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University ...

to a

Moroccan Jewish Moroccan Jews ( ar, اليهود المغاربة, al-Yahūd al-Maghāriba he, יהודים מרוקאים, Yehudim Maroka'im) are Jews who live in or are from Morocco. Moroccan Jews constitute an ancient community dating to Roman times. Jews ...

family that had immigrated to Ottoman Palestine in the 19th century. He was educated at a heder,

Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

school and a

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy a ...

. After school he attended the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

where he was certified as a lawyer. He became involved in

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

activities as a youth, and was a founder of the Tehiya Zionist association in his home town. He also joined

Hapoel Hatzair Hapoel Hatzair ( he, הפועל הצעיר, "The Young Worker") was a Zionist group active in Palestine from 1905 until 1930. It was founded by A.D. Gordon, Yosef Aharonovich, Yosef Sprinzak and followed a non-Marxist, Zionist, socialist agenda ...

after being influenced by

kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...

Degania. During World War I he held the position of Mukhtar of Kinneret and organised local police until the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

entered the area. Following the war he held several positions in the police, including Commander of the

Lower Galilee The Lower Galilee (; ar, الجليل الأسفل, translit=Al Jalil Al Asfal) is a region within the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. The Lower Galilee is bordered by the Jezreel Valley to the south; the Upper Galilee to t ...

area (where he helped organised the Jewish Mounted Police) and deputy commander of the police academy in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. Sheetrit was the prosecutor in the

Haim Arlosoroff Haim Arlosoroff (February 23, 1899 – June 16, 1933; also known as Chaim Arlozorov; he, חיים ארלוזורוב) was a Socialist Zionist leader of the Yishuv during the British Mandate for Palestine, prior to the establishment of Isr ...

assassination case. After being made a District Judge in 1935, he served as head district judge in Lod between 1945 and 1948. A prominent member of the

Sephardim and Oriental Communities Sephardim and Oriental Communities ( he, סְפָרַדִּים וְעֵדוֹת מִזְרָח, ''Sfaradim VeEdot Mizrah'') was a political party in Israel and is one of the ancestors of the Likud party. History The Sephardim and Oriental Commun ...

party, Sheetrit joined the pre-state legislature, Moetzet HaAm. He was also the single

Sephardi Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefa ...

member of Minhelet HaAm, the proto-

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...

.Dowty, Alan (1988
The Jewish State : A Century Later
University of California Press After signing the Israeli declaration of independence on 14 May 1948, Sheetrit was appointed Minister of Police and Minister of Minority Affairs (a new position) in

David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion ( ; he, דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרִיּוֹן ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel. Adopting the nam ...

provisional government A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, or a transitional government, is an emergency governmental authority set up to manage a political transition generally in the cases of a newly formed state or ...

. Although Sheetrit held doubts about the loyalty to the new state of

Israeli Arabs The Arab citizens of Israel are the largest ethnic minority in the country. They comprise a hybrid community of Israeli citizens with a heritage of Palestinian citizenship, mixed religions (Muslim, Christian or Druze), bilingual in Arabic an ...

, as a native speaker of Palestinian Arabic he was popular with the Arab community. However, following disagreements with the Ministry of Religions and the Military government (which controlled most Arab areas after the war had ended), the Ministry of Minority Affairs was closed in 1949. After the first Knesset elections in 1949, in which it won four seats under his leadership, the party rejoined Ben-Gurion's government and Sheetrit remained Minister of Police. Prior to the 1951 elections, Sheetrit defected to Ben-Gurion's

Mapai Mapai ( he, מַפָּא"י, an acronym for , ''Mifleget Poalei Eretz Yisrael'', lit. "Workers' Party of the Land of Israel") was a democratic socialist political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger in ...

, and was reappointed to his ministerial post after winning a seat for his new party in the elections. Re-elected in 1955, 1959, 1961 and 1965 (by which time Mapai had merged into the Labour Alignment), Sheetrit retained his cabinet post under new prime ministers

Moshe Sharett Moshe Sharett ( he, משה שרת, born Moshe Chertok (Hebrew: )‎ 15 October 1894 – 7 July 1965) was a Russian-born Israeli politician who served as Israel's second prime minister from 1954 to 1955. A member of Mapai, Sharett's term was b ...

and

Levi Eshkol Levi Eshkol ( he, לֵוִי אֶשְׁכּוֹל ;‎ 25 October 1895 – 26 February 1969), born Levi Yitzhak Shkolnik ( he, לוי יצחק שקולניק, links=no), was an Israeli statesman who served as the third Prime Minister of Israe ...

. He stood down as Minister of Police on 2 January 1967 after more than 18 years as a minister and serving in fourteen different governments.Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit: Government Activity
Knesset He died 26 days later.

References

External links

*
Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit in the Labor Movement in Israel website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheetrit, Bechor-Shalom 1895 births 1967 deaths Sephardi Jews in Ottoman Palestine Sephardi Jews in Mandatory Palestine People from Tiberias Israeli people of Moroccan-Jewish descent Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty of Law alumni Israeli police officers 20th-century Israeli judges Signatories of the Israeli Declaration of Independence Sephardim and Oriental Communities leaders Mapai politicians Alignment (Israel) politicians Ministers of Public Security of Israel Members of the 1st Knesset (1949–1951) Members of the 2nd Knesset (1951–1955) Members of the 3rd Knesset (1955–1959) Members of the 4th Knesset (1959–1961) Members of the 5th Knesset (1961–1965) Members of the 6th Knesset (1965–1969)