Ariel Sharon

Ariel Sharon was born in 1928 in Kfar Malal

Ariel Scheinerman, later Sharon, was born in 1928 in the moshav Kfar Malal. His parents came from today's Belarus and arrived in the country with the Third Aliyah. As a boy he joined the youth movement HaNoar HaOved, and in 1942 he joined the Gadna and the Haganah.

In the War of Independence he served as a platoon commander in the Alexandroni Brigade. He was badly wounded in the First Battle of Latrun and later returned to fight. In 1952 he took leave to study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

He was called back to found and command Unit 101, which carried out reprisal operations. He later commanded the paratroopers and took part in the Suez Crisis, the Six-Day War, the War of Attrition and the Yom Kippur War. In the Yom Kippur War his division crossed the Suez Canal.

In politics he was a founder of the Likud and held many ministerial posts. As defense minister he directed the 1982 Lebanon War, and an official inquiry found him responsible regarding the Sabra and Shatila massacre, after which he was removed from the post. He backed building settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

He became prime minister in 2001. He led the building of the West Bank barrier and the 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip, then left the Likud and founded Kadima. After a stroke in 2006 he stayed in a vegetative state until his death in 2014.