Avraham Shalom

Avraham Shalom was born in 1928 in Vienna

Avraham Shalom was born in Vienna, Austria, the only child of an industrialist father and a piano teacher mother. After Austria was annexed to Nazi Germany, his father's business was confiscated and the family was evicted. In August 1939 the family moved to the Land of Israel, where he studied at the Balfour Gymnasium in Tel Aviv.

In 1946 he joined the Palmach and served in its naval unit, the Palyam. In the War of Independence he fought with the Yiftach Brigade at Mishmar HaEmek, Malkia and in the Negev.

He joined the Shin Bet in June 1950 and in 1952 became commander of its operations unit in Jerusalem. He was deputy commander of the operation that captured Adolf Eichmann in 1960. After the Munich Olympics massacre he became head of the security division in 1972, and in 1980 he was appointed head of the Shin Bet.

After the Kav 300 bus hijacking in April 1984, two captured hijackers were killed, reportedly on his orders. Shin Bet officers gave false testimony blaming officer Yitzhak Mordechai, who was later acquitted. In 1986 Shalom resigned and received a pardon from President Chaim Herzog, which the Supreme Court upheld.

Later he called for peace with the Palestinians and appeared in the film The Gatekeepers. He died in Tel Aviv on 19 June 2014.