Benjamin Gibli

Benjamin Gibli was born in 1919 in Petah Tikva

Gibli was born in Petah Tikva in 1919 to Moshe and Yehudit. His father had immigrated from Briansk in 1914 and changed the family name to Gibli. He studied in Petah Tikva and at a commercial high school in Tel Aviv.

He served in the Jewish Settlement Police and joined the Haganah intelligence service, SHAI. In 1948 he headed SHAI in Jerusalem and took part in the field court-martial of Meir Tobianski, who was executed and later exonerated. He later testified at the trial of Isser Be'eri, who was convicted of manslaughter.

In 1950 he became head of Military Intelligence. In 1954 a cell of Egyptian Jews run by his intelligence branch was caught in Egypt, an event known as the Lavon Affair. The question of who gave the order stayed in dispute for years, and Gibli was removed from his post in 1955.

He then commanded the Golani Brigade in the Sinai campaign and served as chief of staff of Central Command. He was military attaché in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia and retired from the IDF in 1961.

In business he ran the Shemen factory and the Koor food division, and chaired the Israel Electric Corporation from 1986 to 1989. He wrote a book on his position but did not publish it. He died in 2008.