Bezalel Gaver

Bezalel Gaver was born in 1921 in Jerusalem

Bezalel Gaver was born in Jerusalem in 1921. He was the grandson of Yitzhak Yaakobi, a teacher who helped found the Teachers' Union. He grew up in Rehovot, joined the Haganah as a youth, took part in founding Kibbutz Kfar HaMaccabi, and in 1938 joined the mobile guard of the Jewish Settlement Police.

In 1941 he joined the British Army and served for about 5 years, mainly in the Middle East and North Africa. After his release in 1946 he joined the Shelev transport cooperative. During the War of Independence he drove convoys to the Negev and Jerusalem, and was trapped in besieged Jerusalem from March to June 1948.

In 1949 he joined the IDF Artillery Corps, completed an artillery officers course and served as a battery commander. As a reservist he fought in the Sinai Campaign and the Six-Day War.

In 1960 he moved to Beersheba and handled transport and communications in building the Negev Nuclear Research Center. From 1964 he ran the Negev branch of Shikun Ufituach. He became chairman of Omer's local committee in 1965, was elected first head of its local council in 1975, won again in 1978 and stepped down in 1985.

In 1977 he was fourth on the Shlomtzion list for the Knesset. In 1980 he proposed and helped organize the founding of Meitar. In 1986 he founded Ganei Omer, a residential village for older people, and ran it until 2002. He died in 2024 at his home in Omer, leaving 2 sons.