Politicsדוד פתל

David Petel

David Petel was an Israeli politician and trade unionist who served as a member of the Knesset for Mapai and the Alignment from 1959 to 1969.

1921 to 2019Knesset member for MapaiLeading the Iraqi Immigrants AssociationBabylonian Jewry Heritage Center

Born: 6 September 1921, Basra
Died: 6 October 2019, Ramat Gan
Occupation: politician, trade unionist
Party: Mapai, Alignment, Israeli Labor Party

David Petel was born in 1921 in Basra

David Petel was born in 1921 in Basra, Iraq, and finished gymnasium there. He moved to Mandatory Palestine in 1941 and later studied at the Technion.

From 1944 to 1946 he served as a Notrim guard. In the War of Independence he was an adjutancy officer, and after his release from the IDF he married Malka.

He headed the Iraqi Immigrants Association for decades and joined Mapai, serving on the Bnei Brak city council. In 1951 he was a delegate to the first World Zionist Congress held in Jerusalem. He sat in the Knesset from 1959 to 1969 and served on its labor and welfare and public services committees.

After leaving the Knesset he chaired the Histadrut audit committee. He later volunteered as a Jewish Agency envoy in Iran and helped bring Jews from Iraq to Israel through Iran.

In 1982 he helped found the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center in Or Yehuda and was among its first directors. In 1986 he was named Yakir Ramat Gan, the city where he lived until his death in 2019.