Eliyahu Sasson

Eliyahu Sasson was born in 1902 in Damascus

Sasson was born in Damascus in 1902, when Syria was part of the Ottoman Empire. He studied at an Alliance school and a Christian high school in Damascus, and graduated from Saint Joseph University in Beirut.

From 1918 he took part in the Syrian National Movement and published an Arabic newspaper with the support of King Faisal. He was also active in Zionist work in Damascus and helped found the Arabic Zionist paper Al-Sharq. From 1922 to 1927 he lived in Mersin, Turkey, after fleeing the French Mandate authorities.

He moved to Mandatory Palestine in 1927 and worked as a laborer and lecturer on Middle Eastern affairs. From 1934 to 1948 he headed the Arab department of the Jewish Agency and gathered intelligence. After 1948 he directed the Middle East Department of the Foreign Ministry and took part in the armistice talks and the Lausanne Conference.

He served as envoy to Turkey, envoy and ambassador in Rome, and ambassador to Switzerland. In 1961 he joined the government as Minister of Posts, and in 1967 he became Minister of Police, serving until the end of 1969. He was elected to the Knesset for the Alignment in 1965 and again in 1969.

Sasson died in 1978.