Isaac Aharonovich

Isaac Aharonovich was born in 1950 in Jerusalem

Yitzhak Aharonovich was born in Jerusalem on 22 August 1950 to Holocaust survivors from Kaunas. He grew up in moshav Dishon and studied at a yeshiva in Safed.

He joined the IDF in 1968 and served in the Paratroopers Brigade as a deputy company commander and instructor. He later earned a BA in history at the University of Haifa.

In 1972 he joined the Border Police and rose through its ranks. In 1993 he became a major general and Border Police commander, then headed police in the West Bank and the Southern District. From 2002 to 2004 he was deputy police commissioner, and he then ran the Dan bus company until 2005.

He entered the Knesset for Yisrael Beiteinu in 2006 and became Minister of Tourism in 2007, leaving in 2008 when his party quit the coalition. From 2009 he was Minister of Public Security. In 2009 a slur he used toward an undercover detective drew criticism, and he apologized.

In 2015 he retired from politics. He became chairman of IMI Systems in 2016 and chairman of Mekorot in 2021.