Militaryמרדכי רחמים

Mordechai Rachamim

Mordechai Rachamim is an Israeli security officer who stopped the 1969 attack on an El Al plane in Zurich.

born 1946Stopping the 1969 Zurich attackThe 1972 Sabena rescuePrivate security and investigations firms

Born: 1 April 1946, Iraq
Occupation: paratrooper
Education: Tel Aviv University

Mordechai Rachamim was born in 1946 in Iraq

Mordechai Rachamim was born in 1946 in Kurdistan to David and Asmar. His family moved to Israel and lived in a transit camp in Emek Hefer, then in housing in Elyakhin. He went to a religious elementary school and to high school at the Mikveh Israel boarding school.

He joined the IDF in August 1965 and served in Sayeret Matkal. He trained as a fighter and as a squad commander, and fought in the Six-Day War.

After his discharge he was among the first armed guards placed on El Al planes. On February 18, 1969, four attackers fired on an El Al plane in Zurich, and Rachamim fought them and killed their leader. He was tried in Switzerland for murder under mitigating circumstances and was acquitted in December 1969.

He later became a bodyguard for Prime Minister Golda Meir. In 1972 he took part in the operation to free the hijacked Sabena plane at Lod and opened a private security and investigations office. He lives in Tel Aviv, studied at Tel Aviv University, and is married to Tzipi with 4 children.