Moshe Shahal

Moshe Shahal was born in 1934 in Baghdad

Moshe Shahal was born in Baghdad, Iraq, on 20 May 1934, under the name Maurice Fattal. He immigrated to Israel in 1950.

He studied economics and political science at the University of Haifa and law at Tel Aviv University. He then qualified as a lawyer.

In 1958 he became secretary of the Histadrut branch in Haifa's lower city. He sat on the Haifa Labor Council from 1964 to 1971 and on the Haifa City Council from 1964 to 1969. He was 57th on the Alignment list in 1969 and entered the Knesset in September 1971, replacing the late Mordechai Ofer.

He chaired the Israel Consumer Council and served as a Deputy Speaker of the Knesset. He was Minister of Energy and Infrastructure from 1984 to 1990 and led a reform of the fuel market. From 1992 he held Communications, Police and Energy, helped set up Channel 2, and stayed on at the renamed Ministry of Public Security until 1996.

He resigned from the Knesset on 20 March 1998 and returned to work as a lawyer. He stayed active in the Labor Party and took the honorary last place on its list in the 2022 elections. He lives in Caesarea.