Raphael Pinchasi

Raphael Pinchasi was born in 1940 in Kabul

Pinchasi was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1940. His parents had moved there from Bukhara in the 1930s, and the family later settled in Bnei Brak in Israel. He studied at religious schools in Bnei Brak and Tel Aviv.

He served in the IDF as a religious affairs sergeant at the Tzrifin base. He later ran a diamond processing company and entered local politics in Bnei Brak, where he became a city council member and deputy mayor.

In 1984 he was among the founders of Shas and was elected to the Knesset. He served as a deputy minister in several ministries and as Deputy Speaker of the Knesset. From 1990 to 1992 he was Minister of Communications, when he opened the telephone market to competition and also faced criticism over licenses and appointments.

A state comptroller report on Shas party funding led to a police investigation of Pinchasi, who was the party treasurer. He was convicted of making false declarations, and in 1993 the High Court of Justice forced him to leave the cabinet. He lost his Knesset seat in 1999 and in 2008 became chairman of the Tel Aviv cemeteries council.