Shlomo Hillel

Shlomo Hillel was born in 1923 in Baghdad

Shlomo Hillel was born in Baghdad in 1923 to a Jewish family that traded in tea and fabrics. In 1934 he moved with his family to the Land of Israel. He finished the Herzliya Hebrew High School in Tel Aviv and later studied political science, economics and public administration at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

He trained in agriculture at Degania Alef and served as secretary of a scouts group that later founded Kibbutz Ma'agan Michael. He then worked at the Ayalon Institute near Rehovot, a secret Haganah munitions factory. In the late 1940s and early 1950s he organized Jewish emigration from Iraq, including a secret flight known as Operation Michaelberg and the mass airlift called Operation Ezra and Nehemiah.

He entered the Knesset for Mapai in 1952 and resigned in 1959 to become Israel's first ambassador to Guinea. He later served as ambassador in Côte d'Ivoire and other African states, at the Israeli delegation to the United Nations, and in senior posts at the Foreign Ministry.

He returned to the Knesset in 1969 and served until 1992. He was Minister of Police from 1969 to 1977, also held the Interior Ministry, and was Speaker of the eleventh Knesset from 1984. As Interior Minister he applied the Law of Return to Beta Israel.

He received the Israel Prize in 1998 and headed the council for preserving heritage sites in Israel. He married Temima in 1952, and they had a daughter and a son. He died on 8 February 2021 and was buried on Mount Herzl.