Shlomo Shamir

Shlomo Shamir was born in 1915 in Berdychiv

Shlomo Shamir was born Shlomo Rabinovitz in 1915 in Berdychiv, in the Russian Empire. His family moved to Mandatory Palestine in 1925. In 1929 he joined the Haganah, where he worked on weapons production and transfer and on bringing in Jewish immigrants.

During the 1936 to 1939 Arab revolt he commanded Haganah reprisal raids on Arab villages, including Lubya. In 1940 he earned a pilot license and enlisted in the British Army. He served as an officer in the Jewish Brigade and was discharged in 1946 as a major.

From 1946 to 1947 he headed the Haganah mission to the United States and recruited Mickey Marcus. In 1948 he was the first commander of the 7th Brigade in the Latrun battles, which ended with the opening of the Burma Road to Jerusalem. He refused an offer to become Chief of the General Staff.

He commanded the Navy from 1949 and was its first commander with the rank of Aluf. In 1950 he took over the Air Force, where Hatzor Airbase was built, and he retired from the IDF in 1951.

From 1952 to 1962 he ran the Negev phosphates company, and from 1964 to 1967 he headed the Israel Land Administration. He later earned a master's degree from Tel Aviv University. He died in Tel Aviv in 2009.