Yaakov Turner

Yaakov Turner was born in 1935 in Kfar Yona

Yaakov Turner was born on 27 February 1935 in Kfar Yona. His father was born in Hungary and his mother in Poland. He later earned a bachelor's degree in behavioral sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

He enlisted in 1953 and finished his flight course in 1957. He commanded Squadron 107 in the Six-Day War and Squadron 110 in the War of Attrition, and flew the Phantom in the Yom Kippur War. He headed the Air Force flight school from 1972 and retired in 1985 as a brigadier general.

In 1985 he founded the Israeli Air Force Museum at Hatzerim and later managed it. He then joined the Israel Police and served as police commissioner from 1990 to 1993. In October 1990, after stones were thrown from the Temple Mount at worshippers at the Western Wall, police opened fire and 17 people were killed, and Turner defended the police action.

In 1998 he was elected mayor of Beersheba on a local list backed by the Labor Party. He was re-elected in 2003 and lost in 2008 to Ruvik Danilovich. The city's football stadium, opened in 2015, bears his name.

He was married to Ariela until her death in 2017, and they had 3 sons. Turner died on 27 October 2024.