Yigal Allon

Yigal Allon was born in 1918 in Kfar Tavor

Yigal Peikowitz, later Allon, was born in Kfar Tavor in 1918. His father Reuven came to Palestine in 1890, and his mother's father helped found Rosh Pinna. His mother died when he was 5, and his father later gave him a gun to guard the family fields.

In 1934 he entered the Kadoorie Agricultural High School, where he moved toward the labor movement. In 1937 he and friends from the school joined the new Kibbutz Ginosar. From 1950 to 1952 he studied philosophy and history at Oxford.

He joined the Haganah and became a founding member of the Palmach in 1941, and its commander in 1945. In the 1948 war he led operations in the Galilee, Lod and Ramla, and the Negev up to Eilat. Ben-Gurion replaced him with Moshe Dayan in 1949, and he left active service in 1950.

Allon entered the Knesset in 1955 with Ahdut HaAvoda and served until his death. He was labor minister, deputy prime minister, education minister and foreign minister, and pushed for the merger that formed the Labor Party. In 1967 he drew up the Allon Plan for the West Bank.

He died suddenly in 1980 while running for the leadership of the Labor Party.