Yissachar Shadmi

Yissachar Shadmi was born in 1922 in Menahemia

Shadmi was born in 1922 on the Beitania farm near Menahemia as Yissachar Kramer. His father, Nahum Shadmi, later became a senior commander in the Haganah and the IDF. He studied at the Kadoorie Agricultural School with Yitzhak Rabin and Moshe Netzer.

He was among the founders of Kibbutz Sdot Yam. He joined the Jewish settlement police in 1942 and later commanded Palmach units. The British arrested him twice, and while held he wrote the Caesarea song, which became linked to the Palmach.

In the 1956 Sinai War he commanded a brigade whose Border Police battalion killed 43 residents of Kafr Qasim. A special military court acquitted him of murder and convicted him of exceeding his authority, with a symbolic fine. In a 2017 interview he said the trial had been staged.

He later moved to the Armored Corps and founded a new armored brigade in 1961. As a civilian he was the first manager of Shalom Tower and was active in the Labor Party and later in the Democratic Movement for Change.

He was married to Pnina until her death in 2013 and had 4 children. He died in 2018 and was buried at Kibbutz Sdot Yam.