Pinhas Lavon

Date of birth: 07/12/1904 | Date of death: 01/24/1976

Occupation or position: 
Politician
Community: 

Pinhas Lavon was born as Pinhas Lubianiker in Kopychyntsi in what was previously Galicia in Austria-Hungary (now in Ukraine). He studied law at the University of Lviv, where he organized Histadrut organizations in the region. He made aliyah and moved to Mandate Palestine in 1929. Lavon was elected to the first Knesset in 1949, and served briefly as the leader of the Histadrut (Israeli workers union) in 1949–50. He was appointed Minister of Agriculture in David Ben-Gurion's second government and then Minister of Defense in 1954. However, he resigned from the cabinet after he was accused of authorizing an Israeli false flag terrorist bombing operation in Egypt, which came to be known as the Lavon Affair.

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