Everything about Bechor-shalom Sheetrit totally explained
Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit (born 1895, died
28 January 1967) was an
Israeli politician, minister and the only signatory of the
Israeli declaration of independence to have been born in the country. He served as
Minister of Police from independence until his death in 1967, making him the longest-serving
cabinet member in the same portfolio to date.
Biography
Born in
Tiberias in the time of the
Ottoman Empire, Sheetrit was educated at a
heder, alliance
school and a
yeshiva. After school he attended the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he was certified as a lawyer.
He became involved in
Zionist activities as a youth, and was a founder of the Tehiya Zionist association in his home town. He also joined
Hapoel Hatzair after being influenced by
kibbutz Degania.
During the
First World War he held the position of
Mukhtar of
Kinneret and organised local police until the
British Army entered the area.
Following the war he held several positions in the police, including Commander of the
Lower Galilee area (where he helped organised the
Jewish Mounted Police), deputy commander of the police academy in
Jerusalem, and was the prosecutor in the
Haim Arlosoroff assassination case. After being made a
District Judge in 1935, he served as head district judge in
Lod between 1945 and 1948.
A prominent member of the
Sephardim and Oriental Communities party, Sheetrit joined the pre-state legislature,
Moetzet HaAm. He was also in
Minhelet HaAm, the proto-
cabinet, its only
Sephardi member. After signing the Israeli declaration of independence on 14 May 1948, Sheetrit was appointed Minister of Police and Minister of Minority Affairs (a new position) in
David Ben-Gurion's
provisional government.
Although Sheetrit held doubts about the loyalty to the new state of
Israeli Arabs, as a native speaker of
Palestinian Arabic he was popular with the Arab community. However, following disagreements with the Ministry of Religions and the Military government (which controlled most Arab areas after the war had ended), the Ministry of Minority Affairs was closed in 1949.
After the
first Knesset elections in 1949, in which it won four seats under his leadership, the party rejoined Ben-Gurion's government and Sheetrit remained Minister of Police. Prior to the
1951 elections, Sheetrit defected to Ben-Gurion's
Mapai, and was reappointed to his ministerial post after winning a seat for his new party in the elections.
Re-elected in 1955, 1959, 1961 and 1965 (by which time Mapai had merged into the
Labour Alignment), Sheetrit retained his cabinet post under new
prime ministers Moshe Sharett and
Levi Eshkol. He died in office in January 1967 after more than 18 years as a minister and serving in fourteen different governments.
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