Yigal Allon | |
|---|---|
| יגאל אלון | |
 Allon in 1969, serving as Minister of Education & Culture | |
| Interim Prime Minister of Israel | |
| In office 26 February 1969 – 17 March 1969 | |
| President | Zalman Shazar |
| Preceded by | Levi Eshkol |
| Succeeded by | Golda Meir |
| Deputy Prime Minister of Israel | |
| In office 1 July 1968 – 10 March 1974 | |
| Prime Minister | Levi Eshkol Golda Meir |
| Preceded by | Abba Eban |
| Succeeded by | Simha Erlich Yigael Yadin |
| Ministerial portfolios | |
| 1961–1968 | Labour |
| 1968–1969 | Immigrant Absorption |
| 1969–1974 | Education and Culture |
| 1974–1977 | Minister of Foreign Affairs |
| Faction represented in theKnesset | |
| 1955–1965 | Ahdut HaAvoda |
| 1965–1968 | Alignment |
| 1968–1969 | Labor Party |
| 1969–1980 | Alignment |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1918-10-10)10 October 1918 Kfar Tavor,Mandatory Palestine |
| Died | 29 February 1980(1980-02-29) (aged 61) Afula, Israel |
| Spouse | Ruth Episdorf |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | Kadoorie Agricultural High School St Antony's College, Oxford |
Yigal Allon[1] (Hebrew:יגאל אלון; 10 October 1918 – 29 February 1980) was an Israeli military leader and politician. He was a commander of thePalmach and a general in theIsraeli Defense Forces (IDF). He was also a leader of theAhdut HaAvoda andIsraeli Labor parties. He served briefly as actingPrime Minister of Israel between the death ofLevi Eshkol and the appointment ofGolda Meir in 1969. Allon was the first native-born Israeli to serve as Prime Minister of Israel (the first elected native-born Prime Minister would later be Yitzhak Rabin in 1974). He was a government minister from thethird Knesset to theninth inclusive.
Born a child of pioneer settlers in theLower Galilee, Allon initially rose to prominence through his military career. After the outbreak of the1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, he joined theHaganah and later thePalmach. He commanded a squad and organized key operations in theJewish Resistance Movement such as theNight of the Bridges. During the1947–1949 Palestine war, Allon commanded the conquest of theGalilee,Lod andRamla, as well as the entireNegev up toEilat as Head of theSouthern Command.
Allon entered politics after a forced relief from command by then-PremierDavid Ben-Gurion. During his political career, he served as foreign and education minister, deputy prime minister, and briefly as acting prime minister. He was one of the architects of the creation of the Labor Party, advocating for the merger ofAhdut HaAvoda withMapai.
In 1967, he devised the eponymousAllon Plan, which proposed next steps for Israel after theSix-Day War. While the plan was not officially adopted, it served as a guideline for the next decade ofIsraeli settlement.[2][3] He also took part in theSinai Interim Agreement in 1975.
In 1980, Allon died unexpectedly ofcardiac arrest while campaigning for the leadership of the Labor Party.
Yigal Peikowitz (later Allon) was born on 10 October 1918 inKfar Tavor, then a part of theOccupied Enemy Territory Administration. His father, Reuven,immigrated to Palestine in 1890 along with his father and elder brother fromBelarus, then a part of theRussian Empire.[4] His mother, Haia Shortz-Peikowitz, came from a Jewish family inSafed. Her father was a founding member ofRosh Pinna.
Reuven originally planned to name his son "Yigael," meaning "he will be redeemed," but decided the name was too passive and instead chose "Yigal," which means "he will redeem."[5]
When Allon was five years old, his mother died, and his older brothers left home. As the youngest child, he remained with his father. Kfar Tavor was an isolated area that experienced frequent raids and thefts by neighboring Arab andBedouin communities. After hisbar mitzvah at age 13, Allon was given a gun by his father to protect the family crops from thieves.
In 1934, at the age of 16, Allon enrolled at theKadoorie Agricultural High School. He found his education lacking compared to his urban peers, and his teachers encouraged him to improve. In his autobiography, he wrote about the school director’s influence on his social values.
During school, Allon became aLabor Zionist. After graduating in 1937, Allon and a group of Labor Zionists established KibbutzGinosar on land leased to the settlement ofMigdal by thePalestine Jewish Colonization Association.[4] There, he became known as a local leader and formed a friendship withBerl Katznelson.
Allon joined theHaganah in 1931 and later commanded a field unit and a mobile patrol in northern Palestine during the1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.[6]
While working in the fields of the kibbutz during the revolt, Allon was summoned byYitzhak Sadeh to take a command position in the Haganah. After completing a squad command course, he was appointed to lead theMobile Guards. In this role, he participated in the expulsion of Arabs who brought their flocks onto Jewish fields and became known for planning ambushes against infiltrating gangs.
During this time, Allon also took part in operations with theSpecial Night Squads (SNS) under the command ofOrde Wingate andBala Bredin. In 1941, he became one of the founding members of the Palmach. From 1941 to 1942, he served as a scout with British forces in Syria and Lebanon.[7]
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In 1945, Allon became Commander in Chief of the Palmach.[8] On June 22, 1948, duringDavid Ben-Gurion's confrontation with theIrgun over the distribution of weapons from theAltalena, Allon commanded the troops ordered to shell the vessel.[9] During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, he led major operations across three fronts, includingOperation Yiftach in theGalilee,Operation Dani in the central region, and OperationsYoav andHorev in theNegev.
Allon's final major military roles as commander were in October and December 1948: Operation Yoav toward theHebron Hills andOperation Horev along the southern Egyptian front. As Operational Commander of the Southern Command, Allon was responsible for security along the borders with Egypt and parts of Jordan. On June 4, 1949, he declared an 8 kilometres (5 mi) wide closed military zone along the border.[10]
Allon's successes in the war are often credited to his intuition and foresight, though these traits sometimes led to military failures.[11]
On October 18, 1949, during an official visit to Paris, Allon was informed by his French hosts that Ben-Gurion had decided to replace him withMoshe Dayan as Operational Commander. Many of Allon's staff officers resigned in protest.[12] Allon retired from active service in 1950.[13]
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In January 1948, Allon helped form theMapam party. Prime Minister Ben-Gurion, leader of the rival governingMapai party, told Allon to dissociate himself from Mapam, considering it too left-wing and a potential threat to the State of Israel's security.[14] In December 1948, Mapam co-leaderMeir Ya'ari criticized Allon’s use of tens of thousands ofPalestinian refugees for strategic purposes.[15]
From 1950 to 1952, Allon studied philosophy and history atSt Antony's College, Oxford.[16]
After concluding his military career, Allon entered public politics. He became a key figure in Ahdut HaAvoda, which had split from Mapam in 1954, and was first elected to theKnesset in1955, where he served until his death. He was a member of the Economic Affairs Committee, Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, Education and Culture Committee, Joint Committee on the Motion for the Agenda Regarding Sports in Israel, and theForeign Affairs and Defense Committee.
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Allon served as Israel'sLabor Minister from 1961 to 1968, where he focused on improving the state employment service, expanding the road network, and promoting labor relations legislation. From 1968 to 1969, he held the positions ofDeputy Prime Minister andMinister of Immigrant Absorption.
Following the death of Prime MinisterLevi Eshkol on February 26, 1969, Allon briefly served as interim Prime Minister until March 17, 1969, whenGolda Meir waselected leader of the Labor Party and became Prime Minister. In Meir's government, Allon served as Deputy Prime Minister andMinister of Education and Culture, a role he held until 1974.
During theSeptember 1970 crisis in Jordan, Allon supported aidingKing Hussein against thePalestine Liberation Organization.[17] In 1974, he participated in negotiations related to the Separation of Forces Agreement,
In 1974, Allon was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, a position he held until 1977.[18] At the time of his sudden death in 1980, he wasa candidate for the leadership of theAlignment, challenging the incumbent leader,Shimon Peres.
Allon was the architect of the Allon Plan, a proposal for a partial Israeli withdrawal from theWest Bank after theSix-Day War, aiming to facilitate a negotiated partition of the territory.[19] The plan was presented to the cabinet in July 1967. Although it was never formally adopted, the Allon Plan influencedIsraeli settlement policies in the following decade.
According to the plan, Israel would retain approximately one-third of the West Bank, focusing on theJordan Valley, where a strip of settlements and military installations would be established. The heavily populated mountain ridge to the west of the Jordan Valley, populated by Palestinians, was envisioned as part of a confederation with Jordan. Additional areas, including land flanking the Jericho-Jerusalem road,Gush Etzion, and parts of the Hebron Hills, were to be annexed to Israel. Minor territorial adjustments were proposed along the Green Line, particularly nearLatrun.
The plan also included proposals for the development of Jewish neighborhoods inEast Jerusalem, the rehabilitation of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City, and the annexation of theGaza Strip, accompanied by the relocation of its Palestinian population to other areas.[20]
Allon died of heart failure inAfula on 29 February 1980.[21][22] He was buried in the cemetery of Kibbutz Ginosar in theNorthern District on the shore of theSea of Galilee.[23] The funeral was attended by tens of thousands of mourners, with condolences extended by many world leaders, including Egyptian presidentAnwar Sadat.[24]
Explaining the growing admiration for Yigal Allon three decades after his death, Oren Dagan of the Society for the Preservation of Israel Heritage Sites said, "people wish to live in the kind of state Yigal Allon dreamed of, for example on the Arab-Jewish issue. This isn't a post-Zionist approach, neither hesitant nor apologetic. It's an approach of safety and security that says, 'Our place is here,' but still emphasizes the importance of dialogue, and never through condescension or arrogance. Allon extended a hand in peace, and that's the approach we want leaders to adopt today."[25]
Allon married Ruth, whoimmigrated to Palestine fromGermany in 1934, a year after the installment of theMachtergreifung. They had three children. Their eldest daughter Nurit (Hebrew:נוּרִית) was on theautism spectrum and could not speak until age 5. Nurit was eventually institutionalized in Scotland, where Allon visited her once a year.[26][27]
After theestablishment of the state of Israel in 1948, Allonchanged his surname from "Peikowitz" to "Allon" (Hebrew:אלון), meaning "oak tree".[28]
In the 1950s, the Allons helped their neighbors adopt a child, Tziona Heiman, from a hospital in Jerusalem. This event was later linked to the broaderYemenite Children Affair, during which many Jewish babies, primarily from Yemen, were put up for adoption in Israel. Heiman expressed that she was treated with love and care by her adoptive family.[29] In an interview, Allon's wife stated they had no knowledge of Heiman's origin.[30] As of 2016, Heiman's origins remained unclear.[29]
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