Ben-Zion Halfon was an Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i politician who served as a member of the Knesset

Knesset

The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...

 for the Alignment

Alignment (political party)

The Alignment was an alliance of the major left-wing parties in Israel between the 1960s and 1990s. It was established in 1965 as an alliance of Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda but was dissolved three years later when the two parties and Rafi formally merged into the Israeli Labor Party...

 between 1969 and 1977.

Biography

Born in Tripoli

Tripoli

Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...

 in Libya

Libya

Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

 in 1930, Halfon was a member of a Zionist youth movement. In 1947 he attempted to make aliyah

Aliyah

Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...

 to Mandate Palestine via Italy, aboard the Aliyah Bet ship Medinat HeYehudit. However, he was detained by the British authorities and sent to an internment camp in Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

. The following year he reached Israel, and joined the Palmach

Palmach

The Palmach was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv during the period of the British Mandate of Palestine. The Palmach was established on May 15, 1941...

's Yiftach Brigade

Yiftach Brigade

The Yiftach Brigade was an Israeli infantry brigade...

, with whom he fought in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War

1948 Arab-Israeli War

The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...

.

He was involved in helping other Libyan Jews who had made aliyah, and in 1949 he was amongst the founders of moshav Hatzav

Hatzav

Hatzav is a moshav in central Israel. Located on Highway 40 between Gedera and Be'er Sheva, it covers 3,200 dunams and falls under the jurisdiction of Be'er Tuvia Regional Council...

. He became involved in the Southern branch of the Moshavim Movement

Moshavim Movement

The Moshavim Movement is one of the main settlement movements in Israel, whose members are cooperative villages organized as moshavim and moshavim shitufiim...

, and became the movement's representative in the Labor Party. He served as national co-ordinator of the movement's purchasing organisation and on the board of the Agricultural Bank.

In 1969

Israeli legislative election, 1969

Elections for the seventh Knesset were held in Israel on 28 October 1969. Voter turnout was 81.7%.-Results:¹ Meir Avizohar defected from the National List to the Alignment² Avner Shaki left the National Religious Party and remained a single MK...

 he was elected to the Knesset on the Alignment list (an alliance of the Labor Party and Mapam

Mapam

Mapam was a political party in Israel and is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Meretz party.-History:Mapam was formed by a January 1948 merger of the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party and Ahdut HaAvoda Poale Zion Movement. The party was originally Marxist-Zionist in its outlook and represented...

), and was appointed Deputy Minister of Agriculture

Agriculture Minister of Israel

The Agriculture Minister of Israel is the political head of the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture and a relatively minor position in the Israeli cabinet. Since 1992 the full title of the position has been the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development , the Development Ministry having been...

 on 22 December that year. He was re-elected in 1973

Israeli legislative election, 1973

The Elections for the eighth Knesset were held on 31 December 1973. Voter turnout was 78.6%.-Results:1 Aryeh Eliav left the Alignment and merged with Ratz to form Ya'ad - Civil Rights Movement...

 but lost his portfolio. He lost his seat in the May 1977 elections

Israeli legislative election, 1977

The Elections for the ninth Knesset were held on 17 May 1977. For the first time in Israeli political history, the right-wing, led by Likud, won the election, ending almost 30 years of rule by the left-wing Alignment and its predecessor, Mapai...

, and died in a traffic collision near Gedera

Gedera

-External links:** *...

 junction a few months later aged 47.

In 2006, the archaeological museum in Nitzana

Nitzana

Nitzana may refer to:*Nitzana , a city of the ancient Nabataeans located in the Negev desert in Israel*Nitzana , a communal settlement near the ruins of the Nabataean city...

 was named after him.

External links