Shimon Peres (1923 - 2016) was an Israeli politician and writer who held almost every senior office in his country's government, serving twice as prime minister and, from 2007 to 2014, as president of Israel. [1] He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, jointly with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, for the negotiations that produced the Oslo Accords. [2] His career spanned the founding of the Israeli state through to the twenty-first century.
Early life and education
Peres was born Szymon Perski on 2 August 1923 in Višnieva, then in the Second Polish Republic and now in Belarus. [1] His family emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1934, settling in Tel Aviv, where he attended the Ironi Alef High School and later a Ben-Shemen agricultural school. He joined the Haganah, the pre-state Jewish defence organisation, and became active in the labour Zionist youth movement. He later studied at New York University, the New School for Social Research and Harvard University. [3]
Defence and early government career
After Israeli independence in 1948, Peres worked in the defence establishment, serving as head of the naval service and then as director-general of the Ministry of Defence in his early thirties. [1] In that role he was central to building Israel's arms procurement relationships, particularly with France, and to the development of the country's nuclear research facility at Dimona. He entered the Knesset in 1959 and held a series of ministerial portfolios over the following decades, including defence, finance and foreign affairs. [3]
Prime minister and the Oslo Accords
Peres led the Labour Party for extended periods and served briefly as acting prime minister in 1977, then as prime minister from 1984 to 1986 under a rotation agreement with Yitzhak Shamir, a period in which his government confronted hyperinflation through a stabilisation plan. [1] As foreign minister under Rabin in the early 1990s, he was a principal architect of the secret talks in Norway that produced the Oslo Accords of 1993, the first mutual recognition between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. [2]
Following Rabin's assassination in November 1995, Peres again became prime minister, serving until the elections of 1996. He continued in senior ministerial roles thereafter and founded the Peres Center for Peace, which promotes cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians. [4]
Presidency and later years
In 2007 the Knesset elected Peres president of Israel, a largely ceremonial office he held until 2014, becoming at the time the world's oldest serving head of state. [1] In addition to the Nobel Peace Prize, his honours included the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize, the French Legion of Honour and numerous honorary doctorates. He also published books and poetry. Peres died on 28 September 2016 at the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv, following a stroke. [3]
Legacy
Peres's career traced the history of Israel itself, from the armament of a new state to attempts at a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians. Assessments of his record differ sharply: he is remembered by supporters as a persistent advocate of a negotiated peace and of technological modernisation, while critics point to his role in building Israel's military and nuclear capacity and to the unfulfilled promises of the Oslo process. [1]
