Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin pay tribute to Shlomo Hillel, the former Knesset speaker and minister who facilitated Jewish immigration to Israel from Iraq in the 1950s. Hillel died earlier today at 97.
Hillel “will always be remembered as a great lover of the land of Israel in its entirety. His praiseworthy actions for Israeli society will stand for generations,” says Netanyahu.
Rivlin also mourns Hillel, saying he “fought for the establishment of the State of Israel and its existence as a safe haven for the Jewish people.”
“As Knesset speaker, he worked to fortify the status and resilience of Israeli democracy and its legislature, and commanded us ‘to stand guard over democracy in the face of those who rise against it, and particularly those who rise up against it from the inside,'” adds Rivlin, who is also a former Knesset speaker.
Former minister Shlomo Hillel attends the Labor Party conference marking the party’s 50th anniversary in Tel Aviv, April 24, 2018.( Gili Yaari/FLASH90)
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