Allon, Yigal

(formerly Paicovitch)

(1918-80)

   Born at Kfar Tabor (Mesha) in lower Galilee on 10 October 1918, he was educated at local schools, graduating in 1937 from the Kadourie Agricultural School. He later studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and St. Antony's College, Oxford. In 1937, he helped to found and became a member of Kibbutz Ginnosar. During the Arab riots of 1936-39 in Palestine, he served in the underground defense forces commanded by Yitzhak Sadeh. In 1941, he helped found the Palmah, a commando unit that assisted in Allied surveillance and sabotage operations in Syria and Lebanon. In 1942, he headed an underground intelligence and sabotage network in Syria and Lebanon. The following year, he became the deputy commander of the Palmah and in 1945 became its commander, a post he retained until 1948, when the Palmah was integrated into the newly formed Israel Defense Forces. In this capacity, he directed sabotage against civil and military installations of the British mandatory government and supported Aliya Bet. He was commander of the southern front in the latter phases of Israel's War of Independence (1948—49) and drove the Arab armies out of the Negev.

   After Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion dissolved the Palmah, Allon entered politics. In 1954, he was elected to the Knesset and served as minister of labor from 1961 to 1967. In June 1967, he participated in the inner war cabinet, which helped to plan the strategy of the Six-Day War (1967). He was the author of the Allon Plan. In July 1968, he became deputy prime minister and minister for immigrant (see ALIYA) absorption. From 1969 to 1974, he served as deputy prime minister and minister of education and culture and from 1974 to 1977 was deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs.