Shlomo Hillel, a Baghdad-born Israeli operative who in the late 1940s and early 50s used bribes, fake visas and a network of smugglers to move more than 120,000 Jews from Iraq to Israel, died February 8 at his home in Ra anana, Israel. He was 97.
His death was confirmed by his son, Ari, who did not specify a cause.
Hillel was just 23 when the Haganah, a paramilitary organisation in what was then British-controlled Palestine, sent him undercover to Iraq. Jews had lived there for centuries, mostly in harmony with their neighbours, but growing Arab nationalism and anti-Zionist sentiment, including a 1941 pogrom in which several hundred Jews were killed, were making their situation precarious.
הובא למנוחות שלמה הלל, יו ר הכנסת ה-11: שליח ציבור במלוא מובן המילה
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שלמה הלל ז ל הובא למנוחות: מאבני הפינה של מדינת ישראל
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בנו של יו ר הכנסת לשעבר ריגש את הסובבים
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יו ר הכנסת והשר לשעבר שלמה הלל נפטר בגיל 97
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