Zvi Elpeleg (; 1926 – 27 June 2015) was an academic, author, and a senior researcher at the Dayan Institute at

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

. Born in Poland, Elpeleg served as a

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

in the

Israeli army The Israeli Ground Forces () are the Army, ground forces of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The commander is the GOC Army Headquarters, General Officer Commanding with the rank of major general, the ''Mazi'', subordinate to the Chief of the Gen ...

and later received an ambassadorial appointment. Elpeleg was born in 1926 in Baranow,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

to his parents Rivka (née Zayfntreger) and Yosef Elphlang. His father was a carpenter and his mother a house wife. Elpeleg was the second of four siblings: Hadasa (1924), David (1928) and Yerachmiel (1929). In 1934 the family came to Israel and settled in the Makabi-Tzrifim neighbourhood in Jaffa. Following

David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion ( ; ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary List of national founders, national founder and first Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister of the State of Israel. As head of the Jewish Agency ...

's instruction that officers should change their family name to a Hebrew one, Elpeleg changed his name from Elphlang to Elpeleg. In the mid-1950s Elpeleg was the military governor of the Triangle and from 1956 to 1957 the military governor of Gaza. He became Israel's first military governor of the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

in 1967. He would repeat the role during the Israeli occupation of the Fayid region in Egypt in 1973, and again in occupied South Lebanon in 1982. He served as Israel's ambassador to Turkey from 1995 to 1997. He entered academia as an

Arabist An Arabist is someone, often but not always from outside the Arab world, who specialises in the study of the Arabic language and Arab culture, culture (usually including Arabic literature). Origins Arabists began in Al Andalus, medieval Muslim ...

and, since 1972, he was attached as senior researcher to the Dayan Institute. He authored a biography of Haj Amin al-Husseini, which is considered one of the standard works on the man. Zvi Elpeleg served as chairman of the Turkey-Israel Friendship Association and was appointed Turkey's honorary consul to Tel Aviv by the former Turkish president

Süleyman Demirel Sami Süleyman Gündoğdu Demirel (; 1 November 1924 – 17 June 2015) was a Turkish people, Turkish politician, engineer, and statesman who served as the List of Presidents of Turkey, 9th President of Turkey from 1993 to 2000. He previously serv ...

in gratitude for the role he played in overseeing Israeli IDF Aid for Turkish Earthquake Victims in August 1999. He was married to the poet Michal Snunit. Elpeleg died on 27 June 2015. In 2024, Elpeleg's granddaughter Danel Elpeleg published a film "The Governor" about his time as military governor.

References

External links

*Zvi Elpeleg
Why was 'Independent Palestine' Never Created in 1948 ?
published in The Jerusalem Quarterly, 50, Spring 1989, retrieved from Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, 6 January 2008. 2015 deaths 1926 births Ambassadors of Israel to Turkey Israeli colonels Israeli historians Israeli Jews Israeli people of Polish-Jewish descent Polish emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Israeli Arabists Israeli biographers Immigrants of the Fifth Aliyah {{Israel-historian-stub 20th-century Polish Jews 20th-century Israeli Jews 21st-century Israeli Jews