Shimon Peres timeline – 1923-2016
With the passing of Israel's former president, we reflect on his role in shaping Israel and the Jewish world
Shimon Peres Timeline – 1923-2016
- 1923 – Born in Wiszniew in Poland (now Belarus)
- 1934 – Joins his father in British Mandate Palestine
- 1938-41– Lives and works on a kibbutz, which he founded
- 1941-44 – Leads the youth wing of David Ben-Gurion’s centre-left Mapai party
- 1944 – Arrested on an illegal settlement-scouting expedition in the Negev
- 1945 – Marries Sonya Gelman. They later have three children
- 1946 – Chosen as a youth delegate to the Zionist Congress in Basel
- 1947 – Joins the Haganah, the predecessor of the IDF
- 1952 – Appointed Deputy Director-General at the Ministry of Defence
- 1953 – Promoted to Director-General, aged 29
- 1954-56 – Plans the Suez War with the British and French
- 1959 – Elected to the Knesset with Mapai, serving as Deputy Defence Minister
- 1969 – Appointed Minister of Immigrant Absorption in Alignment coalition
- 1970 – Becomes Transport Minister, then Information Minister
- 1974 – Made Defence Minister in rival Yitzhak Rabin’s government
- 1977 – Succeeds Rabin as head of left-wing coalition, but loses to Likud
- 1984 – Finally wins more seats than Likud, but can’t form a government
- 1984-88 – Rotates power with right-wing Likud, Peres acts as PM for two years
- 1988-90 – Governs in coalition with Likud, Peres as Finance Minister
- 1990-92 – Leads the Opposition, then Rabin forms and leads the Labor Party
- 1992-95 – Negotiates with the Palestinians, which leads to the Oslo Accords
- 1995 – Rabin assassinated, Peres is interim PM
- 1996–97 – Loses to Benjamin Netanyahu in the election, replaced by Ehud Barak
- 2000 – Peres runs for presidency, but loses to Moshe Katsav
- 2001-04 – Serves as Foreign Minister in coalition under Ariel Sharon
- 2004-05 – Leaves Labor to help Sharon form Kadima, disengages from Gaza
- 2006 – Sharon suffers huge stroke weeks before election he was due to win
- 2007–14 – Peres wins presidency, serves into his 90s, the world’s oldest premier
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- Shimon Peres with Benjamin Netanyahu
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- Shimon Peres greeting troops
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- Shimon Peres with ex-Pope Benedict XVI
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- Shimon Peres at a Yitzchak Rabin memorial
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- Shimon Peres in China
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- Shimon Peres
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- Shimon Peres with John Kerry
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- Shimon Peres with Benjamin Netanyahu
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- Shimon Peres
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- L-R: President Reuven Rivlin, PM Benjamin Netanyahu and ex-President, PM Shimon Peres
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- Shimon Peres speaking at an AIPAC conference
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- Shimon Peres with Hillary Clinton
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- Shimon Peres (standing, third from right) with his family, ca. 1930
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- Peres (center) with Ezer Weizman and King Mahendra of Nepal in 1958
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- Shimon Peres with U.S. President Bill Clinton at the White House, April 1996.
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- US president Barack Obama welcomes Shimon Peres in the Oval Office
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- Peres at the 65th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ceremony with Polish president Lech Kaczyński
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