A life serving Israel
HE served in Israel’s Shin Bet for 30 years, including seven as its director, but if a young Yaakov Perry had had his way, he’d have been a musician.
HE served in Israel’s Shin Bet for 30 years, including seven as its director, but if a young Yaakov Perry had had his way, he’d have been a musician.
Perry, currently Israel’s Minister of Science, Technology and Space, spoke to The AJN ahead of his visit to Australia, where he will serve as keynote speaker at the JNF’s annual gala dinners in Sydney and Melbourne.
“[The year] 1966 was the worst recession in Israel and my late father told me ‘Yaakov, you have to find yourself a decent job,’” said Perry, who served as a paratrooper during his army service.
“And in order to satisfy my father, I found an announcement in the corridors at the Hebrew University that youngsters with combat experience were required to go to an interview for a very challenging security job.
“At that time I was quite a bohemian, and the committee were a little bit shocked. It took something like half-a-year after all kinds of tests, they called me and told me, ‘If you cut your hair and dress properly, we will offer you a job in the security service.’”
Perry initially worked in the field before heading the service’s training department, and subsequently being promoted to command first the Northern District and then Jerusalem and the West Bank.
“I worked most of the time in the Arabic sector – in Judea, in Samaria, a little bit in the Gaza Strip and I climbed the ranks until 1988 when prime minister Yitzhak Shamir appointed me to be the director of the service,” he said.
Perry’s term as director, which coincided with the First Intifada and the Oslo Accords, is documented in the film The Gatekeepers, currently showing at cinemas in Australia.
“It was a fascinating period,” he said. “You are taking responsibility on your shoulders for the safety of a country, of a state, of your people.
“There is nothing to compare to being a director of a security service.”
Following his retirement from the Shin Bet in 1995, Perry entered the business sector as president and CEO of Israeli mobile phone network provider Cellcom, and later chairman of Israel’s Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot.
He also served voluntarily at Yitzhak Rabin’s request as the prime minister’s coordinator on missing soldiers in action from 1995 until 2000.
He finally entered the political sphere with Yesh Atid last year.
“Yesh Atid is composed of people who never were politicians; they are all coming from different professions and experience,” he said. “I felt it’s the right party and the right time for me.”
As Israel’s Minister of Science, Technology and Space, Perry says every day he is meeting “fascinating people with huge potential”.
“Of course we have our military strength, but we have our brain and research and scientific strength, which is no less important,” he said.
“There is a lot to do because there are many, many Israeli scientists and unfortunately too many of them are abroad; we have to bring them back.”
Yaakov Perry will be the keynote speaker at JNF’s gala dinners in Melbourne on October 28 (More info: www.jnf.org.au/galadinnervic) and Sydney on October 30 (More info: www.jnf.org.au/gala).
GARETH NARUNSKY
Yaacov Perry MK with JNF Australia CEO Dan Springer and Victorian president Simone Szalmuk-Singer.
comments