Shimon Peres
Shimon Peres was an Israeli statesman who served as the ninth President of Israel from 2007 to 2014, and twice as the Prime Minister of Israel, first from 1984 to 1986 and again from 1995 to 1996. Born in Poland in 1923, Peres immigrated to what was then British Mandate Palestine in 1934. He joined the Haganah, the precursor to the Israel Defense Forces, and his early political career was marked by his involvement in the establishment of the state of Israel.
Throughout his career, Peres held numerous governmental positions, including Minister of Defense and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was a member of twelve cabinets and represented five political parties in a political career spanning 70 years. Peres was one of the architects of the Oslo Accords, a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 along with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat.
In his later years, Peres became a vocal advocate for peace and cooperation, promoting projects that aimed to foster economic and technological collaboration across the Middle East. He founded the Peres Center for Peace to further these goals, and remained active in public life until his death in 2016. His legacy is marked by his visionary leadership and his relentless pursuit of peace in a region often torn by conflict.