Former Shin Bet chief Shalom dies at 86

Shalom served as Shin Bet chief from 1981-1986 when he retired amid the Kav 300 scandal.

Avraham Shalom (photo credit: Courtesy)
Avraham Shalom
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Avraham Shalom died on Thursday at the age of 86.
Shalom served as head of the Shin Bet from 1980 to 1986, and resigned from the agency amid a scandal involving the cover-up of the killing of two Palestinians terrorists who hijacked a bus in the 1984 Kav 300 Affair.
Shalom joined the Shin Bet in 1950, becoming part of an operations unit in Haifa. In 1952 he became the commander of the Jerusalem operations unit, and in 1954 was sent to serve abroad for three years.
In 1972, following the massacre of 11 members of the Israeli delegation at the Munich Olympics, Shalom took over as head of the Shin Bet’s security branch.
He was recently interviewed as part of The Gatekeepers documentary on former Shin Bet heads.