Shafaq News / Former MK and minister Mordechai Ben-Porat passed away on Monday morning at the age of 98. Born in Baghdad and immigrating to Israel in 1945, he is considered one of the leaders of the aliyah of Iraqi Jews to Israel.
In 1942, at the age of 19, Ben-Porat joined the underground Hechalutz movement in Iraq.
Described in a Jerusalem Report article as an Israeli James Bond, Ben-Porat was the mastermind and undercover on-site facilitator of Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, rescuing 130,000 Jews from Iraq in 1950-1951. During the operation, he was arrested and tortured. In a breathtaking escape, he made his way to an airfield.
In 1948, he completed the first IDF officers’ course and participated in the War of Independence as a company commander.
In 1965, Ben-Porat was one of the founders of the Rafi Party, which formed a government together with the National Religious Party. At the same time, Rafi won four out of 11 seats in the Or Yehuda municipality, and he returned to his position as head of the council, a position he had held since 1955.
In 1968, Ben-Porat and his party joined the Labor Party, on whose behalf he served as an MK in the 7th and 8th Knessets, even becoming its deputy speaker. Ahead of the elections to the 9th Knesset, Ben-Porat founded the Movement for the Renewal of Social Zionism, but it did not pass the electoral threshold.
In the run-up to the 10th Knesset elections, his movement joined the Telem Party led by Moshe Dayan. Ben-Porat was placed second on the Knesset party list and was elected to the Knesset. After the death of Moshe Dayan, the faction split and he formed a faction that would represent his party. The faction joined the government of Menachem Begin and Ben-Porat served as a minister without a portfolio.
In the government of Yitzhak Shamir, after he replaced Begin, Ben-Porat remained a minister without a portfolio, but resigned from the government toward the end of its term, due to his unsuccessful attempts to form a national unity government.
In 1975 he founded the World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries and became its president. In 1979 he went on a mission for the Jewish Agency to assist in the aliyah of Iranian Jews. He had been a co-chair of WOJAC’s World Executive Board since 1975.
