Commissioner Haim Tavori Square

The story

The square stands in the southwest of Beersheba, close to Yosef Jo Alon Road, and bears the name of Haim Tavori (1919 – 11 August 1992), the sixth Commissioner of the Israel Police. Most of the years of his service passed in this city and in the Negev. Tavori was born in Rovno, then in Poland, and immigrated to the Land of Israel on 5 August 1925 with his parents, aboard the ship “Sinai”; his father was among the founders of the fire station of Petah Tikva and its first commander. In 1939 he volunteered to be a guard in the Jewish Settlement Police, in 1940 he enlisted in the mounted corps of the Mandate police, and in 1947 he was appointed an instructor at the police school in Bethlehem. In the War of Independence he was wounded in battle in the Old City of Jerusalem, and in May 1948 he enlisted in the Israel Police and served as a sergeant in the Old City. In 1949 he was decorated with the first police citation, for his part in the solving of the affair of the disappearance of Sheikh Yusuf Abu Ghosh. In 1950 he was appointed commander of the Beersheba police. In 1954 he moved to command the Negev subdistrict, and in that post he served sixteen years. In 1970 he was appointed deputy commander of the Southern District, in 1971 commander of the Jerusalem area, in 1973 commander of the Southern District, and in 1975 head of the operations division, where he took part in preparing the police to receive responsibility for internal security. On 1 January 1977 he was appointed Commissioner and served until 31 December 1979. After his retirement he returned to the city: he served as chairman of the Yad LaBanim organization in Beersheba, and in 1988 he received the title of Distinguished Citizen of Beersheba. He died in 1992, at the age of 73, and was buried in the police plot on Mount Herzl. His brother, Dov Tavori, was mayor of Petah Tikva in the years 1978–1989.

• Commemoration
• People
• Beersheba