Shimon Peres

Shimon Peres (born Szymon Perski; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was a Polish Jew born in Wiszniew, Poland (now Vishnyeva, Belarus), to Yitzhak (1896–1962) and Sara (1905–1969, née Meltzer) Perski. The family spoke Hebrew, Yiddish and Russian at home, and Peres learned Polish at school.

He emigrated with his family to Palestine in 1934, and in 1947 he joined Haganah, a Jewish terrorist group who spent their time attacking the British Mandatory authorities and the British soldiers of the Palestine garrison, Palestinian Arabs, as well as innocent women and children. He later became Prime Minister of Israel (twice), and also Interim Prime Minister, in the 1970s to the 1990s. He was President of Israel (2007–2014).

Controversies include his role in the 1956 Suez Crisis and being the architect of Israel's secret nuclear weapons program in the 1960s, regarding which there are many alleged associated conspiracies and crimes, one example being the John F. Kennedy assassination.

In 1994, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat.