Every year, on Yom HaZikaron, Israel Memorial Day, Israeli society comes together to mourn the thousands of soldiers who have fallen protecting the State and guaranteeing its existence, as well as the thousands of civilian victims of terror. A dimension of the nation’s story of loss not often told is that of the diplomats and official representatives whose lives were taken while serving the country abroad.
As publicly identifiable representatives of Israel around the world – men and women who fly the national flag both literally and figuratively wherever they go – Israel’s diplomatic personnel are a constant target for attack by Palestinian terror organizations. Sadly, diplomatic immunity is of no use when it comes to this terrorist threat.
Over the years, sixteen diplomats and foreign service personnel have been murdered in the line of duty. The fact that these heroes wore business suits rather than military fatigues does not diminish in any way their own personal contribution to the national effort to secure our country and ensure its well-being.
As the nation mourns its fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also mourns the loss of its own murdered diplomats and staffers, who gave their lives in the service of the State of Israel so that the people of Israel may live in peace, security and prosperity.
Their personal stories are told below:
- Edna Peer, Asuncion, Paraguay, 1970Edna Peer (1936-1970) had worked at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs from a young age. Moshe Peer, Edna’s husband, worked at the Ministry as an administrative officer. She and their children accompanied him on diplomatic postings in several countries. Their final posting was at the Israeli Embassy in Asuncion, Paraguay.
On May 4, 1970, three Palestinian terrorists broke into the Embassy and opened fire on embassy personnel in a failed attempt to assassinate the Ambassador, Benjamin Weiser Varon.
Though the ambassador wasn’t hurt, Edna Peer was shot and killed. The Spanish-English secretary, Diana Zabluk, was also seriously wounded.
Two days after the murder, Moshe Peer and his three little children brought Edna’s coffin home to Israel, where she was buried.
The three terrorists, residents of the Gaza Strip and members of the Palestinian terrorist organization Fatah, were assisted in the attack by Arabs living in Paraguay. They were arrested and sentenced to long prison terms.
- Efraim Elrom, Istanbul, Turkey, 1971 Efraim Elrom (1911-1971) served as the Israeli Consul General to Turkey and was the first member of Israel’s diplomatic corps to become a terror victim. Elrom was abducted and murdered in Istanbul by a Turkish terror organization.
During the British Mandate, Elrom served as a police interrogator. In 1948, after the establishment of the State of Israel, he was recruited by the Israel Police. Amongst his many professional roles, Elrom served as an assistant commander of the special interrogation bureau at the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in 1960.
In 1969, Elrom was appointed as the Israeli Consul General to Turkey. He succeeded in building good relations with Turkish government officials, members of foreign missions, as well as the Jewish community in Istanbul.
On May 17, 1971, Elrom was kidnapped in Istanbul by members of a Turkish terror organization, the Turkish People’s Liberation Army. As ransom, the terror organization demanded the release of all its members jailed in Turkish prisons. They set a deadline, threatening that if their demands were not met, Elrom would “face a firing squad”.
Consul General Efraim Elrom was shot to death on May 22, 1971. His body was found in an apartment building in Istanbul, a short distance from his house and the Embassy of Israel in Turkey. He was 58 years old.
- Ami Shechori, London, United Kingdom, 1972Dr. Ami Shechori (1928-1972) served as the agricultural attaché at the Israeli Embassy in London, UK. Shechori was killed by a letter bomb. The Palestinian terrorist organization Black September claimed responsibility.
Shechori studied agronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned to Israel after graduating and received his Ph.D. in agronomy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1968 he was appointed as the agricultural attaché at the Israeli Embassy in London.
On September 19, 1972, four days before ending his tour of duty and after his wife Ruth and their two children had already returned to Israel, Shechori opened his morning mail and a letter bomb exploded in his hands. He was fatally wounded and died on the way to the hospital.
In fact, a series of letter bombs had been sent from Amsterdam to Israeli embassies all over the world, addressed to individual embassy staffers. Shechori was the only victim. The sender of those letters was the Palestinian terrorist organization Black September. This attack took place only two weeks after the Munich massacre of Israeli Olympic athletes by the same Palestinian terror organization.
- Giora Raviv, Johannesburg, South Africa, 1975Giora Raviv (1944-1975) served as the security officer at the Israeli Consulate in Johannesburg, South Africa.
During his service in the IDF, Raviv was among the first to enter the Old City of Jerusalem in the Six Day War and was in the first unit to cross the Suez Canal in the Yom Kippur War. He returned from those wars unharmed, but unfortunately found his death in his security service overseas.
Raviv began his service as the security officer at the Israeli Consulate in Johannesburg in October 1974. On April 28, 1975, a mentally unbalanced South African Jew, who was working at the Consulate as a security assistant, shot him and another local employee while also taking a number of hostages. Raviv’s widow, Nurit, was pregnant at the time.
