Mr. Avi Dicter is a member of the Knesset since 2006. He is a

member of the Likud party.

He is currently the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense

Committee.

MK Dicter is former Minister of Public Security, Minister of Home

Front Defense and former Director of Shin Bet – the Israel Security

Agency.

 

Additionally, and not less importantly for Mr. Dicter, as the son of

Holocaust survivors, he took a volunteer position as Chairman of

the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel

between 2013-2015.

Since 2011, Avi has been promoting the basic law: "Israel - the

Nation-State of the Jewish People". The Law was adopted by the

Knesset on 19 July 2018.

In July 2018, the Knesset passed another law which Mr. Dicter has promoted. The law is designated to deduct the amount of money that the Palestinian Authority (PA) gives to terrorists and their families as monthly salaries, from the taxes Israel collects for the PA.

 

Born in 1952 in Israel, Mr. Dicter served in the Israel Defense Forces elite commando unit known as Sayeret Matkal. Upon finishing his military service in 1974, he joined the Shin Bet where he advanced up the ranks from air marshal to Director of the Agency. He held this position from 2000-2005, a period of significant Palestinian terrorist activity which included the Al-Aqsa Intifada or Second Intifada. ​ Mr. Dicter is credited with reforming the Shin Bet to effectively deal with this challenge, leading to a dramatic reduction in the number of terrorist attacks and to a restoration of public morale and safety.

 

Before reaching the top post at Shin-Bet, initially as an appointee of Prime Minister Ehud Barak and then, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, he served as director of the Southern District, including Gaza, Director of the Security and Protection Division - a position he took on after the assassination of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin - and as Deputy Director of the Agency.

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As Minister of Public Security Mr. Dicter built Israel's Witness Protection Program, and formed a national crime-fighting unit – Lahav 433 - modeled after the FBI. Additionally, he succeeded in passing the Communications Data Law and at the same time implementing the electronic gathering of fast, accurate and actionable intelligence. This led to the jailing of most of the heads of the largest crime organizations.

 

During his term as Minister of Public Security, he also introduced and signed cooperation agreements with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, with Canada's Ministry of Public Safety, and with countries in the European Union.

 

MK Avi Dicter holds a BA in Social Sciences from Bar-Ilan University, and an Executive MBA from Tel Aviv University. He also served as a research fellow at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C. He speaks Hebrew, Arabic and English fluently. He is married and has three children and eight grandchildren.