SHAPIRO, YA'AKOV SHIMSHON

SHAPIRO, YA'AKOV SHIMSHON (1902–1993), Israeli lawyer and politician. Shapiro was born in Russia and studied at the Medical School of Kharkov University. He came to Ereẓ Israel in 1924 and was one of the founders of the kibbutz Givat ha-Sheloshah. Later, Shapiro studied at the Jerusalem Law School and practiced as a lawyer. In 1948–49 he was Israel's first attorney-general. He was a member of the Second Knesset (1951), the Third (1955) and the Seventh (1969). In 1965 he was appointed minister of justice, retaining the office in Golda Meir's cabinet in 1969. In June 1972, however, following a storm over the acquittal of Mordecai Friedman, manager of the Netivei Neft oil company, on charges of irregularity, Shapiro submitted his resignation and it was cited as a rare example of a minister accepting responsibility for the mistakes of his department. On August 30, however, he rejoined the cabinet. In October 1973 he again submitted his resignation, following a controversy over criticism he made of the conduct of the Yom Kippur War by Moshe Dayan, the minister of defense, and the resignation took effect 48 hours later.