April 3, 1994
Maj. Gen. Aharon Remez, the second Israeli Air Force commander, dies of illness in Jerusalem at 74. He is buried with military honors on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. Born in 1919 in Tel Aviv, he was the son of David Remez, a leader in the Labor movement who served in the first Knesset and was the minister of transportation.
Aharon Remez attended the Herzliya Gymnasium high school, then joined the British Royal Air Force and became a fighter pilot. During World War II he logged nearly 800 flight hours. After the war, he helped Holocaust survivors immigrate to Mandatory Palestine as part of Aliyah Bet (illegal immigration).
Returning to Palestine in February 1947, he joined the leadership of the Haganah before being asked by David Ben-Gurion to help create an air force for the coming state. Remez focused on getting equipment and transitioning British air bases for use by the Israeli Air Force. He assumed command of the Israeli Air Force in July 1948, succeeding Yisrael Amir, and served until he resigned in December 1950. He chose to take a leave for study after clashing with IDF Chief of Staff Yigael Yadin over the status of the Air Force within the military.
In 1955, he was elected to the Knesset as part of the Mapai list, but he resigned midterm in December 1957. He remained a member of the party, however, and joined such members as Shimon Peres and Moshe Dayan in pushing to reform the process of choosing candidates for the party’s Knesset list to reflect a more balanced representation.
After a series of brief positions in the public sector, Remez worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and became the head of the International Cooperation Department in April 1960. He oversaw several technological and economic cooperation agreements with countries including Turkey, Zanzibar and Peru.
In April 1965, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol appointed Remez as ambassador to Great Britain. He was ambassador during Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War in June 1967. He helped draft the postwar U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which outlines the concept of land for peace and has been the framework for official Arab-Israeli negotiations since then.
Returning to Israel in 1970, Remez served as the chairman of both the Port Authority and Airports Authority before devoting himself to becoming a sculptor.
