AHARON DAVIDI

'Aharon Davidi' (born 1927) is an Israeli general and has founded the Sar-El volunteer program of the IDF .
He was born in Israel in as son of a Ukrainian immigrant family. From the age of fifteen, he served with the Haganah and Palmach. In the Israeli War of Independence (1948) he fought in the southern front with the Negev Brigade where he met his future wife Hassida.
In 1953 he volunteered for the new IDF paratroopers as a company commander. In the following year the unit was very active in retaliatory operations and other dangerous missions behind enemy lines. He and his company supported Arik Sharon’s Unit 101 in the raid on Qibya. Since this time he and Sharon are close friends. He was decorated for actions in the Gaza strip in 1955. In the Sinai Campaign Davidi, now Lieutenant-Colonel and regimental commander, played a decisive role in the battle of Mitla Pass. From 1965 to 1968 he, now colonel, was the first commander of the IDF Paratrooper and Infantry Corps. During the 1967 Six Day War, Davidi commanded the decisive actions to capture Sharm-el-Sheik. When Raful Eitan was wounded in action, his paratroopers were led by Davidi to the Suez Canal. In 1970 he retired as Brigadier from active military service and went for three years to University of London to earn his Masters and Ph.D. degrees, focused on the cultural problems of Chinese minorities. Davidi started to teach geography at Tel Aviv University in 1974. Three years later he moved to the Golan Heights as Director of Community and Cultural Activities of the Golan and Jordan Valley. In the summer of 1982, during the Lebanon war, Davidi founded the Sar El IDF volunteer program.
Davidi now lives in Ramat Gan and has three children, eleven grandchildren and two great grandchildren.