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Photo: Czech Embassy - Military Attaché
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Israeli writer, filmmaker and in Czechoslovakia trained pilot Haim Gouri passed away

On Wednesday January 31, 2018 passed away at the age of 94 Israeli poet, novelist, journalist and documentary filmmaker Haim Gouri.

He was born as Haim Gurfinkel on October 9, 1923 in Tel Aviv. After studying at the Kadoorie Agricultural High School he joined the Palmach and completed a commander's course. He participated in the bombing of a British radar station being used to track Aliyah Bet ships carrying illegal Jewish immigrants to Palestine. In 1947 he was sent to Hungary to bring Holocaust survivors to Mandate Palestine. He took part at the training for Israeli pilots in Stráž pod Ralskem in Czechoslovakia and during the 1948 Arab – Israeli War he was a deputy company commander in the Palmach's Negev Brigade.

Gouri studied literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Sorbonne in Paris. As a journalist he worked for LaMerhav and later, Davar. He achieved fame with his coverage of the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann.

Gouri lived with his wife, Aliza, in Jerusalem.