Roni Alsheikh
Roni Alsheikh is an Israeli former intelligence officer and head of the Israel Police. After serving as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces, Alsheikh served as deputy head of Shin Bet prior to serving as Police Commissioner between 2015 and 2018.Biography
Alsheikh was born in 1963 in Jerusalem. His father, Avraham Alsheikh, was a Yemenite-Jewish immigrant who came to Israel as part of Operation Magic Carpet, and his mother, Ahuva Amar, was born in Jerusalem to a family of Moroccan-Jewish origin. He lived in Jerusalem until age 8, when his family moved to Kiryat Arba, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. In school, he was identified as a gifted child, and skipped three grades, transferring from the third to sixth grade. He attended a religious high school and graduated at age 16. He was conscripted into the Israel Defense Forces in 1981 and joined the Paratroopers Brigade. Alsheikh went on the serve as a commander of the brigade's Engineer Company and as deputy-commander of the 50th battalion of the Nahal Brigade. Alsheikh fought in the 1982 Lebanon War, and participated in Operation Law and Order in 1988. He left the Israel Defense Forces in 1988 with the rank of Rav Seren.
Alsheikh studied political science, earning a BA from the University of Haifa and an MA from Tel Aviv University, both of them summa cum laude. He studied for a master's degree in criminology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and graduated from a senior management program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He also studied at the Mercaz HaRav Kook, a prominent yeshiva in Jerusalem.
Alsheikh joined the Shin Bet in December 1988, and was appointed deputy director in September 2014. In September 2015, Minister of Public Security, Gilad Erdan announced Alsheikh's nomination to be the 18th General Commissioner of the Israel Police.Personal life
Alsheikh is married to Shira. He is the father of seven children, and is a grandfather. He currently resides in Givat Shmuel, having previously lived in the Israeli settlements of Kokhav HaShahar and Kiryat Arba.
