Reuben Barkatt, Speaker of the Knesset since 1969 and a prominent figure in the Labor Party, died of a heart attack at his home here last night at the age of 66. Barkatt, who was born in Lithuania and settled in Palestine in 1926, served as Israel’s Ambassador to Norway in 1960-61. He was first elected to the Knesset in 1965.
There was no official announcement of Barkatt’s death this morning due to the Passover holiday. He will lie in state in the Knesset. Funeral services are scheduled for Friday.
Barkatt was educated at the Universities of Paris and Strassbourg and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He began a career in public service as general secretary of the Soldiers’ Welfare Committee of Histadrut and headed its international, cultural and Arab affairs departments. From 1962-66 he was secretary general of Mapai, forerunner of the present Israel Labor Party.
As Speaker of the Knesset he was in line to succeed to the office of President of Israel in the event of the incumbent’s death or disablement. Barkatt was a member of the Bureau of the Socialist International; the Asian Socialist Conference; and the Executive of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. He was an initiator of the Afro-Asian Institute for Labor and Cooperative Studies and chairman of the Berl Katznelson Institute for Study and Research.
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