David Levy made Aliyah from Morrocco. He was rejected from the IDF due to an eye problem. To provide for his family, he worked as a construction worker, taking part in the construction of a number of towers in Tel Aviv including the Hashalom Tower and the Hilton Hotel.
Due to the abuses of the Kibbutzim of the Beit She’an area against the residents of the northern city, he began working within the Histadrut General Workers Union, where he became chairman of the local union and later part of the Beit She’an city council.
He was placed 24th on the coalition party Gachal which later formed the Likud party in 1969. As the party won 26 seats, he became the youngest serving MK at the time.
Likud served for 36 years straight in the Knesset until 2006. In 1977, he was made Absorption Minister. Two years later, he was made Construction and Housing Minister. In 1982, he refused a reappointment to that position to get a more prestigious one – Deputy Prime Minister. He managed to attract a great deal of support in his political effort to win the position of leader of Likud, as a representative of the discrimination meted out to Mizrachi Jews, but he lost to Yitzhak Shamir after Menachem Begin retired in 1983.
In 1990, he was made Foreign Minister, where he managed to renew ties between Israel and African and Eastern European countries, especially thanks to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
He lost another leadership run to Binyamin Netanyahu, left the Likud and established the Gesher party, which reunited with Likud in 1996. After the right won the election, he was appointed Foreign Minister once again.
He left the Likud after a fight with Netanyahu, joined the Labour Party and was once again made Foreign Minister, but then resigned due to Barak’s generous concessions. He was one of those pushing to include Ariel Sharon in the Likud but was also among the heads of those who “rebelled” against him when he pushed the Disengagement from the Gaza Strip.
In 2018, he received the Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement. He lived in Beit She’an his whole life and was one of its symbols.
