Amir Drori Amir Drori ( ; 1937 – 2005 ) was an Israeli general , founder and the first director general of the Israel Antiquities Authority . Military career . Amir Drori was born in Tel Aviv in 1937 and graduated from the IDF ' s Junior Command Preparatory School in Haifa . He was drafted into the Israel Defence Forces in 1955 , where he joined the Golani infantry brigade . During the 1956 Suez Crisis Drori led a demolition team and participated in fighting in Rafah and the Sinai . He was awarded the Medal of Courage for his part in the Israeli raid on the Syrian village of Tawafiq in 1960 . During the 1967 Six Day War Drori served as deputy commander of Golani ' s 51st Battalion and took part in fighting on the Golan Heights . During the subsequent War of Attrition he commanded Golani ' s 13th Battlation , participating in fighting on the Golan Heights , Beit She ' an Valley , the Jordan Valley and along the Suez Canal . Between 1970 and 1972 he served as the chief operations officer of Israel ' s Southern Command , under Ariel Sharon . In 1972 Drori was given command of the Golani Brigade , which he was to lead through the intensive fighting of the 1973 Yom Kippur War . The brigade participated in the efforts to halt the Syrians on the Golan Heights , as well as in the battles for Mount Hermon and the Israeli push into Syria . He was wounded during the Third Battle of Mount Hermon , in which his troops recaptured the Israeli post held by Syrian commandos , but returned to lead the brigade during the fighting preceding the final disengagement agreements of May 1974 . In 1976 Drori was appointed to lead the IDF ' s 36th Armored Division . A year later he received the rank of Aluf and was appointed head of the Operations Directorate ' s operations department . He went on to command the IDF ' s training department before given command of Israel ' s Northern Command in 1981 . He played a significant role in the 1982 Lebanon War ( Operation " Peace for Galilee " ) , leading Israeli forces to the gates of Beirut through fighting with both the Syrian Army and the Palestinian Liberation Organization . His conduct during the Sabra and Shatila massacre was investigated by the Kahan Commission which saw no reason to make any recommendations against him . Drori served at Northern Command for another year before leaving in December 1983 . He spent the next year studying in the US . Drori returned to Israel in 1984 and was assigned command of IDF ground forces , later went on to head the IDF ' s Operations Directorate , and in October 1986 became the Deputy Chief of the General Staff . He retired from the IDF in 1988 following his failure to secure the post of Chief of the General Staff . Civilian career . Between 1961 and 1964 Drori had studied Archaeology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem , participating in several digs , including that of Yigael Yadin at Masada . Upon his retirement from the IDF he was appointed head of the Israeli Ministry of Education ' s Department of Antiquities . Under his guidance and leadership the department was expanded and restructured , in 1990 becoming the Israel Antiquities Authority ( IAA ) with Drori as its first director general . Drori ' s tenure with the IAA was plagued by clashes with Haredi elements which considered archaeological exploration of possible burial sites as an affront to Judaism . Haredi political parties repeatedly campaigned for his dismissal , going as far as to threaten abandoning the governing coalition unless they were given control of tomb excavations . He occasionally received death threats and was even reputed to have been the target of a Pulsa diNura , a kabbalistic ceremony supposedly intended to bring about the death of an individual . Despite weathering these challenges , Drori quit his post in 2000 after having already secured its extension . Death . Amir Drori died on March 12 , 2005 , after suffering a heart attack during a hiking trip in the Negev . The IAA excavations at the Roman theatre of Tiberias have been named in his honour .