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 the religious high school Netiv Meir in Jerusalem, 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 (Major). 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. He served in the role for three years. During his time as Police Commissioner, he oversaw criminal investigations into then-Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu over corruption allegations. The investigations eventually resulted in the indictment and
Trial of Benjamin Netanyahu. Alsheikh's term as Police Commissioner ended after three years. It was not extended to a fourth year as is usually customary. The refusal to extend his term was widely seen as an act of retaliation by Netanyahu over the corruption probes. ==NSO violations of civil rights==