Education
Born in Gomel in the Russian Empire (today in Belarus), Hacohen was educated at a heder, before making aliyah to Ottoman-controlled Palestine in 1907, where he attended Herzliya Hebrew High School.
Born in Gomel in the Russian Empire (today in Belarus), Hacohen was educated at a heder, before making aliyah to Ottoman-controlled Palestine in 1907, where he attended Herzliya Hebrew High School.
When he returned to Palestine, he was appointed Director of the Office of Public Works and Planning, which later became Solel Boneh. During World World War II he was an officer in the British Army, but following the war he was arrested by the British authorities during Operation Agatha in 1946. In 1949 he was elected to the first Knesset on the Mapai list.
He was re-elected in 1951 elections, but resigned from the Knesset on 1 December 1953 and served as the Israeli envoy to Burma until 1955.
That year he was returned to the Knesset on the Mapai list, and was subsequently re-elected in 1959, 1961 and 1965, by which time Mapai had formed the Alignment alliance with Ahdut HaAvoda. He lost his seat in the 1969 elections, and died in 1984 at the age of 85.
In 1916 he became a member of the Ottoman Army during World War I. Between 1919 and 1923 he studied law and economics in London. He also became a member of Ahdut HaAvoda and later Mapai, as well as the Haganah.