Israel Matzav

Five years since the assassination of Rechavam Zeevi HY"D

This Sunday, the 30th day of the Jewish month of Tishrei, will be the fifth anniversary (yahrtzeit) of the assassination of Israeli Minister of Tourism Rechavam Zeevi HY"D by terrorists from the PFLP's Abu Ali Mustafa Brigade. Zeevi, who was best known as an advocate of voluntarily transferring (i.e. paying them to leave) Arabs from Judea, Samaria and Gaza, was murdered outside his hotel room at the Jerusalem Hyatt (about five minutes drive from my house) when he returned to the room from breakfast to prepare for an interview with Arutz Sheva.

While Zeevi came under heavy criticism from the left for his 'transfer' idea, even they admit that Zeevi was a man of integrity, which is much more than can be said about many MK's today. While the 'transfer' idea was not widely accepted in 1985 when he introduced it, today fully half - if not a majority - of Israeli Jews likely support the idea. Arutz Sheva has a tribute to Zeevi here, the Knesset has a tribute page to Zeevi on its website here, and a virtual guestbook that you can sign here (most of the entries are in Hebrew).

Y'hi zichro baruch. (May his memory be blessed).

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:46 PM