REHAVAM Zeevi, the Israeli tourism minister who was killed yesterday in an attack claimed by Palestinian militants, was widely respected for his distinguished war record, but was marginalised for much of his political career for advocating that Palestinians should be removed from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
He opposed Israel’s land-for-peace agreements with Egypt and the Palestinians, and twice resigned from right-wing Israeli governments he considered too conciliatory to the Palestinians.
Although his views were hawkish, he was friendly with severa
l members of Israel’s peace camp. "I had enormous respect for him even though we didn’t agree on politics," said the science minister, Matan Vilnai, also a retired general, who served under Zeevi in the paratroops. "His personal loyalty knew no bounds."
The prime minister, Ariel Sharon, said he suffered a personal loss. "He was first of all a friend, a comrade, and I shared his belief in the indisputable right of the Jewish people to their historical homeland."
A long-time political rival, the Israeli foreign minister, Shimon Peres, said Zeevi had "the soul of a historian".
Born in Jerusalem, Zeevi served in the Palmach, the elite force of the Jewish underground during the British Mandate in Palestine. He fought in the 1948, 1956 and 1967 wars.
In the years after the 1967 war, he was promoted to major-general and led the hunt for PLO guerrillas infiltrating the West Bank from Jordan.
From 1974-1977, he was ad-viser to then prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, on the war against terrorism.
In 1988, he was elected to parliament as leader of the Moledet (homeland) party. He was a fervent supporter of Jewish settlement in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, a policy condemned by most countries, including the United States, and by the Palestinians, who see settlement building as theft of their land.
Zeevi opposed Israel’s inter-im peace accords with the Palestinians, and once said that if stopped by a Palestinian policeman, "I will shoot him out of self-defence, and I expect any Jew in a similar situation to do the same".
Two days before his death, Zeevi resigned from the government in protest at the decision to pull back troops from two Palestinian neighbourhoods in Heb-ron. The resignation did not take immediate effect, so he was still a minister when he was killed.
He refused to be accompanied by a bodyguard, even though he had been the target of many personal threats. He argued that while in Israel, he should not require special protection.
Zeevi was shot dead outside his room in a Jerusalem hotel. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed re-sponsibility for the killing, saying it came in revenge for the killing of its leader by Israel two months earlier.
Zeevi is survived by his wife, Yael, and five children. - AP
