Rehavam Ze'evi

Rehavam Ze'evi (רחבעם זאבי ; 20 June 1926 – 17 October 2001) was an Israeli general and politician who founded the right-wing nationalist Moledet party, mainly advocating population transfer.

He was assassinated by Hamdi Quran of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades in retaliation for Israel's assassination of Abu Ali Mustafa, the Secretary General of the PFLP.

Ze'evi was born on 20 June 1926 in Jerusalem to a religious Jewish family from the Yemin Moshe neighborhood that had lived in Jerusalem for six generations, and raised on a collective farm.

He joined the Palmach in 1942, and served in the Israel Defense Forces after the creation of the State of Israel.

During his youth, Ze'evi went to school in Givat HaShlosha.

One night he shaved his head, wrapped a towel round his waist and entered the food hall.

The shaved head and towel around his waist gave an appearance reminiscent of Mohandas Gandhi and earned him Gandhi as his nickname, which stuck with him for the rest of his life.

The nickname is also attributed to a long Arab dress he wore during his underground days in Palmach.

Ze'evi had five children, Palmach, Sayar, Masada, Tze'ela and Arava.

Palmach is also a member of Moledet and competed with Binyamin Elon for the party's leadership.

In 1948, Rehavam Ze'evi was a platoon commander in the IDF.

In the late 1960s, Ze'evi formed the elite Sayeret Kharuv, an anti-terror battalion, at the time when IDF Chief of Staff Haim Bar-Lev had begun to focus manpower and budget on armoured tank units, resulting in huge cutbacks in infantry forces.

Over the next five years he served as the Commander of the Central Military District (Hebrew: אלוף פיקוד המרכז).

In 1964–1968, he served as Chief of the Department of Staff in the Israeli General Staff.

After a secret visit in 1965, he appointed then Colonel Jacob Elazari to be head of the team of secret military delegation, along with then Lieutenant Colonel Yehuda Golan and other IDF officers to train and build up Singapore Armed Forces.

They were nicknamed "Mexicans" during their stay in Singapore.

He retired in September 1973, but rejoined the army when the Yom Kippur War broke out on 6 October 1973.

A close friend of IDF Chief of Staff David Elazar, he was appointed Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff.

He retired with the rank of major-general (אלוף) in 1974.

Ze'evi, known for his concern for Israel's captured or missing soldiers, wore a military identity disc with their names around his neck.

In 1974, Ze'evi became consultant on combating terrorism, in the government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The following year he became the prime minister's adviser on matters of intelligence.

Ze'evi resigned from this position in 1977, when Likud's Menachem Begin became prime minister.

In 1981, Ze'evi was appointed director of what was then the Israel Museum in Tel Aviv and got its name changed to the Eretz Israel Museum – the change having political connotations, given the associations with Eretz Israel.

In 1987, he co-edited a series of books describing various aspects of the Land of Israel, based on artifacts from the museum.

Ze'evi was famous for having one of the largest collection of books about Israel and its history.

In 1988, Ze'evi established the Moledet (Homeland) party advocating the population transfer of Arabs from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to the neighboring Arab countries.

In the election of that year, he won a seat in the Knesset which he held until his death.

After the Madrid Conference of 1991, Ze'evi withdrew from the Likud government of Yitzhak Shamir, remaining in the opposition for a decade.

He disagreed strongly with the Labour governments of 1992–1996 (led by Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres) and 1999–2001 (Ehud Barak), however, he looked favourably on the Netanyahu government of 1996–1999 and supported it from the outside.

In 1999, Moledet united with Herut – The National Movement and Tkuma into a single faction – the National Union.

Following the election of Ariel Sharon in February 2001, Ze'evi joined the coalition and was appointed Tourism Minister of Israel.

Just two days before his killing he tendered his resignation from the post of tourism minister.

Ze'evi was shot in the Dan Jerusalem Hotel, formerly called at the time, the Jerusalem Hyatt Hotel, in Mount Scopus on 17 October 2001 by four Palestinian gunmen.

He was taken to the Hadassah Medical Center hospital where he died before 10 am.

He was buried in the military cemetery in Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine took credit for the killing and stated that it was in revenge for the assassination of their secretary-general Abu Ali Mustafa, killed by Israel in August that year.

Israel alleges that Ahmed Saadat ordered Ze'evi's assassination.

Thousands took part in his funeral.

It was revealed in 2004 that Ze'evi had been chosen to be responsible for the building of the Singapore Armed Forces at a time when he was deputy head of the Operations Branch in IDF.