Dear Shamir Family,

Honored Guests, those who cherish the memory of Moshe Shamir,  I truly wanted to be with you, but was prevented from participating in this ceremony, and would therefore like to relay the following words.

We bid farewell to Moshe Shamir z”l, who was one of the State of Israel’s greatest and most representative writers.

The story of Moshe Shamir’s life is the story of the State.  He was born in Safed, raised in Tel Aviv and molded in Mishmar HaEmek, the Palmach and throughout the Land of Israel. 

His writing reflected and shaped the growth of the new man, who is proud and upright, a farmer and a warrior, a man who is connected to the land, grows with its roots and is enriched by its crop.

Moshe Shamir was the man who sought in our sources the meaning of the events which shaped our history – the meaning of the deeds of a flesh and blood king, of plundering a poor man’s lamb, of Yair, his own contemporaries, and ourselves.  His personality, as well as his writing, represented the detachment from the exile and the parentage of a new Jew – one who does not frequently run from his fate or his persecutors, but stands courageously in own his defense and fights back.

Even in a society such as ours, which is haunted by dispute and ideological and personal rivalries, Moshe Shamir, in his works, succeeded in bringing us, in the words of the poet Natan Alterman, to “the root in which things are stitched together”.  He “walked with us in the fields” and took us to the places and infrastructure in which left and right unite even when they disagree.

He was not a one who sanctified ceremonies and blind faith.  He was a prophet who proved that both his feet were firmly entrenched in the ground, who preached at the gates of the city, who brought us to the most unique and interesting of meetings – the meeting with ourselves, with the roots of our personal and national identity.

As one who was from an early age involved in the life of the State, Moshe Shamir traveled a long political and ideological road, and underwent a deep conceptual transformation in his view of the State of Israel and its goals.  He translated his world-view into diligent political action, joined formal parties, and during a certain period, even served as a Member of Knesset.

At times his way was controversial.  However, he undoubtedly had a truth to which he adhered and in which he believed throughout his life.

If Alik came from the sea, then Moshe Shamir was carved from the rocks, roots and landscape of this land.

Today, we bid farewell to Moshe Shamir who, together with Alterman, Shlonsky, Haim Guri and others, contributed to the growth of Israeli fiction and playwriting which reflected our deeds, doubts and special creativeness.

May his memory be a blessing and kept with us forever.

Ariel Sharon