Mr. Speaker,
Dear Yael,
Ze’evi Family,
Members of Knesset,
Three years have passed since Minister Rehavam Ze’evi, “Ghandi” – may G-d avenge his death – fell victim to an assassin’s bullet. Three years have passed, and his absence is still felt in all the many spheres in which he was involved. Ghandi was a man of many facets: warrior, officer, pioneer, a leader of men, a man of vision, and an author. However, today I would like to speak about Ghandi’s great love. A love which he fulfilled in all aspects of his life: the love of Eretz Yisrael.
Ghandi was an embodiment of the landscape of his homeland – an embodiment of the landscape of the land of Israel. All his life, he walked the paths of the land, carrying on his shoulder the heavy load that was the heritage of the Jewish people in its land. Ghandi understood that the relationship between the people of Israel and its land was anchored, first and foremost, in thousands of years of Jewish life and Jewish creativity in Eretz Yisrael. Therefore, after years of defending the land’s borders as a military man, Ghandi turned to inculcating Israel’s heritage to future generations.
His work as Director of the Eretz Yisrael Museum, is known to all of us, but few of us know of his many works as an editor and reviser. He edited and published approximately 72 books on the land, and in the framework of this important enterprise, also brought to be translated into Hebrew, stories of tourists and Pilgrims to the Holyland.
Also in the public arena, Ghandi worked towards deepening the bond between the people and their land and heritage. In the first coalition negotiations with Likud, in 1988, he demanded that it be incorporated in the Government Basic Guidelines that education be based on the eternal values of the nation of Israel: Torat Yisrael, history of the nation of Israel and study of our homeland. When asked why he insisted also on Torah, he responded, “We are an intrinsic part of Eretz Yisrael, and from whence was the specialness of Eretz Yisrael derived? From Torat Yisrael!”
At a time when many voices contest the rights of the Jewish nation to a State in its homeland, Ghandi’s life work takes on an extra measure of importance. We must continue to bequeath to future generations the love of the land and the heritage of the Jewish people. Educating towards eternal values of the nation of Israel, is the only guarantee to the continued existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish State – in the full meaning of the word, for many generations.
Members of Knesset,
In these days, in the face of difficult decisions which stand before us, Ghandi is especially missed. Of course he would have been an opponent, but a worthy and fair opponent. Three years after his assassination, the void that Ghandi left in public life in Israel remains open and the quality which Ghandi brought to democratic and parliamentary debate in Israel is sadly lacking.
In his life and in his death, Ghandi personified our right to this land and our struggle to live securely in the land. Haim Hefer wrote of him, ‘Happy is the man who has the Israeli Defense Forces and the land of Israel as his guiding light’. We rejoice that we were blessed with the many works of Ghandi, who invested his life and energy in his great love, Eretz Yisrael.
Thank you.