Following rape claims, MKs push to cancel state honors for slain minister

Several Israeli politicians called for the cancellation of state-organized commemorations for slain cabinet minister Rehavam Ze’evi, following the publication of rape and intimidation allegations against him.

The allegations appeared Thursday in Channel 2’s investigative journalism television program “Uvda” (Fact). It included an anonymous testimony by a female soldier who said she was raped by Ze’evi, a right-wing politician and retired general whom Palestinian terrorists murdered in a Jerusalem hotel in 2001.

According to “Uvda,” Ze’evi also conspired with a crime boss, Tuvia Oshri, to set off an explosive device in 1974 outside the home of Sylvie Keshet, an investigative journalist who wrote critically about Ze’evi. No one was convicted of the crime.

Following the airing of the documentary, the chairperson of the left-wing Meretz party, Zehava Galon said her party will work to cancel the annual memorial day that the Knesset inaugurated in Ze’evi’s memory in 2005.

Shelly Yachimovich, a Zionist Union lawmaker and former head of the Labor Party, supported the initiative on social media. Ze’evi, she wrote, “is dead but his victims live on, scarred, as their daughters and granddaughter study his horrific legacy.”

Eitan Haber, a close associate of the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, said Ze’evi once pointed a handgun at his head during an argument. Ze’evi, known by the nickname Gandhi, fought during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, and was a senior member of the general staff of the Israel Defense Forces during the 1967 Six Day War. Rabin, who was chief of staff, promoted him to brigadier general after the war.

Hailing from a socialist Zionist home, Ze’evi gradually became more hawkish. During the 1990s, he was an advocate of the concept of having Arab Israelis transferred outside the borders of the State of Israel.

Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel of the Jewish Home party said he would oppose attempts to stop commemorations and criticized the airing of documentary, citing Ze’evi’s inability to respond to the claims. Ze’evi was the founder of the Moledet party, which later became part of the National Union, which itself is today amalgamated into Jewish Home.

“General Rehavam Ze’vi devoted his life to safeguarding Israel’s security. It is inappropriate to destroy his reputation when he is unable to comment,” Ariel wrote.

Ayman Odeh, leader of the Joint (Arab) List party, linked the sexual offenses attributed to Ze’evi to his political views.

“It is unsurprising to discover that a person who supported the transfer of a civilian population also assaulted women and persecuted journalists,” he wrote on Twitter. “Those who saw no shame in commemorating him earlier should not find it anymore shameful to do so now.”