MKs back memorial day for `father of voluntary transfer'
By Dalia Shehori (Ha'aretz)
Under a bill endorsed by 50 MKs, the state would set up a Rehavam Ze'evi Heritage Institute to receive the same resources as those allocated to the Yitzhak Rabin Heritage Institute. The bill would also dedicate a annual day of mourning for the memory of the man who put the concept of "transfer" on the public agenda.
[...]
Former tourism minister Ze'evi, who founded the Moledet Party, was killed by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Jerusalem in 2001.
The bill was introduced by National Union MK Aryeh Eldad to perpetuate the work and heritage of Rehavam Ze'evi through the establishment "of a Rehavam Ze'evi center for the study of the history, geography and archaeology of the Land of Israel," with an emphasis on "the vision, work and heritage of Rehavam Ze'vi."
There are fractious politics behind all this, which I know little about and don't want to get mixed up in. But another Ha'aretz article today, "A requiem for Gandhi," has a detailed analysis of the political context.
The concluding paragraph of the article pulled me up short:
Yahad MK Yossi Sarid, on the other hand, said there was no reason to establish "a monument to a racist theory."
I didn't know that there was an Israeli political party called "Yahad." This word means "together" but it was also used by the Qumran sectarians in the idiosyncratic sense of "community" as a title for their own group. The Yahad party seems unaware of the earlier usage. It is a leftist social democratic party that would not exactly look on the Qumran sectarians as their ideological forebearers. Here is the Wikipedia article on "Yachad" and here is the party's own basic covenant.
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