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Elyakim Haetzni

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Elyakim Haetzni
Haetzni in the early 1990s
Faction represented in the Knesset
1988–1992Tehiya
Personal details
BornGeorg Bombach
(1926-06-22)22 June 1926
Kiel, Province of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Died18 September 2022(2022-09-18) (aged 96)
Jerusalem, Israel
SpouseTzippora Haetzni
Children4
EducationHebrew University of Jerusalem

Elyakim Haetzni (Hebrew: אליקים העצני; 22 June 1926 – 18 September 2022) was a German-born Israeli lawyer, settlement activist and politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Tehiya from 1990 until 1992. He is regarded as the father of the Israeli settler movement.[1]

Early life and career

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Haetzni was born Georg Bombach in 1926 in Kiel.[2] Haetzni emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1938 with his parents and sister,[3] following the Kristallnacht pogroms.[1] The family settled in the Kerem Avraham neighbourhood of Jerusalem. He studied at the Mizrachi Teachers' Seminary in Jerusalem, and was a member of the Haganah. He was severely wounded in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and spent eighteen months in hospital.[3] He went on to attend the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, graduating with a law degree in 1954. Whilst a student he was a founding member of the Sherut HaMitnavdim volunteer organisation, which helped new immigrants. He was a member of the youth wing of the Mapai.[1][4]

Haetzni served in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, during which he was severely injured by a Jordanian air strike while escorting convoys in the Battle for Jerusalem.[1][5] In 1961 he established a law firm in Tel Aviv. After Israel's victory in the Six-Day War in 1967, he was involved in Jewish settlement in the West Bank, including the re-establishment of the Etzion Bloc and a Jewish community in Hebron. In 1972, coincidentally on the day of the Munich massacre,[6] he moved from Ramat Gan to the new Kiryat Arba settlement near Hebron. He later opened a law practice in the settlement,[3] serving both Jewish and Arab clients.[1] He became a member of the Yesha Council's Steering Committee, and joined the right-wing Tehiya party. He was on the party's list for the 1988 Knesset elections, but failed to win a seat. However, he entered the Knesset on 31 January 1990 as a replacement for Eliezer Waldman.[7]

Views

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Haetzni supported Greater Israel, believing that Arab Israelis should be given autonomy, but not granted citizenship.[8] Following the death of Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Haetzni criticised Leibowitz's comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany as promoting antisemitism.[9]

Haetzni was a critic of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, whom he blamed for repeated attacks by Palestinians on Jewish settlers in the West Bank.[10] He subsequently encouraged civil disobedience and called for other settlers to ignore government orders to dismantle or stop the construction of settlements. In an interview with journalist David Berlin, Haetzni stated that the plan was to overload Israeli jails with arrests, further saying that he would never move from the West Bank and was willing to accept living under Palestinian rule over relocation.[6][11] In 1992, he wrote a four-page letter, signed by hundreds of fellow politicians to Rabin, who had pledged to reduce the financial support of and the overall number of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, urging Rabin to reconsider and describing his plans as a "red line" and a "betrayal of Judaism and Zionism".[12] Following Rabin's assassination in 1995, Haetzni was one of several right-wing politicians to be interrogated.[13] He later appeared on the American talk show Nightline with the widow Leah Rabin, calling her "divisive" for her positive relationship with Yasser Arafat compared to her interactions with Benjamin Netanyahu. After the show, Haetzni accused her of "us[ing] the tremendous power of her bereavement to advance the interests of the Labor Party".[14] He later described Rabin as a "patriot [...] but not a genius", viewing him as a figurehead for previous PM Shimon Peres.[15]

In 2004, Haetzni described Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who had announced the dismantlement all Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip, as a "defector from the nationalist camp regarding our right to the land of Israel to the other camp — the camp of the left-wingers".[16] He called the settlement dismantlement "a crime against humanity", likening it to the 1492 expulsion of Jews from Spain, and stating that Sharon should be tried as a war criminal at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.[17]

In 2013, Haetzni likened the Oslo Accords to the Nazi-era Munich Agreement, reasoning that peace between Israelis and Palestinians would encourage Palestinian political violence, calling the Second Intifada a direct consequence of the accords.[15]

He was critical of the 2020 Israel–Palestine peace plan proposed by United States President Donald Trump, as it supported Palestinian statehood, calling the plan "poison in a candy wrapper".[8]

Personal life

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Haetzni was married to Tzippora, also known as Deborah or Tzip, for over 62 years.[1][18] The couple had four children.[1] His granddaughter, Sara Haetzni-Cohen, was a chairwoman of My Israel.[19][20][21] Haetzni was secular.[5]

In 2000, Haetzni was subject of a complaint by Peace Now, which sought sedition charges after Haetzni publicly declared that the removal of militant settlers from a Palestinian section of Hebron by the Israel Defense Forces was the start of a "civil war", calling for soldiers to disobey orders and for the settlers to form a "private militia".[22][23]

Death

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Haetzni died on 18 September 2022 at the age of 96 while at Hadassah Medical Center. He was buried on 19 September in Hebron.[19]

Shortly before his death, Haetzni received the Jerusalem Prize. His settler advocacy was praised by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Benny Gantz.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "In memory of Elyakim Haetzni". The Jewish Community of Hebron. 19 September 2022.
  2. ^ "»Durch Hitler geboren«". Der Spiegel (in German). 30 October 1994. ISSN 2195-1349.
  3. ^ a b c Elyakim Haetzni Israel Unity Coalition
  4. ^ "Elyakim Haetzni, West Bank settler leader, dies at age 96". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 23 May 2026.
  5. ^ a b "Warning of Troop Plan in Golan Heights : Israel: In an interview in Costa Mesa, a West Bank settlement leader cites 'authoritative sources' in claim that U.S., Russian soldiers may be used to guarantee demilitarization if Israelis withdraw". Los Angeles Times. 17 March 1994.
  6. ^ a b "Israel's Divided Soul". The Walrus. 12 April 2006.
  7. ^ Knesset Members in the Twelfth Knesset Knesset
  8. ^ a b "Elyakim Haetzni – a burning bush that is not consumed". Ribonut. 19 September 2022.
  9. ^ Lynfield, Ben (18 August 1994). "Israel's left-wing firebrand dies at 91". UPI.
  10. ^ Friedman, Thomas L.; Times, Special To the New York (11 August 1985). "VIOLENCE SPREADS IN THE WEST BANK". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
  11. ^ "Jewish settlers defy building ban". Tampa Bay Times. 10 August 1992.
  12. ^ "Settler leaders warned Rabin not to 'cross red lines' before assassination". The Times of Israel. 4 November 2018. ISSN 0040-7909.
  13. ^ "Right wing activist Elyakim Haetzni afer being interogated by the police on the assasination [sic] of the late PM Rabin". National Library of Israel.
  14. ^ Blumenfeld, Laura (21 November 1995). "A LONG BAD DREAM'". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286.
  15. ^ a b Raschke, Tobias (26 September 2013). "„Unser München heißt Oslo" – Interview mit dem Siedler-Aktivisten Elyakim Haetzni". Al Sharq. Archived from the original on 14 September 2015.
  16. ^ ""Scharon ist ein Überläufer"". Deutschlandfunk (in German). 27 July 2004.
  17. ^ "Israelis, Palestinians face hard choices with own extremists". Christian Science Monitor. 28 February 2005. ISSN 0882-7729.
  18. ^ Szyszkowitz, Tessa (23 May 2017). "Israelische Siedler im Westjordanland: Die Landnehmer". Profil (in German).
  19. ^ a b "Settlement activist Elyakim Haetzni dies at 96". Israel National News. 18 September 2022.
  20. ^ "No peace vision: How Israeli rightists propose to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict". Haaretz. 3 September 2016. Archived from the original on 27 May 2026.
  21. ^ Sones, Mordechai (4 November 2018). "'Don't be swayed by nonsense said about my grandfather'". Israel National News.
  22. ^ Sontag, Deborah (1 May 2000). "Three-Way Tensions Over Issue of Settlements Rise in Israel". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
  23. ^ "TENSIONS DEEPEN IN ISRAEL OVER SETTLEMENTS". Chicago Tribune. 1 May 2000.
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