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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: May 21, 2006 |
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Yitzhak Ben Aharon, a towering member of Israel's founding generation and a leading figure in the country's kibbutz movement, died Friday, just two months short of his 100th birthday.
Ben Aharon, who served in a succession of Israeli governments, died at Kibbutz Givat Haim, the collective farm he moved to more than 70 years ago. The cause of death was not disclosed.
Ben Aharon immigrated to then British-ruled Palestine from Bukovina, now part of Romania, in 1928, riding in from Lebanon on a donkey, the Haaretz newspaper reported on its Web site.
In prestate Palestine, he became a founder of the Labor Party and a prominent Kibbutz Movement ideologue.
During World War II, he joined the the British army, was taken prisoner by the Germans in Greece, and held for four years until 1945.
Ben Aharon's political career began four years later when he was voted into Israel's first parliament. He served as a lawmaker and Cabinet minister in several governments, resigning from politics in 1977 after the hawkish Likud ended Labor's uninterrupted 29-year rule. His oft-quoted reaction to that upset: "If that is the will of the people, then the people must be replaced."
After leaving politics, the outspoken Ben Aharon continued to voice his opinion on a variety of issues.
He served as chief of the then-powerful Histadrut labor federation for four years, beginning in 1973. In 1995, he won the prestigious Israel Prize for his contributions to the country.
"The State of Israel has lost one of its giants," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in a statement. "Yitzhak was a true Zionist and an honest ideologue who for decades never hesitated to make his astute and unique opinions known." |
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