Haim Drukman, a prominent rabbi who was one of the founders of Israel’s settlement movement, has died. He was 90. Drukman was a leading figure in the religious Zionist movement in Israel, and a major proponent of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula after Israel captured those territories in the 1967 Mideast war. He was hospitalized earlier this month at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center, which confirmed his death late on Sunday. It did not provide a cause. He served several terms as a member of Knesset, Israel’s parliament, with the forerunner of today’s Religious Zionism party, which is a key ally of the prime minister-designate, Benjamin Netanyahu. He acted for a long time as spiritual leader to religious nationalist politicians on Israel’s far right. Netanyahu wrote on Twitter that “a great light of the love of Israel was extinguished” with Drukman’s death. Drukman called for the annexation of the occupied West Bank and its approximately 2.5 million Palestinians who live under Israeli occupation alongside around 500,000 Jewish settlers. The Palestinians seek the territory, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, as a future independent state, while most of the international community considers Israeli settlements illegal and an obstacle to peace.
About the Author
