Arie Eliav

Arie Eliav
Date of birth	21 November 1921(1921-11-21)
Place of birth	Moscow, Soviet Union
Year of aliyah	1924
Date of death	30 May 2010(2010-05-30) (aged 88)
Knessets	6, 7, 8, 9, 12
Party	Labor Party (1967–1968, 1991–1992)
Former parties	Alignment (1965–68, 1969–75, 1988–91) Independent (1975) Ya'ad – Civil Rights Movement (1975–1976) Independent Socialist Faction (1976–1977) Left Camp of Israel (1977–1979)

Arie "Lova" Eliav, born Lev Lipschitz (Hebrew: אריה "לובה" אליאב‎), (21 November 1921 – 30 May 2010), was an Israeli politician and former member of the Knesset.^[1]

Biography

Eliav was born in Moscow in 1921. The family moved to Mandate Palestine in 1924.^[2] He studied history and sociology, gaining a BA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and worked as a teacher and sociologist. He later served as a visiting professor in several American academic institutes, including two years at Harvard University (1979–1980) and his two terms at Trinity College in the 1990s.

As a teenager, he joined the Haganah in 1936 before joining the British Army in 1940, serving in an artillery unit.^[3] Upon his return home in 1945 he helped the Aliyah Bet movement and served as a colonel in the IDF. He later worked as an aide to Levi Eshkol on the topics of immigration, absorption and settlement.^[4] Between 1955 and 1957 he oversaw the foundation of several settlements in the Lakhish Regional Council area. During the Suez Crisis he supervised Operation Tushia, which transported the Jews of Port Said to Israel.^[5]

In 1958 he returned to Moscow, where he worked as the first secretary in the Israeli embassy, a position he held until 1960.^[6]

Political career

Eliav was first elected to the Knesset in the 1965 on the Alignment's list, and was appointed Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry. During the Knesset term he became Deputy Minister of Immigrant Absorption.^[7]

He retained his seat in the 1969 election, but was not given a ministerial position. However, he did become general secretary of the Labour Party until 1971. After again retaining his seat in the 1973, he left the party,^[8] first sitting as an independent MK, before joining with the Ratz faction to form Ya'ad – Civil Rights Movement. However, the new party split up soon after its foundation, with Eliav founding a new party, the Social-Democratic Faction together with Marcia Freedman. The new party later changed its name to Independent Socialist Faction.

In the run up to the 1977 elections, he joined the Left Camp of Israel. The new party won only two seats, but a rotation agreement saw the terms shared by five people; Eliav served the first term, before resigning from the Knesset in January 1979 to make way for Uri Avnery. In 1984 he established a personal faction that ran in the elections that year, but failed to cross the electoral threshold by around 5,000 votes. In 1987 he returned to the Labor Party.

In 1987 he led a Jewish Agency project initiated by him to found Nitzana, a new educational community, in the Negev desert.^[9] He served as the Head of Community until 2008. Eliav returned to the Knesset after the 1988 elections. He served one last Knesset term and in 1992 he decided not to run for a new term.

Eliav died in Tel Aviv on 30 May 2010 at the age of 89.^[10]

Pioneering activity

Eliav helped to found the city of Arad in the Negev and promoted the development of Lachish and Kiryat Gat.^[11] In the 1980s, he was the driving spirit behind the establishment of Nitzana in the Western Negev, turning the sand dunes into a youth village.^[12]

Honors and awards

Eliav was one of the most decorated citizens of Israel, a Doctor of Honour of all important academic institutes of Israel.

• In 1988, he was awarded the Israel Prize, for special contributions to society and the State of Israel.^[13]
• In 2003, he won the Ben-Gurion Prize.
• In 2005, he was voted the 74th-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.^[14]

Published works

Eliav published 15 books, including:

• Between Hammer and Sickle (1965)
• The Voyage of the Ulua (1967)
• New targets for Israel (1969)
• The Short Cut (1970)
• Land of the Hart (1972)
• Shalom: Peace in Jewish Tradition (1977)
• Autobiography: Rings of Dawn (1984)
• New Heart, New Spirit: Biblical Humanism for Modern Israel (1986)
• On Both Sides of the New-Comers' Camp (2006) – with co-author Y. Alfi

See also

• List of Israel Prize recipients

References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ [2]
3. ^ [3]
4. ^ [4]
5. ^ [5]
6. ^ [6]
7. ^ [7]
8. ^ [8]
9. ^ [9]
10. ^ Former Labor Leader Aryeh 'Lova' Eliav Dies at 89. Ynetnews. Retrieved 31 May 2010
11. ^ [10]
12. ^ "Nitzana website". Nitzana.org.il. http://www.nitzana.org.il/?lat=en. Retrieved September 9, 2011. 
13. ^ "Israel Prize Official Site – Recipients in 1988 (in Hebrew)". http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/PrasIsrael/Tashmag/Tashnab_Tashmag_Rikuz.htm?DictionaryKey=Tashmach. Retrieved July 1, 2009. 
14. ^ גיא בניוביץ' (June 20, 1995). "הישראלי מספר 1: יצחק רבין – תרבות ובידור". Ynet. http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3083171,00.html. Retrieved July 10, 2011. 

External links

• Aryeh Eliav on the Knesset website (in English)

Persondata
Name	Eliav, Aryeh
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	21 November 1921
Place of birth	Moscow, Soviet Union
Date of death	30 May 2010
Place of death