Moshe Zar

Moshe Zar (born 1938)[1] is a religious Zionist, a former member of the terrorist organization "Jewish Underground", and Israeli settler leader in the northern West Bank. He has been buying land from individual Palestinians since 1979.

Zar is a long-time friend of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon from their service in Unit 101. He was wounded in the 1956 Sinai Campaign, and lost his left eye as a result of his injuries. In 1983, he was attacked and stabbed by a group of Palestinians, but survived.[1]

In 1984, he was convicted of membership in the terrorist organization the "Jewish Underground" of the early 1980s, and sentenced to three years in prison for his part in the assassination of Palestinian mayors, but only spent a few months in jail. His wife Yael is quoted by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz as having said at the time: "The underground is not a stage in the life of the Zar family, but a stage in the life of the nation."[2]

After one of his eight children, his son Gilad, a security officer of the Shomron Regional Council, was killed in an ambush on May 29, 2001,[3] he vowed that he would establish six settlements in his son's memory, one for each Hebrew letter of his name.[4] The settlement outpost Ramat Gilad was established in 2001, the outpost Havat Gilad was established in 2002 and has been dismantled by the Israeli military forces several times, leading to violent clashes between settlers and security forces.[5]

References
  1. Samantha M. Shapiro (16 February 2003). "The Unsettlers". New York Times. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
  2. Nadav Shragai (21 October 2002). "Zar patriach has had brushes with death". Haaretz. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
  3. "Gilad Zar". In Memory of the Victims of Palestinian Violence and Terrorism in Israel. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Israel). 29 May 2001. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
  4. Nadav Shragai (7 June 2006). "Ramat Gilad residents prefer their mobile homes to luxury homes". Haaretz. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
  5. Chaim Levinson (March 1, 2011). "Israeli security forces defend use of rubber bullets during West Bank outpost demolition. Security forces returned to the Havat Gilad outpost in the West Bank to demolish three structures; thirteen people were injured in ensuing clashes with police". Haaretz. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
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