Obituary: Shimon Tzabar
Dissident Israeli writer and activist
Published:24 March 2007 in the Independent, UK:
Shimon Tzabar, journalist, writer, artist and activist: born Tel Aviv, Palestine 5 March 1926; married (two sons); died London 19 March 2007.
Shimon Tzabar was probably the only Israeli who could claim to have once been a member of all three anti-British underground groups active in Palestine before the establishment of Israel in 1948: Haganah, Etzel and Lehi (aka the Stern Gang). In the course of his long, jolly and very active life, he was many things for many people: a friend, a husband, a father, a lover, an artist, a cartoonist, a satirical writer, a mycologist, a journalist, a poet and an activist.
Tzabar immigrated to the UK in December 1967, disillusioned with the prospect of changing Israel’s Zionist character and ending the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, which were taken by Israel during the war that broke out six months earlier. Despite having participated as a soldier in Israel’s first three wars – the 1948 war that led to its establishment and to the Nakba (“Catastrophe”) of the Palestinian people, the Suez campaign of 1956 and the Six-Day War of 1967 – Tzabar recognised the perils of the occupation from its early days.
Shimon Tzabar may very well be known for writing the most succinct history of the last 40 years of Israel’s history ever written, which he furthermore predicted in 1967:
Foreign rule leads to resistance. Resistance leads to oppression. Oppression leads to terror and counter-terror. . . Keeping the territories will turn us into a nation of murderers and murder victims.
How true were Shimon Tzabar’s words 40 years ago. Mark Elf of Jews sans frontiers reminisces,
A regular commentor called Montag has reminded me of the passing of Shimon Tzabar. He was already the late Shimon Tzabar back in March this year so its my post on his obituary that’s late. I wasn’t blogging much when the man died and by the time I was there was too much to catch up on so I didn’t even try. Daphna Baram’s obituary in the Independent is a fascinating biography of a man who was in on the founding of the State of Israel as an armed zionist only to become disillusioned with the project later on in life. 3 months after the June 1967 war he and 11 others published the above statement in Ha’aretz:
I only heard of this chap a few years ago when he had a run-in with Michelin, the tire and restaurant awards company, because he published a booklet satirising their good restaurant guide with a replica detailing Israel’s “prisons, concentration camps and torture chambers” together with details on “how to get there.” Michelin’s case was ludicrous and must have been politically motivated. The BBC reported on it at the time. The outcome was that no further copies of the booklet were produced and so the multi-national giant, Michelin, won a great case against an elderly man in poor health who was no threat to them commercially, though apparently a terrible threat politically. I’ve hunted around a bit but I could only find the cover on the net and that’s everywhere. Surely someone has it and thinks a run in with Michelin is worth the trouble. So go on, if you have it on line or in hard copy, let me know.
The Michelin cover is reprinted above as the evidence in the case of Michelin versus Shimon Tzabar. But it is truly evidence of the case of Shimon Tzabar versus the State of What Israel Has Become. Israel has never dared to contest Shimon Tzabar’s predictions. They all became true.
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