Moshe Dwek

Moshe Dwek (Hebrew: משה דואק‎, born in 1931) is a Yemenite-Israeli most notable for throwing a hand grenade in the Knesset while it was in session on 29 October 1957 and for a failed run for the Knesset in 1988.

The grenade that Moshe Dwek threw was intended for Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and Minister Golda Meir but ended up seriously wounding Minister of Religions Rabbi Haim-Moshe Shapira of the National Religious Party. Ben Gurion was lightly wounded by the attack.^[1] The incident was allegedly prompted by Dwek's inability to receive national insurance for his declining health, and was apparently not prompted by larger political issues. Although he was portrayed as psychologically unbalanced,^[2] a panel of experts agreed that he was fit to stand trial and he was sentenced to 15 years in prison, part of which he spent in an institution.

A slightly different account, published in 1959, gives his name as Moshe Ben Yaakov Dueg, 25 years old, born in Aleppo, Syria. This version says he suffered an accident in childhood that left him mentally unbalanced. He had another accident in a youth camp after coming to Palestine just before the founding of the state of Israel. He then tried to sue the Jewish Agency for $66,000. After losing the case he sent threatening letters to the judge and was arrested. He was found unfit for trial. In another incident he tried to stowaway on a plane to New York. He had no party affiliations. Following the grenade attack Ben Gurion wrote a personal letter to his parents. They had arrived from Syria seven years earlier and were living in a hut, without electricity, in a village near Tel Aviv. They spoke only Arabic and the courier translated the letter for them.^[3]

After his release from prison, Dwek started his own political party which he named Tarshish. The party platform called for an end to Ashkenazi hegemony and the demand of setting up a Technion in the coastal city of Netanya. He is remembered for his unusual TV advertisements which would start off with Dwek uttering the words No'ar, No'ar, No'ar (literally "youth, youth, youth"). Gaining only 1,654 votes for Tarshish, Dwek failed in his attempt to win a seat in the 12th Knesset.

Reflist

1. ^ http://www.nrg.co.il/online/archive/ART/401/237.html
2. ^ http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Politics/Knesset3.html
3. ^ St. John, Robert (1959) Ben-Gurion. Jarrods (Hutchinson), London. Pages 304-307.

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Name	Dwek, Moshe
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Date of birth	1931
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