- Shimon Tzabar
Shimon Tzabar (born
5 March ,1926 inTel Aviv , died19 March ,2007 inLondon ) was a member of theeditorial board of [http://www.israelimperialnews.org/"Israel Imperial News"] . He described himself as a "Hebrew speakingPalestinian ".The son of poultry vendors, he was educated at a religious school. In his teens, after initially joining
Ze'ev Jabotinsky 'sBetar organization, he became a member of all threeJewish underground military organizations in British Mandatory Palestine:Lehi [the Stern Gang] , Etzel, andHaganah (Palmach ) that fought the British and the Arab populations. He was arrested by the British Mandatory authorities and spend several months in detention atLatrun . With the establishment of Israel, he briefly joined the Israeli Communist party. He fought in the first three wars: 1948-50, 1956, and 1967. He strongly disagreed with the annexation of theGolan Heights andEast Jerusalem and takeover of theWest Bank andGaza Strip byIsrael in the aftermath of theSix-Day war .After the Six Day War, he became famous for a declaration he published in
Ha'aretz , together with 11 co-signatories, protesting the incipient occupation. In part it read:-"Our right to defend ourselves from extermination does not give us the right to oppress others. Occupation entails foreign rule. Foreign rule entails resistance. Resistance entails repression. Repression entails terror and counter-terror. The victims of terror are mostly innocent people. Holding on to the occupied territories will turn us into a nation of murderers and murder victims. Let us get out of the occupied territories immediately.' [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2047865,00.html=Moshe Machover and Elizabeth Nussbaum, ‘ Shimon Tzabar,’ The Guardian Monday April 2, 2007] ]
He subsequently left Israel in protest, and took up residence in England. Tzabar was a columnist for a number of years for both the daily "
Haaretz " and the weekly "Ha'olam Haze " newspapers. He also published 27 books in Hebrew, among these are works offiction ,travel ,children's books andpoetry . Allan Lane, the hard cover "Penguin", published his English book: "The White Flag Principle" that had been translated andpublish ed inJapan and in mostEuropean languages .In 2004,
Michelin threatened to sue him for trademark infringement, after he published a study of Israel's prisons under the title "MUCH BETTER THAN THE OFFICIAL MICHELIN Guide to Israeli prisons, Jails, concentration camps and torture chambers"; [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3751692.stm Michelin sue over 'guide to jail'] , BBC website, 18/10/2004] they eventually dropped the case, much to Tzabar's disappointment. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1330431,00.html]An accomplished painter, polymath, and mycophile, he identified one species of mushroom.
Partial bibliography
* "The White Flag Principle: How to Lose a War (and Why)", New York 2003, ISBN 978-1568582597
* "Yemenite and Sabra Cookery", (with Naomi Tzabar) Tel-Aviv 1979, ISBN 978-9652340016
* "An Illustrated Key for the Identification of Wild Mushrooms, Fungi and Toadstools" Interactive CD-Rom, [http://www.druksgraphics.com/mycINT.htm]
* "Tusbarahindi the Great"External links
* [http://www.israelimperialnews.org/ Israel Imperial News]
* [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/840080.html Obituary inHaaretz , 21 March 2007]
* [http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2387850.ece Obituary inThe Independent , 24 March 2007]
* [http://www.hagada.org.il/eng/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=140 Obituary] byMoshé Machover inHagada Hasmalit (The Left Bank), 22 March 2007References
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