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ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS
Israeli historian, activist Zeev Sternhell dies at 85
JERUSALEM, June 21, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Historian and political
scientist Zeev Sternhell, a peace activist and one of the leading
thinkers of the Israeli left, has died aged 85, Jerusalem’s Hebrew
University said Sunday.
A publicly engaged academic, Sternhell headed the university’s
political science department and was a professor emeritus there.
He was “among the most important researchers to come out of the
Hebrew University”, according to the institution’s president Asher
Cohen.
“His innovative political science research, which was translated
into many languages, brought a deep change in the academic perception
of ideological movements, specifically radical movements,” Cohen said.
In addition to academic writing and books, he regularly published
pieces in Israeli newspaper Haaretz that were critical of the settler
movement.
Sternhell had taken part as an Israeli soldier in the country’s
wars over four decades and believed in the necessity of a Jewish
state, despite his opposition to Israeli settlements in the occupied
West Bank.
Born to a Jewish family in Poland in 1935, he survived the Second
World War disguised as a Catholic. His mother and sister were murdered
by the Nazis.
He relocated to France after the war, moving to Israel upon its
creation in 1948.
In 2008 he was awarded the prestigious Israel Prize for political
science. Later that year, he was wounded by a bomb planted outside his
house by a right-wing extremist.
According to Haaretz, Sternhell died as a result of complications
following surgery.
He is survived by a wife, two daughters and grandchildren.
BSS/AFP/MRU/1830hrs