Shmuel Tamir

Shmuel Tamir ( Hebrew שמואל תמיר* March 10, 1923 in Jerusalem as Shmuel Katznelson ; † June 29, 1987 in Herzliya ) was an Israeli politician and Minister of Justice .

biography

Tamir joined the military organization Irgun Tzwai Le'umi in 1938 and soon after began studying law at the Law School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem . In February 1944 he was deputy commander of the Irgun and its chief intelligence officer in the Jerusalem district . In this position he was instrumental in the company on February 26, 1944, which led to the city's income tax authorities being blown up. He was subsequently detained by the British military authorities between 1944 and 1946 . He was then taken into exile in Kenya , where he was given the opportunity to finish his law degree.

After Israel's declaration of independence on May 14, 1948, he returned to Israel from exile in Kenya on July 12, 1948. Along with Menachem Begin, he was one of the co-founders of the Cherut , which he left in 1952. After that he took the name Tamir. He became a well-known lawyer in the 1950s. In 1952 he took over the defense in the trial against Rudolf Kasztner and also worked as a lawyer in the Eichmann trial . In 1957 he founded the New Regime party, which the recognized natural scientist and religious philosopher Jeschajahu Leibowitz also joined. This left the party, however, when Tamir increasingly represented right-wing extremist views. After that, Tamir initially rejoined the Cherut in 1964. However, this excluded him in 1966 after trying to depose party chairman Begin.

On November 22, 1965, Tamir was elected a member of the Knesset for the first time, a member of which he was a member from January to June 1977 until July 20, 1981, with a brief interruption. Between 1974 and 1977 he was temporarily chairman of the economic committee.

After his exclusion from the Cherut, he founded the Free Center Party ( HaMerkas HaChofschi ) together with Elieser Schostak and Avraham Tiar in 1967 , which in 1973 joined the Likud alliance under the chairmanship of Begin. He also succeeded in convincing other politicians for the new party, such as the former Knesset member Mordechai Olmert, the father of the later Prime Minister Ehud Olmert . Ehud Olmert himself soon became one of his closest collaborators and admirers. On January 21, 1977 Tamir renounced his Knesset mandate, but shortly afterwards joined the Tnu'a Demokratit LeSchinui (Dash), on whose list he was re-elected as a member of the Knesset in the June 13, 1977 election. After the division of Dash and the founding of the Democratic Movement (Tenoa'a Demokratit) in 1978, he retained his mandate from 1980 as an independent MP.

On June 20, 1977, Tamir was appointed Minister of Justice by Prime Minister Begin . During his tenure, he began some legal reforms, including a. the reform of the Emergency Act. The relationship between him and Begin, however, became increasingly hostile; in the background stood Tamir's unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Begin as party leader of the Cherut in the mid-1960s. In addition, controversy arose in 1980 on the occasion of the publication of the first memoirs of the former Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin , when Tamir, in his capacity as Minister of Justice, refused to publish passages on Rabin's role in the capture of the cities of Lydda and Ramla in the 1948 Palestine War. Tamir stated:

“The truth must not come out of the mouth of someone directly affected, especially not if it is a matter of a high-ranking personality. Because that destroys our image of that time as well as our version of the flight of the Arabs of their own accord or because of the incessant appeals of leading Arab politicians. That would prove that we are to blame for the Arab refugees. "

Between 1983 and 1985 Tamir chaired a delegation that sought the release of prisoners of war from the 1982 Lebanon War .

source

• Homepage of the Knesset
• Shmuel Tamir, Israeli Lawyer and Ex-Justice Minister, dies. Obituary. In: New York Times. June 30, 1987.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Yehiam Weitz: Trying Eichmann, not Jewish Disputes. ( Memento from November 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Gad Kaynar: ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Kastner, the Kastner trial and other works - captured representations of court cases in theater and television. )
3. ↑ Uri Avnery: One people, endless opinions. ( Memento of October 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: Haaretz. August 2008.
4. ↑ Like a lonely comet in the sky: Yeshayahu Leibowitz. In: Haaretz. September 15, 2004.
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Uri Avnery: The hollow time. We heard EHUD OLMERT'S RESIGNATION SPEECH on the way home from a demonstration. August 2, 2008.
6. ↑ Olmert Turned Against His Own Father! ( Memento of February 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: Tsofah. November 15, 2007.
7. ↑ Dafnah Sharfman: Living Without a Constitution. 1993, ISBN 1-56324-145-5 , p. 148.
8. ↑ Uri Avnery: Rubinstein and the Balad: A strange animal. December 21, 2002.
9. ↑ There is a chance for peace - a great opportunity! - Jesh Sikuj leSchalom - Sikuj gadol! In: HaGalil. 1999.