Ze'evi was born on 20 June 1926 in
Jerusalem to a religious Jewish family from the
Yemin Moshe neighborhood that had lived in Jerusalem for six generations. He was raised on a collective farm. He joined the
Palmach in 1944, and served in the
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) after the creation of the State of Israel. During his youth, Ze'evi went to school in
Givat HaShlosha. One night he shaved his head, wrapped a towel round his waist and entered the food hall. The shaved head and towel around his waist gave an appearance reminiscent of
Mohandas Gandhi and earned him "Gandhi" as his nickname, which stuck with him for the rest of his life. The nickname is also attributed to a long Arab dress he wore during his underground days in the Palmach. Ze'evi had five children, named Palmach, Sayar, Masada, Tze'ela and Arava. Palmach is also a member of Moledet and competed with
Binyamin Elon for the party's leadership.
Military career (on his right) at the end of a chase in the Jordan Rift Valley In 1948, Ze'evi was a
platoon commander in the IDF. From 1964 to 1968, he served as Chief of the Department of Staff in the
Israeli General Staff. In the late 1960s, Ze'evi formed the elite
Sayeret Kharuv, an anti-terror battalion. This came at the time when
IDF Chief of Staff Haim Bar-Lev had begun to focus manpower and budget on
armoured tank units, resulting in huge cutbacks in infantry forces. Over the next five years he served as the Commander of the
Central Military District (). He retired in September 1973, but rejoined the army when the
Yom Kippur War broke out on 6 October 1973. A close friend of IDF Chief of Staff
David Elazar, he was appointed Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff. He retired with the rank of (Major-General) in 1973. It was revealed in 2004 that Ze'evi had covertly helped build the nascent
Singapore Armed Forces at a time when he was deputy head of the Operations Branch in IDF. He secretly visited the city-state in 1965, after which he appointed to head a secret military delegation train the Singapore Armed Forces. They were nicknamed "Mexicans" during their stay in Singapore.
Political career In 1974, Ze'evi became a consultant on combating terrorism in the government of Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin. The following year he became the prime minister's adviser on matters of intelligence. Ze'evi resigned from this position in 1977, when Likud's
Menachem Begin became prime minister. In 1988, Ze'evi established the
Moledet (Homeland) party advocating the population transfer of Arabs from the
West Bank and the
Gaza Strip to the neighboring Arab countries. After the
Madrid Conference of 1991, Ze'evi withdrew from the
Likud government of
Yitzhak Shamir. He would remain in the opposition for a decade. He disagreed strongly with the
Labour governments of 19921996 led by
Yitzhak Rabin and
Shimon Peres and 19992001 led by
Ehud Barak. However, he looked favourably on the
Netanyahu government of 19961999 and supported it from the outside. In 1999, Moledet united with
Herut – The National Movement and
Tkuma into a single faction, the
National Union. Following the election of
Ariel Sharon in February 2001, Ze'evi joined the coalition and was appointed as
Tourism Minister of Israel. He was instrumental in its name being changed to the
Eretz Israel Museum. The change had political connotations, given the associations with
Eretz Israel. In 1987, he co-edited a series of books describing various aspects of the
Land of Israel, based on artifacts from the museum. Ze'evi was famous for having one of the largest collections of books about Israel and its history.
Assassination Ze'evi was shot in the Dan Jerusalem Hotel, at the time called the Jerusalem
Hyatt Hotel, in
Mount Scopus on 17 October 2001 by four Palestinian gunmen. He was taken to the
Hadassah Medical Center hospital where he died before 10 am. He was buried in the military cemetery in
Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. The
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) took credit for the killing and stated that it was in revenge for the assassination of their secretary-general
Abu Ali Mustafa, who was killed by Israel in August that year. Israel alleged that
Ahmed Saadat ordered Ze'evi's assassination. Thousands took part in his funeral. The four gunmen,
Hamdi Quran, Basel al-Asmar, Majdi Rahima Rimawi, and Ahad Olma, fled to the
Palestinian National Authority. Israel placed
Yasser Arafat under siege in the
Ramallah compound to force the handing over of the suspects. In April 2002 the United States brokered a plan where the suspects were to be jailed in Jericho instead. The four killers were arrested together with the head of PFLP,
Ahmad Sa'adat. They were imprisoned in a jail in Jericho and guarded by American and British forces. On 14 March 2006, the American and British guards left the jail, charging that the Palestinian Authority was not adhering to the agreement reached with Israel. Israel then launched
Operation Bringing Home the Goods, in which it raided the Jericho prison and seized the five. In December 2007, Hamdi Quran confessed in an Israeli court to assassinating Ze'evi together with Basel al-Asmar after being instructed by PFLP member Majdi Rahima Rimawi. In August 2007, Basel al-Asmar was convicted of murder by an Israeli court. In May 2008, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison. In July 2008, Majdi Rahima Rimawi was convicted of murder by an Israeli court for his part in planning the assassination. According to the verdict, Rahima was the one who supplied the gunmen with a photo of Ze'evi, details of the hotel in which he would be staying and information on the hotel layout. He was sentenced to life in prison and an additional 80 years. Ahad Olma, who was the head of the PLFP's military wing at the time of the assassination, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in instigating and planning the assassination in December 2008. In December 2008, an Israeli military court sentenced
Ahmad Sa'adat, leader of the PFLP, to 30 years in prison for heading an "illegal terrorist organization" and for his responsibility for all actions carried out by his organization. ==Political views==