Pioneer of Israeli settler movement Hanan Porat dies at 67

[Jefferson23]

Netanyahu pays tribute to the driving force behind Israel's settlement of the West Bank, who died Monday of cancer.

By Chaim Levinson

Hanan Porat, one of the first leaders of the Israeli settler movement, died Monday of cancer at the age of 67.

Porat, a former lawmaker, was a founder of the now-defunct movement Gush Emunim (Hebrew for "the bloc of the faithful") a messianic movement committed to settling land Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War. Movement disciples believe God promised the West Bank to the Jewish people, and they set out to cement Israeli sovereignty there by creating a large-scale civilian presence.

Even before Gush Emunim was founded in 1974, Porat was a leading figure in the settlement movement launched after Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in 1967. He helped establish Kfar Etzion, the first settlement in the West Bank, on the site of a kibbutz that had been captured by the Jordanian army in 1948.

Porat later helped create the Jewish enclave in the biblical city of Hebron, which is currently one of the most radical settlements. Hebron's ancient Jewish community was driven out after an Arab massacre in 1929.

in full: http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/pioneer-of-israeli-settler-movement-hanan-porat-dies-at-67-1.388108