PRIME MINISTER MENACHEM BEGIN (ISRAEL) - DOCUMENT SIGNED - HFSID 254884

PRIME MINISTER MENACHEM BEGIN
Menachem Begin signed this Hebrew-language document in 1964, while head of the opposition in the Knesset, honoring an unknown person as part of the honor guard at the 1964 Israeli interment of Zeev Jabotinsky and his wife Jeanne.
Partly Printed Document Signed: "M. Begin" in Hebrew. Blue ink notations on front in unknown hand and blue ink notations in unknown hand and two blue ink stamps on verso. 1 page, 8¾x12. Tel-Aviv, 28 Tamuz 5724/July 8, 1964 and Jerusalem, 29 Tamuz 5724/July 9, 1964. Headed: "Zeev Jabotinsky Returns to his Country". Written in Hebrew, translated in full: "In accordance with the Decision of the Israeli Government/to fulfill his Will and Testament/This Verifies/That [name of person illegible]/has been honored/and is a member of the honor guard/next to the coffins of/Zeev Jabotinsky/and his wife Jeanne, the memory be eternal/upon return to their country." Also signed in Hebrew: "Aaron Proops" and "Joseph Kellerman". Begin co-founded the Herut party in 1948 with members of the Irgun Leumi militia, which was rooted in the Revisionist Zionism of Jabotinsky. He was head of Herut and the opposition in the Knesset until 1967. ZEEV JABOTINSKY (1880-1940) was the founder and spiritual leader of Revisionist Zionism, which called for the immediate establishment of a Jewish state. In Jabotinsky's will, he requested that his remains be interred in Israel only at the express order of the Hebrew Government of the Jewish State that would arise. He died in 1940, eight years before the creation of Israel. In 1964, his remains and those of his wife, Jeanne, were re-interred on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. Jabotinsky's revisionism was the root of the Irgun Leumi militia in Palestine from 1943 until the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. Members of the Irgun founded various right-wing political parties in Israel that coalesced in 1973 to form the right-of-center Likud Party. MENACHEM BEGIN (1913-1992, born in Brest-Litovsk, Russia, now Belarus) reached British Palestine in 1943 to participate in the struggle for an independent state of Israel. He served in the Knesset from its first session. In 1973, the Likud Party was formed and Begin became its leader. When Likud won the elections in 1977, he became Prime Minister. Begin and Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat received the Nobel Peace Prize for the peace treaty they signed in 1978, after much of the Sinai was returned to Egypt. In June 1981, Begin asked the Cabinet to approve the bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak. On Shavuot, Israeli planes flew below radar detection through Arab air space and destroyed the facility, which Israel later claimed had been primed for a start-up. In 1982, Begin authorized the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. In failing health and following the death of his wife, Aliza, Begin stepped down in September 1983. Lightly toned and creased. Lightly nicked left corners. Light nick in bottom edge. Lightly worn corners. Folded once and unfolded. Otherwise in fine condition.