Settler leader vows to continue building in Sharon's memory

Despite dismay at disengagement at hands of Sharon, calls him "father of the settlements."

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Sharon surveys territory (photo credit: Reuters)
Sharon surveys territory
(photo credit: Reuters)
Settler leader Ze’ev “Zambish” Hever promised to overcome obstacles to build the Land of Israel in his eulogy Monday at the Knesset, for his friend, former prime minister Ariel Sharon.
Calling Sharon his teacher and “the father of the settlements,” Hever recalled how he learned from him how to fight, build and treat people.
He said Sharon always reminded him that whatever project they built was intended to last forever.
He spoke with anguish about Sharon’s change of heart about the settlements at the end of his career and his decision to dismantle all the Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip and four in Samaria.
“It was difficult and painful when you disengaged from the path on which we marched together,” Hever said. “The pain was tremendous, but tremendous love can make up for it.”
In the short speech, Hever said he never received answers from Sharon about why he changed sides but that he never stopped loving him.
Hever spoke as a representative of the Sharon family, along with the former prime minister’s secretary Mirit Danon and his friend from the IDF Shimon “Kacha” Kahaner.
Danon recalled that Sharon always spoke to his subordinates with respect, and was the first one to notice if any of them were sad. She recalled how he had a special place in his heart for Holocaust survivors who came to Israel and fought in the IDF.
Kahaner recalled their service together in the famed Unit 101, in which Sharon led reprisal raids across Israel’s borders in the 1950s. He said Sharon saved his life multiple times, and that it was a privilege to serve under him.
“He turned the IDF from an army that had lost motivation, took 35 soldiers, and removed the word ‘impossible’ from our vocabulary,” Kahaner said.