SHAMIR, Moshe 1921-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born September 15, 1921, in Safed, Palestine (now Israel); died August 21, 2004, in Rishon Lezion, Israel. Politician and author. Shamir was a right-wing Israeli politician and award-winning novelist. As a young man, and before the founding of the State of Israel, he was a leader in the Hashomer Hatzair movement and later joined the underground Haganah army. His first published novel, He Walked through the Fields, was published in 1947, one year before Israel was created. During his country's early years, Shamir also founded and edited the magazine Bamahaneh, a publication of the Israeli army. He went on to enjoy a prolific career as a writer of novels, short stories, plays, children's stories, essays, and edited works. Several of his books were translated into English, among them The King of Flesh and Blood (1956), Why Ziva Cried on the Feast of the First Fruits (1960), David's Stranger (1965), which was also published as The Hittite Must Die (1978), and My Life with Ishmael (1970). By the 1960s, Shamir had become increasingly conservative in his political beliefs; he joined the Likud Party as a member of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament from 1977 to 1981 and, in 1979, founded the Tehiya party, which eventually disbanded due to political infighting. Awarded many honors for his literary accomplishments, including the 1998 Israel prize, Shamir's last book was 2001's Yair, a biographical novel.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, August 31, 2004, p. B8.

New York Times, August 29, 2004, p. A25.

Times (London, England), September 10, 2004, p. 39.