Geulah Cohen is a former
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
i politician and journalist.
Geulah Cohen was born in
Tel AvivTel Aviv-Yafo , usually called Tel Aviv, is the second largest city in Israel, with an estimated population of 391,300. The city is situated on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline, with a land area of...
during the British Mandate. She studied at the Levinsky Teachers Seminary, and earned a master's degree in Jewish Studies, Philosophy, Literature and Bible at the
Hebrew University of JerusalemThe Hebrew University of Jerusalem is Israel's oldest university....
.
In 1942 she joined the
IrgunIrgun was a militant Zionist group that operated in the British mandate of Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the earlier and larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah...
, and moved to
LehiLehi refers to:In Mormonism:* Lehi , a prophet in the Book of Mormon of the 7th-6th centuries BC* Lehi, son of Helaman, another prophet in the Book of Mormon of the late 1st century BC...
the following year. A radio announcer for the group, she was arrested by the British authorities in 1946.
Geulah Cohen is a former
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
i politician and journalist.
Biography
Geulah Cohen was born in
Tel AvivTel Aviv-Yafo , usually called Tel Aviv, is the second largest city in Israel, with an estimated population of 391,300. The city is situated on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline, with a land area of...
during the British Mandate. She studied at the Levinsky Teachers Seminary, and earned a master's degree in Jewish Studies, Philosophy, Literature and Bible at the
Hebrew University of JerusalemThe Hebrew University of Jerusalem is Israel's oldest university....
.
In 1942 she joined the
IrgunIrgun was a militant Zionist group that operated in the British mandate of Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the earlier and larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah...
, and moved to
LehiLehi refers to:In Mormonism:* Lehi , a prophet in the Book of Mormon of the 7th-6th centuries BC* Lehi, son of Helaman, another prophet in the Book of Mormon of the late 1st century BC...
the following year. A radio announcer for the group, she was arrested by the British authorities in 1946. She was imprisoned in
BethlehemBethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank, approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism...
, but escaped from jail in 1947. She was also editor of the Lehi newspaper
Youth Front. After Israeli independence in 1948, she contributed to
Sulam, a monthly magazine published by former Lehi leader
Israel EldadIsrael Eldad , was a noted Israeli independence fighter and Revisionist Zionist philosopher...
.
Cohen married a former Lehi comrade, Emanuel Hanegbi. From 1961-1973, she wrote for the Israeli newspaper
MaarivMaariv is a Hebrew language daily tabloid published in Israel. It is second in sales after the Yedioth Ahronoth tabloid but third in readership after Israel HaYom as well...
and served on its editorial board.
Political career
In 1972 Cohen joined
Menachem Begin' was an Israel politician and the sixth prime minister of the State of Israel. Before the independence, he was the leader of the Irgun, a revisionist breakaway from the larger mainstream Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah...
's
HerutHerut was the major right-wing political party in Israel from the 1940s until its formal merger into Likud in 1988, and an adherent to Revisionist Zionism...
party, then part of the
GahalGahal was the major right-wing political faction in Israel led by Menachem Begin from its founding in 1965 until it merged into Likud in 1973.-Background:...
alliance, and was
electedThe Elections for the eighth Knesset were held on 31 December 1973. Voter turnout was 76.9%-Results:1 Aryeh Eliav left the Alignment and merged with Ratz to form Ya'ad - Civil Rights Movement...
to the
KnessetThe Knesset is the legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Operation of the Knesset:...
the following year, by which time Gahal had become
LikudLikud is the major center-right political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin in an alliance with several right-wing and liberal parties. Likud's victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country's political history, marking the first time the left had...
. She was
re-electedThe Elections for the ninth Knesset were held on 17 May 1977. For the first time in Israeli political history, the right-wing, led by Likud, won the election, ending almost 30 years of rule by the left-wing Alignment and its predecessor, Mapai...
in 1977.
Dissatisfied with Begin signing the Camp David Treaty and in particular the return of Sinai to
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
as a land-for-peace deal, in 1979 Cohen and
Moshe ShamirMoshe Shamir was an Israeli author, playwright, opinion writer, and public figure. He was one of the most important Israeli writers of modern times.-Biography:Moshe Shamir was born in Safed...
left
LikudLikud is the major center-right political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin in an alliance with several right-wing and liberal parties. Likud's victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country's political history, marking the first time the left had...
to found a new right-wing party
BanaiTehiya , originally known as Banai , then Tehiya-Bnai , was a small right-wing political party in Israel that existed from 1979 until 1992...
, later renamed
Tehiya-Bnai, and then settling on
Tehiya. The new party was strongly affiliated with the extra-parliamentary movement of
Gush EmunimGush Emunim is an Israeli messianic and political movement committed to establishing Jewish settlements in the West Bank . The movement sprang out of the conquests of the Six-Day War in 1967, though it was not formally established as an organization until 1974, in the wake of the Yom Kippur War...
, and included prominent members of
Israeli settlementIsraeli settlements are Israeli civilian communities in the Israeli-occupied territories . Such settlements currently exist in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights...
s in the
West BankThe West Bank is a landlocked territory and is the eastern part of the Palestinian territories; on the west bank of the River Jordan in the Middle East. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel, which maintains the security of this area. To the east,...
and
GazaGaza is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 410,000, making it the largest city under the control of the Palestinian National Authority....
such as
Hanan PoratHanan Porat is a former Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Tehiya, the National Religious Party, Tkuma and the National Union during two spells; 1981 to 1984 and 1988 to 1999....
and Elyakim Haetzni.
Cohen retained her seat in the
1981 electionsElections for the tenth Knesset were held in Israel on 30 June 1981. Despite last minute polls suggesting a victory for Shimon Peres's Alignment, Menachem Begin's Likud won by just one seat.Voter turnout was 77.8%.-Results:...
and despite their previous differences, Tehiya joined Begin's coalition. She retained her seat elections in 1984 and 1988, and in June 1990, following a coalition crisis, was appointed to the
cabinetThe Cabinet of Israel is a formal body composed of government officials, ministers, chosen and led by a Prime Minister. Its composition must be approved by a vote in the Knesset. Under Israeli law, the Prime Minister may remove members of the Cabinet, but must do so in writing, and new appointees...
as Deputy Minister of Science and Technology.
Cohen lost her seat in the
1992 electionsElections for the thirteenth Knesset were held in Israel on 23 June, 1992. The result was a victory for the left, led by Yitzhak Rabin's Labour Party, though their win was at least partially due to several small right-wing parties narrowly failing to cross the electoral threshold and thus...
in which Tehiya failed to win a seat. In the same year she rejoined Likud, for whom her son
Tzachi HanegbiTzachi Hanegbi is an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset for Kadima. A former Justice Minister, in 2006 he was indicted for making political appointments to civil service posts during his time as Environment Minister, despite his claims that it was normal practice.-Biography:Hanegbi was...
had become a Knesset member. Cohen remains active in right-wing politics, voicing her opposition to the
disengagement planIsrael's unilateral disengagement plan , also known as the "Disengagement plan", "Gaza expulsion plan", and "Hitnatkut") was a proposal by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, adopted by the government on June 6, 2004 and enacted in August 2005, to evict...
in 2005.
Awards
In 2003, Cohen was awarded the
Israel PrizeThe Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Knesset chairperson, and the...
for her lifetime achievements and special contribution to society and the State of Israel.
Published work
- Story of a Fighter (1961) (Hebrew sutobiography) (autobiography)
- Historical Meeting (1986) (Hebrew)
- Ein li koah lehiyot ayefa ("No Strength to be Tired") (2008)
External links