Gush Emunim founder Hanan Porat passes away

Former MK Hanan Porat (67) who served in Knesset for nearly 15 years passes away in his Kfar Etzion home after long battle with cancer

Ynet |Published: 10.04.11 , 14:42

Hanan Porat, a prominent right wing Knesset Member and one of the leaders of the religious Zionism movement has passed away at his home in Kfar Etzion on Tuesday exactly seven years after his father passed away.

Porat (67) had been battling cancer for a while and was admitted to hospital on the eve of the Rosh Hashana holiday. He will be laid to rest on Wednesday at 11 am in the cemetery near his Kfar Etzion home.

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Porat was one of the founders of Gush Emunim and the Tehiya party. He served as Knesset Member from 1981 to 1999 and was considered one of the leaders of the Yesha settlement movement.

Porat raised on shoulders of his supporters in 1975 in Gush Emunim (Photo: GPO)

Porat's father changed the family name from Shpitzer to Porat – his code name in the Hagana. Porat, who studied in a yeshiva and was ordained as a rabbi, served in the IDF as a paratrooper and took part in the battle of Jerusalem in the Six Day War. He also fought in the Yom Kippur War and sustained serious injuries in the Suez Canal.

Later on he became one of the founders of Gush Emunim and led the move to settle in Yesha. He was also a prominent member of the Mafdal (National Religious) party.

He was elected as Knesset Member in 1981 after founding the Tehiya party which came in response to the signing of the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt.

In 1984 he resigned from the Knesset but returned three years later, this time as a Mafdal member. In 1999 he retired from Mafdal and moved to the Tkuma party and was not reelected.

A few years later Porat became a frontrunner in the protests against the Gaza disengagement. He composed a special prayer for the occasion and said at the time that "he who lends a hand in uprooting settlements hurts not only the settlers themselves but the Jewish legacy and the prayers of generations as well".