Geula Cohen

Background

Geula Cohen was born on December 25, 1925 in Tel Aviv to a Mizrahi Jewish family (from Yemen, Morocco, and Turkey) during the Mandate era. She was the daughter of Miriam and Yosef Cohen.

Education

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 Jerusalem.

Career

In 1942 she joined the Irgun, and moved to Lehi the following year. A radio announcer for the group, she was arrested by the British military authorities in 1946 while broadcasting in Tel Aviv.

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 Eldad.

From 1961 to 1973, she wrote for the Israeli newspaper Maariv and served on its editorial board.

In 1972, Cohen joined Menachem Begin's Herut party, then part of the Gahal alliance, and was elected to the Knesset the following year, by which time Gahal had become Likud. Between 1974 and 1992, she served as a member of Knesset, initially for Likud.

She changed her political affiliation to Tehiya in 1979.

In June 1990, following a coalition crisis, she was appointed to the cabinet as Deputy Minister of Science and Technology.

In the 1992 elections she rejoined Likud and remained active in right-wing politics.

Achievements

• She wrote the autobiographical Sipurha shel Loḥemet (“Story of a Warrior,” 1962), Ha-Tapuz she-Ba'ar ve-Hetzit Levavot(“The Orange That Burned and Lit Up Hearts,” 1979), and Mifgash Histori (“An Historic Meeting,” 1986).

Works

More photos

• book

  • Ha'hitnakshut B'lord Moyne (The Assassination of Lord Moyne)

    (Ha'hitnakshut B'lord Moyne (The Assassination of Lord Moy...)

  • The Voice of Valor

• Other Work

  • Woman of violence;: Memoirs of a young terrorist, 1943-1948

    (ORIGINALLY WRITTEN IN HEBREW AND APPEARING NOW IN ENGLISH...)

Politics

Cohen opposed territorial concessions. She was a vocal critic of the Camp David Accords in 1978 and of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan from Gaza in 2005. She described herself as a "woman of violence" in the pursuit of political ends.

Cohen and Moshe Shamir left Likud in 1979 to found a new right-wing party Banai, later Tehiya-Bnai, and then Tehiya. The new party was a strong supporter of Gush Emunim and included prominent members of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza such as Hanan Porat and Elyakim Haetzni.

Membership

The new party was strongly affiliated with the extra-parliamentary movement of Gush Emunim, and included prominent members of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza such as Hanan Porat and Elyakim Haetzni.

• 

  Likud party , Israel

  1973

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  Tehiya party , Israel

  1979 - 1992

Personality

“Until her final day she fought for to keep the homeland whole, the unity of the nation and the ingathering of the exiles, but she never, for a moment, stopped being a loving and beloved mother and grandmother,” her son Hanegbi said.

Connections

Her father immigrated to Eretz Israel from Yemen and her mother was born in Eretz Israel to a family that had arrived there in the 19th century from North Africa.

husband:

Emanuel Hanegbi

Cohen married former Lehi comrade Emanuel Hanegbi.

Son:

Tzachi Hanegbi

Tzachi Hanegbi is an Israeli politician and national security expert. A member of Likud, Hanegbi is currently Minister of Settlement Affairs and also previously served as Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and Minister of Regional Cooperation.

References

• Encyclopedia of Modern Worldwide Extremists and Extremist Groups This fascinating compilation gives a succinct and objective overview of the most significant worldwide extremists and extremist groups in operation over the past 50 years. 290 alphabetically organized entries detail the notorious history, activities, and beliefs of these shadowy and often violent extremists.Extremism has taken root and grown the world over. These 290 alphabetically organized entries detail the notorious and often violent history, activities, and beliefs of the most active and influential extremists and extremist groups in operation around the globe. Atkins highlights the dark truth that people of all ideologies, religions, regions, and races share a readiness for violence. This will be a very useful guide to students and scholars looking for a quick and easy- to-use guide to those groups and persons whose acts have unfortunately dominated headlines over the past several decades.Well over three-quarter of the book's entries focus on extremist activity since 1980, with many entries providing historical perspectives that add a fullness of information found nowhere else. As a companion to the lauded Encyclopedia of Modern American Extremists and Extremists Groups, this work contains a wealth of information not found together anywhere else on groups and people such as English Neo-Nazis, Argentinean death squads, American ecoterrorists, Hindu xenophobes, and Japanese cults.
• Nobody Wants To Die
• The Stern Gang This study of "The Stern Gang" attempts to demythologize the image of this extremist, Zionist underground group. The book analyzes the party's split from the Irgun Zvai Leumi (National Military Organization) and its attempts to synthesize the politics and ideals of the right and left.
• The Accidental Empire "Remarkably insightful . . . A groundbreaking revision that deserves to reframe the entire debate . . . It soars."―The New York Times Book Review In The Accidental Empire, Gershom Gorenberg examines the strange birth of the settler movement in the ten years following the Six-Day War and finds that it was as much the child of Labor Party socialism as of religious extremism. The giants of Israeli history―Dayan, Meir, Eshkol, Allon―all played major roles in this drama, as did more contemporary figures like Sharon, Rabin, and Peres. Gorenberg also shows how three American presidents turned a blind eye to what was happening in the territories, and reveals their strategic reasons for doing so. Drawing on newly opened archives and extensive interviews, Gorenberg calls into question much of what we think we know about this issue that continues to haunt the Middle East.
• A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Second Edition (Arab and Islamic Studies) Mark Tessler's highly praised, comprehensive, and balanced history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the earliest times to the present—updated through the first years of the 21st century—provides a constructive framework for understanding recent developments and assessing the prospects for future peace. Drawing upon a wide array of documents and on research by Palestinians, Israelis, and others, Tessler assesses the conflict on both the Israelis' and the Palestinians' terms. New chapters in this expanded edition elucidate the Oslo peace process, including the reasons for its failure, and the political dynamics in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza at a critical time of transition.
• Israeli Labour Party: In the Shadow of the Likud The Israeli Labour Party and its forerunner Mapai dominated the pre-state Jewish organisations in Palestine and the early years of the State of Israel. More recently the party has been at the centre of world attention as attempts at peace between the left-wing Israeli government and the PLO have been threatened by the murder in November 1995 of its leader Yitzhak Rabin and the electoral defeat in 1996 of his successor Shimon Peres. This book analyses the development of the Labour Party from its origins in the Israeli labour movement at the turn of the last century up to the present day. In bringing the study right up to date, Dr Lochery discusses the Labour Party's attempts to secure peace In the Middle East and the problems of dealing with a sceptical and divided society. The book draws on an extensive range of personal interviews with major political figures in Israel, including past and present prime ministers and on previously unpublished documents to which Dr Lochery gained access through his extensive work in the Knesset. The Israeli Labour Party and its forerunner Mapai dominated the pre-state Jewish organisations in Palestine and the early years of the State of Israel. More recently the party has been at the centre of world attention as attempts at peace between the left-wing Israeli government and the PLO have been threatened by the murder in November 1995 of its leader Yitzhak Rabin and the electoral defeat in 1996 of his successor Shimon Peres. This book analyses the development of the Labour Party from its origins in the Israeli labour movement at the turn of the last century up to the present day. In bringing the study right up to date, Dr Lochery discusses the Labour Party's attempts to secure peace In the Middle East and the problems of dealing with a sceptical and divided society. The book draws on an extensive range of personal interviews with major political figures in Israel, including past and present prime ministers and on previously unpublished documents to which Dr Lochery gained access through his extensive work in the Knesset.