Meir Vilner
| Meir Vilner | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Date of birth | 23 October 1918 |
| Place of birth | Vilnius, Lithuania |
| Year of aliyah | 1938 |
| Date of death | 5 June 2003 (aged 84) |
| Knessets | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 |
| Faction represented in Knesset | |
| 1949–1959 | Maki |
| 1961 | Maki |
| 1965–1977 | Rakah |
| 1977–1990 | Hadash |
Meir Vilner (Hebrew: מאיר וילנר, born Ber Kovner; 23 October 1918 – 5 June 2003) was an Israeli communist politician and Jewish leader of the Communist Party of Israel (Maki), which consisted primarily of Israeli Arabs. He was the youngest and longest surviving signatory of the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948.
Born in Vilnius, German-occupied Lithuania, Vilner's political life began as the leader of the socialist-Zionist group Hashomer Hatzair (Young Guard). However, he soon grew disenchanted by what he viewed as a tendency in Zionist groups to dream of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, rather than change their current situation - thus he started working for the banned Polish Communist Party - now under the pseudonym Meir Vilner - until 1938, when he left Poland to go to the British Mandate of Palestine. Most of his family perished in the Holocaust.
Vilner then studied history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
In what would soon become Israel, Vilner was disenchanted with the politics, claiming that the hatred directed at Jews in Vilna was now directed at the Arabs. He joined the Palestine Communist Party (PCP), which accepted Arab and Jewish membership, but supported partition. Vilner criticized both the British and Israeli government, but justified signing the Israeli Declaration of Independence on the grounds that this would eliminate another British colony. Besides, the PCP stressed that the Charter contained a promise to help implement the UN resolutions providing for two independent states, Israel and Arab Palestine, and to uphold full equality and civil liberties for all Israeli citizens.
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