Moshe Shamir
| Moshe Shamir | |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | 15 September 1921 |
| Place of birth | Safed, Mandatory Palestine (today, Israel) |
| Date of death | 21 August 2004 (aged 82) |
| Knessets | 9 |
Moshe Shamir (Hebrew: משה שמיר; September 15, 1921 – August 20, 2004) was an Israeli author, playwright, opinion writer, and public figure.
Shamir was born in Safed. He went to the Tel Nordau School and graduated from the Herzliya Hebrew High School in Tel Aviv.
In the Israeli War of Independence he served in Palmach. He began his political career as a member of the movement Hashomer Hatzair, in which he filled a leadership role. He was one of the editors of their official newspaper Al Ha-Homa from 1939 to 1941. From 1944 to 1946 he was a member of kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek. He was founder and editor of the Israel Defense Forces official newspaper Bamahane ("In the Camp") from 1947 to 1950. During the 1950s he was a member of the editorial board of the newspaper Maariv and the editor of its literature section.
Shamir began writing stories at a young age. They immediately attracted attention, and not only for his literary ability. He was always engaged with political problems, always arousing opposition. The first opposition came from Meir Yairi, leader of the left-wing movement to which Shamir belonged, concerning what was perceived as "ideological aberration" in his stories. In hindsight it is difficult to understand what the fuss was about. The stories seem completely innocent and certainly are not hostile or injurious to the kibbutz movement. However, the anger that was aroused against Shamir was so strong that he decided to leave his kibbutz in 1947 for ideological reasons.
Shamir's first story, appearing in print in 1940, dealt with Abraham and the binding of Isaac. The story was published in the youth movement newspaper Al Ha-Homa. In his 1947 novel He Walked Through the Fields, which became the first play performed in the established State of Israel, the hero is a native-born Israeli, a "Sabra". The book won the Ussishkin Prize. It was adapted as a movie directed by Yosef Milo, who also directed its theatrical debut. In 1947, he became the chief editor of the Haganah (later Israel Defense Forces) newspaper Bamahane. He edited it until he was dismissed at the request of David Ben-Gurion for publishing an article about a celebration of the disbanding of Palmach. Thereafter he continually aroused scandals, more than any other Hebrew author of our time.
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