Meir Vilner | |
|---|---|
מאיר וילנר | |
 Vilner in 1969 | |
| Faction represented in theKnesset | |
| 1949–1959 | Maki |
| 1961 | Maki |
| 1965–1977 | Rakah |
| 1977–1990 | Hadash |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Bar Kovner (1918-10-23)23 October 1918 |
| Died | 5 June 2003(2003-06-05) (aged 84) |
| Resting place | Yarkon Cemetery |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | Abba Kovner (cousin) Vitka Kempner (cousin-in-law) |
| Education | Hebrew University of Jerusalem |
Meir Vilner (Hebrew:מאיר וילנר; bornBer Kovner; 23 October 1918 – 5 June 2003) was a Lithuanian-born Israelicommunist politician andJewish leader of theCommunist Party of Israel (Maki), at one time a powerful force in the country. He was the youngest and last living signatory of theIsraeli Declaration of Independence in 1948.[1]
Born inVilnius, during the short-livedKingdom of Lithuania, Vilner's political life began as the leader of theZionist groupHashomer Hatzair (Young Guard). However, he soon grew disenchanted by what he viewed as a tendency in Zionist groups to dream of a Jewish homeland inPalestine, rather than change their current situation. Thus, he started working for the bannedCommunist Party of Poland – now under the pseudonym Meir Vilner – until 1938, when he left Poland to go to British-ruledMandatory Palestine. Most of his family who stayed behind was murdered inthe Holocaust. In Palestine, Vilner studiedhistory at theHebrew University of Jerusalem.[2]
During the last years of the British mandate, Vilner became disenchanted with mainstream Zionist politicians, claiming that Jewishanti-Arab racism was comparable to theantisemitism he experienced in Vilnius. He joined thePalestine Communist Party (PCP), which accepted both Arabs and Jews as members, and initially opposed plans topartition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. In March 1946, Vilner testified to theAnglo-American Committee of Inquiry, claiming that partition strengthen the dependency of both states on outside aid and widen the gulf between Arabs and Jews. However, he subsequently changed his mind and supported the 1947United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine after theSoviet Union's position on partition changed in the same year to one of support.[3]
On May 14, 1948, Vilner participated in the proclamation ceremony of theState of Israel and co-signed theIsraeli Declaration of Independence on behalf of the PCP. Along with other PCP members, Vilner stressed the necessity of upholding the declaration's promises to implementUnited Nations resolutions which called for atwo-state solution to theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict and upholdcivil and political rights for all Israeli citizens.[4]
In 1949, he waselected to theKnesset as a member of Maki. He resigned from the Knesset in December 1959, six weeks after the1959 elections, but was re-elected in 1961. However, he resigned again two months after the1961 elections.
As the Jewish leader of theCommunist Party of Israel (CPI), 95% of whose members were Arabs, he rejectedZionism, publicized theIsraeli nuclear weapons program in 1963, and opposed the imposition ofmartial rule on Israeli Arabs (imposed in 1949, it was lifted in 1966).[2]
In 1965 Vilner and several other Maki members broke away from the party to form the new partyRakah following disagreements about theSoviet Union's increasingly anti-Israel stance (Vilner was on the USSR's side), and was elected to the Knesset on the new party's list in the1965 elections.
.jpg)
On 5 June 1967, Vilner was the sole Jewish deputy (joined only by fellow Communist Party of Israel deputyTawfik Toubi) to speak out in the Knesset against theSix-Day War. Calling that day the darkest in Israel's history, Vilner demanded an immediate halt to the Israeli invasion of Arab-occupied lands. Vilner stressed that there was no other way to solve the conflict between Israel and its neighbors but mutual recognition of the national rights of Israelis and Arabs, including theright of the Palestinians to self-determination and independent statehood. On 15 October, he was badly wounded in a stabbing by a member of the right-wing partyGahal.[5][6]
Rakah became part ofHadash before the1977 elections, and Vilner remained an MK until 1990 when he resigned as part of a seat rotation agreement, making him the fifth longest serving MK.[7]
Vilner's Soviet loyalist line was highly appreciated by the USSR; in 1978 he was awarded theOrder of Friendship of Peoples. He did not acceptperestroika and regarded thefall of communism in the USSR as acoup.[8]
He was married toEsther Vilenska, another Israeli communist politician but divorced later, after having two sons together. His cousinAbba Kovner was a well-known Israeli poet andpartisan resistance leader during the Holocaust.[9][10]
Vilner died on June 5, 2003, the last surviving signatory of theIsraeli Declaration of Independence. A street in the city ofShafaram is named after him.
| Ribbon bar | Country | Honour |
|---|---|---|
 | Soviet Union | Order of Friendship of Peoples |
{{cite news}}:|archive-url= is malformed: timestamp (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
Media related toMeir Vilner at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
