Geulah Cohen (Hebrew: גאולה כהן; 25 December 1925 – 18 December 2019) was an Israeli politician and activist who founded the Tehiya party. She won the Israel Prize in 2003. Between 1974 and 1992, she served as a member of Knesset, initially for Likud. She changed her political affiliation to Tehiya in 1979. In 1992, she lost her seat in the Knesset.
Geulah Cohen
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Faction represented in the Knesset | |
1974–1979 | Likud |
1979–1992 | Tehiya |
Personal details | |
Born | (1925-12-25)25 December 1925 Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine |
Died | 18 December 2019(2019-12-18) (aged 93) Israel |
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Geulah Cohen was born in Tel Aviv to a Mizrahi Jewish family of Yemenite, Moroccan and Turkish origin during the Mandate era.[1] She was the daughter of Miriam and Yosef Cohen.[2] 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.[3]
In 1942 she joined the Irgun, and moved to Lehi the following year.[4][5][6] A radio announcer for the group, she was arrested by the British military authorities in 1946[7] while broadcasting in Tel Aviv. She escaped in May, shortly before her trial, but was recaptured by a group of Arabs.[1] On 6 June 1946, she was sentenced to seven years imprisonment (nineteen years according to Encyclopaedia Judaica) after being charged with being in possession of a wireless transmitter, four pistols and revolvers and ammunition. During sentencing she sang "Hatikvah" and was accompanied by 30 members of her family.[8] She was imprisoned in Bethlehem, but escaped from jail in 1947.[7] 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.[1]
Cohen married former Lehi comrade Emanuel Hanegbi.[9] From 1961 to 1973, she wrote for the Israeli newspaper Maariv and served on its editorial board.[10] While working as a journalist, she came to New York to visit the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Schneerson encouraged her to get involved with Israeli youth.[11]
Cohen died on 18 December 2019, at age 93. She was buried at the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.[1]
In 1972, Cohen joined Menachem Begin's Herut party,[7] then part of the Gahal alliance, and was elected to the Knesset the following year, by which time Gahal had become Likud. She was re-elected in 1977.[12]
As an opponent of the Camp David Accords and the return of SinaitoEgypt as a land-for-peace deal, even to the extent of being thrown out of the Knesset when Begin presented the deal to it,[7] Cohen and Moshe Shamir left Likud in 1979 to found a new right-wing party Banai, later Tehiya-Bnai, and then Tehiya.[7] 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.[13]
Cohen retained her seat in the 1981 elections, and despite their previous differences, Tehiya joined Begin's coalition.[14] She retained her seat during the elections in 1984 and 1988, and in June 1990, following a coalition crisis, was appointed to the cabinet as Deputy Minister of Science and Technology.[14]
Cohen lost her seat in the 1992 elections.[1] That year, she rejoined Likud and remained active in right-wing politics.[1] Her son, Tzachi Hanegbi, is a former Knesset member for the Likud.[1]
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.[15] She described herself as a "woman of violence" in the pursuit of political ends.[16]