Yael Dayan, a famous Israeli writer, became a war hero and politician after his father’s death Moshe Dayanwho entered politics and became an advocate for women’s rights, LGBTQ issues and a two-state solution to the Palestinian conflict, died at her home in Tel Aviv on May 18. She was 85.
The cause of death was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, her daughter Racheli Sion-Sarid said.
Ms. Dayan is the last surviving child of Mr. Dayan, who served as Israel’s defense minister during the Six-Day War of 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Wearing a distinctive black eye patch — he lost his left eye fighting the British in World War II — Mr. Dayan is the undisputed patriarch of the family dynasty, and many in Israel have compared him to the Kennedys.
Mr. Dayan’s wife Ruthis the founder of the fashion company MusketeTheir son Asi is an actor and film producer. Another son, Ehud, is a sculptor.
Ms. Dayon shot to literary stardom at age 20 with “A New Face in the Mirror” (1959), an autobiographical novel written in English about a young female soldier whose father is a military commander.
“One day my father came to the camp,” she wrote. “He said he was passing by and decided to stop by. He would never admit that he was coming to see me. His arrival was certainly an event—the occasion for a clever and often unnecessary salute, a watchful and curious look. Would he kiss her when he left?”
novelist Anzia YezierskaWriting in The New York Times Book Review, she called A New Face in the Mirror “a remarkable record of the inner world of a rebellious teenager in search of self-actualization.” She added, “Her story is told with such honesty and such intensity that it stays with us long after we finish reading it.”
Other books followed. In 1967, Ms. Dayan published two books: “Death Has Two Sons,” a father-son novel set during the Holocaust, and “Israel Diary,” a diary of her experiences under the command of the Israeli Army Command during the Six-Day War. Ariel Sharonwho later became Prime Minister.
In prose Charles PooleA writer who has been a book reviewer for The New York Times for nearly 40 years, With Ernest HemingwayMs. Dayan wrote in the Israeli daily that the war had changed her: “Nothing is the same now. I saw the end of life, the destruction of material things, the sorrow of the destroyers, the pain of the victors. War must leave its mark.”
She served three terms in Parliament as a member of the Labour Party. She was instrumental in passing legislation prohibiting sexual harassment. She also founded the Parliamentary Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality and supported measures to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination.
Ms. Dayan is a sometimes controversial figure in Israeli politics.
In 1992, she angered her party and its leader, Prime Minister Yitzhak RabinAt the time, a tabloid photographed her wearing a bikini on a Tel Aviv beach during Yom Kippur, the holiest holiday on the Jewish calendar.
Ms Dayon was furious that her sunbathing had become a national scandal.
“Isn’t it taboo for religious people to see a picture of a woman in a swimsuit?” she told the Hebrew newspaper Hadashot. “Why are they looking at this picture?”
Her most controversial political move came the following year, when she became the first member of the Knesset to meet with a Palestinian leader. Yasser ArafatShe gave him a “My Father, His Daughter” (1985), a book about her father in which she wrote about his numerous extramarital affairs.
After the meeting, she told the Toronto Star that Arafat “did not have a very attractive public image. But that image disappeared very quickly. He was a very good listener. Very responsive. Good humored and gentle. He seemed very worried when I met him.”
She believed that the only solution to the Palestinian conflict was an independent state – a view she never wavered from. She opposed Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
“It’s unbelievable that we are still discussing the right of Palestinians to self-determination. We still doubt that they are human beings. It’s stupid, like an ostrich dreaming,” she told The Star.
Yair Dayan was born on February 12, 1939 in what is now Nahalal, a farming community in northern Israel.
She was considered a child prodigy and began reading at the age of 3. She skipped several grades in elementary school. At the age of 17, she began writing “New Faces in the Mirror”.
After serving as a captain in the public relations department of the Israel Defense Forces, she studied international relations at the Hebrew University.
In 1967, Ms. Dayan married Dov Sion, a colonel under Mr. Sharon during the Six-Day War. He died in 2003. In addition to her daughter, she is survived by a son, Dan Sion, and four grandchildren.
Even in danger, Ms. Dayan continued to advocate for peace.
In 1996, while she was touring the West Bank city of Hebron, home to hundreds of settlers, a Jewish extremist approached her and offered her a cup of tea. Ms. Dayan accepted it. The man then threw the tea in her face, The Jerusalem Post reported. She suffered burns on her neck and chest.
Ms. Dayan continues her tour.
A few days later, someone sent her a photo of the incident that had appeared in a newspaper, with the caption: “Too bad there was no acid.”
