In 1956,

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

Chief of Staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supportin ...

Moshe Dayan Moshe Dayan (; May 20, 1915 – October 16, 1981) was an Israeli military leader and politician. As commander of the Jerusalem front in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Chief of General Staff (Israel), Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defe ...

gave a eulogy for Ro'i Rothberg, a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

security officer killed near the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

. Dayan's eulogy is considered one of the most influential speeches in Israeli history.

Background

Situation in the area

Nahal Oz Nahal Oz (, ''lit.'' "Mighty Stream") is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located in the northwestern part of the Negev desert close to the border with the Gaza Strip and near the development towns of Sderot and Netivot, it is under the juri ...

became a

in 1953, and was frequently in conflict with Arabs who crossed the nearby armistice line from Gaza to reap crops and conduct petty theft. The previous few months had been relatively quiet on the Israel's borders with Egypt and Gaza, but escalated with several cross-border shootings in early April. On April 4, three Israeli soldiers were killed by Egyptian forces on the Gaza border. Israel responded the next day by shelling the center of

Gaza City Gaza City, also called Gaza, is a city in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the capital of the Gaza Governorate. Located on the Mediterranean coast, southwest of Jerusalem, it was home to Port of Gaza, Palestine's only port. With a population of ...

, killing 58 Egyptian and Palestinian civilians, as well as 4 Egyptian soldiers. Egypt responded by resuming

fedayeen Fedayeen ( ''fidāʻiyyūn'' "self-sacrificers") is an Arabic language, Arabic term used to refer to various military groups willing to sacrifice themselves for a larger campaign. Etymology "Fidayun" is the plural of "fidayi" ( ''fidāʻiyy'' ...

attacks across the border, killing 14 Israelis during the period between 11 and 17 April.

Ro'i Rothberg's biography

Roi Rotberg in War memorial in Shevach Mofet school

Ro'i Rothberg, sometimes spelled Roi Rotberg, was born in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

in 1935. He served as a messenger boy for the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

(IDF) during the

1948 Arab-Israeli War Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...

. After studying at the

Mikveh Israel Mikveh Israel () is a youth village and boarding school in the Tel Aviv District of central Israel, established in 1870. It was the first Jewish agricultural school in what is now Israel and indeed the first modern Jewish settlement in Palestine ...

agricultural school and the

Shevah Mofet Shevah Mofet (; ), also transliterated Shevach Moffet, is a junior and high school on HaMasger Street in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was established in 1942 as a vocational school. Since the 1990s, new programs were inaugurated to meet the needs of the Ru ...

vocational school, he enlisted in the IDF and joined the infantry. After completing an officer's course, he settled in

, which was to be the first of the

Nahal settlement Nahal settlements () were Israeli settlements established by Israeli soldiers of Nahal in both Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories. Supporting the growth and expansion of Israeli Jews was once the main focus of Nahal troops of the Israe ...

s. He became the Nahal Oz security officer, and was regularly involved in chasing off infiltrators, sometimes using lethal force. Rothberg married Amira Glickson and had a son, Boaz, who was an infant at the time of his death.

Incident

Rothberg mounted on a horse at Nahal Oz, early 1950s, photographed by Boris Carmi. On 29 April 1956 he was caught in a prepared ambush; Arab harvest workers began to reap wheat in the kibbutz's fields. Rothberg saw them and rode toward them to chase them off. As he approached, others emerged from hiding to attack. He was shot off his horse, beaten and shot again, then his body was dragged into Gaza. Rothberg's attackers included an Egyptian policeman and a Palestinian farmer. Badly mutilated, his body was returned on the same day after United Nations intervention.

Eulogy

According to

Jean-Pierre Filiu Jean-Pierre Filiu (born in Paris, 1961) is a French professor of Middle East studies at Sciences Po, Paris School of International Affairs, an Orientalist and an Arabist. Life and career Before joining Sciences Po in 2006, Filiu was a care ...

, following the killing, emotions in Israel "ran high", leading Dayan to travel to the kibbutz to give the funeral oration. The following day, Dayan recorded his speech for Israeli radio, in a version that omitted any reference to Palestinian refugees looking on as Jews cultivate the lands they had been evicted from, and suppressing his remark that they should not be blamed for hating the people who dispossessed them.

Notes

References

{{Palestinian militancy attacks in the 1950s 1956 in Israel 1956 speeches Rotberg, Roi Palestinian Fedayeen insurgency