Мейр Хар-Цион: Командир израильского спецназа и прототип Ари Бена Канаана

Israeli commando (1934–2014)

Meir Har Zion (; February 25, 1934 – March 14, 2014) was an Israeli military commando. As a key member of Unit 101, he was highly praised by Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan who described him as "the finest of our commando soldiers, the best soldier ever to emerge in the IDF". Ariel Sharon described him as "the elite of the elite." His three year military career (1954–56) was cut short by injuries sustained in battle, but he joined in again during the 1967 and 1973 wars. The character of Ari Ben Canaan in Leon Uris's novel Exodus is generally believed to have been based on Har Zion.

In 1953 he was one of the founding members of Unit 101. He took part in the unit's first operation at the end of August 1953. Sixteen men with two jeeps, two command cars, and a reconnaissance aircraft attacked the 'Azazme Bedouin camps around the wells at al Auja. Their tents were burnt and anyone attempting to reach the well was shot at. On the night of 14–15 October 1953, around 65 men from Unit 101 joined a larger IDF force in an attack on the village of Qibya, in what became known as the Qibya massacre. Har Zion commanded one of three squads sent to ambush any reinforcements coming from Ni'lin, Budrus, and Shuqba. In another nighttime attack on 18–19 December 1953, two Unit 101 squads led by Har Zion ambushed a car on the Bethlehem Hebron road. Mansour Awad, a Lebanese born physician serving in the Arab Legion, was killed. Israeli Prime Minister Moshe Sharett was annoyed that he had not been informed about the attack beforehand. Three nights later. Har Zion led a four man squad on a 21 kilometre march to the outskirts of Hebron. Other missions that Har Zion took part in included Operation Black Arrow and Operation Elkayam.

The following year, 26 May 1954, Har Zion was amongst a ten man squad from the newly formed 890th Paratroop Battalion, led by its commander Ariel Sharon, which carried out a raid near Khirbet Jinba, southwest of Hebron. Two National Guardsmen were killed in an ambush as well as two farmers and two camels. Sharett once again complained about not having been informed, and suspected that Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon had not been consulted either. On 27–28 June 1954 Har Zion was in a seven man squad led by Major Aharon Davidi that launched a surprise attack on an Arab Legion camp at Azzun, 13 km east of Qalqilya. Three Legionnaires were killed as well as a farmer, Rafi'a Abdel Aziz Omar, who was stabbed to death by Har Zion to prevent him raising the alarm. On their return to Israeli lines, one of the team who had been wounded, Sergeant Yitzhak Jibli, was left behind. On discovering that Sergeant Jibli had been taken prisoner, Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan approved a series of hostage taking raids. On 31 July – 1 August 1954 Har Zion led a group of ten raiders who attacked two police near Jenin, taking one of them prisoner. On their way back, they killed a farmer watching his fields. On the 30–31 August 1954 Har Zion took part in Operation Binyamin 2. This operation was approved by Prime Minister Moshe Sharett and was commanded by Ariel Sharon. The attackers were divided into four groups. The first attacked a school in the village of Beit Liqya. The other three set ambushes for the expected arrival of reinforcements. Only Har Zion's group was successful. They had strung a wire across the road with cans of petrol at each end. A car full of soldiers from the Arab Legion drove into the trap. Two were killed, one wounded, and three were taken prisoner. Sergeant Yitzhak Jibli was released on 29 October 1954, four months after being wounded and captured.

In the middle of February 1955 Har Zion's sister, Shoshana, along with her boyfriend Oded Wegmeister from Degania Bet, both 18, were captured, abused, and murdered by Bedouin tribesmen from Wadi al Ghar (the central section of the stream called in Hebrew Nahal Arugot, which ends at Ein Gedi) while on an illegal cross border hike across the Judean desert on Jordanian territory. When he heard of her death, Har Zion was inconsolable and vowed revenge. On March 4, he and three ex members of the 890th Battalion drove to the Armistice Line with Jordan. In Wadi al Ghar, 9 km from the border, they captured six Bedouin from the Jahaleen and 'Azazme tribes. The prisoners were interrogated and five of them killed, four with knives, and the fifth was shot. One of the dead was 16 years old. The sixth was sent back to his tribe to tell what happened. The men probably had nothing to do with the killing of Har Zion's sister, and had merely belonged to the same tribes as the murderers. David Ben Gurion told the cabinet that the Israelis did not know enough Arabic to understand what their prisoners were saying. Sharon wrote that it was "the kind of ritual revenge the Bedouins understood perfectly. But the repercussions of what Har Zion had done were very 20th century. The Jordanians made a formal complaint to the UN." On their return, Har Zion and three of his companions were held in custody for 20 days. They were released without charge, as a result of protection and stonewalling by them and their colleagues in the army, and soon rejoined their old unit. Sharett, who suspected that Dayan had advance knowledge of the raid, and who deplored such actions, noted critically in his diary: "The dark soul of the Bible has come alive among the sons of Nahalal and 'Ein Harod".

מבצע יהונתן (1956), 11–12 September 1956, was a retaliatory attack by two paratroop companies on Khirbet ar Rahwa police fort, on the Hebron–Beersheba road, in which over 20 Jordanian soldiers and police were killed. During the fighting, Har Zion was wounded in the throat and arm. His life was saved by an army physician who performed a tracheotomy using his pocket knife while still under fire. The injuries left Har Zion unable to continue his army career. He was awarded the Medal of Courage. He had attained the rank of captain.

During the 1967 Six Day War, Har Zion was called up as captain in the reserves, and despite the use of only one hand, took part alongside the paratroopers in the battle for the Old City of Jerusalem. In one important exploit in the battle, he killed a Jordanian sniper who had been holding up the Israeli advance: after stalking the sniper across a rooftop, he killed him with hand grenades. Har Zion served again as a captain during the Yom Kippur War, on the Golan front, rescuing injured soldiers behind enemy lines.

During the latter part of his life he lived in Ahuzat Shoshana "Shoshana's Farm", a 6,500 dunam farm built on a hilltop of Kawkab al Hawa (, "Mount of the Spirits") within the Issachar Plateau above the Jordan Valley, just north and in sight of kibbutz Beit Alfa, right next to the ruins of the Crusader's Belvoir Fortress within the Belvoir National Park (Kochav haYarden Park). Har Zion died on March 14, 2014, from natural causes at the age of 80 at his farm. Har Zion was buried at Kochav Hayarden park. His funeral was attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, and other ministers and dignitaries.