Funeral services were held today for Yisrael Galili, one of Israel’s leading defense policy makers from pre-State days until recent years. He died at his home yesterday at the age of 76. He had been ill for the last two years.
Born in Brailov, Ukraine, Galili was brought to Palestine by his mother and uncle when he was four years old. In 1930 he was one of the founders of Kibbutz Naan near Ramla, where he remained an active member for the rest of his life.
In the years which proceeded the establishment of the State, Galili was the head of the Haganah national command. In that capacity he was largely responsible for preparing the Haganah to meet the Arab attack which followed the partition plan in 1947.
Galili, who never held a Cabinet post, was a close confidant of Premiers Levy Eshkol and Golda Meir on defense and political matters in the years following the 1967 Six-Day War. His well-known “Galili plan” was considered the platform of the Labor Party on the administered territories. It rejected the recognition of a Palestinian state, opposed the return to Israel’s pre 1967 boundaries, and favored territorial compromises only in return for full peace.
Galili was also a close advisor to Premier Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Yigal Allon in the Rabin government (1974-77). Both men had been his proteges in the final years of the pre-State period.
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