Obituary

Dov Shas

DOV Shas, a member of Matzpen, died at the end of October 2006 at the age of 81.

Dov was born in Romania. In the Second World War, he was active in the Communist underground, mainly distributing leaflets, but began to distance himself from the policy of the USSR led by Stalin. After the war, Dov joined a Hashomer Hatzair gar’in that set out for Palestine, but he quickly recognised the contradiction between the Zionist movement and his socialist principles.

Here he joined a small Trotskyist organisation that advocated the joint struggle of Arab and Jewish workers for socialism, and opposed the UN plan to partition the country into two states. In 1947, Dov started working as a labourer in the Haifa Oil Refinery. In the 1950s, the organisation disbanded, and for about a decade Dov had no political home. A short time after the founding of Matzpen, Dov joined the organisation, and for many years combined his activity in the organisation with his work in the oil refinery.

Dov signed some of the reports and articles published in Matzpen with the pen-name ‘Moshe Epikoros’. [1] After taking early retirement because of health problems, Dov began studying at Haifa University (sociology, anthropology and education), but in spirit he remained a worker revolutionary. He died at home of heart failure at the end of October 2006, at the age of 81.

By kind permission of The Palestine Right to Return Group.

Note

1. Epikoros derived from Epicurus, meaning something like ‘despised heretic’.