Editing Maxim Ghilan

{{Short description|Israeli poet and activist (1931–2005)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
'''Maxim Ghilan''' ({{Langx|he|מקסים גילן}}; 24 March 1931 – 2 April 2005) was an Israeli poet and activist. He was the director of the [[International Jewish Peace Union]], the first Jewish organization to recognize the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] (PLO) as a partner in dialogue. He was the co-founder, in 1971, of the periodical ''[[Israel and Palestine Political Report]]''.

==Early life==
Ghilan was born in France in 1931 and grew up in Spain. He moved with his mother to [[Mandatory Palestine]] in 1944, after his father had been abducted by the [[fascism|fascist]] movement of [[Francisco Franco]] and was never seen again.

==Lehi membership==
As a young man, Ghilan joined [[Lehi (group)|Lehi]], also known as the Stern Gang, and participated in the struggle to free Palestine from British rule.

==After the establishment of Israel==
Following the establishment of [[Israel]], Ghilan was imprisoned by the government of [[David Ben-Gurion]]. While incarcerated, he witnessed Arab prisoners being tortured and upon his release became active on behalf of Arab rights.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Klein |first=Yossi |date=2003-07-31 |title=Exile is his country |url=https://www.haaretz.com/2003-07-31/ty-article/exile-is-his-country/0000017f-e5f3-da9b-a1ff-edffc1da0000 |access-date=2024-04-07 |work=Haaretz |language=en}}</ref>

In 1966 ''Bul'', a tabloid which employed Ghilan as its deputy editor, published a story accusing the [[Mossad]] of involvement in the 1965 disappearance of the Moroccan dissident [[Mehdi Ben Barka]]. Ghilan and his editor were charged with espionage and imprisoned for 135 days.<ref>{{cite magazine |date=10 March 1967 |title=The Press: Exposing International Secrets |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |url= http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,836741,00.html |access-date=15 January 2014}}<br>- {{cite news |author= Yotam Feldman |date=2 August 2007 |url= http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/pulp-fiction-1.226748 |title= Pulp fiction |newspaper= Haaretz |access-date=15 January 2014}}</ref>

==Peace actions==
In the early 1970s, Ghilan became one of the first non-Communist Israelis to meet with representatives of the PLO. He later became a personal friend of [[Yasser Arafat]]. Ghilan moved to [[Paris]] in 1969 and returned to Israel after the signing of the [[Oslo Accords]] in 1993.

==Death==
Ghilan died suddenly in his Tel Aviv home, in Jean Jaurès St., on 2 April 2005.

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book |last=Ghilan |first=Maxim |title=How Israel Lost Its Soul |publisher=Penguin |year=1974 |isbn=978-0-14-021788-9}}
*{{cite journal |title=Was the Stern Gang Radical? |author=Uri Davis |authorlink=Uri Davis |journal=Journal of Palestine Studies |volume=4 |issue=2 |date=Winter 1975 |pages=115–119 |doi=10.1525/jps.1975.4.2.00p02962|jstor = 2535843}} Review of ''How Israel Lost Its Soul''.

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*Yossi Klein, [https://web.archive.org/web/20071001105654/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=324447 "Exile is his country"], ''[[Haaretz]]'', 31 July 2003.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghilan, Maxim}}
[[Category:1931 births]]
[[Category:2005 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century poets]]
[[Category:French emigrants to Mandatory Palestine]]
[[Category:Hebrew-language poets]]
[[Category:Israeli political activists]]
[[Category:Israeli political writers]]
[[Category:Israeli prisoners and detainees]]
[[Category:Jewish Israeli activists]]
[[Category:Lehi members]]
[[Category:Recipients of Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works]]
[[Category:Members of Aliyah Bet]]
[[Category:Prisoners and detainees of Israel]]


{{Israel-bio-stub}}
[[Category:Post-Zionists]]