Yeshayahu Leibowitz; Iconoclastic Israeli Philosopher

Yeshayahu Leibowitz, an iconoclastic philosopher who outraged many Israelis by fiercely denouncing the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip as morally corrupting, died here Thursday at 91.

Israeli President Ezer Wiezman praised Leibowitz as “among the great figures in the lives of the Jewish people and the state of Israel in recent generations, a man of intellect, philosophy, humanities and literature, a philosopher, a teacher and a trailblazer.”

In keeping with Jewish religious law, Leibowitz was buried in a Jerusalem cemetery before sundown.

Born in Latvia in 1903, Leibowitz earned doctorates in medicine, biochemistry and philosophy, and was a professor of biochemistry and the philosophy of science at Hebrew University in Jerusalem for 34 years. He lived in a tiny Jerusalem apartment filled with books and wrote prolifically, producing more than 100 books and articles in his lifetime.

Leibowitz became notorious after Israel smashed the combined Arab armies and captured East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, the Sinai desert, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in June, 1967, in what became known as the Six-Day War. At a time when most Israelis were basking in the glow of victory and many were romping through tours of the West Bank, Leibowitz warned in January, 1968, that the occupation of the territories and their inhabitants would be a curse. He called for Israel’s immediate withdrawal from all the lands it occupied.

Leibowitz seemed to relish the shock that his harsh public statements about the occupation, and other sacred cows, caused. He reveled in the role of angry prophet.

He condemned the reverence with which nationalistic Orthodox Jews and even secular Israelis treated such shrines as the Western Wall of the destroyed Jewish Temple as “idolatry.” He dismissed Prime Minister Golda Meir as that “old, and very evil, woman.” He sneered that David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, was “a hater of Jewish history.”

In one of his most controversial statements, Leibowitz referred to the acts of “Judeo-Nazis”--Israeli soldiers--in the occupied territories. He called publicly, repeatedly, for Israeli soldiers to refuse to serve in the territories. Despite his subversive remarks, the Army was still asking him to lecture to troops as late as a year before his death.

Until the day he died, Leibowitz continued to write, lecture and teach. Although he retired from Hebrew University in 1970, he continued to teach courses there, and spent time in his office Wednesday before dying in his sleep overnight.

“Prof. Leibowitz was for me, as he was for many others, the moral compass of Israel,” said Avraham Burg, a member of Knesset for the Labor Party and former student of Leibowitz.

“He was always an infuriating man, with brilliant talents, encyclopedic knowledge,” Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told Israel Army Radio. “Even his mistakes were brilliant.”

And although Leibowitz’s views on the territories were widely unpopular for many years, in 1993, with Israel and the Palestinians working toward agreement on limited Palestinian self-rule in the territories, Leibowitz was nominated for the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Israel Prize, in recognition of his life’s work. He declined the honor, however, after sparking more public outrage by comparing Israeli undercover soldiers operating in the territories to members of Hamas, the militant Islamic organization that has pledged to destroy Israel.

“Why should I be excited?” Leibowitz said of his nomination in an interview with The Times. “I know what I’m worth, I don’t need to be admired.”