Youth
Born in 1934 in Herzliya, to second generation Sabra, Har-Zion and his father moved to Ein Harod in 1947. In 1949 he was briefly detained with his 13-year-old sister, Shoshana, after being caught in Syrian territory east of Beisan. Two years later they were both captured by a shepherd while on the Syrian side of the border. This time they were held prisoner in Damascus for three weeks.
During his first year in the army he made the trek to Petra, 40 km inside Jordan. During the 1950s around a dozen Israeli teenagers were killed on trips to Petra. It was a elite rite of passage. The song "HaSela HaAdom" (The Red Rock), which praised a group killed attempting the trek, was banned.
Read more about this topic: Meir Har-Zion
Famous quotes containing the word youth:
“The great difficulty is first to win a reputation; the next to keep it while you live; and the next to preserve it after you die, when affection and interest are over, and nothing but sterling excellence can preserve your name. Never suffer youth to be an excuse for inadequacy, nor age and fame to be an excuse for indolence.”
—Benjamin Haydon (1786–1846)
“Could beauty be beaten out,
O youth the cities have sent
to strike at each other’s strength,
it is you who have kept her alight.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)