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:
“It seemed monstrous to our intolerant youth that poor white folksy men should have an equal right with gentlemen, born and bred, in deciding who should represent the county in the Legislature and the district in Congress.”
—Marion Harland (18301922)
“One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings as we take our place among them.”
—Virginia Woolf (18821941)
“Sprung from the West,
He drank the valorous youth of a new world.
The strength of virgin forests braced his mind,
The hush of spacious prairies stilled his soul.
His words were oaks in acorns; and his thoughts
Were roots that firmly gript the granite truth.”
—Edwin Markham (18521940)