Odik was, for many years, my comrade in struggle and a dear personal friend. When we were still members of the Israeli Communist Party, he was known to me as a fearless fighter for the interests of the working class, both immediate and historical interests \u2013 namely, for the future of humanity as a whole; for a just, equal and free society, without exploitation and oppression.<\/p>\n
It was therefore no accident that when Akiva Orr and I looked for partners for establishing a new socialist organisation (which was eventually known as Matzpen), he was the first person we contacted. We discovered that he too was looking for partners for a road leading in the same direction.<\/p>\n
Since that meeting, in the spring half a century ago, I was privileged to know him well personally. I loved him as a friend. Now the purest, most courageous and most honest heart I have ever known has stopped beating.<\/p>\n
More than any other comrade, he embodied Matzpen\u2019s political road.<\/p>\n
Some define Matzpen as an \u2018anti-Zionist organization\u2019. This is misleading. Of course, we have struggled uncompromisingly against Zionist ideology and practice. But for us this was not the point of departure, but a necessary consequence of our revolutionary socialist, internationalist position. The journal Matzpen<\/em>, of which Odik was editor, carried the sub-heading \u2018A Workers\u2019 Monthly\u2019.<\/p>\n These values found their concentrated expression in Odik\u2019s personality and activity. He was proud of his working-class origin (his father was a worker in the Dead Sea Potash industry) and of his belonging to this class. He was a leader of workers\u2019 struggles \u2014 not an appointed leader, but one who emerged from the ranks, in the course of the struggle itself.<\/p>\n His death has deprived us of a friend and comrade; and the socialist movement in Israel, the region and the world has lost a rare personality, a first-rank fighter for a better world.<\/p>\n We shall cherish his memory, and continue along his path.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Obituary: Oded Pilavsky 1932 – 2011<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,150],"class_list":["post-3512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-moshe-machover","tag-oded-pilavsky"],"yoast_head":"\n