Amos Yarkoni

The early years

Real name is Abed Al-Majid Hader.

Born June 1, 1920 in the Arab village of Na'ura in Eretz Yisrael . By nationality, a Bedouin from the Mazarib tribe.

In 1936 , at the age of 16, he joined a group that sabotaged the Trans-Arab Pipeline, an oil pipeline running from Iraqi oil fields to Haifa. Due to internal disagreements within the group, Abd al-Majid fled to the Jewish region of Palestine, where he was defended by Jews. There he made contacts with Hagana through Moshe Dayan. .

In the service of Israel

In December 1947 or in May 1948 , with the outbreak of the Israeli War of Independence , he joined the Israeli army. Since then, he changed his name to Amos Yarkoni. He proved himself to be an excellent soldier, constantly striking his brothers with his abilities.

In 1953 or in 1955, he took the officer courses, becoming the first Bedouin to complete the officer courses (his main problem was that the exam was in Hebrew).

In 1963 - 1966 (according to other sources, in 1961 - 1967 ) - commander of the reconnaissance and patrol special forces Sayeret Shaked “Shaked” (Hebrew: שקד, which means almonds). Shaked was also an acronym for שומרי קו הדרום (Shomrey Cav ha Darom, Guardians of the Southern Frontier). There were both Jews and non-Jews in the unit, but when it came to Bedouin recruits, Amos was careful and accepted only Bedouins from the north of Israel (and not from the south of the country) so that they would not have to fight against their tribal brothers.

He was wounded three times (in 1959 his right arm was amputated and Amos Yarkoni continued to serve with a prosthesis, and his leg was injured in another wound). During the service, he received insignia 3 times, including on February 19, 1956 - the insignia of the chief of the general staff from the hands of Moshe Dayan (later this sign was replaced by the order "Itur ha-mofet"). At that time, the military commander noted that "if Moshe Dayan can be the chief of the general staff without an eye, we can have a battalion commander with a prosthetic arm."

Even at this stage, many Israelis did not know that Amos Yarkoni was not a Jew: they simply assumed that he was a Jew from an Arab country. And among those who knew, there was a joke: “Fuad-Jew and Amos-Bedouin”, referring to the two leading counterintelligence officers in the Jordan Valley: “Fuad” Ben-Eliezer , an Iraqi Jew with an Arabic name, and Amos Yarkoni, Bedouin with a typical Israeli name.

After the Six Day War, he was appointed governor of the central part of the Sinai Peninsula .

In 1969 he retired.

Death

He died on February 7, 1991, after a long battle with cancer, at the age of 70.

He was buried in a military cemetery in Kiryat Shaul.

His old friend, Rehavam Zeevi , asked to bury Yarkoni in a military cemetery, despite the fact that, as a retired soldier, he technically did not have the right to a military burial. And then the Minister of Defense Moshe Arens and the head of the IDF approved this request. As a sign of respect for Yarkoni, going against military tradition, Yarkoni's coffin was carried by soldiers of a higher rank than him: six brigade generals (his former commanders) carried his coffin. Behind the coffin were Israeli President Haim Herzog , political and military leaders, as well as ordinary Israelis from all walks of life. Also, the cortege included former members of the Battalion.

Streets in Be'er Sheva and Haifa are named after him.

Since Yarkoni was not a Jew, there was a problem with his burial in a military cemetery in Kiryat Shaul (according to the Law on Burial, Jews must be buried among Jews). The case was resolved quickly when Rehavam Zeevi, a friend and comrade of Yarkoni, bought a grave in the cemetery, allowing Yarkoni to be buried at the end of the row, and therefore technically not in the Jewish part of the cemetery.