'You were a parliamentarian with a dreaming soul'

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin eulogizes former MK Hanan Porat at funeral in Kfar Etzion; Porat was among the founders of Gush Emunim.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, LAHAV HARKOV, HERB KEINON
Rabbi Hanan Porat's funeral_311 (photo credit: Tovah Lazaroff)
Rabbi Hanan Porat's funeral_311
(photo credit: Tovah Lazaroff)
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin eulogized Gush Emunim leader Hanan Porat at his funeral on Wednesday, calling the former MK "a visionary and an achiever, a poet and a fighter."

"You knew how to be the public's agent with a mouth full of song, to be a sharp parliamentarian with a dreaming soul," Rivlin said. "Within your soul there was a great love, a conquering love, for the national of Israel, for the ground of this good land, for Israel's Torah."RELATED:Looking Back: A 1999 Interview with Hanan Porat "Your voice, Hanan, was silenced," he concluded, "but the voice of your song will still lead, with your mighty love, this nation and this land for many years. I came to say goodbye on behalf of the Knesset and the Israeli nation. You will be missed greatly." Porat, who inspired thousands of people to settle the hilltops of Judea and Samaria, died at his home in Kfar Etzion on Tuesday after a long battle with cancer. He was 67. His funeral will took place on Wednesday in Kfar Etzion.
Porat was among the founders of Gush Emunim, an organization committed to building Jewish towns in the West Bank. He was respected even by his fiercest adversaries for his Zionism, leadership skills and modesty.He served as an MK twice, first from 1981-1984 in the Tehiya Party, which he helped found, and from 1988-1999 with the National Religious Party. Porat later became one of the founding members of the National Union but did not represent it in the Knesset.He was also chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee during the fourteenth Knesset.