Fifth president of Israel who was unafraid of criticising mistakes made by the stateAs the fifth president of Israel from 1978 to 1983,Yitzhak Navon, who has died aged 94, or combined loyalty to socialist Zionism with a deep knowledge of “the Arab side” and a generally dovish outlook. He was well-regarded in office,partly because of his genteel public image but also because he was prepared to hold the government to account over alleged wrongdoings.
In his final year as president he demanded – and won – a commission of inquiry into the massacre of hundreds of civilians in Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon, responsibility for which a UN commission laid at Israel’s door. The inquiry, or which had been fiercely opposed by Menachem Begin’s government,led to the forced resignations of several ministers and of various military top brass. In 1980 Navon also laid down a marker by making the first official visit by an Israeli president to an Arab state, when he travelled to Egypt to meet President Anwar Sadat and charmed his hosts by speaking in Arabic.
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Source: theguardian.com