Nissan Rilov
| Nissan Rilov | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1922 Kherson, Ukraine |
| Died |
March 10, 2007 Paris, France |
| Occupation | Artist |
Nissan Rilov (1922 - 2007) was an Israeli artist. Prior to undertaking his artistic career, he served in paramilitary and military groups such as the Special Night Squads (SNS), the Haganah, and the British Army during World War II. Rilov became disenchanted with Zionism after a series of experiences that culminated in his refusal to obey an order to shoot and his expulsion from the Haganah. He went on to study painting in Israel before emigrating to Paris, where he created art, founded an arts centre, and was active in supporting the Palestinian struggle for independence.
Rilov was born in Kherson in southern Ukraine in 1922. His parents decided to leave the Soviet Union in 1924, initially living in Bessarabia and eventually arriving in Palestine in 1928. According to his friend Akiva Orr, Rilov was one of the few children to live in Nahalal, the first Zionist moshav in Palestine which had been established in 1922. There Moshe Dayan would become his childhood friend. Later, Rilov developed a close friendship with the Israeli poet, Hana Senesh, who had been a student at the Agricultural College for Girls in Nahalal.
During the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine against British rule, Rilov joined the Special Night Squads (SNS) led by British Army officer Charles Orde Wingate and Rilov witnessed acts of cruelty towards Palestinian villagers. He went on to join the Haganah, the Jewish pre-state militia, but after a Haganah commander ordered him to shoot an elderly peasant from the village of Ma'alul who had returned to the lands he once cultivated that had been sold to Nahalal by absentee Arab owners, Rilov refused, saying: "I don't shoot old people". Shunned by his family and friends after he was court-martialled and expelled from the Haganah for disobeying orders, Rilov left Nahalal for Tel Aviv where he joined the Palestine Communist Party. During World War II, he joined and fought for the British Army
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