Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu unveiled on Monday a new stamp in memory of Israel's seventh prime minister, the late Yitzchak Shamir.
The stamp was unveiled in a special ceremony attended by Shamir’s son Agriculture Minister Yair Shamir, Communications Minister Gilad Erdan, Israel Post Chairman of the Board Sasi Shilo, Israel Post CEO Haim Elmozino and the designer of the stamp, Ilan Eliezer Hagari.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said, "Prime Minister Shamir's record is expressed in the appreciation that the state gives him and it is not merely that he is portrayed in a stamp of the State of Israel. I think that Shamir is also worthy of this for all the reasons that have been mentioned here. I collected stamps in my youth and my stamp collection is a box in the basement. I will be proud to add the stamp in memory of Yitzhak Shamir to my collection."
Communications Minister Erdan said, "Prime Minister Shamir said what was in his heart regardless of what he thought others might say. He was a man of principles who was committed to the People and Land of Israel. I am pleased to have had the privilege of honoring his memory."
Israel Post Chairman Shilo said, "Yitzchak Shamir will be remembered for generations as one of the State of Israel's most important leaders. I hope that through this commemorative stamp, which will certainly be seen by many Israelis as they send and receive letters, we will help preserve not only his memory but his heritage, his endless love of the people and the land and his actions on their behalf."
Shamir died in June of 2012 at the age of 96. In addition to serving as Prime Minister between 1983 and 1984 and again between 1986 and 1992, he also served at various points in his career as the head of the pre-state military group Lechi, the head of Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad, as Knesset Speaker and as a minister.
After losing the 1992 election to Labor’s Yitzchak Rabin, Shamir stepped down from the leadership of the Likud and was replaced by Netanyahu. He did not resign from the Knesset and remained an MK until the 1996 elections, in which Netanyahu had won, before he retired from politics.
Shamir was known for his dislike and criticism of his successor Netanyahu, and once described him as “squishy and too soft”, after Netanyahu agreed, in the 1998 Wye Accords, to give up Jewish control over most of Hevron.
The city of Jerusalem announced in December that it would honor Yitzchak Shamir by naming a highway after him.
