Eli Geva

Eli Geva was born in 1950 in Nahalal

Eli Geva was born in 1950 in Nahalal. His parents were Shoshana Zemel and Yosef Geva, a general who had headed Central Command. He has two brothers and a sister.

He joined the Armored Corps and completed tank commander and armor officer courses. He served as a tank platoon commander in the War of Attrition. In the Yom Kippur War he led a tank company in the Golan Heights, fighting near Nafah, in the Valley of Tears and in the breakthrough into Syria.

He later commanded Battalion 196, the armor officers course. From 1979 to 1981 he commanded reserve armored Brigade 679 and headed armor weapons development, working on a computerized tank fire control system.

In the 1982 Lebanon War he commanded Brigade 211. During the Siege of Beirut he argued that entering the city would endanger soldiers and civilians, and he asked to be relieved of command. Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan and Prime Minister Menachem Begin tried to change his mind, but he was dismissed.

After the Sabra and Shatila massacres he gave an interview to Israeli State Radio. The case caused public controversy in Israel. In 2014 the Norwegian songwriter Moddi released a song named after him.