Ex-IDF chief's widow rejects naming East Jerusalem street after him

Following similar opposition by the family of late entertainer Shaike Ophir, the widow of late minister and Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Rafael Eitan does not want a street named after her husband in a Jewish neighborhood of East Jerusalem.

Ofra Meyerson-Eitan has approached Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat with the request that the decision to name the street after her husband, which was made last month by a municipal committee, be rescinded.

The street in question is located in the small Jewish Nof Tzion neighborhood in the heart of the Arab Jabal Mukkaber area in the southeastern part of the city.

Unlike her late right-wing husband, who died five years ago, Meyerson-Eitan has left-wing political views.

"I don't think this is a street that belongs to us. I don't think we need to be there and therefore I objected," she told Haaretz Tuesday. Eitan's children and his wife from his first marriage were not involved in the request against naming the street for Eitan.

In her letter to the mayor, Meyerson-Eitan complained that when she was approached by the city, she was not told the precise location of the street which was to bear her husband's name and that she only learned it from a report in Haaretz.

As reported a month and a half ago, the family of late entertainer Shaike Ophir was similarly surprised to learn that the street to be named after Ophir was located in the same Nof Tzion neighborhood and not in Armon Hanatziv, as they had been told by a municipal representative.

In the past, the city had tried unsuccessfully to find a street in the Katamon and San Simon neighborhoods, where Eitan was wounded in the War of Independence, to name after the late IDF chief of staff.

The Jerusalem Municipality issued a statement saying that the relevant committee would work to find a solution that satisfies the Eitan and Ophir families, adding that at a committee hearing it was decided that a committee representative would be in touch with the families and that the misinformation about the location of the streets was provided unintentionally.