Haim Drukman, leader of Israeli settler movement, dies at 90

JERUSALEM (AP) — Haim Drukman, a prominent rabbi who was one of the founders of Israel’s settlement movement, has died. He was 90. Drukman was a leading figure in the religious Zionist movement in Israel, and a major proponent of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula after Israel captured those territories in the 1967 Mideast war. He was hospitalized earlier this month at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center, which confirmed his death late Sunday. It did not provide a cause. He served several terms as a member of Israel’s parliament with the forerunner of today’s Religious Zionism party, which is a key ally of the prime minister-designate, Benjamin Netanyahu.