The late Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – The Israeli cabinet on Sunday approved plans to build a memorial for Revisionist Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky in Jerusalem.

Expected to cost some 14 million shekels ($3.9 million), the memorial will take the form of a museum aimed at teaching the public about Jabotinsky’s ideology and life. The memorial will be administered by Israel’s Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ministry, headed by Jerusalem Affairs and Environmental Protection Minister Ze’ev Elkin.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took part Sunday in an event marking 77 years since Jabotinsky’s death and 68 years since the death of his wife, Johanna Jabotinsky. Netanyahu called the decision to memorialize Jabotinsky “an important decision that will preserve the memory of one of the founders of Zionism.”

Historian Dr. Rafael Medoff has written for JNS.org that while Jabotinsky “was arguably the most controversial Zionist leader of his era” and was branded a racist, the Zionist pioneer actually had an anti-racist vision of a Jewish state in which the Arab minority “would have full civil, political, and cultural rights, including representation in parliament, and both Arabic and Hebrew would be official languages.”