The Palestinians’ insistence on regarding late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, even after his death, as nothing more than a war criminal responsible for the massacre in Sabra and Shatila and the construction of the settlements is overly simplistic and anachronistic. More than anything else, this approach misses the complexity of the man and the central leadership role he had in Israeli history. Yes, Sharon did build settlements, but on two occasions he also removed Jews from their homes: once, when serving as defense minister, when he evacuated the Sinai settlements in 1982, as part of the peace agreement with Egypt; and again, as prime minister, when he developed and implemented the plan to disengage from the Gaza Strip and the north of the West Bank in 2005.

When senior Fatah member Jibril Rajoub bemoans the fact that he never got to see Sharon tried as a war criminal by the International Criminal Court and accuses him of assassinating PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat — and he does this on the very day that Sharon died — he is giving voice to a very narrow and selective worldview. When my colleague Daoud Kuttab turns to the younger generation of Palestinians and only attributes the massacre in the refugee camps to Sharon, without mentioning the evacuation of Yamit (from the Sinai), the Disengagement and the establishment of the Kadima Party — which Sharon thought of as a platform to consolidate an agreement with the Palestinians — he is distorting the image and person of Sharon as a bold and pragmatic leader.

Some of the Palestinian spokespeople sounded a lot like Israel’s extreme right, which was also happy about the death of the former prime minister. They chose to disparage him and his memory before he was brought to rest. Knesset member Orit Strock of the HaBayit HaYehudi Party, for example, accused Sharon of destroying his country and thanked God for his death. Both Rajoub and Strock, who has since apologized, regard Sharon as a demonic, destructive figure. The one-dimensional way in which the Palestinian representative and the representative of Israel’s extreme right wing see Sharon is, perhaps, the best possible proof of the many layers and conflicts that made up his life.

Sharon’s second term as prime minister, in which he made some of the most fundamental decisions by any Israeli leader concerning the Palestinians since Rabin decided to embrace the Oslo Accord, sums up his leadership. He was pragmatic, cynical and capable of making a decision and implementing it through the power of his leadership. With regard to the conflict with the Palestinians and the promotion of a two-state solution, he left an enormously important legacy behind that will determine how future challenges are confronted. He proved that the sovereign State of Israel is capable of making a controversial decision and implementing it, without having the government’s legitimacy be challenged.