Haim Druckmann, a prominent rabbi and one of the founders of the Israeli settler movement, has died at the age of 90.

Druckmann was a leading figure in the religious Zionist movement in Israel, and a staunch supporter of Jewish settlement in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Sinai Peninsula after Israel captured those areas in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Druckmann was hospitalized in Jerusalem earlier this month. Israeli media reported that he died of complications from the Corona virus. Druckmann was also a member of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, prior to the predecessor of today’s religious Zionist party.

For a long time, Druckmann also served as the spiritual leader of the national religious politicians in Israel’s far right. He demanded the annexation of the occupied West Bank. About 2.5 million Palestinians live under Israeli occupation, along with about 500,000 Jewish settlers.

In 2005 Druckmann called on Israeli soldiers to refuse orders to dismantle settlements during the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. He also made similar comments about Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The rabbi and politician called for the State of Israel to be subject to Jewish religious law, an opinion shared by his followers.

“What you do at home is your business, but outside it is a Jewish state,” he told the newspaper last month. Israel Hume in one of his last interviews.

In 2012, Druckmann was awarded the so-called Israel Prize, the country’s highest civilian honor. Druckmann’s burial center of mass public interest today is in a cemetery near his birthplace in southern Israel.

His funeral was attended by thousands of people, including Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and other dignitaries: