Rechavam Ze'evi - who was popularly known by his nickname "Gandhi" - was born in Jerusalem, went to the regional school at Giav'at Hashlosha, and was a member of the "Mahanot Ha'olim" youth movement. He joined the Palmah in 1944. During the War of Independence he was an Intelligence Officer of the Yiftah Brigade, and later on served as an Operations Officer in the Northern front, as Intelligence Officer in the Southern Command and as a Brigade Commander in Golani. In 1964 he was promoted to the rank of Major General. In 1968 he was appointed Commander of Central Command. He retired from the IDF in 1973, a week before the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War. After the war he served for a short time as Commander of the Operations Branch of the IDF.

In 1974 Ze'evi was appointed by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin as advisor on matters of terror, and in the years 1975-77 served as advisor to the Prime Minister on intelligence affairs. In 1981 he was appointed director of the Land of Israel Museum in Tel-Aviv, and served in this position for ten years. In 1985 he started to speak publicly on a voluntary transfer of the Arabs of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, as the only viable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem.

Towards the elections to the 12th Knesset (1988) Ze'evi founded a party called "Moledet", that won two Knesset seats. In the elections to the 13th Knesset (1992) "Moledet" won three seats, and in the elections to the 14th Knesset (1996) - two seats. In the elections to the 15th Knesset "Moledet" ran within the framework of the "Ihud Hale`umi" list, which received four seats, and later united with "Yisrael Beitenu". In the course of his service in the Knesset, Ze'evi held caustic arguments with the Arab Knesset Members.

Ze'evi joined the Government of Yitzhak Shamir in February 1991. Despite the opposition of several Likud members, and was appointed Minister without Portfolio and a member of the Security Cabinet. He resigned from the Government in January 1992, against the background of the Madrid Conference.

In the course of the 13th Knesset, Ze'evi was one of the most bitter opponents of the Oslo Accords. He did not join the Government formed by Binyamin Netanyahu in 1996, but supported the Government from the outside.

Ze'evi joined the Government formed by Ariel Sharon in March 2001 as Minister of Tourism, but a day and a half before his assassination, offered his resignation from the Government, together with Minister of National Infrastructures Avigdor Lieberman, against the background of the Prime Minister's decision to withdraw the IDF forces from positions occupied in Hebron.

Ze'evi remained faithful to his comrades at arms, even when he opposed their political positions. Thus, he was one of those eulogizing MK Major General (Res') Matityahu (Matti) Peled of the "Progressive List for Peace", and strongly condemned the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Even his strongest political opponents appreciated Ze'evi's honesty and decency as a human being.