Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Ariel Sharon Moves Fingers, Knows Family, Son Says

Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who suffered a massive stroke six years ago and is in a coma, responds to some requests and has but on some weight, despite being fed intravenously, his son, Gilad Sharon, told the New York Times.

“When he is awake, he looks at me and moves fingers when I ask him to, I am sure he hears me,” the younger Sharon said in a telephone interview with the Times.

Gilad Sharon is publishing a biography of his father’s life titled “Sharon: The Life of a Leader”, to be released on Tuesday in Hebrew and English, which he has been working on for the past four-and-a-half years.

The former prime minister is currently at Sheba Hospital, but his family hopes he can be returned home.

“The problem is Israeli bureaucracy. I think it would be better for him to be at home,” Gilad Sharon told the Times. He continued, saying that either he, his wife, Inbal or his brother Omri had visited his father every day since his stroke six years ago. “We haven’t missed a single day,” he told the Times.

Sharon was taken back to his home on the Sycamore Farm in the Negev in 2010, however, he was returned to the hospital shortly thereafter, where he has remained.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.