Yael Dayan, a celebrated Israeli writer who, after the death of her father, the war hero and statesman Moshe Dayan, entered politics and became a proponent of women’s rights, L.G.B.T.Q. issues, and a two-state solution to the Palestinian conflict, died on May 18 at her home in Tel Aviv. She was 85.

Ms. Dayan was the last surviving child of Mr. Dayan, who served as Israel’s defense minister during the Six-Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War in 1973. With his distinctive black eyepatch, having lost his left eye in combat fighting with the British in WWII — he was the unmistakable patriarch of a family dynasty.

Ms. Dayan shot to literary stardom at age 20 with New Face in the Mirror (1959), an autobiographical novel written in English about a young female soldier whose father is a military commander. Other books followed.

As a member of the Labor Party, she served three terms in the Knesset, and was instrumental in passing legislation that outlawed sexual harassment. She also founded the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality, and backed measures protecting L.G.B.T.Q. individuals from discrimination.