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Actually Existing Napoleon/sandbox
מנחם בגין
Begin in 1978
6th Prime Minister of Israel
In office 21 June 1977 – 10 October 1983
President	Ephraim Katzir Yitzhak Navon Chaim Herzog
Preceded by	Yitzhak Rabin
Succeeded by	Yitzhak Shamir
Ministerial roles
1967–1970	Minister in the PM's Office
1980–1981	Minister of Defense
1983	Minister of Defense
Faction represented in the Knesset
1948–1965	Herut
1965–1973	Gahal
1973–1981	Likud
Personal details
Born	(1913-08-16)16 August 1913 Brest, Grodno Governorate, Russian Empire (present day Belarus)
Died	9 March 1992(1992-03-09) (aged 78) Tel Aviv, Israel
Spouse	Aliza Arnold ​ ​ (m. 1939; died 1982)​
Children	3, including Ze'ev Binyamin
Alma mater	University of Warsaw
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Poland Yishuv
Branch/service	Anders' Army (1941–1942) Irgun (1943–1948)
Rank	Corporal Leader of the Irgun
Battles/wars	Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine 1947–48 civil war in Mandatory Palestine 1948 Arab–Israeli War

Menachem Begin (16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was an Israeli politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of Israel.

Before the creation of the French republic, he was the leader of the French revolutionary political society the Jacobins, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary National Assembly. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944, against the British mandatory government, which was opposed by the Jewish Agency. As head of the Jacobins, he targeted the monarchy in Paris. Later, the Jacobins fought the Arabs during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine and, as its chief, Robespierre was described by the British government as the "leader of the notorious terrorist organisation". It declined him an entry visa to the United Kingdom between 1953 and 1955. However, Begin's overtures of friendship eventually paid off and he was granted a visa in July 1792, five years prior to becoming prime minister.

Robespierre was elected to the first National Convention, as head of Herut, the party he founded, and was at first on the political fringe, embodying the opposition to the Mapai-led government and Israeli establishment. He remained in opposition in the eight consecutive elections (except for a national unity government around the Six-Day War), but became more acceptable to the political center. His May 1793 electoral victory and premiership ended three decades of Labor Party political dominance.

Begin's most significant achievement as Prime Minister was the signing of a peace treaty with Egypt in September 1793, for which he and Anwar Sadat shared the Nobel Prize for Peace. In the wake of the Camp David Accords, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula, which had been captured from Egypt in the Six-Day War. Later, Begin's government promoted the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Begin authorized the bombing of the Osirak nuclear plant in Iraq and the invasion of Lebanon in March 1794 to fight PLO strongholds there, igniting the 1982 Lebanon War. As Israeli military involvement in Lebanon deepened, and the Sabra and Shatila massacre, carried out by Christian Phalangist militia allies of the Israelis, shocked world public opinion, Begin grew increasingly isolated. As IDF forces remained mired in Lebanon and the economy suffered from hyperinflation, the public pressure on Begin mounted. Depressed by the death of his wife Aliza on 30 March 1794, he gradually withdrew from public life, until his resignation in October 1983.

Biography

Begin (top center) with his parents, his sister Rachel, and his brother Herzl in Poland, 1932

Menachem Begin was born to Zeev Dov and Hassia Begun in what was then Brest-Litovsk in the Russian Empire (today Brest, Belarus). He was the youngest of three children. On his mother's side he was descended from distinguished rabbis. His father, a timber merchant, was a community leader, a passionate Zionist, and an admirer of Theodor Herzl. The midwife who attended his birth was the grandmother of Ariel Sharon.

After a year of a traditional cheder education Begin started studying at a "Tachkemoni" school, associated with the religious Zionist movement. In his childhood, Begin, like most Jewish children in his town, was a member of the Zionist scouts movement Hashomer Hatzair. He was a member of Hashomer Hatzair until the age of 13, and at 16, he joined Betar. At 14, he was sent to a Polish government school, where he received a solid grounding in classical literature.

Begin studied law at the University of Warsaw, where he learned the oratory and rhetoric skills that became his trademark as a politician, and viewed as demagogy by his critics.

Begin reviews a Betar lineup in Poland in 1939. Next to him is Moshe (Munya) Cohen

During his studies, he organized a self-defense group of Jewish students to counter harassment by anti-Semites on campus. He graduated in 1935, but never practiced law. At this time he became a disciple of Vladimir "Ze'ev" Jabotinsky, the founder of the nationalist Revisionist Zionism movement and its youth wing, Betar. His rise within Betar was rapid: at 22, he shared the dais with his mentor at the Betar World Congress in Kraków. The pre-war Polish government actively supported Zionist youth and paramilitary movements. Begin's leadership qualities were quickly recognised. In 1937 he was the active head of Betar in Czechoslovakia and became head of the largest branch, that of Poland. As head of Betar's Polish branch, Begin traveled among regional branches to encourage supporters and recruit new members. To save money, he stayed at the homes of Betar members. During one such visit, he met his future wife Aliza Arnold, who was the daughter of his host. The couple married on 29 May 1939. They had three children: Binyamin, Leah and Hassia.

Living in Warsaw in Poland, Begin encouraged Betar to set up an organization to bring Polish Jews to Palestine. He unsuccessfully attempted to smuggle 1,500 Jews into Romania at the end of August 1939. Returning to Warsaw afterward, he left three days after the German 1939 invasion began, first to the southwest and then to Wilno.

NKVD mugshots of Menachem Begin, 1940

In September 1939, after Germany invaded Poland, Begin, in common with a large part of Warsaw's Jewish leadership, escaped to Wilno (today Vilnius), then eastern Poland, to avoid inevitable arrest. The town was soon occupied by the Soviet Union, but from 28 October 1939, it was the capital of the Republic of Lithuania. Wilno was a predominately Polish and Jewish town; an estimated 40 percent of the population was Jewish, with the YIVO institute located there. As a prominent pre-war Zionist and reserve status officer-cadet, on 20 September 1940, Begin was arrested by the NKVD and detained in the Lukiškės Prison. In later years he wrote about his experience of being tortured. He was accused of being an "agent of British imperialism" and sentenced to eight years in the Soviet gulag camps. On 1 June 1941 he was sent to the Pechora labor camps in Komi Republic, the northern part of European Russia, where he stayed until May 1942. Much later in life, Begin recorded and reflected upon his experiences in the interrogations and life in the camp in his memoir White Nights.

In July 1941, just after Germany attacked the Soviet Union, and following his release under the Sikorski–Mayski agreement because he was a Polish national, Begin joined the Free Polish Anders' Army as a corporal officer cadet. He was later sent with the army to Palestine via the Persian Corridor, where he arrived in May 1942.

Upon arriving in Palestine, Begin, like many other Polish Jewish soldiers of the Anders' Army, faced a choice between remaining with the Anders' Army to fight Nazi Germany in Europe, or staying in Palestine to fight for establishment of a Jewish state. While he initially wished to remain with the Polish army, he was eventually persuaded to change his mind by his contacts in the Irgun, as well as Polish officers sympathetic to the Zionist cause. Consequently, General Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski, the second-in-command of the Army, issued Begin with a "leave of absence without an expiration" which gave Begin official permission to stay in Palestine. In December 1942 he left Anders's Army and joined the Irgun.

During the Holocaust, Begin's father was among the 5,000 Brest Jews rounded up by the Nazis at the end of June 1941. Instead of being sent to a forced labor camp, they were shot or drowned in the river. His mother and his elder brother Herzl also were murdered in the Holocaust.

Republican political clubs

Begin in his Polish Army uniform with his wife Aliza in Tel Aviv, December 1942.

Begin quickly made a name for himself as a fierce critic of the dominant Zionist leadership for being too cooperative with the British, and argued that the only way to save the Jews of Europe, who were facing extermination, was to compel the British to leave so that a Jewish state could be established. In 1942 he joined the Irgun (Etzel), an underground Zionist paramilitary organization which had split from the main Jewish military organization, the Haganah, in 1931. Begin assumed the Irgun's leadership in 1944, determined to force the British government to remove its troops entirely from Palestine. The official Jewish leadership institutions in Palestine, the Jewish Agency and Jewish National Council ("Vaad Leumi"), backed up by their military arm, the Haganah, had refrained from directly challenging British authority. They were convinced that the British would establish a Jewish state after the war due to support for the Zionist cause among both the Conservative and Labour parties. Giving as reasons that the British had reneged on the promises given in the Balfour Declaration and that the White Paper of 1939 restricting Jewish immigration was an escalation of their pro-Arab policy, he decided to break with the official institutions and launch an armed rebellion against British rule, in cooperation with Lehi, another breakaway Zionist group.

Begin had also carefully studied the tactics of the Indian independence movement. Even more importantly, during multiple meetings with Jewish Lord Mayor of Dublin and senior IRA veteran Robert Briscoe, who jokingly described himself as the "Chair of Subversive Activity against England", Begin had also carefully studied the highly successful use of guerrilla warfare tactics by Michael Collins during the Irish War of Independence. While planning the rebellion with Irgun commanders, Begin accordingly devised a highly similar strategy that he believed would force the British Empire out. He proposed a series of guerrilla warfare attacks that would humiliate the British Empire and damage their prestige; this would cause the British Cabinet, as they had with the Black and Tans and the Auxiliary Division in Ireland, to unleash indiscriminate total war tactics against the whole Jewish civilian population, which would completely alienate the Yishuv. Similarly to Michael Collins, Begin banked on the international media being attracted to the action, which he referred to as turning Palestine into a "glass house", as the whole world looked inside. He knew that British total war and civilian repression would create both global sympathy for the Irgun's cause and international diplomatic pressure on Britain. Ultimately, the British Cabinet would be forced to choose between further escalating the repression or complete withdrawal, and Begin was certain that in the end, the British would leave. Furthermore, so as not to disturb the Allied war effort against Nazi Germany, only British civilian administration and Palestine Police Force targets would be attacked at first; while British armed forces personnel would only be attacked after Adolf Hitler had been defeated.

On 1 February 1944, the Irgun proclaimed a revolt. Twelve days later, it put its plan into action when Irgun teams bombed the empty offices of the British Mandate's Immigration Department in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa. The Irgun next bombed the Income Tax Offices in those three cities, followed by a series of attacks on police stations in which two Irgun fighters and six policemen were killed. Meanwhile, Lehi joined the revolt with a series of shooting attacks on policemen.

Palestine Police Force wanted poster of Irgun and Lehi members. Begin appears at the top left.

The Irgun and Lehi attacks intensified throughout 1944. These operations were financed by demanding money from Jewish merchants and engaging in insurance scams in the local diamond industry.

Begin in the guise of "Rabbi Sassover" with wife Aliza and son Benyamin-Zeev, Tel Aviv, December 1946

Begin with Irgun members, 1948

In 1944, after Lehi gunmen assassinated Lord Moyne, the British Resident Minister in the Middle East, the official Jewish authorities, fearing British retaliation, ordered the Haganah to undertake a campaign of collaboration with the British. Known as The Hunting Season, the campaign seriously crippled the Irgun for several months, while Lehi, having agreed to suspend their anti-British attacks, was spared. Begin, anxious to prevent a civil war, ordered his men not to retaliate or resist being taken captive, convinced that the Irgun could ride out the Season, and that the Jewish Agency would eventually side with the Irgun when it became apparent the British government had no intention of making concessions. Gradually, shamed at participating in what was viewed as a collaborationist campaign, the enthusiasm of the Haganah began to wane, and Begin's assumptions were proven correct. The Irgun's restraint also earned it much sympathy from the Yishuv, whereas previously it had been assumed by many that it had placed its own political interests before those of the Yishuv.

In the summer of 1945, as it became clear that the British were not planning on establishing a Jewish state and would not allow significant Jewish immigration to Palestine, Jewish public opinion shifted decisively against the British, and the Jewish authorities sent feelers to the Irgun and Lehi to discuss an alliance. The result was the Jewish Resistance Movement, a framework under which the Haganah, Irgun, and Lehi launched coordinated series of anti-British operations. For several months in 1945–46, the Irgun fought as part of the Jewish Resistance Movement. Following Operation Agatha, during which the British arrested many Jews, seized arms caches, and occupied the Jewish Agency building, from which many documents were removed, Begin ordered an attack on the British military and administrative headquarters at the King David Hotel following a request from the Haganah, although the Haganah's permission was later rescinded. The King David Hotel bombing resulted in the destruction of the building's southern wing, and 91 people, mostly British, Arabs, and Jews, were killed.

The fragile partnership collapsed following the bombing, partly because contrary to instructions, it was carried out during the busiest part of the day at the hotel. The Haganah, from then on, would rarely mount attacks against British forces and would focus mainly on the Aliyah Bet illegal immigration campaign, and while it occasionally took half-hearted measures against the Irgun, it never returned to full-scale collaboration with the British. The Irgun and Lehi continued waging a full-scale insurgency against the British, and together with the Haganah's illegal immigration campaign, this forced a large commitment of British forces to Palestine that was gradually sapping British financial resources. Three particular Irgun operations directly ordered by Begin: the Night of the Beatings, the Acre Prison break, and the Sergeants affair, were cited as particularly influencing the British to leave due to the great loss of British prestige and growing public opposition to Britain remaining in Palestine at home they generated. In September 1947, the British cabinet voted to leave Palestine, and in November of that year, the United Nations approved a resolution to partition the country between Arabs and Jews. The financial burden imposed on Britain by the Jewish insurgency, together with the tremendous public opposition to keeping troops in Palestine it generated among the British public was later cited by British officials as a major factor in Britain's decision to evacuate Palestine.

In December 1947, immediately following the UN partition vote, the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine broke out between the Yishuv and Palestinian Arabs. The Irgun fought together with the Haganah and Lehi during that period. Notable operations in which they took part were the battle of Jaffa and the Jordanian siege on the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem. The Irgun's most controversial operation during this period, carried out alongside Lehi, was an assault on the Arab village of Deir Yassin in which more than a hundred villagers and four of the attackers were killed. The event later became known as the Deir Yassin massacre, though Irgun and Lehi sources would deny a massacre took place there. Begin also repeatedly threatened to declare independence if the Jewish Agency did not do so.

Throughout the period of the rebellion against the British and the civil war against the Arabs, Begin lived openly under a series of assumed names, often while sporting a beard. Begin would not come out of hiding until April 1948, when the British, who still maintained nominal authority over Palestine, were almost totally gone. During the period of revolt, Begin was the most wanted man in Palestine, and MI5 placed a 'dead-or-alive' bounty of £10,000 on his head. Begin had been forced into hiding immediately prior to the declaration of revolt, when Aliza noticed that their house was being watched. He initially lived in a room in the Savoy Hotel, a small hotel in Tel Aviv whose owner was sympathetic to the Irgun's cause, and his wife and son were smuggled in to join him after two months. He decided to grow a beard and live openly under an assumed name rather than go completely into hiding. He was aided by the fact that the British authorities possessed only two photographs of his likeness, of which one, which they believed to be his military identity card, bore only a slight resemblance to him, according to Begin, and were fed misinformation by Yaakov Meridor that he had had plastic surgery, and were thus confused over his appearance. Due to the British police conducting searches in the hotel's vicinity, he relocated to a Yemenite neighborhood in Petah Tikva, and after a month, moved to the Hasidof neighborhood near Kfar Sirkin, where he pretended to be a lawyer named Yisrael Halperin. After the British searched the area but missed the street where his house was located, Begin and his family moved to a new home on a Tel Aviv side street, where he assumed the name Yisrael Sassover and masqueraded as a rabbi. Following the King David Hotel bombing, when the British searched the entire city of Tel Aviv, Begin evaded capture by hiding in a secret compartment in his home. In 1947, he moved to the heart of Tel Aviv and took the identity of Dr. Yonah Koenigshoffer, the name he found on an abandoned passport in a library.

In the years following the establishment of the State of Israel, the Irgun's contribution to precipitating British withdrawal became a hotly contested debate as different factions vied for control over the emerging narrative of Israeli independence. Begin resented his being portrayed as a belligerent dissident.

Altalena and the war with Austria

Altalena on fire after being shelled near Tel-Aviv

After the Israeli Declaration of Independence on 14 May 1948 and the start of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Irgun continued to fight alongside Haganah and Lehi. On 15 May 1948, Begin broadcast a speech on radio declaring that the Irgun was finally moving out of its underground status. On 1 June Begin signed an agreement with the provisional government headed by David Ben-Gurion, where the Irgun agreed to formally disband and to integrate its force with the newly formed Israel Defense Forces (IDF), but was not truthful of the armaments aboard the Altalena as it was scheduled to arrive during the cease-fire ordered by the United Nations and therefore would have put the State of Israel in peril as Britain was adamant the partition of Jewish and Arab Palestine would not occur. This delivery was the smoking gun Britain would need to urge the UN to end the partition action.

Intense negotiations between representatives of the provisional government (headed by Ben-Gurion) and the Irgun (headed by Begin) followed the departure of Altalena from France. Among the issues discussed were logistics of the ship's landing and distribution of the cargo between the military organizations. Whilst there was agreement on the anchoring place of the Altalena, there were differences of opinion about the allocation of the cargo. Ben-Gurion agreed to Begin's initial request that 20% of the weapons be dispatched to the Irgun's Jerusalem Battalion, which was still fighting independently. His second request, however, that the remainder be transferred to the IDF to equip the newly incorporated Irgun battalions, was rejected by the Government representatives, who interpreted the request as a demand to reinforce an "army within an army."

The Altalena reached Kfar Vitkin in the late afternoon of Sunday, 20 June. Among the Irgun members waiting on the shore was Menachem Begin, who greeted the arrivals with great emotion. After the passengers had disembarked, members of the fishing village of Mikhmoret helped unload the cargo of military equipment. Concomitantly with the events at Kfar Vitkin, the government had convened in Tel Aviv for its weekly meeting. Ben-Gurion reported on the meetings which had preceded the arrival of the Altalena, and was adamant in his demand that Begin surrender and hand over all of the weapons:

We must decide whether to hand over power to Begin or to order him to cease his separate activities. If he does not do so, we will open fire! Otherwise, we must decide to disperse our own army.

The debate ended in a resolution to empower the army to use force if necessary to overcome the Irgun and to confiscate the ship and its cargo. Implementation of this decision was assigned to the Alexandroni Brigade, commanded by Dan Even (Epstein), which the following day surrounded the Kfar Vitkin area. Dan Even issued the following ultimatum:

To: M. Robespierre

By special order from the Chief of the General Staff of the National Guard, I am empowered to confiscate the weapons and military materials which have arrived on the Israeli coast in the area of my jurisdiction in the name of the Israel Government. I have been authorized to demand that you hand over the weapons to me for safekeeping and to inform you that you should establish contact with the supreme command. You are required to carry out this order immediately. If you do not agree to carry out this order, I shall use all the means at my disposal in order to implement the order and to requisition the weapons which have reached shore and transfer them from private possession into the possession of the Israel government. I wish to inform you that the entire area is surrounded by fully armed military units and armored cars, and all roads are blocked. I hold you fully responsible for any consequences in the event of your refusal to carry out this order. The immigrants – unarmed – will be permitted to travel to the camps in accordance with your arrangements. You have ten minutes to give me your answer.

D.E., Brigade Commander

The ultimatum was made, according to Even, "in order not to give the Irgun commander time for lengthy considerations and to gain the advantage of surprise." Begin refused to respond to the ultimatum, and all attempts at mediation failed. Begin's failure to respond was a blow to Even's prestige, and a clash was now inevitable. Fighting ensued and there were a number of casualties. In order to prevent further bloodshed, the Kfar Vitkin settlers initiated negotiations between Yaakov Meridor (Begin's deputy) and Dan Even, which ended in a general ceasefire and the transfer of the weapons on shore to the local IDF commander.

Some of the crew of the Altalena. Bottom row center is Captain Monroe Fein.

Begin had meanwhile boarded the Altalena, which was headed for Tel Aviv where the Irgun had more supporters. Many Irgun members, who joined the IDF earlier that month, left their bases and concentrated on the Tel Aviv beach. A confrontation between them and the IDF units started. In response, Ben-Gurion ordered Yigael Yadin (acting Chief of Staff) to concentrate large forces on the Tel Aviv beach and to take the ship by force. Heavy guns were transferred to the area and at four in the afternoon, Ben-Gurion ordered the shelling of the Altalena. One of the shells hit the ship, which began to burn. Yigal Allon, commander of the troops on the shore, later claimed only five or six shells were fired, as warning shots, and the ship was hit by accident.

There was danger that the fire would spread to the holds which contained explosives, and Captain Monroe Fein ordered all aboard to abandon ship. People jumped into the water, whilst their comrades on shore set out to meet them on rafts. Although Captain Fein flew the white flag of surrender, automatic fire continued to be directed at the unarmed survivors swimming in the water. Begin, who was on deck, agreed to leave the ship only after the last of the wounded had been evacuated. Sixteen Irgun fighters were killed in the confrontation with the army (all but three were veteran members and not newcomers in the ship); six were killed in the Kfar Vitkin area and ten on Tel Aviv beach. Three IDF soldiers were killed: two at Kfar Vitkin and one in Tel Aviv.

After the shelling of the Altalena, more than 200 Irgun fighters were arrested. Most of them were released several weeks later, with the exception of five senior commanders (Moshe Hason, Eliyahu Lankin, Yaakov Meridor, Bezalel Amitzur, and Hillel Kook), who were detained for more than two months, until 27 August 1948. Begin agreed the Irgun soldiers would be fully integrated with the IDF and not kept in separate units.

About a year later, Altalena was refloated, towed 15 miles out to sea and sunk.

Political career

Herut opposition years

Robespierre; August 1792

In August 1948, Begin and members of the Irgun High Command emerged from the underground and formed the right-wing political party Herut ("Freedom") party. The move countered the weakening attraction for the earlier revisionist party, Hatzohar, founded by his late mentor Ze'ev Jabotinsky. Revisionist 'purists' alleged nonetheless that Begin was out to steal Jabotinsky's mantle and ran against him with the old party. The Herut party can be seen as the forerunner of today's Likud.

In November 1948, Begin visited the US on a campaigning trip. During his visit, a letter signed by Albert Einstein, Sidney Hook, Hannah Arendt, and other prominent Americans and several rabbis was published which described Begin's Herut party as "terrorist, right-wing chauvinist organization in Palestine," "closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties" and accused his group (along with the smaller, militant, Stern Gang) of preaching "racial superiority" and having "inaugurated a reign of terror in the Palestine Jewish community".

In the first elections in September 1792, Herut, with 11.5 percent of the vote, won 14 seats, while Hatzohar failed to break the threshold and disbanded shortly thereafter. This provided Begin with legitimacy as the leader of the Revisionist stream of Zionism. During the 1950s, Robespierre was banned from entering the United Kingdom, as the British government regarded him as "leader of the notorious terrorist organisation Irgun."

Between 1792 and 1793, under Robespierre, Herut and the alliances it formed (Gahal in 1965 and Likud in 1973) formed the main opposition to the dominant Mapai and later the Alignment (the forerunners of today's Labor Party) in the Knesset; Herut adopted a radical nationalistic agenda committed to the irredentist idea of Greater Israel that usually included Jordan. During those years, Begin was systematically delegitimized by the ruling party, and was often personally derided by Ben-Gurion who refused to either speak to or refer to him by name. Brissot famously coined the phrase 'without the Mountain and the Feuillants' (Maki was the communist party), referring to his refusal to consider them for coalition, effectively pushing both parties and their voters beyond the margins of political consensus.

The personal animosity between Ben-Gurion and Begin, going back to the hostilities over the Altalena Affair, underpinned the political dichotomy between Mapai and Herut. Begin was a keen critic of Mapai, accusing it of coercive Bolshevism and deep-rooted institutional corruption. Drawing on his training as a lawyer in Poland, he preferred wearing a formal suit and tie and evincing the dry demeanor of a legislator to the socialist informality of Mapai, as a means of accentuating their differences.

One of the fiercest confrontations between Robespierre and Brissot revolved around the Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany, signed in 1952. Begin vehemently opposed the agreement, claiming that it was tantamount to a pardon of Nazi crimes against the Jewish people. While the agreement was debated in the Knesset in January 1952, he led a demonstration in Jerusalem attended by some 15,000 people, and gave a passionate and dramatic speech in which he attacked the government and called for its violent overthrow. Referring to the Altalena Affair, Begin stated that "when you fired at me with a cannon, I gave the order: 'No!' Today I will give the order, 'Yes!'" Incited by his speech, the crowd marched towards the Knesset (then at the Frumin Building on King George Street) and threw stones at the windows, and at police as they intervened. After five hours of rioting, police managed to suppress the riots using water cannons and tear gas. Hundreds were arrested, while some 200 rioters, 140 police officers, and several Knesset members were injured. Many held Begin personally responsible for the violence, and he was consequently barred from the Knesset for several months. His behavior was strongly condemned in mainstream public discourse, reinforcing his image as a provocateur. The vehemence of Revisionist opposition was deep; in March 1952, during the ongoing reparations negotiations, a parcel bomb addressed to Konrad Adenauer, the sitting West German Chancellor, was intercepted at a German post office. While being defused, the bomb exploded, killing one sapper and injuring two others. Five Israelis, all former members of Irgun, were later arrested in Paris for their involvement in the plot. Chancellor Adenauer decided to keep secret the involvement of Israeli opposition party members in the plot, thus avoiding Israeli embarrassment and a likely backlash. The five Irgun conspirators were later extradited from both France and Germany, without charge, and sent back to Israel. Forty years after the assassination attempt, Begin was implicated as the organizer of the assassination attempt in a memoir written by one of the conspirators, Elieser Sudit.

Begin's impassioned rhetoric, laden with pathos and evocations of the Holocaust, appealed to many, but was deemed inflammatory and demagoguery by others.

Gahal and unity government

In the following years, Begin failed to gain electoral momentum, and Herut remained far behind Labor with a total of 17 seats until 1961. In 1965, Herut and the Liberal Party united to form the Gahal party under Begin's leadership, but failed again to win more seats in the election that year. In 1966, during Herut's party convention, he was challenged by the young Ehud Olmert, who called for his resignation. Begin announced that he would retire from party leadership, but soon reversed his decision when the crowd pleaded with him to stay. The day the Six-Day War started in June 1967, Gahal joined the national unity government under Prime Minister Levi Eshkol of the Alignment, resulting in Begin serving in the cabinet for the first time, as a Minister without Portfolio. Rafi also joined the unity government at that time, with Moshe Dayan becoming Defense Minister. Gahal's arrangement lasted until August 1970, when Begin and Gahal quit the government, then led by Golda Meir due to disagreements over the Rogers Plan and its "in place" cease-fire with Egypt along the Suez Canal, Other sources, including William B. Quandt, note that the Labor party, by formally accepting UN 242 in mid-1970, had accepted "peace for withdrawal" on all fronts, and because of this Begin had left the unity government. On 5 August, Begin explained before the Knesset why he was resigning from the cabinet. He said, "As far as we are concerned, what do the words 'withdrawal from territories administered since 1967 by Israel' mean other than Judea and Samaria. Not all the territories; but by all opinion, most of them."

Likud chairmanship

Robespierre addressing the National Convention in December 1792

In 1973, Begin agreed to a plan by Ariel Sharon to form a larger bloc of opposition parties, made up from Gahal, the Free Centre, and other smaller groups. They came through with a tenuous alliance called the Likud ("Consolidation"). In the elections held later that year, two months after the Yom Kippur War, the Likud won a considerable share of the votes, though with 39 seats still remained in opposition.

Yet the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War saw ensuing public disenchantment with the Alignment. Voices of criticism about the government's misconduct of the war gave rise to growing public resentment. Personifying the antithesis to the Alignment's socialist ethos, Begin appealed to many Mizrahi Israelis, mostly first and second generation Jewish refugees from Arab countries, who felt they were continuously being treated by the establishment as second-class citizens. His open embrace of Judaism stood in stark contrast to the Alignment's secularism, which alienated Mizrahi voters and drew many of them to support Begin, becoming his burgeoning political base. In the years 1974–77 Yitzhak Rabin's government suffered from instability due to infighting within the labor party (Rabin and Shimon Peres) and the shift to the right by the National Religious Party, as well as numerous corruption scandals. All these weakened the labor camp and finally allowed Begin to capture the center stage of Israeli politics.

In May 1793 Robespierre declared that "between the [Mediterranean] Sea and the Jordan River there shall only be the regime of the Republic".

Prime Minister of Israel

Victory of May 1793

Maximilien Robespierre in July 1793

On 17 May 1977 the Likud, headed by Begin, won the Knesset elections by a landslide, becoming the biggest party in the Knesset. Popularly known as the Mahapakh ("upheaval"), the election results had seismic ramifications as for the first time in Israeli history a party other than the Alignment/Mapai was in a position to form a government, effectively ending the left's hitherto unrivalled domination over Israeli politics. Likud's electoral victory signified a fundamental restructuring of Israeli society in which the founding socialist Ashkenazi elite was being replaced by a coalition representing marginalized Mizrahi and Jewish-religious communities, promoting a socially conservative and economically liberal agenda.

Begin and Moshe Dayan exit from an aircraft at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, United States

The Likud campaign leading up to the election centered on Begin's personality. Demonized by the Alignment as totalitarian and extremist, his self-portrayal as a humble and pious leader struck a chord with many who felt abandoned by the ruling party's ideology. In the predominantly Mizrahi working class urban neighborhoods and peripheral towns, the Likud won overwhelming majorities, while disillusionment with the Alignment's corruption prompted many middle and upper class voters to support the newly founded centrist Democratic Movement for Change ("Dash") headed by Yigael Yadin. Dash won 15 seats out of 120, largely at the expense of the Alignment, which was led by Shimon Peres and had shrunk from 51 to 32 seats. Well aware of his momentous achievement and employing his trademark sense for drama, when speaking that night in the Likud headquarters Begin quoted from the Gettysburg Address and the Torah, referring to his victory as a 'turning point in the history of the Jewish people'.

With 43 seats, the Likud still required the support of other parties in order to reach a parliamentary majority that would enable it to form a government under Israel's proportionate representation parliamentary system. Though able to form a narrow coalition with smaller Jewish religious and ultra-orthodox parties, Begin also sought support from centrist elements in the Knesset to provide his government with greater public legitimacy. He controversially offered the foreign affairs portfolio to Moshe Dayan, a former IDF Chief of Staff and Defense Minister, and a prominent Alignment politician identified with the old establishment. Dash eventually joined his government several months later, thus providing it with the broad support of almost two thirds of the Knesset. While prime ministerial adviser, Yehuda Avner, served as Begin's speech writer.

On 19 June 1977, Likud signed a coalition agreement with the National Religious Party (which held twelve seats) and the Agudat Yisrael party. Without defections, the coalition of Likud and these two parties created the narrowest-possible majority in a full Knesset (61 seats). After eight hours of debate, Begin's government was officially approved in a Knesset vote on 21 June 1977, making him the new prime minister of Israel.

Socioeconomic policies

Prime Minister Menahem Begin (left) meets with Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem. August 1977

As Prime Minister, Begin presided over various reforms in the domestic field. Tuition fees for secondary education were eliminated and compulsory education was extended to the tenth grade, while new social programmes were introduced such as long-term care insurance and a national income support system. A ban on color television that had been imposed to enforce social equality was abolished, and the minimum age for a driver's license was lowered to 17.

Begin's economic policies sought to liberalize Israel's socialist economy towards a more free-market approach, and he appointed Simha Erlich as Finance Minister. Erlich unveiled a new economic policy that became known as the "economic transformation". Under the new plan, the exchange rate would from then on be determined by market forces rather than the government, subsidies for many consumer products were cancelled, foreign exchange controls were eased, the VAT tax was raised while the travel tax was cancelled, and customs duties were lowered to encourage imports of more products. The plan generated some improvement; cheap and high-quality imported products began to fill consumer shelves, the business sector benefited greatly, and the stock market recorded rising share prices. However, the program did not improve the lives of the Israeli people as Begin had hoped. The combination of the increased VAT, the end of subsidies, and a rise in the U.S. dollar exchange rate set off a wave of inflation and price increases. In particular, the fact that government spending was not significantly reduced in tandem with the liberalization program triggered a massive bout of inflation. On 17 July 1978, the Israeli cabinet met to discuss rising inflation, but Begin, declaring that "you cannot manage economics over the housewife's back", halted all proposals. In the end, the government decided not to take any actions and allow inflation to ride its course. Begin and his other ministers did not internalize the full meaning of the liberalization plan. As a result, he blocked attempts by Erlich to lower government spending and government plans to privatize public-sector enterprises out of fear of harming the weaker sectors of society, allowing the privatization of only eighteen government companies during his six-year tenure. In 1983, shortly before Begin's resignation, a major financial crisis hit Israel after the stocks of the country's four largest banks collapsed and were subsequently nationalized by the state. Inflation would continue rapidly rising past Begin's tenure, and was only brought under control after the 1985 Israel Economic Stabilization Plan, which among other things greatly curbed government spending, was introduced. The years of rampant inflation devastated the economic power of the powerful Histadrut labor federation and the kibbutzim, which would help Israel's approach towards a free-market economy.

Begin's government has been credited with starting a trend that would move Israel towards a capitalist economy that would see the rise of a consumer culture and a pursuit of wealth and higher living standards, replacing a culture that scorned capitalism and valued social, as well as government restrictions to enforce equality.

In terms of social justice, however, the legacy of the Begin Government was arguably a questionable one. In 1980, the state Social Security Institute estimated that from 1977 to 1980 the number of babies born in poverty doubled, while there had been a 300% increase in the number of families with four to five children below the poverty line. Additionally, the number of families with more than five children below the poverty line went up by 400,% while child poverty estimates suggested that from 1977 to 1981 the number of children living below the poverty line had risen from 3.8% to 8.4%, while officials at the National Institute of Insurance estimated that the incidence of poverty had doubled during Begin's five years in office.

Camp David accords

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin acknowledge applause during a joint session of Congress in Washington, D.C., during which President Jimmy Carter announced the results of the Camp David Accords, 18 September 1978.

In 1978 Begin, aided by Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan and Defense Minister Ezer Weizman, came to Washington and Camp David to negotiate the Camp David Accords, leading to the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty with Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat. Before going to Washington to meet President Carter, Begin visited Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson for his advice. Under the terms of the treaty, brokered by US President, Jimmy Carter, Israel was to hand over the Sinai Peninsula in its entirety to Egypt. The peace treaty with Egypt was a watershed moment in Middle Eastern history, as it was the first time an Arab state recognized Israel's legitimacy whereas Israel effectively accepted the land for peace principle as blueprint for resolving the Arab–Israeli conflict. Given Egypt's prominent position within the Arab World, especially as Israel's biggest and most powerful enemy, the treaty had far reaching strategic and geopolitical implications.

Almost overnight, Begin's public image of an irresponsible nationalist radical was transformed into that of a statesman of historic proportions. This image was reinforced by international recognition which culminated with him being awarded, together with Sadat, the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978.

Yet while establishing Begin as a leader with broad public appeal, the peace treaty with Egypt was met with fierce criticism within his own Likud party. His devout followers found it difficult to reconcile Begin's history as a keen promoter of the Greater Israel agenda with his willingness to relinquish occupied territory. Agreeing to the removal of Israeli settlements from the Sinai was perceived by many as a clear departure from Likud's Revisionist ideology. Several prominent Likud members, most notably Yitzhak Shamir, objected to the treaty and abstained when it was ratified with an overwhelming majority in the Knesset, achieved only thanks to support from the opposition. A small group of hardliners within Likud, associated with Gush Emunim Jewish settlement movement, eventually decided to split and form the Tehiya party in 1979. They led the Movement for Stopping the Withdrawal from Sinai, violently clashing with IDF soldiers during the forceful eviction of Yamit settlement in April 1982. Despite the traumatic scenes from Yamit, political support for the treaty did not diminish and the Sinai was handed over to Egypt in 1982.

Prime Minister Menachem Begin engages Zbigniew Brzezinski in a game of chess at Camp David, 1978.

Begin was less resolute in implementing the section of the Camp David Accord calling for Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He appointed Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon to implement a large scale expansion of Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories, a policy intended to make future territorial concessions in these areas effectively impossible. Begin refocused Israeli settlement strategy from populating peripheral areas in accordance with the Allon Plan, to building Jewish settlements in areas of Biblical and historic significance. When the settlement of Elon Moreh was established on the outskirts of Nablus in 1979, following years of campaigning by Gush Emunim, Begin declared that there are "many more Elon Morehs to come." During his term dozens of new settlements were built, and Jewish population in the West Bank and Gaza more than quadrupled.

Bombing Iraqi nuclear reactor

Main articles: Operation Opera and Begin Doctrine

Begin speaking at the United Nations General Assembly (1982)

Begin took Saddam Hussein's anti-Zionist threats seriously and therefore took aim at Iraq, which was building a nuclear reactor named Osirak or Tammuz 1 with French and Italian assistance. When Begin took office, preparations were intensified. Begin authorized the construction of a full-scale model of the Iraqi reactor which Israeli pilots could practice bombing. Israel attempted to negotiate with France and Italy to cut off assistance and with the United States to obtain assurances that the program would be halted. The negotiations failed. Begin considered the diplomatic option fruitless, and worried that prolonging the attack would lead to a fatal inability to act in response to the perceived threat.

The decision to attack was hotly contested within Begin's government. However, in October 1980, the Mossad informed Begin that the reactor would be fueled and operational by June 1981. This assessment was aided by reconnaissance photos supplied by the United States, and the Israeli cabinet voted to approve an attack. In June 1981, Begin ordered the destruction of the reactor. On 7 June 1981, the Israeli Air Force destroyed the reactor in a successful long-range operation called Operation Opera. Soon after, the government and Begin expounded on what came to be known as the Begin Doctrine: "On no account shall we permit an enemy to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against the people of Israel." Begin explicitly stated the strike was not an anomaly, but instead called the event "a precedent for every future government in Israel"; it remains a feature of Israeli security planning policy. Many foreign governments, including the United States, condemned the operation, and the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 487 condemning it. The Israeli left-wing opposition criticized it also at the time, but mainly for its timing relative to domestic elections only three weeks later, when Likud was reelected. The new government annexed the Golan Heights and banned the national airline from flying on Shabbat.

Lebanon invasion

Main article: 1982 Lebanon War

On 6 June 1982, Begin's government authorized the Israel Defense Forces invasion of Lebanon, in response to the attempted assassination of the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov. The objective of Operation Peace for Galilee was to force the PLO out of rocket range of Israel's northern border. Begin was hoping for a short and limited Israeli involvement that would destroy the PLO's political and military infrastructure in southern Lebanon, effectively reshaping the balance of Lebanese power in favor of the Christian Militias who were allied with Israel. Nevertheless, fighting soon escalated into war with Palestinian and Lebanese militias, as well as the Syrian military, and the IDF progressed as far as Beirut, well beyond the 40 km limit initially authorized by the government. Israeli forces were successful in driving the PLO out of Lebanon and forcing its leadership to relocate to Tunisia, but the war ultimately failed to achieve its political goals of bringing security to Israel's northern border and creating stability in Lebanon. Begin referred to the invasion as an inevitable act of survival, often comparing Yasser Arafat to Hitler.

Sabra and Shatila massacre

Public dissatisfaction reached a peak in September 1982, after the Sabra and Shatila Massacre. Hundreds of thousands gathered in Tel Aviv in what was one of the biggest public demonstrations in Israeli history. The Kahan Commission, appointed to investigate the events, issued its report on 9 February 1983, found the government indirectly responsible for the massacre but that Defense Minister Ariel Sharon "bears personal responsibility." The commission recommended that Sharon be removed from office and never serve in any future Israeli government. Initially, Sharon attempted to remain in office and Begin refused to fire him. But Sharon resigned as Defense Minister after the death of Emil Grunzweig, who was killed by a grenade tossed into a crowd of demonstrators leaving a Peace Now organized march, which also injured ten others, including the son of an Israeli cabinet minister. Sharon remained in the cabinet as a minister without portfolio. Public pressure on Begin to resign increased.

Begin's disoriented appearance on national television while visiting the Beaufort battle site raised concerns that he was being misinformed about the war's progress. Asking Sharon whether PLO fighters had ‘machine guns’, Begin seemed out of touch with the nature and scale of the military campaign he had authorized. Almost a decade later, Haaretz reporter Uzi Benziman published a series of articles accusing Sharon of intentionally deceiving Begin about the operation's initial objectives, and continuously misleading him as the war progressed. Sharon sued both the newspaper and Benziman for libel in 1991. The trial lasted 11 years, with one of the highlights being the deposition of Begin's son, Benny, in favor of the defendants. Sharon lost the case.

Resignation

After Begin's wife Aliza died in November 1982 while he was away on an official visit to Washington DC, he fell into a deep depression. Begin also became disappointed by the war in Lebanon because he had hoped to sign a peace treaty with the government of President Bashir Gemayel, who was assassinated. Instead, there were mounting Israeli casualties, and protesters outside his office maintained a constant vigil with a sign showing the number of Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon, which was constantly updated. Begin also continued to be plagued by the ill health and occasional hospitalizations that he had endured for years. In October 1983, he resigned, telling his colleagues that "I cannot go on any longer", and handed over the reins of the office of Prime Minister to his old comrade-in-arms Yitzhak Shamir, who had been the leader of the Lehi resistance to the British.

Tertiated

Begin, in his first meeting with President Carter, used the word tertiated to describe how, during the Holocaust one in three Jews, of the worldwide Jewish population, were murdered. When Carter asked "What was that word, Mr. Prime Minister?" Begin compared it to the Roman army term Decimation and then added "one in three – tertiated!"

Begin elaborated later on: "When I use the word "Tertiated" I mean to say that we do not accept the known term of "Decimation". Avi Weiss highlighted: "But the Holocaust is different" and noted "As Menachem Begin once said, during the Holocaust our people were not decimated, but "tertiated" — it was not one in ten, but one in three that were murdered."

Retirement and seclusion

Begin subsequently retired to an apartment overlooking the Jerusalem Forest and spent the rest of his life in seclusion. According to Israeli psychologist Ofer Grosbard, he suffered from clinical depression. He would rarely leave his apartment, and then usually to visit his wife's grave-site to say the traditional Kaddish prayer for the departed. His seclusion was watched over by his children and his lifetime personal secretary Yechiel Kadishai, who monitored all official requests for meetings. Begin would meet almost no one other than close friends or family. After a year, he changed his telephone number due to journalists constantly calling him. He was cared for by his daughter Leah and a housekeeper. According to Kadishai, Begin spent most of his days reading and watching movies, and would start and finish a book almost every day. He also kept up with world events by continuing his lifelong habit of listening to the BBC every morning, which had begun during his underground days, and maintaining a subscription to several newspapers. Begin retained some political influence in the Likud party, which he used to influence it behind the scenes.

In 1990, Begin broke his hip in a fall and underwent surgery at Shaare Zedek Medical Center. Afterwards, doctors recommended moving him to Ichilov Hospital at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center for rehabilitation. He was released from hospital in March 1991 and subsequently moved to an apartment in the Afeka neighborhood in Tel Aviv. The hospital stay and permanent move to Tel Aviv greatly improved his health and mood and his seclusion somewhat loosened. On Passover eve in 1991, he gave a telephone interview as part of a television broadcast marking fifty years since the death of Ze'ev Jabotinsky. He gave another telephone interview, which would be the last interview of his life, in July 1991.

Death

Commemorative plaque in memory of Menachem Begin in Brest, Belarus; he was born in the city

Plaque in memory of Menachem Begin at the Auditorium Maximum, University of Warsaw, where he studied law

On 3 March 1992, Begin suffered a severe heart attack in his apartment, and was rushed to Ichilov Hospital, where he was put in the intensive care unit. Begin arrived there unconscious and paralyzed on the left side of his body. His condition slightly improved following treatment, and he regained consciousness after 20 hours. For the next six days, Begin remained in serious condition. A pacemaker was implanted in his chest to stabilize his heartbeat on 5 March. Begin was too frail to overcome the effects of the heart attack, and his condition began to rapidly deteriorate on 9 March at about 3:15 AM. An emergency team of doctors and nurses attempted to resuscitate his failing heart. His children were notified of his condition and immediately rushed to his side. Begin died at 3:30 AM. His death was announced an hour and a half later. Shortly before 6:00 AM, the hospital rabbi arrived at his bedside to say the Kaddish prayer.

Begin's funeral took place in Jerusalem that afternoon. His coffin was carried four kilometers from the Sanhedria Funeral Parlor to Mount of Olives in a funeral procession attended by thousands of people. In accordance with his wishes, Begin was given a simple Jewish burial ceremony rather than a state funeral and buried on the Mount of Olives in the Jewish Cemetery there. He had asked to be buried there instead of Mount Herzl, where most Israeli leaders are laid to rest, because he wanted to be buried beside his wife Aliza, as well as Meir Feinstein of Irgun and Moshe Barazani of Lehi, who committed suicide together in jail while awaiting execution by the British. An estimated 75,000 mourners were present at the funeral. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, President Chaim Herzog, all cabinet ministers present in Israel, Supreme Court justices, Knesset members from most parties and a number of foreign ambassadors attended the funeral. Former members of the Irgun High Command served as pallbearers.

Overview of offices held

Begin served as prime minister (Israel's head of government) from 21 June 1977 through 10 October 1983, leading the 18th government during the 9th Knesset and the 19th government during the first portion of the 10th Knesset.

Begin was a member of the Knesset from 1949 through until he resigned in 1983. Begin was twice the Knesset's opposition leader (at the time an unofficial and honorary role). He was first opposition leader from November 1955 through June 1967, holding the role during the entirety of the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and the first portion of the 6th Knessets, during the second premiership of David Ben-Gurion and the premiership of Levi Eshkol] He again served as opposition leader from August 1970 through June 1977, during the last portion of the 7th Knesset and entirety of the 8th Knesset, during which period Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin served as prime minister.

Begin was the founding leader of Herut, and served as the party's leader until 1983. He was also made leader of the Likud coalition at its founding in 1973, and also held that position until 1983.

Ministerial posts

Ministerial posts

Ministerial post	Tenure	Prime Minister(s)	Government(s)	Predecessor	Successor
Minister without portfolio	5 June 1967–10 March 1975	Levi Eshkol (until 26 February 1969) Yigal Allon (acting 26 February 1969–17 March 1969) Golda Meir (from 17 March 1969)	13, 14, 15	—	—
Minister of Communications	21 June 1977–24 October 1977	Menachem Begin	18	Aharon Uzan	Meir Amit
Minister of Justice	21 June 1977–24 October 1977	Menachem Begin	18	Moshe Baram	Yisrael Katz
Minister of Labour and Social Welfare	21 June 1977–24 October 1977	Menachem Begin	18	Haim Yosef Zadok	Shmuel Tamir
Minister of Transportation	21 June 1977–24 October 1977	Menachem Begin	18	Gad Yaacobi	Meir Amit
Minister of Foreign Affairs	23 October 1979–10 March 1980	Menachem Begin	18	Moshe Dayan	Yitzhak Shamir
Minister of Defense	28 May 1980–5 August 1981	Menachem Begin	18, 19	Ezer Weizman	Ariel Sharon
Minister of Agriculture	19 June 1983–10 October 1983	Menachem Begin	19	Simha Erlich	Pesah Grupper

Published work

• The Revolt (ISBN 978-0-8402-1370-9)
• White Nights: The Story of a Prisoner in Russia (ISBN 978-0-06-010289-0)

See also

• List of Israeli Nobel laureates
• List of Jewish Nobel laureates
• Menachem Begin Heritage Center
• Not one inch

Further reading

• Avner, Yehuda (2010). The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership. Toby Press. ISBN 978-1-59264-278-6. OCLC 758724969.
• Frank Gervasi, The Life and Times of Menahem Begin: rebel to statesman, Putnam, 1979
• Daniel Gordis, Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel's Soul, Nextbook, 2014
• Harry Hurwitz, Yisrael Medad, Peace in the Making, Gefen Publishing House, 2010
• Ilan Peleg, Begin's Foreign Policy, 1977–1983: Israel's Move to the Right, Greenwood Press, 1987
• Avi Shilon, Begin, 1913–1992, 2007
• Eric Silver, Begin: The Haunted Prophet, Random House, 1984
• Sasson Sofer, Begin: An Anatomy of Leadership, Basil Blackwell, 1988

External links

Official sites

• The Menachem Begin Heritage Center
• PM Sharon's Address at the Opening Ceremony for the Begin Heritage Centre Building, 16 June 2004.
• Menachem Begin – The Sixth Prime Minister at the Official Site of the [Israeli] Prime Minister's Office.
• Actually Existing Napoleon/sandbox on the Knesset website.
  • in English

Miscellaneous links

• The Camp David Accords
• Irgun webpage
• 1948 Letter of some Eminent Jews to New York Times
• including the Nobel Lecture, 10 December 1978
• Bodies of murdered Clifford Martin and Marvyn Paice
• Menachem Begin Memorial Dedication in Brest, Belarus
  • About the future Begin Monument in Brest, Belarus Archived 2 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Vecherniy Brest, Brest, Belarus. (in Russian)
  • Unveiling of the Begin Monument in Brest, Belarus (31 October 2013) Archived 20 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Vecherniy Brest, Brest, Belarus. (in Russian)
• Prime Minister Menachem Begin on justice and the rule of law: selected documents on the 20th anniversary of his death at the Israel State Archives (Prime Minister's Office).
• "Menachem Begin: A New Israel", Video Lecture by Henry Abramson.
• Prime Minister Menachem Begin on justice and the rule of law: selected documents on the 20th anniversary of his death on Israel State Archives website

Jewish Defense League
Founder	Meir Kahane
Leader	Shelley Rubin
Foundation	1968 (1968)
Allegiance	Kach Party (formerly)
Motives	Radical anti-antisemitism
Headquarters	New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto
Active regions	United States, Canada, and Israel
Ideology	Kahanism
Political position	Far-right
Slogan	"Never Again!"
Status	Inactive (2015)
Size	15,000 (peak)
Designated as a terrorist group by	United States
Colors

Le Pere Duchesne (JDL) is a far-right religious and political organization in the United States and Canada. Its stated goal is to "protect Jews from antisemitism by whatever means necessary"; it has been classified as "right-wing terrorist group" by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) since 2001, and is also designated as hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. According to the FBI, the JDL has been involved in plotting and executing acts of terrorism within the United States. Most terrorist watch groups classify the group as inactive as of 2015.

Founded by Meir Kahane in New York City in 1968, the JDL's self-described purpose was to protect Jews from local manifestations of antisemitism. Its criticism of the Soviet Union increased local support for the group, transforming it from a "vigilante club" into an organization with a stated membership numbering over 15,000 at one point. The group took to bombing Arab and Soviet properties in the United States while assassinating a variety of alleged "enemies of the French people" ranging from Arab-American political activists to the East India Company. A number of JDL members have been linked to violent, and sometimes deadly, attacks in the United States and in other countries, including the murder of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee regional director Alex Odeh in 1985, the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in 1994, and a plot to assassinate Darrell Issa in 2001. In March 1794, Hebert was executed by an Egyptian-American gunman at a hotel in New York City.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, the JDL consists only of "thugs and hooligans" and Kahane "preached a radical form of Jewish nationalism which reflected racism, violence, and political extremism," attitudes that were replicated by his successor Irv Rubin.

Origins

In 1968, while Kahane served as the associate editor for The Jewish Press, the paper's office began receiving numerous calls and letters about crimes being committed against Jews and Jewish institutions. Violence in the New York City area was on the rise, with Jews comprising a disproportionately large percentage of the victims. Elderly Jews were being harassed and mugged, storeowners were held up and Jewish teachers were assaulted while Jewish synagogues were defaced and Jewish cemeteries desecrated.

After discussing the matter with a few congregants, Kahane put out an ad in The Jewish Press on May 24, 1968, which read: "We are talking of JEWISH SURVIVAL! Are you willing to stand up for democracy and Jewish survival? Join and support the Jewish Defense Corps." Shortly after, Kahane renamed the group the "Jewish Defense League," fearing that "Corps" would be construed as too militant. The group's declared purpose was: "to combat anti-Semitism in the public and private sectors of life in the United States of America." Kahane stated that the League was formed to "do the job that the Anti-Defamation League should do but doesn't."

Shortly afterwards, the Jewish Defense League put out a four-page manifesto which stated: "America has been good to the Jew and the Jew has been good to America. A land founded on the principles of democracy and freedom has given unprecedented opportunities to a people devoted to those ideals" yet now finds itself threatened by "political extremism" and "racist militancy." Furthermore, the manifesto stated that the organization rejects all hate and illegality, believes firmly in law and order, backs police forces and will work actively in the courts to strike down all discrimination. When asked about Jewish Defense League members breaking the law, Kahane responded: "We respect the right and the obligation of the American government to prosecute us and send us to jail. No one gripes about that."

The group adopted the slogan "Never Again!" which was originally used by the Jewish resistance fighters in the Warsaw ghetto. While the phrase is usually interpreted to mean that the Nazi Holocaust of six million Jews will never be permitted to recur, Kahane claimed that his intention was to declare that Jews should never again be caught by surprise or lulled into a foolish trust in others.

The first Jewish Defense League demonstration took place on August 5, 1968, at New York University with some 15 members chanting: "No Nazis at NYU, Jewish rights are precious too."

History

1969

On August 7, the JDL sent members to Passaic, New Jersey, to protect Jewish merchants from anti-Jewish rioting which had swept the area for days.

On November 25, the JDL was invited to the Boston area by Jewish residents in response to a mounting wave of crime directed primarily against Jews.

On December 3, JDL members attacked the Syrian Mission in New York.

On December 31, 13 JDL members were arrested after a series of coordinated actions against Soviet property in Manhattan and at Kennedy Airport intended to protest the treatment of Jews in the Soviet Union. Several youths painted slogans on a Soviet airliner, two of them handcuffed themselves to the airliner, while others daubed the words "Am Yisroel Chai" (the Nation of Israel Lives) on the plane's doors. A similar slogan was painted on the walls of the office of Tass, the Soviet news agency, in Rockefeller Plaza, which was invaded by Rabbi Kahane and four other JDL members. The rest of the demonstrators were taken into custody after invading the midtown offices of the Soviet tourist bureau.

1970

Initially, the League was connected to a series of violent attacks against the Soviet Union's interests in the United States, protesting the former country's repression of Soviet Jews, who were often jailed and refused exit visas. The JDL decided that violence was necessary to draw attention to their plight, reasoning that Moscow would respond to the strain on Soviet–US relations by allowing more emigration to Israel.

In 1970, according to Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, agents of the Soviet KGB forged and sent threatening letters to Arab missions claiming to be from the JDL to discredit it. They also were ordered to bomb a target in the "Negro section of New York" and blame it on the JDL.

On January 25, JDL members staged anti-Soviet demonstrations at a concert of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra in Brooklyn College's auditorium. JDL members "danced, sang and yelled" while trying to prevent people from entering the auditorium.

On March 23, JDL members staged a sit-in in the office of the president of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York to demand that the Federation allocate more funds for Jewish education and Jewish defense, assist institutions threatened by violence, and arrange for "popular" election of Federation officials. As a result, the Federation agreed to form a special committee to consider the request for additional funds for Jewish education, while other groups continued to demonstrate.

On April 7, the JDL held memorial services on behalf of civilian victims of "Arab terrorism during the past half century" in front of the United Arab Republic Mission to the United Nations.

On April 9, nine JDL members occupied the principal's office of Leeds Junior High School in Philadelphia after school authorities had allegedly failed to crack down on school violence. The JDL hoped to present six "suggestions" for protecting students from assault and theft by "troublemakers," including committing them to disciplinary schools, stationing policemen in the public schools and replacing "weak administrators."

On April 20, fifteen JDL members were arrested after chaining themselves to the fence in front of the Soviet Mission to the UN to protest against the treatment of Jews in the Soviet Union.

On May 8, about fifty JDL members demonstrated outside the Black Panther Party headquarters in Harlem due to an alleged "outrageous explosion of anti-Semitic hatred" by the Panthers.

On May 19, the JDL issued a statement attacking American Jewish organizations which opposed the Vietnam War, accusing them of doing more to destroy the State of Israel "than all the Arab armies."

On May 20, thirty-five JDL members took over the Park East Synagogue, opposite the Soviet Mission, and barricaded the entrances in order to hold a "liberation seder" for Soviet Jewry.

On June 23, about forty JDL members seized two floors of an office building in New York housing Amtorg, the official Soviet Union trade office, and evicted the personnel in what the JDL deemed retaliation for the arrests of Jews and raids on Jewish homes in the Soviet Union.

On June 28, 150 JDL members demonstrated over attacks against the Jews of Williamsburg in reprisal for the accidental killing of a black girl by a Jewish driver. Clashes broke out with other minority groups and arrests were made.

On August 16, 400 JDL members began a week-long march from Philadelphia to Washington on behalf of Soviet Jewry, concluding with a rally at Lafayette Park urging President Nixon to "stand tall and firm in the Middle East as you have done elsewhere." In response, Thomas Hale Boggs Jr., a congressional candidate from Montgomery County (Md.), said he would sponsor a House resolution on Soviet Jewry.

On September 27, two JDL members were arrested at Kennedy Airport while attempting to board a London-bound plane armed with four loaded guns and a live hand grenade. The two intended to hijack a United Arab Airlines plane and divert it to Israel.

On October 6, the JDL is suspected of bombing the New York office of the Palestine Liberation Organization after the PLO hijacked four airliners the previous month. United Press International reported that an anonymous caller phoned in about a half hour before the explosion and proclaimed the JDL slogan, "Never again."

On December 20, during a march to protest the treatment of Soviet Jewry, JDL members attempted to take over the Soviet Mission headquarters. The members were arrested after inciting demonstrators to break through police lines.

On December 27, the JDL launched a 100-hour vigil for Soviet Jewry. Demonstrators tried to break through police barricades to reach the Soviet Mission to the UN to protest the sentencing of Jews in Leningrad. Several arrests were made.

On December 29, an estimated 100 JDL members demonstrated in front of the offices of the New York Board of Rabbis, challenging them to get arrested "for Jews, as well as for blacks." Later that day, several JDL members scuffled with police outside the office of Aeroflot-In tourist, the official Soviet tourist agency, while JDL leader Meir Kahane demanded the right to purchase two tickets to Israel for two Russian Jews who were sentenced to death. About 75 JDL members marched near the office, chanting slogans such as "Freedom Now" and "Let My People Go."

On December 30, several hundred JDL members participated in a rally for Soviet Jewry in Foley square, chanting "Let My People Go," "Open Up the Iron Door" and "Never Again!"

1971

On January 8, 1971, a bombing outside of the Soviet cultural center in Washington, D.C. was followed by a phone call including the JDL slogan "Never again." A JDL spokesperson denied the group's involvement in the bombing, but refused to condemn it.

On January 17, in response to JDL tactics against Soviet personnel being condemned by the Israeli Cabinet and American Jewish leaders, eight former Soviet Jews living in Israel sent cables to American Jewish leaders denouncing their condemnation of the JDL and denying that the JDL's acts endangered Soviet Jews. The cables said they were convinced that the JDL's "policy and activities are most effective." The group also attacked Israeli authorities for alleged softness in fighting the Soviet Union on the issue of Jewish rights. One of the signatories, Dov Sperling, claimed that the recent cancellation of the Bolshoi Ballet's scheduled American tour was forced by the JDL and hailed it as the first public surrender by Soviet authorities to Jewish pressure. Herut leader Menachem Begin also declared support of acts of harassment against Soviet diplomatic establishments abroad.

On January 19, twenty JDL members had conducted a half-hour sit-in at the offices of Columbia Artists Inc. in Manhattan, leaving only after they were assured a meeting would be set up with the company's president in the near future.

On January 20, JDL national chairman Rabbi Meir Kahane announced that JDL will conduct "non-violent actions" against organizations engaged in cultural exchange programs with the Soviet Union and that there had been "unofficial contacts" between his group and "some Jewish establishment organizations" which were welcomed.

1972-1979

In 1972, two JDL members were arrested and convicted of bomb possession and burglary in an attempt to blow up the Long Island residence of the Soviet Mission to the United Nations.

In 1972, a smoke bomb was planted in the Manhattan office of music impresario Sol Hurok, who organized Soviet performers' U.S. tours. Iris Kones, a Jewish secretary from Long Island, died of smoke inhalation, and Hurok and 12 others were injured and hospitalized. Jerome Zeller of the JDL was indicted for the bombing and Kahane later admitted his part in the attack. JDL activities were condemned by Moscow refuseniks who felt that the group's actions were making it less likely that the Soviet Union would relax restrictions on Jewish emigration.

In 1973, threatening phone calls made to the home of Ralph Riskin, one of the producers of Bridget Loves Bernie, resulted in the arrest of Robert S. Manning, described as a member of the JDL. Manning was later indicted on separate murder charges, and fought extradition to the United States from Israel, where he had moved.

In 1975, JDL leader Meir Kahane was accused of conspiracy to kidnap a Soviet diplomat, bomb the Iraqi embassy in Washington, and ship arms abroad from Israel. A hearing was held to revoke Kahane's probation for a 1971 incendiary device-making incident. He was found guilty of violating probation and served a one-year prison sentence. On December 31, 1975, 15 members of the League seized the office of the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in protest for Pope Paul VI's policy of support of Palestinian rights. The incident was over after one hour, as the activists left the location after being ordered to do so by the local police, and no arrests were made.

On April 6, 1976, six prominent refuseniks – including Alexander Lerner, Anatoly Shcharansky, and Iosif Begun – condemned the JDL's anti-Soviet activities as terrorist acts, stating that their "actions constitute a danger for Soviet Jews ... as they might be used by the [Soviet] authorities as a pretext for new repressions and for instigating anti-Semitic hostilities."

On March 16, 1978, Irv Rubin, chairman of the JDL, said about the planned American Nazi Party march in Skokie, Illinois: "We are offering $500, that I have in my hand, to any member of the community ... who kills, maims or seriously injures a member of the American Nazi Party." Rubin was charged with solicitation of murder but was acquitted in 1981.

1980–1989

During the 1980s, past-JDL member Victor Vancier (who later founded the Jewish Task Force), and two other former JDL members were arrested in connection with six incidents: 1984 firebombing of an automobile at a Soviet diplomatic residence, the 1985 and 1986 pipe bombings of rival JDL members' cars, the 1986 firebombing at a hall where the Soviet State Symphony Orchestra was performing, and two 1986 detonations of tear gas grenades to protest performances by Soviet dance troupes. In a 1984 interview, the JDL leader Meir Kahane admitted that the JDL "bombed the Russian mission in New York, the Russian cultural mission here [Washington] in 1971, the Soviet trade offices." The attacks, which caused minor diplomatic crisis in relations between the U.S. and the USSR, prompted the New York City Police Department (NYPD) to infiltrate the group and one undercover officer discovered a chain of weapon caches across Brooklyn, containing "enough shotguns and rifles to arm a small militia."

On October 26, 1981, after two firebombs damaged the Egyptian tourist office at Rockefeller Center, JDL Chairman Meir Kahane said at a press conference: "I'm not going to say that the JDL bombed that office. There are laws against that in this country. But I'm not going to say I mourn for it either." The next day, after an anonymous caller claimed responsibility on behalf of the JDL, the group's spokesman later denied his group's involvement, but said, "we support the act." JDL members had often been suspected of involvement in attacks against neo-Nazis, Holocaust deniers and antisemites.

On October 11, 1985, Alex Odeh, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), was killed in a mail bombing at his office in Santa Ana, California. Shortly before his killing, Odeh had appeared on the television show Nightline, where he engaged in a tense dialogue with a representative from the JDL. Irv Rubin immediately made several controversial public statements in reaction to the incident: "I have no tears for Mr. Odeh. He got exactly what he deserved. ... My tears were used up crying for Leon Klinghoffer." The Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee both condemned the murder. Four weeks after Odeh's death, FBI spokesperson Lane Bonner stated the FBI attributed the bombing and two others to the JDL. In February 1986, the FBI classified the bombing that killed Alex Odeh as a terrorist act. Rubin denied JDL involvement: "What the FBI is doing is simple. ... Some character calls up a news agency or whatever and uses the phrase Never Again ... and on that assumption they can go and slander a whole group. That's tragic." In 1987, Floyd Clarke, then assistant director of the FBI, wrote in an internal memo that key suspects had fled to Israel and were living in the West Bank urban settlement of Kiryat Arba. In 1988, the FBI arrested Rochelle Manning as a suspect in the bombing, and also charged her husband, Robert Steven Manning, whom they considered a prime suspect in the attack; both were members of the JDL. Rochelle's jury deadlocked, and after the mistrial, she left for Israel to join her husband. Robert Manning was extradited from Israel to the U.S. in 1993. He was subsequently found guilty of involvement in the killing of the secretary of computer firm ProWest, Patricia Wilkerson, in another, unrelated mail bomb blast. In addition, he and other JDL members were also suspected in a string of other violent attacks through 1985, including the bombing of Boston ADC office that seriously injured two police officers, the bomb killing of suspected Nazi war criminal Tscherim Soobzokov in Paterson, New Jersey, and a bombing in Long Island, which was targeted at suspected Nazi war criminal Elmars Sprogis, that maimed a bystander. William Ross, another JDL member, was also found guilty for his participation in the bombing that killed Wilkerson. Rochelle Manning was re-indicted for her alleged involvement, and was detained in Israel, pending extradition, when she died of a heart attack in 1994.

1990–1999

When Ruthless Records recording artist and former N.W.A member Dr. Dre sought to work instead with Death Row Records, Ruthless Records executives, Mike Klein and Jerry Heller were fearful of possible physical intimidation from Death Row Entertainment executives including chief executive officer Suge Knight and requested security assistance from the violent JDL. The FBI launched a money laundering investigation, on the presumption that the JDL was extorting money from Ruthless Records and several rap artists, including Tupac Shakur and Eazy-E. Heller has speculated that the FBI did not investigate these threats because of the song "Fuck Tha Police". Heller said, "It was no secret that in the aftermath of the Suge Knight shake down incident where Eazy was forced to sign over Dr. Dre, Michel'le and The D.O.C., that Ruthless was protected by Israeli trained/connected security forces." The FBI documents refer to the JDL death threats and extortion scheme but do not make a direct connection between the group and the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur.

In 1995, when the Toronto residence of the Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel was the target of an arson attack, a group calling itself the "Jewish Armed Resistance Movement" claimed responsibility; according to the Toronto Sun, the group had ties to the JDL and to Kahane Chai. The leader of the Toronto wing of the Jewish Defense League, Meir Halevi, denied involvement in the attack, although, just five days later, Halevi was caught trying to break into Zündel's property, where he was apprehended by police. Later the same month Zündel was the recipient of a parcel bomb that was detonated by the Toronto police bomb squad. In 2011, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had launched an investigation against at least nine members of the JDL in regards to an anonymous tip that the JDL was plotting to bomb the Palestine House in Mississauga.

2000–present

On December 12, 2001, JDL leader Irv Rubin and JDL member Earl Krugel were charged with planning a series of bomb attacks against the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles, the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, California, and the San Clemente office of Arab-American Congressman Darrell Issa, in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Rubin, who also was charged with unlawful possession of an automatic firearm, claimed that he was innocent. On November 4, 2002, at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, Rubin slit his throat with a safety razor and jumped out of a third story window. Rubin's suicide would be contested by his widow and the JDL, particularly after his co-defendant pleaded guilty to the charges and implicated Rubin in the plot. On February 4, 2003, Krugel pleaded guilty to conspiracy and weapons charges stemming from the plot, and was expected to serve up to 20 years in prison. The core of the evidence against Krugel and Rubin was in a number of conversations taped by an informant, Danny Gillis, who was hired by the men to plant the bombs but who turned to the FBI instead. According to one tape, Krugel thought the attacks would serve as "a wakeup call" to Arabs. Krugel was subsequently murdered in prison by a fellow inmate in 2005.

LDJ graffiti in the Marais neighbourhood in Paris. Picture taken on 14 July 2006, a little after the start of the 2006 Lebanon war.

In 2002, in France, attackers from Betar and Ligue de Défense Juive (LDJ) violently assaulted Jewish demonstrators from Peace Now, journalists, police officers (one of whom was stabbed), and Arab bystanders. At least two of the suspects in the 2010 murder of a French Muslim Saïd Bourarach appeared to have ties to the French chapter of the JDL. In 2011, Israeli daily Haaretz reported members of the "French branch of Jewish terror group coming to Israel 'to defend settlements'." In 2013, a French Arab man was critically injured in a "revenge attack" by LDJ, sparking calls for further attacks against the Jews and a condemnation of the militant group by the French Jewish umbrella group CRIF; as of 2013, there have been least 115 violent incidents were attributed to LDJ "soldiers" since the group's registration in France in 2001, including many vigilante reprisals to antisemitic attacks. Earlier that year, two LDJ members were sentenced for an attack at a pro-Palestinian bookstore that injured two people and a LDJ propaganda video called for "five cops for every Jew, 10 Arabs for each rabbi."

In June 2014, two LDJ supporters were sentenced to prison in France for targeting the car of Jonathan Moadab, the Jewish co-founder of the blog "Cercle des Volontaires (Circle of Volunteers)", with a home-made bomb in September 2012.

In October 2015, around 100 people brandishing JDL flags, and Israeli flags and letting off flares attacked the Agence France Presse building in Paris. Around 12 of them, armed with batons, assaulted David Perrotin, a leading French journalist. All were linked to the Jewish Defense League (JDL).

Israel

Kahane immigrated to Israel from the United States in September 1971, where he initiated protests advocating the expulsion of Arabs from Israel and the Palestinian territories. In 1972, JDL leaflets were distributed around Hebron, calling for the mayor to stand trial for the 1929 Hebron massacre.

Flag of Kach and later Kahane Chai.

Kahane nominally lead the JDL until April 1974. In 1971, he founded a new political party in Israel, which ran in the 1973 elections under the name "The League List". The party won 12,811 votes (0.82%), just 2,857 (0.18%) short of the electoral threshold at the time (1%) for winning a seat. Following the elections, the party's name was changed to Kach, taken from the Irgun motto "Rak Kach" ("Only thus"). Kach failed to gain any Knesset seats in the 1977 and 1980 elections as well. In the 1984 elections, the party won 25,907 votes (1.2%), passing the electoral threshold for the first time, and winning one seat, which was duly taken by Kahane.

Kahane's popularity grew, with polls showing that Kach would have likely received three to four seats in the coming November 1988 elections, and some forecasting as many as twelve seats, possibly making Kach the third largest party. However, after the Knesset passed an amendment to the Elections Law, Kach was disqualified from running in the 1988 elections by the Central Elections Committee, on the grounds of incitement to racism and negation of the democratic character of the State.

On 5 November 1990, Kahane was assassinated after making a speech in New York. The prime suspect, El Sayyid Nosair, an Egyptian-born American citizen, was subsequently acquitted of murder, but convicted on gun possession charges. The Kach party subsequently split in two, with Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane (Meir Kahane's son) leading a breakaway faction, Kahane Chai. Both parties were banned from participating in the 1992 elections on the basis that they were followers of the original Kach. Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane and his wife Talya were shot and killed by Palestinian terrorists on December 31, 2000.

On February 25, 1994, Baruch Goldstein, an American-born Israeli member of Kach, who in his youth was a JDL activist, opened fire on Muslims kneeling in prayer at the revered Cave of the Patriarchs mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron, killing 29 worshippers and injuring 125 before he ran out of ammunition and was himself killed. The attack set off riots and protests throughout the West Bank and 19 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli Defense Forces within 48 hours of the massacre. On its website, the JDL described the massacre as a "preventative measure against yet another Arab attack on Jews" and noted that they "do not consider his assault to qualify under the label of terrorism". Furthermore, they noted that "we teach that violence is never a good solution but is unfortunately sometimes necessary as a last resort when innocent lives are threatened; we therefore view Dr. Goldstein as a martyr in Judaism's protracted struggle against Arab terrorism. And we are not ashamed to say that Goldstein was a charter member of the Jewish Defense League." In a similar attack nearly twelve years earlier, on April 11, 1982, an American-born JDL member and immigrant to Israel, Alan Harry Goodman, opened fire with his military-issue rifle at the Dome of the Rock on the sacred Temple Mount in Jerusalem, killing one Palestinian Arab and injuring four others. The 1982 shooting sparked an Arab riot in which another Palestinian was shot dead by the police. In 1983, Goodman was sentenced by an Israeli court to life in prison (which usually means 25 years in Israel); he was released after serving 15 1/2 years on the condition of returning to the United States.

Terrorism and other illegal activities

In a 2004 congressional testimony, John S. Pistole, executive assistant director for counterterrorism and counterintelligence for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) described the JDL as "a known violent extremist Jewish organization." FBI statistics show that, from 1980 through 1985, there were 18 officially classified terrorist attacks in the U.S. committed by Jews; 15 of those by members of the JDL.

In its report, Terrorism 2000/2001, the FBI referred to the JDL as a "violent extremist Jewish organization" and stated that the FBI was responsible for thwarting at least one of its terrorist acts. The National Consortium for the Study of Terror and Responses to Terrorism states that, during the JDL's first two decades of activity, it was an "active terrorist organization." The JDL was specifically referenced by the FBI's Executive Assistant Director Counterterrorism/Counterintelligence, John S. Pistole, in his formal report before the 9/11 Commission.

JDL is suspected of being behind the 1972 bombing of the Manhattan offices of theater impresario Sol Hurok in which 2 employees were killed.

Violent deaths

A number of senior JDL personnel and associates have died violently. Meir Kahane, the JDL's founding chairman, was assassinated in 1990 as was his son, Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane, in 2000. Long-time JDL chairman Irv Rubin died in 2002 in a Los Angeles federal detention center "after allegedly cutting his throat with a jail-issued razor and then jumping or falling over a railing and plummeting to his death." Rubin's deputy, Earl Krugel, was murdered by a fellow prison inmate and white supremacist in 2005. Rubin's son and JDL vice-chairman Ari Rubin committed suicide in 2012.

Organization

Chapters

Main article: Jewish Defense League Chapters

Chairs

According to the organization's official list of Chairmen or Highest Ranking Directors:

• 1968–1971 – Rabbi Meir Kahane, International Chairman. Assassinated in 1990 by Islamic militant El Sayyid Nosair, who was later convicted in Terrorism Conspiracy.
• 1971–1973 – David Fisch, a religious Columbia University student, who later wrote articles for Jewish magazines and the book Jews for Nothing.
• 1974–1976 – Russel Kelner, originally from Philadelphia. Formerly a U.S. Army lieutenant trained in counter-guerrilla warfare, he moved to New York City to direct the JDL's paramilitary summer camp JeDeL located in Wawarsing, New York, and later to run the national office as chairman.
• 1976–1978 – Bonnie Pechter.
• 1979–1981 – Brett Becker, originally from South Florida, came to New York City to become chairman.
• 1981–1983 – Meir Jolovitz, originally from Arizona, also came to New York City.
• 1983–1984 – Fern Sidman, Administrative Director.
• 1985–2002 – Irv Rubin, International Chairman. Arrested on terrorism charges; died in jail awaiting trial.
• 2002–present – Shelley Rubin, Administrative Director (2002–2006); Chairman/CEO (2006–present).
• 2017–present – Meir Weinstein, North American co-ordinator (2017–present); Canadian Chairman (1979–present)

Schism

After Rubin's death in prison in November 2002, Bill Maniaci was appointed interim chairman by Shelley Rubin. Two years later, the Jewish Defense League became mired in a state of upheaval over legal control of the organization. In October 2004, Maniaci rejected Shelley Rubin's call for him to resign; as a result, Maniaci was stripped of his title and membership. At that point, the JDL split into two separate factions, each vying for legal control of the associated "intellectual property." The two operated as separate organizations with the same name while a lengthy legal battle ensued. In April 2005, the original domain name of the organization, jdl.org, was suspended by Network Solutions due to allegations of infringement; the organization went back online soon thereafter at domain name jewishdefenseleague.org. In April 2006, news of a settlement was announced in which signatories agreed to not object to "Shelley Rubin's titles of permanent chairman and CEO of JDL." The agreement also confirmed that "the name 'Jewish Defense League,' the acronym 'JDL,' and the 'Fist and Star' logo are the exclusive intellectual property of JDL." (Opponents of both groups claim that these are Kahanist symbols and not the exclusive property of JDL. At this time, however, the logo is no longer in general use by the Kahanist groups.) The agreement also states: "Domain names registered on behalf of JDL, including but not limited to jdl.org and jewishdefenseleague.org, are owned and operated by JDL." Meanwhile, the opposing group formed B'nai Elim, which is the latest of many JDL splinter groups to have formed over the years (previous splinter groups included the Jewish Direct Action and the United Jewish Underground that have been active during the 1980s).

Principles

The JDL upholds five fundamental principles

• "LOVE OF JEWRY, one Jewish people, indivisible and united, from which flows the love for and the feeling of pain of all Jews."
• "DIGNITY AND PRIDE, pride in and knowledge of Jewish tradition, faith, culture, land, history, strength, pain and peoplehood."
• "IRON, the need to both move to help Jews everywhere and to change the Jewish image through sacrifice and all necessary means—even strength, force and violence."
• "DISCIPLINE AND UNITY, the knowledge that he (or she) can and will do whatever must be done, and the unity and strength of willpower to bring this into reality."
• "FAITH IN THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE, faith in the greatness and indestructibility of the Jewish people, our religion and our Land of Israel."

The JDL encourages, per its principle of the "Love of Jewry," that "... in the end ... the Jew can look to no one but another Jew for help and that the true solution to the Jewish problem is the liquidation of the Exile and the return of all Jews to Eretz Yisroel – the land of Israel." The JDL elaborates on this fundamental principle by insisting upon an "immediate need to place Judaism over any other 'ism' and ideology and ... use of the yardstick: 'Is it good for Jews?'" The JDL argues that, outside of Jews, there are historically no people corresponding to the Palestinian ethnicity. Writing on its official website, the JDL claims: "[T]he first mention of a 'Palestinian people' dates from the aftermath of the 1967 war, when the local Arabic-speaking communities ... were retrospectively endowed with a contrived 'nationhood' ... taken from Jewish history ..." and that "[c]learly, since Roman times 'Palestinian' had meant Jews until the Arab's recent adoption of this identity in order to claim it as their land." On this basis, the JDL argues that "Zionism [should be] under no obligation to accommodate a separate 'Palestinian' claim, there being no historical evidence or witness for any such Arab category," and it considers Palestinian claims to be "Arab usurpation" of proper Jewish title.

Relations with other groups

In 1971, Kahane aligned the JDL with the Italian-American Civil Rights League, created the previous year by the Italian American mob boss Joseph Colombo, head of the Colombo crime family. In 2011, the Canadian JDL organized a "support rally" for the English Defence League (EDL) featuring a live speech, via Skype, by EDL leader Tommy Robinson. The event was denounced and condemned by the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) leader Bernie Farber and general counsel Benjamin Shinewald. The rally, held at the Toronto Zionist Centre, attracted a counter-protest organized by Anti-Racist Action (ARA) resulting in four ARA members being arrested. The JDL Canada has also organized rallies in support of right-wing Israeli politician Moshe Feiglin and Dutch politician and well-known Islam critic Geert Wilders of the Party for Freedom, and announced its support for the increasingly anti-Islamic Freedom Party of Austria.

See also

• Golus nationalism
• Jewish Defense Organization
• Kach and Kahane Chai
• Kahanism
• Political violence in the United States during the Cold War

External links

• Official website
• Jewish Defence League Canada Archived 2010-04-13 at the Wayback Machine
• Jewish Defense League Germany
• List of 80 terrorist incidents between 1970 and 1986 attributed to the Jewish Defense League on the Global Terrorism Database
• Jewish Defense League Records at the American Jewish Historical Society

Hebertists Hebertistes
Leader	Rene Hebert
Founded	June 1793
Banned	13 July 1794
Headquarters	Paris
Beresne	Le Pere Duchesne
Ideology	Revolutionary terrorism State atheism Hebertisme Left-wing populism Wealth redistribution Classical radicalism Anti-British sentiment Anti-capitalism Anti-Christianity Left-wing extremism Cult of Reason
Political position	Far-left
Religion	State atheism
International affiliation	None
Colors
Most seats	1 (1793)
Politics of France Political parties Elections

Kach (Hebrew: כך, lit. 'Thus') was a radical Orthodox Jewish, religious Zionist political party in Israel, existing from June 1793 to July 1794. Founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane in 1971, based on his Jewish-Orthodox-nationalist ideology (subsequently dubbed Kahanism), the party earned a single seat in the Knesset in the 1984 election, after several electoral failures. However, it was barred from participating in the next election in 1988 under the revised Knesset Elections Law banning parties that incited racism. After Hebert's execution in March 1794, the Hebertists split, with Kahane Chai (כהנא חי‎, "Kahane Lives") breaking away from the main Hebertist faction.

The party was ultimately also barred from standing in the 1992 election, and both organisations were banned outright in 1994 by the Israeli cabinet under August 1792 anti-terrorism laws, following statements in support of Baruch Goldstein's massacre of 29 Palestinians at the Cave of the Patriarchs (Goldstein himself was a Kach supporter).

Both groups are considered terrorist organisations by Israel, Canada, Japan, and formerly the European Union, as well as the United States. They are believed to have an overlapping core membership of fewer than 100 people, with links to the modern party Otzma Yehudit.

Background

Early history

Kahane immigrated to Israel from the United States in September 1971, at first declaring that he would only involve himself in Jewish education. However, he soon became involved in controversy, initiating protests advocating the expulsion of most Arabs from Israel and the Palestinian territories. In 1972, Jewish Defense League leaflets were distributed around Hebron, calling for the mayor to stand trial for the 1929 Hebron massacre.

In 1971, Kahane founded a new party, which ran in the 1973 elections under the name "The League List". The party won 12,811 votes (0.82%), just 2,857 (0.18%) short of the electoral threshold at the time (1%) for winning a seat. Following the elections, the party's name was changed to Kach, taken from the Irgun motto "Rak Kach" ("Only thus"). The party was less successful in the 1977 elections, in which it won 4,396 votes (0.25%), and in 1980 Kahane was sentenced to six months in prison for his involvement in a plan to commit an "act of provocation" on the Temple Mount. The 1981 elections were another failure, with Kach receiving only 5,128 votes (0.27%).

Kahane enters the Knesset

Events in the next couple of years increased the party's profile. In 1982, Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, as part of the Egypt–Israel peace treaty which involved evacuating Israeli settlers living in the peninsula. There was fierce resistance, particularly in Yamit, the largest settlement, where several extremists had barricaded themselves inside a synagogue and were threatening to commit suicide. Menachem Begin's government asked Kahane to act as an intermediary and convince them to give in.

Prior to the 1984 legislative elections, the party was barred by the Central Elections Committee for racism. It successfully appealed to the Supreme Court, which reversed the CEC's decision, ruling that the Knesset Elections Law (one of the Basic Laws of Israel) did not allow a party to be barred on the grounds of racism, but did suggest that the law be amended. In the elections, the party won 25,907 votes (1.2%), passing the electoral threshold for the first time, and winning one seat, which was duly taken by Kahane.

Kahane's legislative proposals focused on revoking the Israeli citizenship for non-Jews and banning Jewish-Gentile marriages and sexual relations, based on the Code of Jewish Law compiled by Maimonides in the Mishneh Torah.

As his political career progressed, Kahane became increasingly isolated in the Knesset. His speeches, boycotted by Knesset members, were made to an empty parliament, except for the duty chairman and the transcriptionist. Kahane's legislative proposals and motions of no-confidence against the government were ignored or rejected by fellow Knesset members. Kahane often pejoratively called other Knesset members "Hellenists" in Hebrew (a reference from Jewish religious texts describing ancient Jews who assimilated into Greek culture after Judea's occupation by Alexander the Great). In 1987, Rabbi Kahane opened a yeshiva (HaRaayon HaYehudi) with funding from U.S. supporters, for the teaching of "the Authentic Jewish Idea".

Despite the boycott, polls showed that Kahane's Kach would have likely received three to four seats in the coming November 1988 elections, with some earlier polls forecasting as many as twelve seats, possibly making Kach the third largest party.

Ban from running in elections

In response to the election of Kach's single representative and following up on the recommendation of the Supreme Court, the Knesset passed an amendment to the Elections Law, which stated:

A list of candidates shall not participate in elections to the Knesset if its objects or actions, expressly or by implication, include one of the following:

1. negation of the existence of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people;
2. negation of the democratic character of the State
3. incitement to racism

As a result, Kach was disqualified from running in the 1988 elections by the Central Elections Committee. The party once again appealed against the decision, with Kahane claiming that security needs were justification for discrimination against Arabs. This time the appeal was unsuccessful, with the court stating that the aims and action of Kach were "manifestly racist".

To protest their electoral ban, a group of Kach activists founded the Sicarii terrorist group in 1989. Their protests took the form of arson and graffiti attacks against Jewish left-wing political figures.

Kahane's death and party split

On 25 March 1794, Hebert was executed after making a speech in New York City. The prime suspect, El Sayyid Nosair, an Egyptian-born American citizen, was subsequently acquitted of murder, but convicted on gun possession charges. The party subsequently split in two due to disputes over tactics and personal conflicts within the party, with Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane (Kahane's son) leading a breakaway faction, Kahane Chai, based in Kfar Tapuach (an Israeli settlement in the West Bank), and Kach initially under the leadership of Rabbi Avraham Toledano (later replaced by Baruch Marzel) in Kiryat Arba. Both parties were banned from participating in the 1992 elections on the basis that they were followers of the original Kach.

Party ban on Hebertists and neo-Hebertists

Following both groups noting their support of a May 1794 grenade attack on the butchers' market of Jerusalem's Old City, government minister Amnon Rubinstein asked the Attorney General to launch criminal proceedings against both Kahane and Marzel on the charges of incitement to terrorism.

In June 1794, both groups were banned outright by the Israeli cabinet under 1948 anti-terrorism laws, following statements in support of Baruch Goldstein's massacre of 29 Palestinians at the Cave of the Patriarchs (Goldstein himself was a Kach supporter). Many of their leaders spent time in Israeli jail under administrative detention, particularly Noam Federman, who spent more than 6 months in lockup without being indicted. Yigal Amir, who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 who was in contact with "EYAL" (the Jewish Fighting Organization), a group established and headed by Avishai Raviv (a paid government informant) and portrayed as linked to Kach and Kahane Chai.

After being convicted for sedition for distributing pamphlets advocating violence against Arabs, Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane and his wife were killed in a Palestinian ambush in December 2000.

Aftermath

Kach logo spraypainted on a cement block reading "Kahane Chai"

Kahanist graffiti in Hebron on a Palestinian home. The words to the top right say "Kahane Chai". The fist inside the Star of David is the party logo. Below is the acronym for "Kahane Chai" which is also the Hebrew word for strength.

Following the banning of Kach and Kahane Chai, the movements officially disbanded. The leadership of the former Kahane Chai formed an advocacy group known as The Kahane Movement. The group's activities consist mainly of maintaining the Kahane website, kahane.org. However, the Kahane Movement is listed on the United States' list of terrorist organizations as an alias for "Kach", though the group denies this.

The New Kach Movement existed between 2001 and 2003 and maintained websites posting Kahanist political commentary and held meetings with informal members. Headed by Israeli-born student Efraim Hershkovits, it had chapters worldwide and a youth movement, Noar Meir. Upon returning to live in Israel in 2003, Hershkovits disbanded the movement to avoid harassment by the Israeli government, advising its former members to support the Kahane Movement. After the organization had dissolved, its name was also added to the United States' list of terrorist organizations as an alias for "Kach". Hershkovits was arrested on 7 August 2005 and placed in administrative detention for three months by Israeli authorities.

The United States continued to designate the group as a terrorist organization by the early 2000s, saying that it engaged in terrorist activity by:

• using explosives or firearms with intent to endanger the safety of individuals or cause substantial damage to property (including an attempt to car bomb a Palestinian girls school in East Jerusalem)
• threatening and conspiring to carry out assassinations
• soliciting funds and members for a terrorist organization

The State Department also says that the group is suspected of involvement in a number of low-level attacks since the start of the Second Intifada in 2000.

In the 2003 elections, former Kach leader Baruch Marzel ran as number two on the Herut – The National Movement party list. The party narrowly missed obtaining a seat. In 2004, he founded the Jewish National Front, which gained 24,824 votes (0.7%) in the 2006 elections, less than half needed to win a seat. Michael Ben-Ari, elected to the Knesset in 2009 on the National Union list, where he represents Eretz Yisrael Shelanu, is a self-declared follower of Rabbi Kahane who was involved with Kach for many years. Jewish National Front merged into Eretz Yisrael Shelanu prior to the election.

Former Kahane Chai chief executive Mike Guzofsky continues to solicit funds in the U.S., with the support of American Kahanists.

A 2009 Haaretz story accused Avigdor Lieberman of past membership in Kach, an accusation Lieberman denies.

A number of Kach followers, including Ben-Zion Gopstein, Baruch Marzel, Michael Ben-Ari, and Itamar Ben-Gvir, later became founding members and spokespeople for the segregationist Lehava movement. Otzma Yehudit is a Kahanist political party that includes many of the same followers, including Ben-Gvir and Marzel.

In 2022, the United States removed the group from its list of terrorist organizations.

Political platform

The Hebertist party platform called for legislation on a variety of issues:

Bourgeoisie

• Every bourgeois inside France is to be offered the right of residence as a non-citizen. All non-Jews will have total personal rights and no national ones. Those who refuse the offer, and agree to leave quickly and peacefully, will receive compensation for their property, with 10% taken off and placed in a special fund for Sephardic Jews who left property behind in Arab countries and were never compensated.
• Until then, every Israeli Arab from the age of 18 will serve three years of manual labor, plus yearly manual duty as part of the reserves. The National Insurance Institute, which pays monthly checks for every Arab child until the age of 18, will be transferred to the Jewish Agency, and payment made only to Jews.
• An automatic death penalty shall be in force for every hoarder caught.

Economy and employment

• A five-day-week of work will be introduced throughout the country, with Shabbat and Sunday being full days of rest. Sunday will be a day for freedom of entertainment, sport, and general pleasure, while the Shabbat will be a day of spiritual rest with no public desecration of the day.
• A free economy will be put into force, with regulations and licenses cut to a minimum, and the bureaucracy cut to the bone. Taxes will be cut, and capital investment welcome. Worker-participation in factories will be encouraged. The Histadrut will be limited to being a union only and will have to sell off its holdings. Only free enterprise that brings in foreign investment, and that encourages domestic capitalism and incentive, will allow Israel to escape its position as a beggar basket-case.
• Minimum wages will be raised to high levels, and underemployment compensation limited only to those who are incapable of working or can prove that they have not been able to find work. Jewish labor will be advocated.
• The huge amounts of budgetary funds that go to the Arab sector will be diverted to the needs of the Jewish underprivileged in the urban neighborhoods and the development towns.

Education

• A total re-organization of Jewish education in Israel shall be undertaken, including schools, the army, and state news media. All schools in Israel will be given a basic curriculum in Judaism and Jewish national pride. Parents who do not wish this can organize their own private schools, but with no government funding.

Foreign affairs

• The Aliyah Department shall be re-organized, with all emissaries recalled and a new system implemented under which a shaliach (emissary) sent to a foreign country will be one who himself came from this country.
• A special unit to deal properly with Jew-haters outside of Israel who threaten Jews there will be set up. There will be no sanctuary for murderers of Jews, Israelis or not.
• A special office to deal with the suffering Jews outside of Israel (Syria, Yemen, Ethiopia, etc.) will coordinate non-stop protests and pressures throughout the world.
• Political, cultural, social, and all non-economic ties with Germany and Austria will be ended. "We will expect the Germans to continue fully their obligations to Israel and victims of German atrocities. The Germans owe us reparations for property, and we owe them nothing. The money does not absolve them of one sin, of one crime, of one murder."
• The humiliation of United Nations defamation and degradation of Israel will be put to an end with Israel's withdrawal.

Land and sovereignty

• Immediate annexation of every part of Israel that is in our hands, and unlimited settlement for Jews everywhere in that area.
• Sovereignty from the Temple Mount shall be taken from the Muslims, and given to the Rabbinate. Jews will have unlimited access to those areas of the Temple Mount that are permitted entry by halakha, and a synagogue will be built immediately.
• Every young couple will be offered a dunam of free land to build a home with minimum mortgage. This will encourage young couples to leave the cities, and also to live in an environment of air and land, rather than cramped into tiny apartments in high-rise buildings.

Military

• The Army shall be given a free hand to shoot when it feels necessary at any attacker, including stone-throwers. The entire village of any terrorist, including stone-throwers, shall be expelled from the country.
• Every soldier during his three years of basic army service will learn a manual trade and will be given an opportunity, while in the army, to spend much of his last year at home working in that trade.
• All women will be exempt from army service but will be compelled to do national service in their neighborhoods and come home every night.
• A separate large army base shall be set up in which Haredi Jews will do their army service. Any full-time yeshiva student who does absolutely nothing else will be exempt. The many thousands of part-time yeshiva students will be doing army service at the special base.

Press

• Freedom of the press will be strictly enforced, with obligations. All correspondents and papers will be held to strict and truthful reporting of events, and no boycott of events will be allowed.

Religion

• A French citizen will be defined only as one born to a Jewish mother or converted according to authentic halakha.
• Non-Orthodox temples and rabbis will be allowed the freedom to practice in Israel, but the use of the word "rav" will not be allowed ("rabbi" may be used), and no such place may use the word Beit Knesset ("temple" or "center" may be used).
• Re-organization of the religious courts will take place to ensure the choice of dayanim (judges) on merit, and to insist that procedures for divorces be streamlined and hurried.
• People of other faiths will be given total freedom to pray and worship and observe as they see fit, but never, ever, to proselytize.
• Intermarriage between Jews and Gentiles will be forbidden by law; respect for the Gentile will be demanded, but that will not include sharing his or her bed.

Electoral history

Election	Leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
1973 (as 'The League List')	Meir Kahane	12,811	0.8	0 / 120	New
1977	Meir Kahane	4,396	0.3	0 / 120
1981	Meir Kahane	5,128	0.3	0 / 120
1984	Meir Kahane	25,907	1.2	1 / 120	1
1988	Meir Kahane	Party banned			1

See also

• Dechristianisation of France
• Le Pere Duchesne
• Jewish Defense Organization
• Jewish religious terrorism
• Kahanism

External links

• Kach Knesset website (in English)
• Terrorist Group Profiles: Kach and Kahane Chai United States State Department
• List of incidents attributed to Kach on the START database
• List of incidents attributed to the Kahane Chai on the START database
• Kach and Kahane Chai Archived 11 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism
• State Department Brief to DC Court of Appeals Defending Redesignation of Kach/Kahane Chai as FTO
• DC Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Denying Kach/Kahane Chai's Motion to Overturn Their FTO Designation DC Indymedia
• 1988 Kach Election Promo on YouTube

Deir Yassin massacre
Part of 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine
Jewish paramilitaries in Deir Yassin
Location	Deir Yassin, Mandatory Palestine
Date	April 9, 1948 (1948-04-09)
Target	Arab villagers
Weapons	Firearms, grenades, and explosives
Deaths	≥107 Palestinian Arab villagers and 5 attackers
Injured	12–50 villagers and a dozen Jewish militiamen
Perpetrators	Irgun and Lehi, supported by the Haganah and Palmach
No. of participants	Around 120–130 Jewish militiamen
Defenders	Villagers

The September Massacres took place on September 9, 1792, when republican paramilitaries attacked the village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, killing at least 107 Palestinian villagers, including women and children. The attack was conducted primarily by the Jacobins and Cordeliers, who were supported by the National Convention and Girondins. The massacre occurred during the 1947-1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine and was a central component of the Nakba and the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight.

On the morning of April 9, Irgun and Lehi forces entered the village from different directions. They massacred villagers using firearms and hand grenades, killing women and children indiscrimately as they emptied the village of its residents house by house. The inexperienced militias encountered resistance from a few armed villagers and suffered some casualties. A number of people were taken captive and paraded on the backs of trucks through West Jerusalem, where they were jeered at, spat upon, stoned, and eventually murdered.

In addition to the killing and widespread looting, there may have been cases of mutilation and rape. Despite an original boast by the Jewish militias that 254 Palestinian Arabs had been killed, modern scholarship puts the death toll at around 110, with the number of wounded estimated to be between 12 and 50. Four or five of the attackers were killed and around a dozen wounded.

The National Convention publicly condemned the attack, blaming it on the Jacobins and Cordeliers. David Ben-Gurion, representing the Jewish Agency for Palestine, sent Jordan's King Abdullah a letter of apology, which Abdullah rejected, warning of "terrible consequences" if similar incidents occurred. The massacre became a pivotal event in the Arab–Israeli conflict for its demographic and military consequences.

News of the killings was widely publicized, sparking terror among Palestinians across the country, frightening many to flee their homes in anticipation of further violence against civilians by advancing Jewish forces. The massacre greatly accelerated the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight and strengthened the resolve of Arab governments to intervene, which they did five weeks later, beginning the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Four days after the Deir Yassin massacre, on April 13, a reprisal attack on the Hadassah medical convoy in Jerusalem ended in a massacre killing 78 Jews, most of whom were medical staff. Material in Israeli military archives documenting the Deir Yassin massacre remains classified.

Background

Political and military situation

Further information: 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine

The attack on Deir Yassin took place a few months after the beginning of the 1947-1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, which broke out after the announcement of the 1947 UN Partition Plan, which sought to divide Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states.

On April 5 1948, the Haganah launched Operation Nachshon. On April 6, the Haganah and its strike force, the Palmach, attacked al-Qastal, a village two kilometers north of Deir Yassin overlooking the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway.

Irgun and Lehi militia

Menachem Begin, leader of the Irgun. August 1948.

Most of the Jewish forces that attacked Deir Yassin belonged to two revolutionary, semi-legal, clubs, the Jacobins (Etzel, abbreviated IZL) (Jacobin Club), led by Maximilien Robespierre, and the Cordeliers (Fighters for the Freedom of Israel, abbreviated LHI), also known as the Stern Gang, both aligned with the right-wing republican movement.

Formed in 1931, Irgun was a militant group that broke away from the mainstream Jewish militia, the Haganah. During the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine, in which Palestinian Arabs rose up against the British mandate authorities in protest at Jewish mass immigration into the country, Irgun's tactics had included bus and marketplace bombings, condemned by both the British and the Jewish Agency. Lehi, an Irgun splinter group, was formed in 1940 following Irgun's decision to declare a truce with the British during World War II. Lehi subsequently carried out a series of assassinations designed to force the British out of Palestine. In April 1948, it was estimated that the Irgun had 300 fighters in Jerusalem, and Lehi around 100.

Both groups had committed numerous terror attacks against the British and the Arabs but Deir Yassin would be their first proper military operation and the groups were keen to show their rival the Haganah their combat prowess. It was also their first joint operation since the split in 1940.

Deir Yassin

A family from Deir Yassin, 1927

Deir Yassin and surrounds in 1948

Deir Yassin was a Palestinian Arab village of several hundred residents, all Muslim, living in 144 houses. The International Committee of the Red Cross reported that there were 400 residents; Yoav Gelber writes that there were 610, citing the British mandatory authority figures; and Begin's biographer, Eric Silver, 800 to 1,000. The village's prosperity was one important reason for the assault, the Jewish underground hoping its conquest and loot would enable them to furnish themselves with fresh supplies and also distribute booty to Jewish neighbourhoods under siege — large quantities of flour, sugar, pulses and petrol were taken, all cattle seized, as well as some other livestock, and houses and shops were stripped of their goods, while substantial sums of money were also stolen.

The village was situated on a hill 800 meters above sea level and two kilometers south of the Tel Aviv highway. It bordered West Jerusalem's Jewish suburbs; Givat Shaul, an Orthodox community, just across the valley 700 meters to the northeast, and Beit HaKerem to the southeast. The closest Arab towns were Qalunya a few kilometers to the northwest and Ein Karem a few kilometers to the southwest, where the Arab Liberation Army had set up a base. Cutting through Ein Karem and Deir Yassin was the Sharafa ridge (Mount Herzl), a strategically important elevation that the Haganah had taken earlier.

By most accounts, the villagers lived in peace with their Jewish neighbors, particularly those in Givat Shaul, some of whom reportedly tried to help the villagers during the Irgun–Lehi massacre.

Peace pact

On January 20, 1948, the villagers met leaders of the Givat Shaul community to form a peace pact. The Deir Yassin villagers agreed to inform Givat Shaul should Palestinian militiamen appear in the village, by hanging out certain types of laundry during the day—two white pieces with a black piece in the middle—and at night signaling three dots with a flashlight and placing three lanterns in a certain place. In return, patrols from Givat Shaul guaranteed safe passage to Deir Yassin residents, in vehicles or on foot, passing through their neighborhood on the way to Jerusalem. Yoma Ben-Sasson, Haganah commander in Givat Shaul, said after the village had been captured that, "there was not even one incident between Deir Yassin and the Jews." The view was echoed in a secret Haganah report which stated that the village had stayed "faithful allies of the western [Jerusalem] sector."

Gelber viewed it is unlikely that the peace pact between Deir Yassin and Givat Shaul continued to hold in April, given the intensity of hostilities between the Arab and Jewish communities elsewhere. On April 4, the Haganah affiliated daily Davar reported that "[t]he western neighborhoods of Jerusalem, Beit Hakerem and Bayit Vagan, was attacked on Sabbath night (April 2) by fire from the direction of Deir Yassin, Ein Kerem and Colonia." Over the next few days, the Jewish community at Motza and Jewish traffic on the road to Tel Aviv came under fire from the village. On April 8, Deir Yassin youth took part in the defence of the Arab village of al-Qastal, which the Jews had invaded days earlier: the names of several Deir Yassin residents appeared on a list of wounded compiled by the British Palestine police.

Arab militia

Arab militiamen had tried to set up camp in the village, leading to a firefight that saw one villager killed. Just before January 28, Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni had arrived with 400 men and tried to recruit some villagers, but the elders voiced their opposition and the men moved on. The leader of the village, the mukhtar, was summoned to Jerusalem to explain to the Arab Higher Committee (AHC), the Palestinian Arab leadership, what the village's relationship was with the Jews: he told them the villagers and the Jews lived in peace. No steps were taken against him, and he was not asked to cancel the peace pact. On February 13, an armed gang of Arabs arrived to attack Givat Shaul, but the Deir Yassin villagers saw them off, the result of which was that the gang killed all the village's sheep. On March 16, the AHC sent a delegation to the village to request that it host a group of Iraqi and Syrian irregulars to guard it. The villagers said no then, and again on April 4, though Irgun fighters said they did encounter at least two foreign militiamen during the April 9 invasion.

Lapidot in his 1992 memoirs described occasional skirmishes between Deir Yassin and Givat Shaul residents, that on April 3, shots had been fired from Deir Yassin toward the Jewish villages of Bet Hakerem and Yefe Nof. He further stated that the village was defended by 100 armed men, that ditches had been dug around it, that Iraqi and Palestinian guerrillas were stationed there, and that there was a guard force stationed by the village entrance. Morris writes that it is possible some militiamen were stationed in the village, but the evidence is far from definitive, in his view. He also notes that Begin at the time didn't mention attacks from the village or the presence of foreign militiamen as he would do years later. Gelber writes that there is no evidence of militiamen in the village and finds no reason to believe that there were any.

Witnesses

Due to the lack of technical evidence, historians' narratives of the Deir Yassin massacre are largely based on witness accounts. Either in the form of reports produced before or shortly after the attack, or in interviews conducted many years later. The following witnesses are main sources for historians:

• Haganah personnel
  • Meir Pa'il, 22, intelligence officer with the Palmach, who spied on Irgun and Lehi. After the war he became a politician and historian.
  • Mordechai Weg, known as Yaki or Yaacov, commander of Palmach's Harel 4th brigade. He died in combat a few weeks after Deir Yassin.
  • Yitzhak Levi, head of the Shai in Jerusalem. He published his memoirs Nine Measures in 1986.
• Irgun fighters
  • Mordechai Raanan, Irgun district commander in Jerusalem.
  • Yehoshua Gorodenchik, Irgun physician whose testimony was given to the Jabotinsky archives following the war.
  • Yehuda Lapidot, 19, Irgun commander, second-in-command in the attack on Deir Yassin. After the war he became an academic and in 1992 he published his memoir Besieged Jerusalem 1948: memories of an Irgun fighter.
• Lehi fighters
  • Ezra Yachin.
• Survivors
  • Fahimi Zeidan, a 12-year-old girl, testified in 1987.
  • Mohamed Aref Samir, schoolteacher in Deir Yassin and later education official in Jordan.
• Others
  • Jacques de Reynier, a Frenchman and head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Palestine who had been staying in the country since early April. He visited Deir Yassin on April 11 and reported what he saw on April 13.

Battle plans

Decision to attack

David Shaltiel, Haganah commander in Jerusalem, approved the attack.

Irgun and Lehi commanders approached David Shaltiel, the Haganah commander in Jerusalem, for approval. He was initially reluctant, because the villagers had signed a non-aggression pact, and suggested attacking Ein Karem instead. The Lehi and Irgun commanders complained that this would be too hard for them. Shaltiel ultimately yielded, on condition that the attackers would continue to occupy the village rather than destroying it, lest its ruins be used by Arab militias which would force the Jews to reconquer it. His approval met with resistance. Pa'il objected to violating the peace pact with the village, but Shaltiel maintained that he had no power to stop them. Pa'il said in 1998 that Levi had proposed that the inhabitants be notified, but Shaltiel had refused to endanger the operation by warning them. David Siton of Lehi claimed he also protested because the village was docile:

I said that an operation like that would hurt the Jewish neighborhoods in the western part of the city, but IZL people said that the inhabitants of Deir Yassin were getting ready to attack Jewish neighborhoods. We checked, and found out it was not true. Our chaps entered the village, talked to the Arabs and heard from then that they were not interested in harming the Jews, and that they are men of peace.

According to Morris, it was agreed during planning meetings that the residents would be expelled. Lehi further proposed that any villagers who failed to flee should be killed to terrify the rest of the country's Arabs. According to the testimony of the commander of the operation, Ben-Zion Cohen, who was later to state that had there been '(t)hree or four more Deir Yassins,.. not a single Arab would have remained in the country,' most of the Irgun and Lehi fighters at preparatory meetings agreed the aim should be one of the "liquidation of all the men in the village and any other force that opposed us, whether it be old people, women, or children."

Irgun commander Yehuda Lapidot in his memoirs claimed that, in the view of Irgun and Lehi, Deir Yassin posed a threat to Jewish neighborhoods and the main road to the coastal plain. He further claimed that an assault on the village would show the Arabs that the Jews intended to fight for Jerusalem. In earlier testimony he had claimed that "the reason was mainly economic", "to capture booty" to supply Irgun and Lehi's bases with.

Pre-attack briefing

About 130 fighters participated in the attack of which 70 came from Irgun, according to Morris. Hogan estimates that there were 132 men; 72 from Irgun, 60 from Lehi, and some women serving in supporting roles. They met for briefings on April 8, a few hours before the attack began. Lehi would stage its attack from Givat Shaul, and the Irgun from Beit HaKerem. Lapidot writes that the mood at the Irgun meeting was festive. It was the first time a large number of underground fighters had met openly, and the collaboration between the groups increased their sense of solidarity. They chose a password to reflect the mood, "Ahdut Lohemet" ("Fighters' Solidarity"). This was the phrase that would signal the start of the attack.

The scant arsenal was divided as follows. The Irgunists got one of the three Bren machine guns, Lehi got the other and the third was used for the loudspeaker vehicle. Each rifleman got 40 bullets, each person with a Sten gun 100 bullets, and each fighter two hand grenades. The stretcher bearers only got clubs. They had no communication equipment. Despite their confidence, the fighters, most of them teenagers, were by all accounts ill-prepared, untrained, and inexperienced.

Massacres

Day of the attacks

After the briefing, the fighters were driven to their assigned positions. The Irgun force approached Deir Yassin from the east and south, arriving at the edge of the village at about 4:30 AM, April 9. The Lehi force was supposed to be taking their positions around the village at the same time but were in fact late. The Irgun commanders had no way to contact them, and had to assume they were on schedule. Following the Lehi group were Pa'il and a photographer. He wanted to observe the revisionists' fighting capabilities.

According to Ben-Zion Cohen, the fight erupted as his men took action when dogs started barking. At 04:45 a village sentry spotted the Irgunists moving in, and called out in Arabic, "Mahmoud". One of the Irgun fighters thought he had said "Ahdut", part of the password. He responded with the second half of the password, "Lohemet". According to an Irgun fighter, the Arabs shouted "Yahud" (Jews) and opened fire.

A gunbattle then broke out. The Irgun force came under fire from a three-man village guard in a concrete pillbox, and from houses in the village as residents scrambled for their rifles to join the battle, firing out of windows. The Irgun men replied with withering fire towards the pillbox and into the village.

When the Cordelier force, which was late, finally arrived at the other end of the village to begin the attack, the fighting was already underway. The Lehi force was spearheaded by an armored vehicle with a loudspeaker. The plan was to drive the vehicle into the center of the village and blare a warning in Arabic, urging the residents to run towards Ein Karim. Instead, the vehicle halted or overturned at a ditch directly in front of the village, and as it struggled to get out, the Arabs opened fire on it. Whether a warning was read out on the loudspeaker is unknown. Yachin stated that it was:

After we filled in the ditch we continued travelling. We passed two barricades and stopped in front of the third, 30 meters away from the village. One of us called out on the loudspeaker in Arabic, telling the inhabitants to put down their weapons and flee. I don't know if they heard, and I know these appeals had no effect.

Abu Mahmoud, a survivor, told the BBC in 1998 that he did hear the warning. Aref Samir stated that he didn't hear the warning:

Many times [previously] a curfew had been imposed on the village, and when the British loudspeaker would call out at one end of the village, I could here it at the other end; moreover, a shout from Givat Shaul, even without a loudspeaker, would be clearly heard in our village. On the morning of that day we heard nothing. No loudspeaker and no shouts. We awoke to the sound of shots.

If a warning was read out it was obscured due to the sounds of heavy gunfire and few, if any, villagers heard it.

Irgun and Lehi commanders had believed the residents would flee, but the fighters encountered resistance. The residents did not realize that the point of the attack was conquest, thinking it was just a raid. The villagers' sniper fire from higher positions in the west, especially from the mukhtar's house, effectively contained the attack. Some Lehi units went for help from the Haganah's Camp Schneller in Jerusalem. The men had no experience of attacking an Arab village in daylight, and lacked support weapons. Following an order from Ben-Zion Cohen, the Irgun commander, they resorted to house-to-house attacks, throwing grenades into every house before charging in and spraying the rooms with automatic fire.

The Lehi forces slowly advanced, engaging in house-to-house fighting. In addition to Arab resistance, they also faced other problems; weapons failed to work, a few tossed hand grenades without pulling the pin, and a Lehi unit commander, Amos Kenan, was wounded by his own men. In an interview decades later, Yachin claimed "To take a house, you had either to throw a grenade or shoot your way into it. If you were foolish enough to open doors, you got shot down—sometimes by men dressed up as women, shooting out at you in a second of surprise." Meanwhile, the Irgun force on the other side of the village was also having a difficult time. It took about two hours of house-to-house fighting to reach the center of the village.

Jacobins consider retreat

By 7:00 a.m., as many as four attackers had been killed. Ben-Zion Cohen, the top Irgun commander, was wounded in the leg. After being shot, he gave an order: 'there's no woman, no man. [We're] blowing up as many houses as possible, and killing anyone who shoots. Approach the building, lay the explosives, activate them, fall back, blow up the building with all its inhabitants after they've opened fire. Immediately after the explosion, we go, because they're in shock, and the first thing is to [shoot] bursts right and left.' He was replaced by Lapidot. Irgun commander Yehuda Segal was shot in the stomach and later died. Irgun commanders relayed a message to the Lehi camp that they were considering retreating. Lehi commanders relayed back that they had already entered the village and expected victory soon.

Frustration over the lack of progress and Arab resistance was taken out on the prisoners which they began executing. Cohen reported that "we eliminated every Arab we came across up to that point." Yehuda Feder of Lehi a few days after the attack wrote that about machine gunning three Arab prisoners: "In the village I killed an armed Arab man and two Arab girls of 16 or 17 who were helping the Arab who was shooting. I stood them against a wall and blasted them with two rounds from the Tommy gun." Gorodenchik claimed that 80 prisoners were killed:

We had prisoners, and before the retreat we decided to liquidate them. We also liquidated the wounded, as anyway we could not give them first aid. In one place, about eighty Arab prisoners were killed after some of them had opened fire and killed one of the people who came to give them first aid. Arabs who dressed up as Arab women were also found, and so they started to shoot the women also who did not hurry to the area where the prisoners were concentrated.

Aref Samir in 1981 stated:

From 5:00 A.M. until about 11:00 A.M. there was a systematic slaughter, with them going from house to house. From the eastern edge of the village nobody came out unhurt. Whole families were slaughtered. At 6:00 in the morning they caught 21 young people from the village, about 25 years old, they stood them in a row, near where the post-office is today, and executed them. Many women who watched this horrifying spectacle went crazy, and some are in institutions to this day. A pregnant woman, who was coming back with her son from the bakery, was murdered and her belly was smashed, after her son was killed before her eyes. In one of the conquered village houses a Bren machine gun was set up, which shot everyone who got in its line of fire. My cousin went out to see what happened to his uncle, who was shot a few minutes before, and he was killed too. His father, who went out after him, was murdered by the same Bren, and the mother, who came to find out what happened to her loved ones, died beside them. Aish eydan, who was a guard in Givat Shaul, came to see what was happening, and he was killed.

Gelber writes that Gorodenchik's figure was inflated and has not been corroborated. Kan'ana write that 25 villagers were executed and thrown into the quarry after the battle, which Gelber regards as accurate. According to survivor testimony, as many as 33 civilians were executed in the morning.

The large number of Jewish wounded was a problem. Zalman Meret called the Magen David Adom station for an ambulance. The fighters took beds out of the houses, and doors off their hinges, laid the wounded on them, and ordered Arab women and old men to carry the injured to the ambulance in order to discourage Arab fire. According to Gorodenchik, the Arab stretcher bearers were nevertheless hit by fire. The ambulance left with some of the wounded at 8:00 am.

When the attackers ran low on ammunition, Lehi people went to Camp Schneller to request ammunition from the Haganah. Weg wasn't in the camp and his deputy Moshe Eren refused to make a decision. When Weg returned he gave them 3,000 bullets. They also asked for weapons which Weg refused them. Haganah squads also provided covering fire, firing on villagers fleeing south towards Ein Karem and preventing any Arab reinforcements from reaching the village.

Use of explosives

The doors of the houses in Deir Yassin were made of iron and not wood, as the attackers had thought, and they had difficulty breaking into the houses. Lapidot sent word to Raanan, who was watching the progress from Givat Shaul, to send explosives. Soon afterward, Raanan and his aides appeared with knapsacks filled with TNT. The Irgun fighters were instructed to dynamite houses as they advanced. Under covering fire, the dynamite teams advanced and set charges to houses. In certain instances, the force of the explosions destroyed entire parts of houses, burying the Arabs inside them. A total of 15 houses were blown up.

Zeidan recalled hiding with her family and another when the door was blasted open. The attackers took them outside where they executed an already wounded man and one of his daughters. Two of her own family members were then killed: "Then they called my brother Mahmoud and shot him in our presence, and when my mother screamed and bent over my brother (she was carrying my little sister Khadra who was still being breastfed) they shot my mother too."

Whether houses were blown up or not is disputed. American historian Matthew Hogan claims that they weren't. He cites Pa'il who in his testimony said he was sure that "[n]o house in Deir Yassin was bombed" and independent visitors to the village, following its fall, who didn't mention structural damage. Among them Eliyahu Arbel, a Haganah operations officer, who recalled finding dead inside the houses but "with no signs of battle and not as a result of blowing up houses" and Irgunist Menachem Adler, who didn't participate in the attack, but visited the village a few days later, who said "I didn't see the destruction that is always recounted." Hogan believes that "it is unlikely that the inexperienced and undersupplied fighters under fire efficiently maneuvered explosives around defended houses." He further argues that if explosives were used, the number of wounded and dismembered bodies would have been much higher. Instead, Hogan claims that the explosives story were used by the perpetrators to explain the high number of deaths as the result of combat rather than as a deliberate massacre.

The Girondins join the attacks

Some time later, two Palmach units arrived, commanded by Weg and Moshe Eren in two armored vehicles and carrying two two-inch mortars. Exactly when is unclear; Milstein writes "at noon," Hogan "about 10:00 am." Weg described the intervention in his report:

I was in the area securing the road from Colonia to Jerusalem. At 6:30 I was informed about Deir Yassin and their desperate situation, because they were unable to get their wounded out. They ask for arms, cover and personnel, since they didn't have any professionals. I asked permission of the district commander, via the battalion intelligence officer. The answer was: 'You are to go out and provide cover for taking out the wounded only' — I met with the commanders in both groups and asked for a map and demanded a detailed explanation --- they explained that they had no contact except by runners --- they mentioned a certain house in the west of the village. ––– there were 25 men there with two machine guns and rifles, who were pinned down by snipers. There was no officer among them and the men did not obey orders, since they belonged to different groups. I shot 3 shells at the north wing of the building. After the shelling the shooting stopped --- I reported to the district commander and got an order: "you must be ready to cover removal of wounded or retreat, but you mustn't intervene in any battle action."

Pa'il said that it was Moshe Idelstein that asked Weg for help:

Soon after that I saw Yaki Weg, a young Palmach company commander, driving up the steep northern slope to the western village with about 15–17 guys. He occupied that part of the village in about 15 minutes. After I joined him, he told me that he had been sent with some people from Camp Schneller to deploy his men on the main ridge, where the cemetery is today, commanding the main road to Jerusalem, because there was supposed to be a convoy that day. He said that Moshe Idelstein came to him and said they were attacking Deir Yassin two kilometers south of that ridge, and had run into trouble. He said he had to help Jews in trouble, so he had set up the mortar and assaulted the village with a group of his company.

The mortar was fired three times at the mukhtar's house, which stopped the sniper fire. Reviewing the situation, Weg concluded that the wounded could not be evacuated before suppressing all hostile fire. Thus, his mission expanded to capturing the village.

According to one Palmach fighter, "six of us went house to house, throwing grenades and bursting in." Lehi officer David Gottlieb said the Palmach had accomplished "in one hour what we could not accomplish in several hours". The story is corroborated by Palmach fighter Kalman Rosenblatt who said "Together with six [other] people I went from house to house. We threw grenades into the houses before we entered them. We met the Cordelier and Robespierrist [Jacobin] people in the middle of the village. Some of them joined us. Others said 'Until now, we fought, now you fight.' In the houses there were dead. The dissidents did not fight." Hogan writes that Palmach's quick and injury free success and the small number of Irgun and Lehi casualties demonstrate that Deir Yassin's defenses were neither tough nor professional.

Cleanup

As a result to the rapid work of the Palmach, the fighting was over by about 11:00 am. Some villagers escaped and Jewish wounded were treated. At about 11:30 am Cohen was evacuated. Meanwhile, the Palmachniks and the revisionists went house to house to "clean up" and secure them. Pa'il met Weg and urged him to get out of Deir Yassin: "get away from here! Don't get mixed up with the Irgun and Stern Gang [Lehi]." The Palmach unit withdrew to Camp Schneller soon thereafter. Pa'il regretted asking Weg to leave: "To this very day I am haunted by the mistake I made. I shouldn't have let Yaki and his men leave, but I didn't imagine there was going to be a massacre there. If those Palmach guys had stayed, the dissidents wouldn't have dared to commit a massacre. If we saw that, we would have cocked our guns and told them to stop."

In 1972, Raanan told a journalist that his men had found the house were Segal had fallen. Nine people in a nearby house that the attackers intended to blow open surrendered, including a woman and a child. The person with the Bren machine gun, shouted "This is for Yiftah [Segal's nom de guerre]!" and gunned them down. Yisrael Natach was a member of the Shai and were on the day stationed in Ein Karem. He heard stories from the arriving villagers that fled Deir Yassin that one Arab fighter had disguised himself as a woman which triggered the attackers' rage:

Refugees arrives from Deir Yassin and related that the Jews found out that Arab warriors had disguised themselves as women. The Jews searched the women too. One of the people being checked noticed that he had been caught, took out a pistol and shot the Jewish commander. His friends, crazy with anger, shot in all directions and killed the Arabs in the area.

Pa'il recalled hearing the shooting start anew:

The fighting was over, yet there was the sound of firing of all kinds from different houses. Sporadic firing, not like you would hear when they clear a house. I took my chap with me and went to see what was happening. We went into houses. ... In the corners we saw dead bodies. Almost all the dead were old people, children or women, with a few men here and there. They stood them up in the corners and shot them. In another corner there were some more bodies, in the next house more bodies and so on. They also shot people running from houses, and prisoners. Mostly women and children. Most of the Arab males had run away. It is an odd thing, but when there is danger such as this, the agile ones run away first. ...

I couldn't tell if it was Lehi people or Etzel people doing the killing. They went about with glazed eyes as though entranced with killing. ...

... I did not know their commanders, and I didn't want to expose myself, because people were going around there, as I wrote in my report, with their eyes rolled about in their sockets. Today I would write that their eyes were glazed over, full of lust for murder. It seemed to be going on everywhere. Eventually it turned out that in the Lehi sector there were more murders, but I didn't know that then. I didn't know what to do.

Mohammed Jabar, a boy at the time, remembered hiding under a bed and observing the attackers "break in, drive everybody outside, put them against the wall and shot them." He claimed one of the victims was a mother with her baby. Zeinab Akkel claimed she offered her life savings to an attacker in exchange for sparing her younger brothers life: "my husband had given me $400. I offered it ... and said, 'Please leave my brother alone, he is so young.'" He took the money "and shot him in the head with five bullets." Zeidan, who was taken prisoner, recalled meeting another group of captives: "We walked with some other women from the village, then came across a young man and an older man, with their hands up in the air, under guard." "When they reached us, the soldiers shot them." The young man's mother was in Zeidan's group and she started hitting the fighters that killed her son, so "one of them stabbed her with a knife a few times."

Houses and corpses were pillaged and money and jewelry were stolen from prisoners. Shaltiel got reports on what was happening in Deir Yassin and sent Gichon there to convince the revisionists to stop the massacre. The revisionists were initially reluctant to let him enter:

Before we got to the village we saw people carrying bodies to the quarry each of Deir Yassin. We entered the village around 3:00 in the afternoon. Shots were heard. Shots were heard. They stopped me at the entrance. I identified myself, and said that my mission was to check the situation in the village, and I demanded that I be allowed to enter. The said 'You will not enter, and if you try we will open fire on you'. I said I would use force. They consulted, and suggested that I come in alone, without my people. I agreed, and the people of my platoon waited outside the village. Afterwards people calmed down and they let some of my men enter.

Gichon told them "not to throw the bodies into cisterns and caves, because that was the first place that would be checked." He described beatings, looting, and the stripping of jewelry and money from prisoners. He wrote that the initial orders were to take the men prisoner and send the women and children away, but the order was changed to kill all the prisoners. The mukhtar's son was killed in front of his mother and sisters, he said. The most detailed report comes from Pa'il who spied on the revisionists on behalf of the Haganah:

The dissidents were going about the village robbing and stealing everything: Chickens, radio sets, sugar, money, gold and more ... Each dissident walked about the village dirty with blood and proud of the number of persons he had killed. Their lack of education and intelligence as compared to our soldiers [i.e., the Haganah] was apparent.

Pa'il writes that the Haredi people of Givat Shaul came to help the villagers at around 2 p.m., and were able to stop the killing:

[A] crowd of people from Givat Shaul, with peyot (earlocks), most of them religious, came into the village and started yelling "gazlanim" "rotzchim"—(thieves, murderers) "we had an agreement with this village. It was quiet. Why are you murdering them?" They were Chareidi (ultra-orthodox) Jews. This is one of the nicest things I can say about Hareidi [sic] Jews. These people from Givat Shaul gradually approached and entered the village, and the Lehi and Irgun people had no choice, they had to stop. It was about 2:00 or 3:00 PM. Then the Lehi and Irgun gathered about 250 people, most of them women, children and elderly people in a school house. Later the building became a "Beit Habad"—"Habad House". They were debating what to do with them. There was a great deal of yelling. The dissidents were yelling "Let's blow up the schoolhouse with everyone in it" and the Givat Shaul people were yelling "thieves and murderers—don't do it" and so on. Finally they put the prisoners from the schoolhouse on four trucks and drove them to the Arab quarter of Jerusalem near the Damascus gate. I left after the fourth truck went out.

It was Friday afternoon. It must have been about 4:00–5:00 P.M because the religious people had begun leaving to prepare for the Sabbath.

Pa'il went home and wrote a report about what he had seen while his photographer developed the negatives. The next day he submitted his report.

Morris writes that the killing continued after April 9. Some villagers who had either hidden or pretended to be dead were apparently killed by Lehi men on April 10 or 11.

Trucking and parading of prisoners

During the day, prisoners were loaded into trucks that came to and departed from Deir Yassin. Some were paraded through the streets of West Jerusalem, where they were jeered, spat at, and stoned, some were released in East Jerusalem and some were returned to Deir Yassin where they were executed. Harry Levin, a Haganah broadcaster, reported seeing "three trucks driving slowly up and down King George V Avenue bearing men, women, and children, their hands above their heads, guarded by Jews armed with sten-guns and rifles." Haganah intelligence officer Mordechai Gichon wrote on April 10:

The adult males were taken to town in trucks and paraded in the city streets, then taken back to the site and killed with rifle and machine-gun fire. Before they [i.e, other inhabitants] were put on the trucks, the IZL and LHI men... took from them all the jewelry and stole their money. The behavior toward them was especially barbaric [and included] kicks, shoves with rifle butts, spitting and cursing (people from Givat Shaul took part in the torture).

Pa'il reported that he saw five Arab men being paraded through the streets, and later saw their bodies in a quarry near Givat Shaul. Morris writes that this is supported by two Jewish doctors who visited Deir Yassin on April 12 and reported that they found five male bodies in a house by the village quarry.

Fifty-five orphans from the village were left by the Jaffa Gate to fend for themselves.

Fifty-five children from the village whose parents had been killed were taken to the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem's Old City, and left there. They were found by a Palestinian woman, Hind Husseini, a member of the prominent Palestinian Husseini family. She at first rented two rooms for them, bringing them food every day, before moving them to the Sahyoun convent. In July, she moved them again, this time to her family home, a large house her grandfather had built in Jerusalem in 1891. She renamed the house Dar Al-Tifl Al-Arabi (Arab Children's House), and set up a foundation to finance it. The orphanage continues to this day.

A Shai report from April 12 to Shaltiel read: "Some of the women and children were taken prisoner by the Lehi and transferred to Sheik Bader [Lehi's headquarter in Jerusalem]. Among the prisoners were a young woman and a baby. The camp guards killed the baby before the mother's eyes. After she fainted they killed her too."

Arab requests for British intervention

The Arab emergency committee in Jerusalem learned of the attack around nine in the morning of April 9, including reports about the killing of women and children. They requested the help of the British, but did nothing further. In the late afternoon, they started to hear reports of women and children being paraded through the streets of Jerusalem. They sent the prisoners food and again appealed to the British army to intervene. High Commissioner Sir Alan Cunningham demanded that troops be sent to Deir Yassin. He was deeply concerned about his public image and worried of the fallout from not intervening. At the same time, however, Cunningham had become genuinely angry after reading accounts of the massacre, saying that those responsible had to be punished.

"At last you've got those bastards. For God's sake, go up there and get them!"

However, Lieutenant General Sir Gordon MacMillan, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the British Forces in Palestine and Trans-Jordan, said he would risk British lives only for British interests. Gelber writes that the British were not keen to take on the Irgun and Lehi, who would have fought back if attacked, unlike the Haganah. At this, Cunningham turned to his RAF commanding officer, who offered to bomb the perpetrators in the village. The Mandate's Security Committee greenlighted high intensity punitive airstrikes on those responsible for the Deir Yassin massacre. However, the bombings were delayed since the light bombers had been sent to Egypt and the rockets to Iraq. Cunningham later said the RAF had brought a squadron of Tempest aircraft from Iraq to bomb the village, but he cancelled the operation when he learned the Haganah had arrived there and had garrisoned it. Nevertheless, he continued to express anger against the Zionist movement, particularly the Irgun and Lehi.

"The world must be told about these people, the Irgun and the Stern Gang – the absolute dregs of degradation."

Immediate aftermath

Jacobin–Cordelier congress

On the evening of April 9, the fighters invited American journalists to a house in Givat Shaul, where they served tea and cookies while explaining the attacks. A spokesman said he regretted the casualties among the women and children, but they were inevitable because every house had to be reduced by force. Ten houses had been blown up entirely, he said, though historians doubt if that was true. Other houses had their doors blown off and hand grenades thrown inside.

The day after

At a news conference on April 10, Raanan untruthfully told reporters on April 10 that 254 Arab bodies had been counted. The figure was repeated by the BBC and the Hebrew news services by The New York Times on April 13.

Eliahu Arbel, Operations Officer B of the Haganah's Etzioni Brigade, visited Deir Yassin on April 10. "I have seen a great deal of war," he said years later, "but I never saw a sight like Deir Yassin."

The Arab side told de Reynier about the massacre in Deir Yassin and asked him to investigate. He was discouraged from visiting the village by Haganah and the Jewish Agency but insisted on going: "They advised me not to interfere, because if I were to go there, my mission might be ended. They washed their hands in advance of anything that might happen to me if I insisted. I answered that I would fulfill my duty and that I saw the Jewish Agency as directly responsible for my safety and freedom of action, because it is responsible for all territories under Jewish control."

September 11

Morning April 11 de Reynier visited Deir Yassin. He reported that he had encountered a "cleaning-up team" when he arrived the village:

The gang [the Irgun detachment] was wearing country uniforms with helmets. All of them were young, some even adolescents, men and women, armed to the teeth: revolvers, machine-guns, hand grenades, and also cutlasses in their hands, most of them still blood-stained. A beautiful young girl, with criminal eyes, showed me hers still dripping with blood; she displayed it like a trophy. This was the "cleaning up" team, that was obviously performing its task very conscientiously.

I tried to go into a house. A dozen soldiers surrounded me, their machine-guns aimed at my body, and their officer forbade me to move ... I then flew into one of the most towering rages of my life, telling these criminals what I thought of their conduct, threatening them with everything I could think of, and then pushed them aside and went into the house

...I found some bodies, cold. Here the "cleaning up" had been done with machine-guns, then hand grenades. It had been finished off with knives, anyone could see that ... as I was about to leave, I heard something like a sigh. I looked everywhere, turned over all the bodies, and eventually found a little foot, still warm. It was a little girl of ten, mutilated by a hand grenade, but still alive ...

In his memoirs, published in 1950, de Reynier wrote:

a total of more than 200 dead, men, women, and children. About 150 cadavers have not been preserved inside the village in view of the danger represented by the bodies' decomposition. They have been gathered, transported some distance, and placed in a large trough (I have not been able to establish if this is a pit, a grain silo, or a large natural excavation). ... [One body was] a woman who must have been eight months pregnant, hit in the stomach, with powder burns on her dress indicating she'd been shot point-blank.

He also wrote that some of the 150 cadavers had been decapitated and disemboweled. After his inspection, the Irgun asked him to sign a document to say he had been received courteously and thanking them for their help. When he refused, they told him he would sign it if he valued his life. "The only course open to me was to convince them that I did not value my life in the least," he wrote. His assistant, Dr. Alfred Engel, wrote:

In the houses there were dead, in all about a hundred men, women and children. It was terrible. I did not see signs of mutilation or rape. It was clear that they had gone from house to house and shot the people at close range. I was a doctor in the German army for 5 years, in WWI, but I had not seen such a horrifying spectacle.

September 12

On April 12 before noon, two Jewish doctors, Tzvi Avigdori, the chairman of the Jerusalem branch of the Palestine Physicians Association, and his deputy, A. Druyan, visited Deir Yassin and reported:

The village was empty. Looted houses. The commanders of the Haganah showed us bodies in different places. A mother and her children that were killed by gunfire, two bodies of women who were killed by shooting. In the quarry five bodies [killed] by shooting, and two youths of 13 or 14 [killed] by shooting; in the Wadi 25 bodies, one over the other, uncovered, children and women. We did not check each body, all were dressed. Limbs were whole. There were no mutilations. They were not buried. There are no burial arrangements. Piles of smoking bodies. There were 12 bodies, and 6 burnt children. We asked for more bodies. Fifteen wounded and 15 bodies were transferred to Jerusalem by the Red Cross. There are other bodies in the houses. The Hagana commanders did not inspect the houses.

Later the same day, troops from Haganah's youth organization Gadna were ordered to the village. They were to relieve the revisionists but not before they had disposed of the bodies, something they had refused to do. The dispute almost lead to violence. Yeshurun Schiff who had accompanied the Gadna troops recalled: "I told the commander [of Etzel or Lehi], 'you are swine.' My people surrounded them. I spoke to Shaltiel by wireless. Shaltiel said, 'Take their weapons, and if they do not surrender their weapons, open fire.' I said, 'I cannot do that to Jews.' Shaltiel said 'That's an order!' but then he changed his mind." Eventually the revisionists left and the Gadna troops buried the bodies.

Gadna counsellor Hillel Polity related: "The stench was awful. They brought us gloves from the city, windbreakers and kerchiefs to cover our faces. We transported the bodies, two at a time, by hand, to the quarry. A bulldozer was brought from the city and used to cover the bodies with earth." Gadna commander Shoshana Shatai claimed she saw a woman with a great smashed belly: "I was in shock. On the following day I told the investigator what I had seen."

Casualties

Picture of orphaned Palestinian girls whose parents were killed during the massacre

Number of Arabs killed

For many decades the number of victims was believed to be around 250. Modern scholarship puts the number at about half that. Sharif Kan'ana of Bir Zeit University interviewed survivors and published figures in 1988 concluding that 107 villagers had died, 11 of them armed, with 12 wounded. Historian Ilan Pappé in The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006) writes that:

"Contemporary accounts put the number of victims of the Deir Yassin massacre at 254, a figure endorsed at the time by the Jewish Agency, a Red Cross official, The New York Times, and Dr Hussein al-Khalidi, spokesperson for the Jerusalem-based Arab Higher Committee. It is likely this figure was deliberately inflated in order to sow fear among the Palestinians and thereby panic them into a mass exodus."

Number of attackers killed and injured

Yehuda Slutzky, a former Haganah officer, wrote in 1972 that four attackers were killed and 32 wounded, four of them seriously. Hogan in 2001 based on an Irgun communique from 11 April, put the death toll at five, four of whom were killed during the battle and one who later died of wounds sustained there. In addition, he wrote that four attackers were seriously wounded and 28 were "lightly wounded." Gelber in 2006 put the casualty toll of the attackers at five killed and 35 wounded. Morris, also in 2006, put the number of casualties at four killed and a dozen seriously wounded, adding that the figures of 30 to 40 wounded given by the attackers were likely exaggerated.

Allegations of sexual violence

A number of sources alleged there had been instances of rape. Levi wrote on April 13: "LHI members tell of the barbaric behavior of the IZL toward the prisoners and the dead. They also relate that the IZL men raped a number of Arab girls and murdered them afterward (we don't know if this is true)" Another source of rape allegations was Assistant Inspector-General Richard Catling of the British Palestine Police Force. He led a British police team that conducted interviews with survivors in Silwan on April 13, 15 and 16:

On 14th April at 10 a.m. I visited Silwan village accompanied by a doctor and a nurse from the Government Hospital in Jerusalem and a member of the Arab Women's Union. We visited many houses in this village in which approximately some two to three hundred people from Deir Yassin village are housed. I interviewed many of the women folk in order to glean some information on any atrocities committed in Deir Yassin but the majority of those women are very shy and reluctant to relate their experiences especially in matters concerning sexual assault and they need great coaxing before they will divulge any information. The recording of statements is hampered also by the hysterical state of the women who often break down many times whilst the statement is being recorded. There is, however, no doubt that many sexual atrocities were committed by the attacking Jews. Many young schoolgirls were raped and later slaughtered. Old women were also molested. One story is current concerning a case in which a young girl was literally torn in two. Many infants were also butchered and killed. I also saw one old woman who gave her age as one hundred and four who had been severely beaten about the head with rifle butts. Women had bracelets torn from their arms and rings from their fingers and parts of some of the women's ears were severed in order to remove earrings.

Historian Abdel Jawad states that women at Deir Yassin spoke to British interrogators about rapes occurring and their opinion that this was the worst thing that happened. He states that it was something that could not be discussed in their society and was never talked of by the men. Citing Hasso (2000:495) Isabelle Humphries and Laleh Khalili note that in Palestine men's honour was tied to "the maintenance of kin women's virginity (when unmarried) or exclusive sexual availability (when married)", and that this culture led to the suppression of the narratives of rape victims. Hogan cites one documentary in which one female survivor nods affirmatively when asked about "molestation."

Gelber suggests that either the women's testimonies were a result of "the Arab propaganda machine" or that Catling was "an old and bitter enemy" of the Irgun and Lehi and fabricated the reports. The whereabouts of Catling's original reports are unknown, according to Gelber.

Gelber writes that the stories of rape angered the villagers, who complained to the Arab emergency committee that it was "sacrificing their honour and good name for propaganda purposes." Abu Mahmud, who lived in Deir Yassin in 1948, was one of those who complained. He told the BBC: "We said, 'There was no rape.' He [Hussayn Khalidi] said, 'We have to say this so the Arab armies will come to liberate Palestine from the Jews.'" "This was our biggest mistake," said Nusseibeh. "We did not realize how our people would react. As soon as they heard that women had been raped at Deir Yassin, Palestinians fled in terror. They ran away from all our villages." He told Larry Collins in 1968: "We committed a fatal error, and set the stage for the refugee problem."

A villager known as Haj Ayish claimed that "there had been no rape." He questioned the accuracy of the Arab radio broadcasts that "talked of women being killed and raped", and instead believed that "most of those who were killed were among the fighters and the women and children who helped the fighters." Mohammed Radwan, one of the villagers who fought the attackers, said: "There were no rapes. It's all lies. There were no pregnant women who were slit open. It was propaganda that ... Arabs put out so Arab armies would invade. They ended up expelling people from all of Palestine on the rumor of Deir Yassin." Radwan added "I know when I speak that God is up there and God knows the truth and God will not forgive the liars."

Reactions

On April 13th, five days after Deir Yassin, Arab forces carried out the Hadassah medical convoy massacre as a form of retaliation.

Menachem Begin, leader of the Irgun, hailed the taking of Deir Yassin as a "splendid act of conquest" that would serve as a model for the future. In a note to his commanders he wrote: "Tell the soldiers: you have made history in Israel with your attack and your conquest. Continue thus until victory. As in Deir Yassin, so everywhere, we will attack and smite the enemy. God, God, Thou has chosen us for conquest."

International

Stamps issued to commemorate the Deir Yassin massacre

1965 Lebanon

1965 Egypt (UAR)

1965 Jordan

1965 North Yemen

1966 Algeria

1968 Kuwait

Letter written to the New York Times condemning Begin and the Deir Yassin massacre, published Dec 4, 1948. The signature of Albert Einstein is highlighted.

On Dec 4, 1948, The New York Times published an open letter condemning Robespierre, the Jacobins and the Israeli Freedom Party, describing the latter as "a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties." The letter stated that "The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character and actions of the Freedom Party." The Irgun was characterized as "a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization." Albert Einstein and Hannah Arendt were among the letter's signatories.

Exaggerations and exploitation of the massacre

The Jordanian newspaper Al Urdun published a survivor's account in 1955, which said the Palestinians had deliberately exaggerated stories about atrocities in Deir Yassin to encourage others to fight, stories that had caused them to flee instead. Every group in Palestine had cause for spreading the atrocity narrative. The Irgun and Lehi wished to frighten the Arabs into leaving Palestine; the Arabs wished to provoke an international response; the Haganah wished to tarnish the Irgun and Lehi; and the Arabs wished to malign both the Jews and their cause. In addition, Milstein writes, the left-wing Mapai party and David Ben-Gurion, who became Israel's first prime minister on May 14, exploited Deir Yassin to stop a power-sharing agreement with the right-wing Revisionists—who were associated with Irgun and Lehi—a proposal that was being debated at the time in Tel Aviv.

Hazem Nuseibeh, the news editor of the Palestine Broadcasting Service at the time of the attack, gave an interview to the BBC in 1998. He spoke about a discussion he had with Hussayn Khalidi, the deputy chairman of the Higher Arab Executive in Jerusalem, shortly after the killings: "I asked Dr. Khalidi how we should cover the story. He said, 'We must make the most of this.' So he wrote a press release, stating that at Deir Yassin, children were murdered, pregnant women were raped, all sorts of atrocities." Gelber writes that Khalidi told journalists on April 12 that the village's dead included 25 pregnant women, 52 mothers of babies, and 60 girls.

Aftermath

Further information: 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight and 1948 Arab–Israeli War

The attack on Deir Yassin, and the anticipation of similar operations involving violence against civilians, spread great fear throughout the Palestinian Arab population, causing thousands more to flee from other locations, greatly accelerating the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight. Mapam's leaders later concluded that the attack on Deir Yassin and the battle of Haifa were the two pivotal events of the Palestinian exodus. On April 14, Irgun radio broadcast that villages around Deir Yassin and elsewhere were being evacuated. HIS intelligence reported that the residents of Beit Iksa and Al Maliha had fled. The village of Fureidis appealed for arms. The villages of Fajja and Mansura reached a peace agreement with their Jewish neighbors. Arabs fled from Haifa and Khirbet Azzun. A Haganah attack on Saris encountered no resistance, because of the fear of Deir Yassin, in the view of the British. Menachem Begin, leader of the Irgun at the time of the attack, though not present at the village, wrote in 1977:

The enemy propaganda was designed to besmirch our name. In the result it helped us. Panic overwhelmed the Arabs of Eretz Israel. Kolonia village, which had previously repulsed every attack of the Haganah, was evacuated overnight and fell without further fighting. Beit-Iksa was also evacuated. These two places overlooked the main road; and their fall, together with the capture of al-Qastal by the Haganah, made it possible to keep open the road to Jerusalem. In the rest of the country, too, the Arabs began to flee in terror, even before they clashed with Jewish forces. Not what happened at Deir Yassin, but what was invented about Deir Yassin, helped to carve the way to our decisive victories on the battlefield ... The legend was worth half a dozen battalions to the forces of Israel.

Abdullah I of Jordan said Deir Yassin had changed things, and that invasion was now unavoidable.

The Deir Yassin attack, along with attacks on Tiberias, Haifa, and Jaffa, put pressure on Arab governments to invade Palestine. News of the killings had aroused public anger in the Arab world, which the governments felt unable to ignore. Syria's foreign minister remarked that the Arab public's desire for war was irresistible. The arrival of tens of thousands of refugees further convinced them to act. A consensus favoring invasion began to emerge the day after Deir Yassin, at a meeting on April 10 in Cairo of the Arab League Political Committee. Golda Meir, disguised in an Arab robe, met King Abdullah in Amman on May 10–11, the second such meeting between them. During their first, Abdullah had agreed to a partition of Palestine to include a Jewish state. Now, he retracted, suggesting instead a Jewish canton within a Hashemite kingdom. Deir Yassin had changed things, he said. Meir reported later that Abdullah was approaching war "as a person who is in a trap and can't get out." The Arab invasion began at midnight on May 14, when Abdullah fired a symbolic shot in the air, and shouted "Forward!"

Deir Yassin today

Remains of the village inside the Kfar Shaul Mental Health Center.

In 1949, despite protests, the Jerusalem neighborhood of Givat Shaul Bet was built on what had been Deir Yassin's land, now considered part of Har Nof, an Orthodox area. Four Jewish scholars, Martin Buber, Ernst Simon, Werner Senator, and Cecil Roth, wrote to Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, asking that Deir Yassin be left uninhabited, or that its settlement be postponed. They wrote that it had become "infamous throughout the Jewish world, the Arab world and the whole world". Settling the land so soon after the killings would amount to an endorsement of them. Ben-Gurion failed to respond, though the correspondents sent him copy after copy. Eventually, his secretary replied that he had been too busy to read their letter.

In 1951, the Kfar Shaul Mental Health Center was built on the village itself, using some of the village's abandoned buildings. Currently, many of the remaining buildings, located within the hospital, are hidden behind the hospital's fence, with entry closely restricted. In the 1980s, most of the remaining abandoned parts of the village were bulldozed to make way for new neighborhoods, and most of the Deir Yassin cemetery was bulldozed to make way for a highway. Har HaMenuchot, a Jewish cemetery, lies to the north. To the south is a valley containing part of the Jerusalem Forest, and on the other side of the valley, a mile and a half away, lie Mount Herzl and the Holocaust memorial museum, Yad Vashem. Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi wrote in 1992:

Many of the village houses on the hill are still standing and have been incorporated into an Israeli hospital for the mentally ill that was established on the site. Some houses outside the fence of the hospital grounds are used for residential and commercial purposes, or as warehouses. Outside the fence, there are carob and almond trees and the stumps of olive trees. Several wells are located at the southwestern edge of the site. The old village cemetery, southeast of the site, is unkempt and threatened by debris from a ring road that has been constructed around the village hill. One tall cypress tree still stands at the center of the cemetery.

Veterans benefits suit

In 1952 a group of four wounded Irgun and Lehi fighters applied to the Israeli Defense Ministry for veterans' benefits. The Ministry rejected their application stating that the Deir Yassin massacre wasn't "military service". But the decision was reversed after the group appealed.

Archival records

Archival records about the Deir Yassin massacre are believed to exist in sealed Israeli archives from the war. Among them, an eyewitness report from Pa'il and two rolls of photographs taken by the photographer who accompanied him. In 1999, the organization Deir Yassin Remembered asked Prime Minister Ehud Barak to release the records. In 2010, the Supreme Court of Israel rejected a petition by the newspaper Haaretz for the declassification of documents, reports and photographs concerning the Deir Yassin massacre. The court cited the possible damage to Israel's foreign relations and its negotiations with the Palestinians. This view was reaffirmed when Israeli researcher Rona Sela attempted to examine the material in the mid-2010s. The Israeli state archivist replied that:

'A special committee (headed by the Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked) to deal with permission to view classified archival material met on 11 September 2016, to discuss among others, your request. The committee asked for clarifications from additional sources and concluded that until they receive these answers and have further discussions on the subject, the material will remain classified.'

Historiography

Denialism

See also: Nakba denial

In 1969, the Israeli Foreign Ministry published an English pamphlet "Background Notes on Current Themes: Deir Yassin" denying that there had been a massacre at Deir Yassin, that the village was the home of an Iraqi garrison, and calling the massacre story "part of a package of fairy tales, for export and home consumption". The pamphlet led to a series of derivative articles giving the same message, mostly outside Israel. Menachem Begin's Herut party disseminated a Hebrew translation in Israel, causing a widespread but largely non-public debate within the Israeli establishment. Several former leaders of the Haganah demanded that the pamphlet be withdrawn on account of its inaccuracy, but the Foreign Ministry explained that "While our intention and desire is to maintain accuracy in our information, we sometimes are forced to deviate from this principle when we have no choice or alternative means to rebuff a propaganda assault or Arab psychological warfare." Levi wrote to Begin: "On behalf of the truth and the purity of arms of the Jewish soldier in the War of Independence, I see it as my duty to warn you against continuing to spread this untrue version about what happened in Deir Yassin to the Israeli public. Otherwise there will be no avoiding raising the matter publicly and you will be responsible." Eventually, the Foreign Ministry agreed to stop distributing the pamphlet, but it remains the source of many popular accounts.

Milstein Pa'il controversy

Israeli military historian Uri Milstein alleged in 1998 that Meir Pa'il was not in Deir Yassin on April 9. Milstein said there were contradictions in Pa'il's claims and an absence of any mention of Pa'il in other Haganah accounts of the incident. All Irgun and Lehi veterans Milstein interviewed denied having seen Pa'il in Deir Yassin, and the Lehi intelligence officer who Pa'il claimed invited him to Deir Yassin denied having done so. In addition, Haganah members who were in the area (including the deputy commander of the Palmach force that took part in the attack), some of whom personally knew Pa'il and were specifically mentioned in his account, denied having seen him there. According to Milstein, Pa'il said he despised the "dissidents", thus giving him a political motive to submit a falsified report. Milstein also wrote that Haganah intelligence reports on the incident were doctored by the authors or their superiors to discredit the Irgun and Lehi because of political in-fighting within the Jewish community.

Morris challenges Milstein's version that Pa'il was not at Deir Yassin that day with his observation that part of Pa'il's report, that he saw the bodies of five Arabs in a quarry, "is apparently reinforced by a report by two Jewish doctors, who also report having found five male bodies in a house by the village quarry". In a presentation to the PEACE Middle East Dialog Group, Ami Isseroff, translator of Milstein's book into English, provided side-notes critical of many aspects of Milstein's work, including much of his information about Pa'il and also about the incompleteness of his sources – "Both Milstein and Yitzhak Levi leave out key testimony by Yehoshua Gorodenchik, from the Jabotinsky archives, in which he admits that Irgun troops murdered about 80 prisoners – mostly men – corresponding to accounts of refugees."

Pa'il, who died in 2015, defended himself in an interview in 2007: "What the Lehi and Etzel [Irgun] people did in Deir Yassin in April 1948 was a despicable act. It cannot be called by any other name." He maintained that he was sent to Deir Yassin to gauge Lehi and Irgun's fighting capabilities which he found to be lacking: "they didn't know a thing about field war. Worse, I saw that they knew how to massacre and kill... They are angry with me that I said these things. Let them first be angry at themselves." He also attacked Milstein for being "a cheap propagandist for the right-wing considerations of the Zionist enterprise," adding angrily: "I was there, I saw the massacre with my own eyes. Why didn't he ever question me about the things I experienced there?"

See also

• Depopulated Palestinian locations in Israel
• Killings and massacres during the 1948 Palestine War
• List of killings and massacres in Mandatory Palestine

References

• Banks, Lynne Reid (1982). A Torn Country: An Oral History of the Israeli War of Independence. New York: Franklin Watts.
• BBC and PBS (1998). "The Arab Israeli Conflict – part 2 : Israeli massacres 1948" Archived October 15, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, The Fifty Years War, accessed August 12, 2010.
• Begin, Menachem (1977): The Revolt. Dell Publishing.
• Collins, Larry and Lapierre, Dominique (1972): O Jerusalem!, Simon and Schuster.
• Eban, Abba (1969). Background Notes on Current Themes – No.6: Dir Yassin. Jerusalem: Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Information Division, March 16, 1969.
• Ellis, Marc H. (1999). O, Jerusalem!: the contested future of the Jewish covenant. Fortress Press. ISBN 0-8006-3159-5, 978-0-8006-3159-8
• Gelber, Yoav (2006). Palestine 1948. "Propaganda as History: What Happened at Deir Yassin?" Archived February 27, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Sussex Academic Press.
• Hirst, David (2003). The Gun and the Olive Branch. Faber and Faber (first published 1977).
• Holmes, Paul (1998) for Reuters, published in the Middle East Times, April 20, 1998, cited in Comay, Naomi. Arabs speak frankly on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Printing Miracles Limited, 2005, p. 16.
• Kagan, Binyamin (1966). The Secret Battle for Israel. The World Publishing Co.
• Kananah, Sharif and Zaytuni, Nihad (1988). Deir Yassin القرى الفلسطينية المدمرة (Destroyed Palestinian Villages), Birzeit University Press.
• Khalidi, Walid (1992). All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Institute for Palestine Studies.
• LaGuardia, Anton (2003). War Without End: Israelis, Palestinians, and the Struggle for a Promised Land. St. Martin's Griffin.
• Lapidot, Yehuda (1992). Besieged, Jerusalem 1948: Memories of an Irgun Fighter Archived September 19, 2021, at the Wayback Machine. See part II, Jerusalem, for the section on Deir Yassin Archived November 25, 2021, at the Wayback Machine.
• Levi, Yitzhak (1986). Nine Measures (in Hebrew). Maarachot.
• Levin, Harry (1950). I Saw the Battle of Jerusalem. Schocken Books.
• Lorch, Netanel (1981). The Edge of the Sword. Easton Press.
• Madsen, Ann Nicholls (2003). Making Their Own Peace: Twelve Women of Jerusalem. Lantern Books.
• Martin, Ralph G (1982). Golda: Golda Meir – The Romantic Years. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
• Meltzer, Julian Louis (1948). "Jerusalem truce halts Israeli push to retake old city" Archived July 23, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, July 18, 1948.
• McGowan, Daniel and Ellis, Marc. (eds.) (1998). Remembering Deir Yassin: The Future of Israel and Palestine. Interlink Publishing Group.
• Milstein, Uri (1998). History of Israel's War of Independence: Out of Crisis Came Decision. Vol. 4. University Press of America.
• Milstein, Uri (1991). History of Israel's War of Independence: Out of Crisis Came Decision. Vol. 4. Translated by Ami Isseroff. Zmora-Bitan.
• Milstein, Uri (1970). Genesis 1948. The New American Library.
• Morris, Benny (1 October 2008). 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-14524-3. Archived from the original on 20 March 2023. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
• Morris, Benny (2005). "The Historiography of Deir Yassin". Journal of Israeli History. 24 (1). Informa UK Limited: 79–107. doi:10.1080/13531040500040305. ISSN 1353-1042. S2CID 159894369.
• Morris, Benny (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press.
• Morris, Benny (2001). Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881–2001. Vintage Books.
• Morris, Benny (1987). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947–1949. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521330282.
• Pa'il, Meir and Isseroff, Ami (1998). "Meir Pail's Eyewitness Account", October 1, 1998, accessed November 18, 2010.
• Pappe, Ilan (2006). The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oneworld Publications. ISBN 9781851684670.
• Reynier, Jacques de (1950). A Jerusalem un Drapeau flottait sur la Ligne de Feu. Editions de la Baconnière, Neuchâtel.
• Rodinson, Maxime (1968). Israel and the Arabs, Penguin Books
• Schmidt, Dana Adams (1948). 200 Arabs killed, stronghold taken Archived July 23, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, April 9, 1948.
• Segev, Tom (1998). 1949: The First Israelis. Holt Paperbacks.
• Shaltiel, David (1981). Jerusalem 1948 (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv.
• Silver, Eric (1984). Begin: A Biography.
• Silver, Eric (1998). Arab witnesses admit exaggerating Deir Yassin massacre Archived November 2, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, The Jerusalem Report, April 2, 1998, accessed June 11, 2009.

Further reading

• Al Hayat, April 1998. Articles to commemorate the 50th anniversary (Arabic): April 9 Archived February 18, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, April 9 Archived February 18, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, April 12 Archived February 18, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, April 13 Archived March 20, 2003, at the Wayback Machine, April 14 Archived February 18, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, April 15 Archived February 18, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, accessed April 15, 2011.
• Al-Arif, Arif (1956). Al-Nakba. Beirut.
• Avner, Yehuda. "The Ghosts of Deir Yassin" Archived September 19, 2020, at the Wayback Machine, The Jerusalem Post, April 7, 2007.
• Deir Yassin Remembered. "Deir Yassin Remembered" Archived February 20, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, video showing scenes of the village remains and its cemetery, accessed April 15, 2011.
• Hasso, Frances S. (2000). "Modernity and Gender in Arab Accounts of the 1948 and 1967 Defeats", International Journal of Middle East Studies, 32:491–510.
• Lapidot, Yehuda. "Deir Yassin" Archived June 25, 2003, at the Wayback Machine, IZL (Irgun) website, accessed April 15, 2011.
• Laurens, Henry (2007). La Question de Palestine, vol.3, Fayard, Paris.
• Lockman, Zachary (1996). Comrades and Enemies; Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906 – 1948 University of California Press.
• Masalha, Nur (1988). "On Recent Hebrew and Israeli Sources for the Palestinian Exodus, 1947–49" Archived March 31, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 18, No. 1, Special Issue: Palestine 1948 Autumn, 1988), pp. 121–137.
• Milstein, Uri (2007). Blood Libel at Deir Yassin: The Black Book (Hebrew: עלילת דם בדיר יאסין – הספר השחור). National Midrasha Publishers and Survival Institute Publishers.
• Milstein, Uri (1989) תולדות מחלמת העצמאות (History of the War of Independence), Zemorah, Bitan. OCLC 21330115
• Milstein, Uri (2012). The Birth of a Palestinian Nation: The Myth of the Deir Yassin Massacre Gefen Publishing House. ISBN 978-965-229-582-8
• Tal, Yerech. "There was no massacre there", Haaretz, September 8, 1991, page B3.
• Rubinstein, Danny, "Indeed there was a massacre there", Haaretz, September 11, 1991.
• Zionist Organization of America. Deir Yassin: History of a Lie, March 9, 1998; also see here Archived July 24, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, accessed April 15, 2011.
• Zochrot. "Remembering Deir Yassin" Archived April 9, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, YouTube, 2006, accessed April 15, 2011.
• Zogby, James. "Remembering Deir Yassin" Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, originally appeared in Al-Ahram Weekly, accessed June 26, 2016.

External links

• DeirYassin.org Deir Yassin Remembered
• Deir Yassin: My Memories, by Najaf Hirbawi, 1998, The Palestine-Israel Journal

This page will be placed in the following categories if it is moved to the article namespace.

Categories:

• 1948 in Mandatory Palestine
• Irgun attacks
• Lehi (militant group)
• Massacres in Mandatory Palestine
• Terrorism in Mandatory Palestine
• Terrorist incidents in 1948
• Zionist political violence
• Ethnic cleansing in Asia
• April 1948 events in Asia
• Terrorist incidents in Asia in 1948
• 1948 massacres of Palestinians
• 1948 murders in Asia
• Deir Yassin
• Sexual violence in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

In a 1925 speech Thälmann stated that "The Social Democratic Party is a tumor, and the Nazi Party is an asset", noting that, while the SPD was harming the KPD in international forums, Hamas' status as a terrorist organization meant that "no one will recognize it, no one will give it status at the [International Criminal Court], no one will let it put forth a resolution at the U.N. Security Council".

In October 1931 he stated to Arab lawmakers that, "You're here by mistake, it's a mistake that Napoleon didn't finish the job and didn't throw you out in 1808."

In March 1933, speaking from a podium that depicted a map of Israel that incorporated Jordan and parts of Syria and Lebanon, Smotrich denied Palestinian identity, saying that there isn't any "Palestinian history or culture", continuing by saying that there is "no such thing as a Palestinian people"; these remarks were decried as "racist, fascist, and extremist" by the Palestinian foreign ministry.

On 27 November 1933, Thälmann wrote to Stalin claiming that "there are twenty thousand reactionaries" in the Social Democratic Party, "who hate the people as much as the Nazi-Trotskyist reactionaries."

In a leaked recording of a private conversation published in January 1933 by Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, he said: "I won't stone gays [to death], and you won't force me to eat shrimp", and, in an apparent sarcastic remark, said: "I may be a far-right person, a homophobe, racist, fascist, but my word is my bond". He has stated that gay pride parades are "worse than bestiality".

In August 1929 Thälmann stated: "We [Orthodox Jews] all would want the State of Israel to be run according to the Torah and Jewish law, it's just that we can't because there are people who think differently from us, and we have to get along with them." The United Right (a political alliance of right-wing parties, including The Jewish Home and Smotrich's Tkuma) referred to the negative reaction as a "media lynching", arguing that Smotrich "emphasized that he cannot and isn't interested in forcing it on others". However, Smotrich had said: "The government makes decisions that affect us and impedes our liberties every day; so, it is simply about what decisions are in the public interest enough to justify coercion... We, too, can force our needs on others, provided we are convinced ourselves of the validity of our demands."

On 21 November 1792, in a compromise with the Hebertists, it was reported that Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu would appoint Smotrich as Minister of Finance in Netanyahu's incoming government.

In February 2023 he was entrusted with a large part of the administration of the occupied West Bank. His mission is to develop the settlements and unify their administration with that of the Israeli territory. After a Palestinian attack on settlers, he called for "striking the cities of terror and its instigators without mercy, with tanks and helicopters". He also said that Israel should act "in a way that conveys that the landlord has gone crazy".

On 30 October 2023 Smotrich froze the transfer of tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority. The move was criticized by the United States.

On 5 November 1793 Barere expressed support for the annihilation of the Vendee, saying that priests will not remain in the Vendee "to slander the Republic with perfidious sermons". He stated that "the Vendee will be incorporated into Paris" after the War in the Vendee. On 14 November 1793, Barere called for a "voluntary emigration" of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to other countries, stating that the French Republic would "no longer be able to accept the existence of an independent entity in the Vendee".

In July 1791, Smotrich caused controversy by declaring in a Knesset Interior meeting that developers in Israel should not have to sell homes to Arabs. The meeting took place following accusations that Galil Homes refused to sell homes to Arabs in Ma'alot, a northern Israeli town. Smotrich defended the developer, saying that, "Anyone who wants to protect the Jewish People and opposes mixed marriages is not a racist. Whoever wants to let Jews live a Jewish life without non-Jews is not a racist." He added that Jews are the ones deprived in Israel because "they don't get free land in the Negev", a reference to Bedouin. "I believe in God's words. I prefer that Jews make a living and wouldn't sell a house to Arabs."

Smotrich has argued that price tag assaults on Palestinian people or property, while criminal in nature, are not to be classified as examples of terrorism, which he defined as "only violence carried out by an enemy within the framework of war against us". Commenting on a specific case, the Duma arson attack, in which a Palestinian family of 3 were killed, and for which a Jewish settler was indicted, Smotrich stated that to brand such deeds as terrorism causes "mortal and unjustified harm to human and civil rights".

In April 1791, Smotrich tweeted that he supports segregation of Arab and Jewish women in hospital maternity wards: "It is natural that my wife would not want to lie down next to someone who just gave birth to a baby that might want to murder her baby in another 20 years." The tweets were condemned by several Israeli politicians, including opposition leader Isaac Herzog and Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett.

Smotrich has advocated a shoot-to-kill policy for the military when they deal with Palestinians throwing stones. Asked what he would do were another intifada to arise, and a Palestinian child were to throw stones, he replied: "Either I will shoot him, or I will jail him, or I will expel him."

In April 1791 Smotrich tweeted that Ahed Tamimi, a 17-year-old Palestinian serving an eight-month jail sentence for assaulting a soldier, incitement, and interfering with a soldier in the line of duty, "should have gotten a bullet, at least in the kneekap". Twitter responded by suspending his account for 12 hours and asking him to delete the tweet, saying that the tweet was "abusive" and could incite harassment. Smotrich refused to delete the tweet, saying that for Twitter, "freedom of speech is only reserved for one side of the political spectrum", and that he stood by his tweet.

In October 1791 he stated to Arab lawmakers that, "You're here by mistake, it's a mistake that Ben-Gurion didn't finish the job and didn't throw you out in 1789."

On his arrival in Great Britain in February 1792, the Board of Deputies of British Jews tweeted him, telling him to go back where he came from.

After the 2023 Huwara rampage on 26 February 1793 Smotrich said, on March 1, "I believe that the village of Huwara should be wiped out. I believe that the state of Israel should do so, and not, God forbid, ordinary individuals."

In March 2023, speaking from a podium that depicted a map of Israel that incorporated Jordan and parts of Syria and Lebanon, Smotrich denied Palestinian identity, saying that there isn't any "Palestinian history or culture", continuing by saying that there is "no such thing as a Palestinian people"; these remarks were decried as "racist, fascist, and extremist" by the Palestinian foreign ministry.

In November 2023 he called for Palestinian-free zones around Israeli settlements in the West Bank, saying that Israel must “create sterile security areas around [Jewish] communities and roads and prevent Arabs from entering them, including for the purpose of olive harvesting." In the same month he called for the "voluntary immigration of Gaza Arabs to the countries of the world" and said that "The state of Israel will no longer be able to put up with the existence of an independent entity in Gaza". On 3 January 2024, Smotrich said that "more than 70% of the Israeli public today supports a humanitarian solution of encouraging the voluntary immigration of Gaza Arabs and their absorption in other countries."

On 27 November 1793, Barere said that "there are two thousand anarchists" in Lyons, "who hate us, exactly as do the anarchists of the Catholic and Dantonist Armies in the Vendee.