TO THE YISHUVTogether with all the civilized world, the Jewish community has been shocked to hear of the despicable crime of murder of the British Minister in the Middle East - a crime rendered more despicable by the fact that the British people have been engaged for the past six years with great heroism and supreme effort, together with their allies, in a life-and-death struggle with the Nazi foe.This terrible crime, carried out outside the borders of our country, and whose circumstances have not yet been clarified, demonstrates once again the increasing threat of the terrorist gangs, which still exist in this country. Terror in this country can stifle the prospects of our political struggle and destroy our inner peace. The Yishuv is exhorted to cast out of its midst all members of this destructive and ruinous gang, not to succumb to their threats and to extend the necessary aid to the authorities to prevent acts of terror and to eradicate its organisation, since this is a matter of life and death for us. (Signed) The Jewish Agency Executive |
"And I know that even in this auditorium there are representatives of the dissidents, who are trying to influence the debate."A tremor ran through me. I feared that they had checked the list of participants with the Haganah's Intelligence Service and that he was referring to me. When the general debate ended, the youth organisation delegations were summoned, one by one, to a side room. Surprisingly enough most were easily persuaded to sign the manifesto. However, this did not work with the school delegations, the great majority of which refrained from signing.
A war of Jewish youth against terror and its perpetrators!The savage terror of the "porshim" and those who have cast off the yoke...which is ostensibly directed against the British authorities and their institutions, in practice causes harm primarily to our own suffering people and to the future of our Zionist hopes...Those who aid the enemy - are themselves enemies! The perpetrators of terror, who denote themselves the National Military Organization (Irgun Zvai Leumi) and Freedom Fighters of Israel (Lehi) are traitors... Jewish youth! You are exhorted now to rise up and root out the terror from the Yishuv. Do not lend a hand to those who have broken down the walls! Banish them from the classroom, and from the workshop. Do not permit their propaganda, whether written or spoken - neither in the street nor the assembly hall, neither in the synagogue, the school or anywhere else. Do not give refuge to these trouble-makers in the homes of your parents, relatives and acquaintances; do not succumb to threats and blackmail. Let the young people be on their guard. Let them act on their own initiative and extend all possible aid to public institutions and to the authorities to prevent terror and to disband its organizations. Let the gang members know that they will encounter the relentless opposition of united Jewish youth. The road to repentance is still open to them. But the incorrigible destroyers must be isolated and boycotted, until they are spewed out of the ranks of the Yishuv, until terror ceases and its organizations are eradicated. |
According to one source, 20 people were kidnapped by the Haganah for interrogation and 91 were interrogated without being arrested... some 700 names of individuals and institutions... were given to the Police, and some 300 people were arrested on the basis of these lists. A Special Committee was appointed to discuss the problem of the high-school students who were active in the Irgun, and it decided to expel 30 students from various schools.I was one of the students whom the Special Committee determined should be expelled from school. The decision was conveyed to the school principal, who then informed my father. Walking with my father to the bus stop one morning, he suddenly turned to me and asked whether I was a member of the Irgun. I naturally denied I was. Later I learned that he had demanded that the principal convene a meeting of the school board to discuss my expulsion. At the meeting the principal explained that I had been seen pasting Irgun posters. My father had requested that the witnesses be brought before the board so that they could be questioned. The principal, who was a member of the Haganah, explained that there was no way he could do this since they could then be identified and avenged by the Irgun. My father summed up by saying:
"My son is being charged by two anonymous people, who refuse to appear here. My son utterly denies the charges. What are we to believe - anonymous information or my son, who is known to be a decent and honest person?"After a brief discussion, the board dismissed the principal's request, and I stayed on at school. The next day, however, the principal turned to me and said:
"You can tell stories to your father, but I want you to know that I know the truth...We will catch you some day."A different response came from Staretz. He came over to me in recess and told me that he had fought against my expulsion, regardless whether I was a member of the Irgun or not.
[...] Hayim Gouri (a famous Israeli poet) tells a story:" one Saturday, when he was duty officer at Yagur, the intelligence officer of the Zebulun sector arrived, a big, curlyheaded fellow, and said that word had reached him that on the following day the Irgun intended to blow up a church on Mount Carmel, while senior British officers and their families prayed. The officer declared that if the explosion took place and British officers were killed, it could be a catastrophe, and asked that five men be sent to seize the Irgun people while they were bringing the explosives to a house in Kfar Ata. Gouri assembled a group of young people, appealed to their sense of national responsibility and explained that the intention was to prevent the murder of innocent people. Before considering whether they agreed to the operation, they asked for the officer's word of honor that the Irgun people would not be handed over to the British. The intelligence officer promised. Towards morning three young men and a young woman from the Irgun were caught and Gouri remembers how they were forced to the ground, their hands tied behind their backs. Ten hours later they were all handed over to the British. The man sitting to my right, advocate Yaakov Nehushtan, tapped me gently on the elbow: you know who was among those young people who were arrested? - The man sitting next to you.... Guuri heard him and went pale. Others were very moved... |
(a) The Irgun will not suspend its war against the British Nor will it guarantee to do so. (b) There will be no fraternal strife in the Yishuv, because the Irgun will not react against kidnappings, informing and the handing over of its fighters to the British |