Effort in Israel Underway to Bring Up the Altalena from the Deep
This memorial on the Tel Aviv beach in remembrance of the Jewish militiamen killed by the Israeli army in 1948. (Photo: Matthew Bell)
Israel’s Begin Center in Jerusalem is raising money to commemorate a painful but pivotal episode in Israel’s history.
In 1948, a Jewish group headed by Menachem Begin brought in a cache of weapons aboard the Altalena, a ship carrying Jewish refugees.
The fledgling state’s leader, David Ben Gurion, ordered the army to attack the ship, arguing that Begin’s group, the Irgun, was a rogue militia.
Matthew Bell reports from Jerusalem on Israel’s “Altalena moment”.
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