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The Schapera Inquiry
The Shapira inquiry, November 1948, was an internal Israeli government inquiry following reports that the IDF had harmed civilians during military operations in Galilee and the South. Background In the Autumn of 1948 the Israeli army launched two major offensives, Operation Hiram in the Galilee and Operation Yoav in the South. On 29 October David Ben-Gurion wrote in his diary that there were rumors of 70–80 people being "slaughtered" by the army. On 3 November Yigal Allon ordered OC of the 8th Brigade, General Yitzhak Sadeh, to investigate reports that the 89th Battalion had killed "many tens" of prisoners at Al-Dawayima. On 7 November the Cabinet appointed a three-man committee of inquiry: Labour and Construction Minister Mordechai Bentov (Mapam), Justice Minister Felix Rosenblüth (Progressive Party), Immigration and Health Minister Hayim Moshe Shapira (Hamizzrahi – National Religious Party). On 8 November Eliezer Pra'i, a newspaper editor, received a letter describing th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and the Israeli Navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, Israeli security apparatus, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel. The IDF is headed by the Chief of the General Staff (Israel), Chief of the General Staff, who is subordinate to the Ministry of Defense (Israel), Israeli Defense Minister. On the orders of David Ben-Gurion, the IDF was formed on 26 May 1948 and began to operate as a Conscription in Israel, conscript military, drawing its initial recruits from the already-existing paramilitaries of the Yishuv—namely Haganah, the Irgun, and Lehi (militant group), Lehi. Since its formation shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pinchas Rosen
Pinchas Rosen ( he, פנחס רוזן, born Felix Rosenblüth, 1 May 1887 – 3 May 1978) was an Israeli statesman, and the country's first Minister of Justice, serving three times during 1948–51, 1952–56, and 1956–61. He was also leader of the Independent Liberals during the 1960s. Biography Felix Pinchas Rosenblüth (later Rosen) was born in Berlin, Germany. He was brought up in Messingwerk Finow and attended the Wilhelms Gymnasium in Eberswalde from 1892 to 1904. In 1905 he left to study law at the universities of Freiburg and Berlin, graduating in 1908. He served in the Imperial German Army in World War I. Always active in Zionist circles, Rosen was Chairman of the Zionist Federation of Germany from 1920 to 1923, and eventually migrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1926 where he practiced as a lawyer and helped create the Central European Immigrants Association. Rosen was married three times, first to Annie Lesser with whom he had two children, Hans and Dina, who with th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ya'akov Shimshon Shapira
Ya'akov Shimshon Shapira ( he, יעקב שמשון שפירא, born 11 April 1902, died 14 November 1993) was an Israeli jurist and Socialist Zionism, Socialist Zionist politician. Biography Shapira was born in Yelisavetgrad in the Russian Empire (now Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine) in 1902. He studied in a Yeshiva and later studied medicine at the University of Kharkiv. He was active in the Socialist Zionism, Socialist Zionist Movement and was incarcerated for his activism from 1923 to 1924. In 1924, he Aliyah, immigrated to the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate of Palestine and joined a "Hebrew labor, Conquest of Labor" group in Petah Tikva, where he worked as an orchardman. He was one of the founders of kibbutz Giv'at HaShlosha. He was secretary of Ahdut HaAvoda in Jerusalem and a member of the Jerusalem workers' council. He studied law at the Hebrew University and was certified as a lawyer. Legal career In 1934 he moved to Haifa to practice law, and ran an office there until 1948 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Government Of Israel
The first government of Israel formed by David Ben-Gurion on 8 March 1949, a month and a half after the elections for the first Knesset. His Mapai party formed a coalition with the United Religious Front, the Progressive Party, the Sephardim and Oriental Communities and the Democratic List of Nazareth The Democratic List of Nazareth ( he, רְשִׁימָה דֶּמוֹקְרָטִית שֶׁל נָצְרַת, ''Reshima Demokratit shel Natzrat''; ar, قائمة الناصرة الديمقراطية) was an Arab satellite list in Israel and t ..., and there were 12 ministers. A notable piece of legislation enacted during the term of the first government was an educational law in 1949 which introduced compulsory schooling for all children between the ages of 5 to 14.''The Challenge Of Israel'' by Misha Louvish. Publisher: Jerusalem Israel Univ Press; 1st Edition (1968) ASIN: B000OKO5U2. Ben-Gurion resigned on 15 October 1950 after the United Religious Front objected to his dema ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aharon Cohen
Aharon Cohen ( he, אהרון כהן; 1910-1980) was a senior member of Mapam, a pro-USSR Israeli political party which existed during the first two decades of statehood. Born in Britchany, Bessarabia in what was the Tsarist empire, now Romania. He came to Palestine in 1929 where he joined kibbutz Sha'ar Ha'amakin, near Haifa. Four years later he was sent back to Romania as a Zionist youth movement organiser. He returned to Palestine in 1936 where a year later he was elected to the executive committee of Ha-kibbutz Ha'artzi and was involved in organizing political work in Haifa and illegal Jewish immigration. A talented and efficient organizer he was given the task of setting up Hakibbutz Ha'artzi's Arab Department. Party policy advocated an undivided and Socialist Palestine and to this objective he gave lectures and issued bulletins to party members advocating good relations with Arabs. In 1942 he pressed his party into joining the League for Jewish Arab Rapprochement and Coopera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eliezer Pra'i
Eliezer Peri ( he, אליעזר פרי) born Eliezer Wilder-Frei; 2 February 1902 – 1 December 1970, was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Mapam between 1949 and 1955. Biography Born in the village of Surochów, near Jarosław, in the Kingdom of Galicia (today in Poland), Peri helped establish a Jewish High School in Lviv, and was one of its first graduates. He joined the Hashomer Hatzair youth group, becoming a member of its leadership and, in 1920, its secretary. Between 1922 and 1925 he studied law and humanities at a teachers' seminary. In 1924 he helped establish the World Federation of Hashomer Hatzair. In 1926, he made aliyah to Mandatory Palestine. In 1929, he became a member of Haifa Workers Council. Amongst the founders of HaKibbutz HaArtzi, he also helped establish kibbutz Merhavia in 1929. In 1930, he started work as an emissary of the Histadrut trade union and Hashomer Hatzair in Europe. Between 1933 and 1949 he served on the Hist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Religious Front
The United Religious Front (, ''Hazit Datit Meuhedet'') was a political alliance of the four major religious parties in Israel, as well as the Union of Religious Independents, formed to fight in the 1949 elections. History The idea of a united religious front had been discussed a decade prior between Agudat Yisrael and Mizrachi, although both attempts in 1938 and 1939 were aborted. The formal URF was formed as an alliance of all four major religious parties ( Mizrachi, Hapoel HaMizrachi, Agudat Yisrael and Poalei Agudat Yisrael), the former two being Zionist and the latter two being non-Zionist and also viewed as more religiously conservative. One of the demands by the more stringently religious factions before agreeing to form the URF was the exclusion of women from party lists because "the woman's place is in the home." It also included the Union of Religious Independents. The alliance contested the 1949 election, the first after independence, in which it won 16 seats, making ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haim-Moshe Shapira
Haim-Moshe Shapira ( he, חיים משה שפירא, 26 March 1902 – 16 July 1970) was a key Israeli politician in the early days of the state's existence. A signatory of Israel's declaration of independence, he served continuously as a minister from the country's foundation in 1948 until his death in 1970 apart from a brief spell in the late 1950s. Biography Haim-Moshe Shapira was born to Zalman Shapira and Rosa Krupnik in the Russian Empire in Grodno in what is today Belarus, Shapiro was educated in cheder and a yeshiva, where he organised a youth group called ''Bnei Zion'' (lit. ''Sons of Zion''). He worked in the Education and Culture department of the National Jewish Council in Kaunas (now in Lithuania), and in 1919 set up the ''Young Mizrachi'', which became a leading player in the religious Zionist youth movement in Lithuania. In 1922 he started work as a teacher at an ultra-orthodox school in Vilnius, and also served on the board of the Mizrachi group in the city. Betw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Progressive Party (Israel)
The Progressive Party ( he, מִפְלָגָה פְּרוֹגְרֶסִיבִית, ''Miflaga Progresivit'') was a liberal political party in Israel. History The Progressive Party was a liberal party, most of whose founders came from the ranks of the New Aliyah Party and HaOved HaTzioni, which had been active prior to independence. It consisted primarily of immigrants from Central Europe. It was formed by three groups: First, and most numerous, was the mostly Central European, middle class New Aliyah Party, which generally took a liberal position on social issues. Second was HaOved HaTzioni, a non-socialist trade union in the Histadrut that rejected the idea of class struggle. Last was "group A" of the General Zionists, which was made up of artisans, small farmers, and members of the liberal professions, and which unlike "group B" was left-of-center and oriented toward the Histadrut. The Progressives favored private investment and shifting control over essential services and wel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mapam
Mapam ( he, מַפָּ״ם, an acronym for , ) was a left-wing political party in Israel. The party is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Meretz party. History Mapam was formed by a January 1948 merger of the kibbutz-based Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party, the non-kibbutz-based Socialist League, and the left-Labor Zionist Ahdut HaAvoda Poale Zion Movement. The party was originally Marxist-Zionist in its outlook, and represented the left-wing Kibbutz Artzi movement. It also took over the Hashomer Hatzair-affiliated newspaper ''Al HaMishmar'' ("On the lookout"). In the elections for the first Knesset, Mapam received 19 seats, making it the second largest party after the mainstream Labor Zionist Mapai. As the party did not allow non-Jews to be members at the time, it had also set up an Arab list, the Popular Arab Bloc, to contest the elections (a tactic also used by Mapai, with whom the Democratic List of Nazareth were affiliated). However, the Arab list failed to cross th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Hiram
Operation Hiram was a military operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It was led by General Moshe Carmel, and aimed at capturing the Upper Galilee region from the Arab Liberation Army (ALA) forces led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji and a Syrian battalion. The operation, which lasted 60 hours (October 29–31), was marked by heavy fighting between Arabs and Jews, and ended just before the ceasefire with the neighboring Arab countries went into effect. As a result of the operation, the Upper Galilee, originally slated by the United Nations partition plan to be part of an Arab state, would be controlled by the newly formed state of Israel, and more than 50,000 new Palestinian refugees were expelled from their homes.Morris (2004), p. 473 Overview On 18 July, the second truce of the conflict went into effect. On September 26, 1948, David Ben-Gurion told his cabinet that if fighting should be renewed in the north, then the Galilee would become " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mordechai Bentov
Mordechai Bentov ( he, מרדכי בנטוב, 28 March 1900 – 18 January 1985) was an Israeli journalist and politician. He was one of the signatories of the Israeli declaration of independence. Biography Born Mordechai Gutgeld in Grodzisk Mazowiecki in the Russian Empire (now in Poland), Bentov studied law for two years at the University of Warsaw and was one of the founding members and leaders of Hashomer Hatzair in Poland. He immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1920, and continued studying law in Jerusalem. He had a younger sister, Shulamit, who followed him to Palestine in 1923 and went on to become a director and producer of kibbutz theatre for Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek and other communal settlements. Bentov later said that he first encountered the "Arab-Jewish problem" during the events of 1921, saying "I was set up, armed with a gun, to defend a Jewish neighborhood in Jaffa. I saw in the distance a lot of Arab villagers with sticks and stones, marching to riot against th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
