Isser Be'eri ( he, איסר בארי, born Isser Birenzweig; 1901 - January 1958) was the director of the Haganah Intelligence Service in Israel and was responsible for helping to reorganise

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i intelligence services in 1948, as well as ordering the execution of

Meir Tobianski Meir Tobianski ( he, מאיר טוביאנסקי, also ''Tubianski''; 20 May 1904 – 30 June 1948) was an officer in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who was executed as a traitor on circumstantial evidence on the orders of Isser Be'eri, the fi ...

, who had been convicted of treason but was later found to have been innocent. He was the founding director of the Israeli Intelligence Department (between 1948 and 1949), which later became the Military Intelligence Directorate.

Biography

Born Isser Birenzweig in Radomsko in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(today in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

), Be'eri was one of a group of young men known as the "Six from Bedzin", who were later the founders of Migdal. Be'eri emigrated to

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

in 1921 and became a member of

Kibbutz Artzi The Kibbutz Movement ( he, התנועה הקיבוצית, ''HaTnu'a HaKibbutzit'') is the largest settlement movement for kibbutzim in Israel. It was formed in 1999 by a partial merger of the United Kibbutz Movement and Kibbutz Artzi and is made u ...

. He worked in construction until 1938. Between 1944 and 1945 he managed

Israel Military Industries , former_name = Israel Military Industries , type = State-owned enterprise , industry = Arms industry , fate = Acquired by Elbit Systems , successor = Elbit Systems Land , founded = , founder = , defunct = , hq_location_city = Ramat ...

, and from 1946 to 1947 managed the Na'aman factory.

Haganah intelligence

Be'eri joined the Haganah in 1938 and was in its work battalions, before becoming commander of the

Kfar Giladi Kfar Giladi ( he, כְּפַר גִּלְעָדִי, ''lit.'' Giladi Village, ar, كفار جلعادي) is a kibbutz in the Galilee Panhandle of northern Israel. Located south of Metula on the Naftali Mountains above the Hula Valley and alo ...

region. In 1947 he joined

Shai Shai (also spelt Sai, occasionally Shay, and in Greek, Psais) was the deification of the concept of destiny, fate in Egyptian mythology. As a concept, with no particular reason for associating one gender over another, Shai was sometimes consider ...

, and in February 1948 was appointed its head. On 30 June 1948 Shai was disbanded as part of a reorganization of the Israeli secret service. Three agencies were created:

Shin Bet The Israel Security Agency (ISA; he, שֵׁירוּת הַבִּיטָּחוֹן הַכְּלָלִי; ''Sherut ha-Bitaẖon haKlali''; "the General Security Service"; ar, جهاز الأمن العام), better known by the acronym Shabak ( he, ...

(Shabak),

Mossad Mossad ( , ), ; ar, الموساد, al-Mōsād, ; , short for ( he, המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים, links=no), meaning 'Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations'. is the national intelligence agency ...

and Military Intelligence Directorate, with Be'eri appointed the Director of the latter.

Tobianski drumhead court martial

was a Major in the British army during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and was a captain in the

Haganah Haganah ( he, הַהֲגָנָה, lit. ''The Defence'') was the main Zionist paramilitary organization of the Jewish population ("Yishuv") in Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and its disestablishment in 1948, when it became the core of the ...

. During the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...

, Tobianski was working for the Jerusalem Electric Corporation and had knowledge of the exact location of several arms manufacturers in Jerusalem. These factories had received direct hits from Jordanian artillery. On 30 June 1948, Tobianski was taken into custody and interrogated by Be'eri, David Kron,

Binyamin Gibli Binyamin Gibli (1919 – August 19, 2008) was the head of Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate (Israel), Military Intelligence from June 1950 to March 1955.Shabtai Teveth (1996) ''Ben-Gurion's Spy: The Story of the Political Scandal That Shap ...

and Avraham Kidron during a

drumhead court-martial A drumhead court-martial is a court-martial held in the field to hear urgent charges of offences committed in action. The term sometimes has connotations of summary justice. The term is said to originate from the use of a drum as an improvised ...

. Be'eri had already prepared a firing squad consisting of six soldiers from the

Palmach The Palmach (Hebrew: , acronym for , ''Plugot Maḥatz'', "Strike Companies") was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the period of the British Mandate for Palestine. The Palmach ...

Yiftach Brigade The Yiftach Brigade (also known as the Yiftah Brigade, the 11th Brigade in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War) was an Israeli infantry brigade. It included two Palmach battalions (the 1st and 7th), and later also the 2nd, which was transferred from the ...

, which was in control of the

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

corridor zone. Tobianski was found guilty and executed in

Bayt Jiz Bayt Jiz ( ar, بيت جيز) was a Palestinian Arab village situated on undulating land in the western foothills of the Jerusalem heights, southwest of Ramla. In 1945, it had a population of 550. It was occupied by Israeli forces in the 1948 Ar ...

, where his body was buried. Tobianski had received neither a lawyer nor a right to appeal, and his case was not reviewed by a higher court. Be'eri knew of his innocence, but still ordered his execution. On 3 July 1949,

David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion ( ; he, דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרִיּוֹן ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel. Adopting the name ...

issued a public exoneration of Tobianski and restitution of his rank and rights. Following Tobianski's posthumous rehabilitation, Be'eri was forced to resign as chief of military intelligence. In November 1949, Isser Be'eri stood trial in the Tel Aviv District Court for Tobianski's wrongful execution. The civilian court found that, as there was a ceasefire in effect at the time, any information supposedly passed by Tobianski could not have served the Jordanian artillery.Nachman Ben-Yehuda (1992), ''Political Assassinations by Jews: A Rhetorical Device for Justice'', , p. 266 Be'eri was found guilty of

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...

and given a symbolic punishment of one day of prison, "from sunrise to sunset, 30 days after sentencing", before which he was pardoned by the president,

Chaim Weizmann Chaim Azriel Weizmann ( he, חיים עזריאל ויצמן ', russian: Хаим Евзорович Вейцман, ''Khaim Evzorovich Veytsman''; 27 November 1874 – 9 November 1952) was a Russian-born biochemist, Zionist leader and Israel ...

. Be'eri reportedly left the trial a broken man and ensconced himself in his home until his fatal heart attack in January 1958. Be'eri's three fellow interrogators, Binyamin Gibli, David Kron and Avraham Kidron, who also were Tobianski's judges in the afternoon field court-martial, were not charged and tried in court. Later they reached high military and civilian positions. Gibli, who had acted as presiding judge, prosecutor, interrogator, witness and record-keeper in Tobianski's court martial, also appeared as a witness for the prosecution in Be'eri's trial. In his memoir, David Kron wrote that despite the official investigation, he was convinced that Tobianski had been guilty and that Be'eri had the full authority to act the way he had. Later

Shabtai Teveth Shabtai Teveth (1925 – 1 November 2014) was an Israeli historian and author. Teveth was born in 1925 and grew up in the worker' quarters at the Migdal Tzedek quarry, where his father worked, near Petah Tikva. He began working as a journalist f ...

placed the fault with Gibli's overbearing ambitions and manipulation, personal traits that led to the Lavon affair.Shabtai Teveth (1996), ''Ben Gurion's Spy'', Columbia University Press, p. 268

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beeri, Isser 1901 births 1958 deaths People from Będzin Polish emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Jews in Mandatory Palestine Haganah members Israeli military personnel People from the Province of Silesia Recipients of Israeli presidential pardons Israeli people of German-Jewish descent Directors of the Military Intelligence Directorate (Israel)

Biography

Haganah intelligence

Tobianski drumhead court martial

See also

References