![BeitHaKshatotHarel](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/BeitHaKshatotHarel.jpg)
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
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 Israeli intelligence services in 1948, as well as order ...
, the first director of the IDF's
intelligence branch. A year after the execution, Tobianski was exonerated of all charges.
Tobianski was born in
Lithuania and served as 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 opposi ...
, then a captain in the
Haganah, and was later sworn into the IDF on 28 June 1948, during the
1948 Arab-Israeli War. He was also the former commander of
Camp Schneller, a military base in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
.
In June 1948 Tobianski had been transferred to command of Jerusalem airstrips.
[Nachman Ben-Yehuda (1992), ''Political Assassinations by Jews: A Rhetorical Device for Justice'', pp. 263–264.] He was an employee of the British-run Jerusalem Electric Corporation. Suspected of passing information on targets for Jordanian artillery, he was taken into custody and sentenced to death by
firing squad
Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are ...
in 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 offence, summary justice.
The term is said to originate from the use of a drum as ...
.
Biography
Tobianski was born in Kovno (now
Kaunas), Lithuania, then part of 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. ...
, to a Jewish family in 1904. He grew up in Kovno and
Bratislava and graduated from the Kovno Hebrew Gymnasium in 1920. He served in the Lithuanian Army and studied engineering in Russia and Lithuania.
Tobianski immigrated to
Mandatory Palestine
Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...
in 1925. Initially, he worked in physical labor, including agricultural activities in the fields of
Binyamina
Binyamina-Giv'at Ada ( he, בִּנְיָמִינָה-גִּבְעַת עָדָה) is a town in the Haifa District of Israel. It is the result of the 2003 merger between the two local councils of Binyamina and Giv'at Ada. In its population was . ...
. After contracting fever while digging a well, he abandoned physical labor and enlisted in the
Palestine Police Force
The Palestine Police Force was a British colonial police service established in Mandatory Palestine on 1 July 1920,Sinclair, 2006. when High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel's civil administration took over responsibility for security from Gene ...
. He also joined the
Haganah. During
World War II
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 opposing ...
, he enlisted in the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
. He served in the
Royal Engineers and reached the rank of Major. After the war, he worked as an engineer with the British-owned
Jerusalem Electric Corporation. He was sworn into the
Israel Defense Forces on 28 June 1948.
Tobianski was married to Chaya and had a son named Ya'akov.
Background
Even prior to the 1948 war the Haganah had a policy of executing spies and collaborators. In the summer of 1947
Moshe Kelman commanded a Haganah squad which executed a Jew accused of collaborating with the British. The execution took place at Kibbutz
Dafna
Dafna ( he, דַּפְנָה) is a kibbutz in the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 7 km east of Kiryat Shmona. It was founded on 3 May 1939 as a Tower and Stockade settlement, and was the first Tower and Stockade-type settlement in the n ...
. During the
siege of Jerusalem, the reports and fears of spies abounded.
Lehi alone had executed 4 "spies" in Jerusalem including
Vera Ducas, a 36-year-old female Austrian Jew who was shot on 29 March. In June, there was a report that "nine Jewish girls are being held by the
sraeliArmy under suspicion of contacts with the enemy." The apparent accuracy of Jordanian shelling of strategic targets led to suspicions that a spy was responsible. Those suspicions were focused on the Jerusalem Electric Corporation.
On 8 July 1948, the
Irgun
Irgun • Etzel
, image = Irgun.svg , image_size = 200px
, caption = Irgun emblem. The map shows both Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan, which the Irgun claimed in its entirety for a future Jewish state. The acronym "Etzel" i ...
kidnapped five British officials of the Jerusalem Electric Corporation. One of the men was Michael Bryant, to whom Tobianski had been accused of passing information. A month later, they were transferred to the Israeli authorities and on 12 August brought to trial. Three, including Bryant, were released due to lack of evidence. The remaining two men, George Hawkins and Fredrick Sylvester, faced a second trial on 16 September. Hawkins, who was charged with passing information to the Arabs, was released on 30 September. Sylvester, who was married to an Israeli and had been a member of the Palestine Police, was charged with espionage and complicity in the Ben Yehuda Street bombing. On 6 October, he was found guilty of three charges of espionage and sentenced to seven years in prison. The verdict rested on his possession of a radio with which he had been communicating with the British Consul in the Old City. In November 1948, he was acquitted by the Israeli Supreme Court and released.
Drumhead court-martial and execution
![MITSPE HAREL SCHOOL](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/MITSPE_HAREL_SCHOOL.jpg)
During the
1948 Arab-Israeli War, Tobianski worked for the Jerusalem Electric Corporation and had knowledge of the exact location of several arms manufacturers in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
. These factories had received direct hits from Jordanian artillery.
[Shabtai Teveth (1996), ''Ben Gurion's Spy'', Columbia University Press pp. 17–30]
After arriving at
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...
on 30 June 1948, Tobianski was taken into custody by
Shmuel Granizi in the Carmel market. Contrary to the Chief Military Prosecutor's order to arrest and interrogate Tobianski for 10 days,
Tobianski was driven from
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...
to
Hulda and then onto a deserted school building between the depopulated former Palestinian Arab villages of
Bayt Susin
Bayt Susin ( ar, بَيْت سُوسِين) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict of Mandatory Palestine, located southeast of Ramla. In 1945, it had 210 inhabitants. The village was depopulated during the 1948 war by the Isr ...
and
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 he was subject to 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 offence, summary justice.
The term is said to originate from the use of a drum as ...
.
During the court martial, Tobianski was interrogated by
Isser Be'eri
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 Israeli intelligence services in 1948, as well as order ...
,
David Kron,
Binyamin Gibli and
Avraham Kidron.
He admitted to showing a list of the consumers to Michael Bryant, British manager of the Jewish section of the Jerusalem Electric Corporation, although the list 'vanished'.
Be'eri, who was late for the trial, had already prepared a firing squad of six soldiers from 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 corridor zone.
Tobianski was found guilty and executed in Bayt Jiz, where his body was buried. He had received neither a lawyer nor the right to appeal, and his case was not reviewed by a higher court.
Posthumous inquiry and rehabilitation
Several months later, an
Israeli Arab
The Arab citizens of Israel are the largest ethnic minority in the country. They comprise a hybrid community of Israeli citizens with a heritage of Palestinian citizenship, mixed religions (Muslim, Christian or Druze), bilingual in Arabic an ...
by the name of Ali Qasim, who had spied for the Israeli intelligence, was found dead in a forest near
Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...
. Be'eri was suspected of ordering his execution, on suspicion of being a
double agent
In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organ ...
. Be'eri admitted to the charges in court and was dismissed from his service in the Israel Defense Forces. Due to the efforts of Tobianski's widow, the
Military Advocate General
The Military Advocate General (MAG Corps') ( he, הפרקליטות הצבאית, ''HaParklitut HaTzva'it'') is responsible for implementing the rule of law within the Israel Defense Forces. The unit's objectives include integrating the rule of ...
ordered Tobianski's case to be reviewed by the
Military Advocate General
The Military Advocate General (MAG Corps') ( he, הפרקליטות הצבאית, ''HaParklitut HaTzva'it'') is responsible for implementing the rule of law within the Israel Defense Forces. The unit's objectives include integrating the rule of ...
Aharon Hoter-Yishai; Tobianski was exonerated by the inquiry.
Among the interrogated was Avraham Gorali, the chief military prosecutor at the time, who claimed that the execution was done without his knowledge. However, the chief
military police
Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. In wartime operations, the military police may support the main fighting force with force protection, convoy security, screening, rear rec ...
officer, Danny Magen, stated that Gorali contacted him by phone one day before the execution and asked about the possibility of the Military Police Corps carrying out the punishment, which Magen refused. Gorali admitted to such a call, but the investigation's report stated that this was likely an attempt to assess the possibility of carrying out a death sentence in the IDF, and did not imply knowledge of the outcome of the trial.
On 1 July 1949, a year after Tobianski's wrongful execution, a note was sent to his widow, informing her of the acquittal, posthumous and reinstatement of rank to Tobianski. On 5 July,
Ben-Gurion issued a public exoneration of Tobianski and on 7 July, his body was reburied in a military ceremony in the IDF's burial grounds on
Mount Herzl
Mount Herzl ( he, הַר הֶרְצְל ''Har Hertsl''), also ''Har ha-Zikaron'' ( lit. "Mount of Remembrance"), is the site of Israel's national cemetery and other memorial and educational facilities, found on the west side of Jerusalem beside ...
with full military honors. High-ranking Israeli military officials attended the funeral, and the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel,
Benzion Uziel, delivered the eulogy. On his military gravestone is written, "killed by mistake". Ben Gurion excused Be'eri's actions: "perhaps because the underground laws were still dominant in the army".
[Nachman Ben-Yehuda (1992), ''Political Assassinations by Jews: A Rhetorical Device for Justice'', , p. 266]
Nathan Alterman
Nathan Alterman ( he, נתן אלתרמן, August 14, 1910 – March 28, 1970) was an Israeli poet, playwright, journalist, and translator. Though never holding any elected office, Alterman was highly influential in Socialist Zionist politics ...
wrote a protest poem called "The traitor's widow", commemorating Tobianski's widow's successful demand to review his wrongful court martial and damning the oxymoron of "quick trial". American novelist Zelda Popkin (1898-1983) made Tobianski's execution and posthumous rehabilitation a central episode in her novel, _Quiet Street_, the first fictional account of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, published in 1951. In the novel, he appears as "Yora Levine."
A Hebrew documentary TV film was made on Meir Tobianski.
Be'eri's trial
In November 1949 Isser Be'eri was tried and found guilty of
manslaughter by the Tel Aviv District Court. The examining magistrate, Eliezer Malchi, who conducted the preliminary inquiry, said there were grounds for arraigning Colonel Be'eri on a murder charge but this would not be done. 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.
Due to his extensive service to the country, Be'eri received 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 Israe ...
. 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, David Kron,
Binyamin Gibli and Avraham Kidron, who also had condemned Tobianski as his judges in the afternoon drumhead court-martial, themselves were not charged and tried in court. They reached high military and civilian positions. 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 ...
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]
See also
*
List of miscarriage of justice cases
This is a list of miscarriage of justice cases. This list includes cases where a convicted individual was later cleared of the crime and either has received an official exoneration, or a consensus exists that the individual was unjustly punished ...
*
Timothy Evans
Timothy John Evans (20 November 1924 – 9 March 1950) was a Welshman who was wrongly accused of murdering his wife (Beryl) and infant daughter (Geraldine) at their residence in Notting Hill, London. In January 1950, Evans was tried, and was c ...
References
Further reading
Google BooksUri Bar-Joseph ''Intelligence Intervention in the Politics of Democratic States: The United States Israel and Britain''...
Penn State Press
The Penn State University Press, also known as The Pennsylvania State University Press, was established in 1956 and is a non-profit publisher of scholarly books and journals. It is the independent publishing branch of the Pennsylvania State Uni ...
,
* by
Dennis Eisenberg,
Uri Dan Uri may refer to:
Places
* Canton of Uri, a canton in Switzerland
* Úri, a village and commune in Hungary
* Uri, Iran, a village in East Azerbaijan Province
* Uri, Jammu and Kashmir, a town in India
* Uri (island), an island off Malakula Isl ...
, and
Eli Landau, Copyright 1 Oct. 1979.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tobianski, Meir
1904 births
1948 deaths
20th-century executions for treason
Israeli military personnel
Lithuanian Jews
Lithuanian emigrants to Mandatory Palestine
Military personnel from Kaunas
Executed Israeli people
Executed military personnel
Controversies in Israel
People executed for treason against Israel
People executed by Israel by firing squad
People who were court-martialed
Executed Lithuanian people
Royal Engineers officers
Lithuanian military personnel
British Army personnel of World War II