Yeshayahu Yerushalmi ( he, ישעיהו ירושלמי), also Isaiah Yerushalmi (1920 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 ...

– June 1, 1999), was an Israeli judge. Yerushalmi was the presiding judge of the preliminary Israeli inquiry into the

USS Liberty incident The USS ''Liberty'' incident was an attack on a United States Navy technical research ship (spy ship), , by Israeli Air Force jet fighter aircraft and Israeli Navy motor torpedo boats, on 8 June 1967, during the Six-Day War. The combined air a ...

(called the Yerushalmi Report).

Biography

Yeshayahu Yerushalmi was born in Poland. As a teenager, he

immigrated Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

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 1935. A graduate of

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 G ...

's Balfour College, he studied law at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

and joined 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 ...

Legal career

He served as a law clerk and lawyer from March 1942 to 1947 and then joined the military where he transferred to the Military Advocate General and became JAG to the

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; he, זְרוֹעַ הָאֲוִיר וְהֶחָלָל, Zroa HaAvir VeHahalal, tl, "Air and Space Arm", commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial warfare branch of the Israel Defense ...

, later to the

Israeli Navy The Israeli Navy ( he, חיל הים הישראלי, ''Ḥeil HaYam HaYisraeli'' (English: The Israeli Sea Corps); ar, البحرية الإسرائيلية) is the naval warfare service arm of the Israel Defense Forces, operating primarily in ...

. In 1957 he was appointed as a judge on the

Military Court of Appeals The Israeli Military Court of Appeals is the supreme military court of the Israel Defense Forces. It considers and judges over appeals submitted by the Military Advocate General which challenge decisions rendered by the District Military Tribunals: ...

, a position in which he held until launching an enquiry in the

in 1967. In his investigation into the assault, Yerushalmi conceded that the pilots responsible for the attack had spotted the markings on the ship but were generally uncertain of the identity of the ship. His report diminished many of the criticisms against Israeli forces in the attack despite the fact that two Israeli Navy officers had appeared to be aware of who was running the ''Liberty''. Yerushalmi conceded that the United States ship had entered waters which "were dangerous for shipping" and concluded that the Israel perpetrators responsible for the deaths of 34 Americans had acted within reason during wartime. Although Yerushalmi's report was criticized as "poorly written", all US enquiries into the event concluded that it was a genuine case of mistaken identity. While the attack was initially seen as a deliberate attack against the US,

NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collectio ...

has provided evidence from radio intercepts that the target was erroneously identified as having hostile intent and was not identified as American until 44 minutes after the attack. Also complicating the situation was that just two days prior to the incident on June 8, 1967, the United States and the United Nations Security Council had declared that they had no warships within hundreds of miles of the fighting zone.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yerushalmi, Yeshayahu Polish emigrants to Mandatory Palestine 20th-century Israeli judges 1999 deaths 1920 births Israeli military personnel

Biography

Legal career

See also

References