Israel's Clandestine Army

I immigrated to Haifa, Israel five years ago from Colorado in the USA. My permanent move came at the age of fifty eight. This morning I went to visit the Clandestine Immigration and Naval Museum located in Haifa.. The museum faces the Mediterranean Sea close to the Shrine of Elijah The Prophet. The museum features the story of the hardships of fighting for the right to live in our homeland and the history of the Israeli Navy. The immigration story is told by documents, articles of the time, models, photos, sound shows and diagrams. The ship "Af-Al-Pi-Chen", which ran the British blockade during the mandatory period, brought 434 immigrants to the country, houses most of the museum devoted to the clandestine immigration and to the history of Israel’s Navy up to the Yom Kippur War. The most famous clandestine immigration ship was the Exodus which docked here in Haifa.

From the end of World War II until the establishment of Israel (1945-1948), illegal immigration was the major method of immigration, because the British, by setting the quota at a mere 18,000 per year, virtually terminated the option of legal immigration. Sixty­ six illegal immigration sailings were organized during these years, but only a few managed to penetrate the British blockade and bring their passengers ashore. In 1947, 4500 immigrants on the Exodus were sent back to Europe by the Mandatory government. The British stopped the vessels carrying immigrants at sea, and interned the captured immigrants in camps in Cyprus; most of these persons only arrived in Israel after the establishment of the state. Approximately 80,000 illegal immigrants reached Palestine during 1945-48.

Forty four years ago, I was a communications student at the University of New Mexico. The year was 1968 and like many youth of my era, I sought something rewarding and exciting to do with my life. I still had two years of studies to finish, but was unsure of my goals for the future. I volunteered to do a six month work/study program at a kibbutz (collective settlement) in southern Israel, named Hatzor. The primary purposes of such programs was to promote Aliyah or immigration to Israel. Participants split the day evenly between work at the Kibbutz and Hebrew study in an Ulpan. 

Kibbutz Hatzor (taken from the blog Tiyul Bair - a tour of the city)

I soon discovered that sitting in a classroom was unsuitable for me. Conversely, my job as assistant Kibbutz caretaker was a perfect match. I delivered supplies throughout the settlement, did the gardening, collected the garbage, and did general maintenance. My supervisor, Shmuel, was a forty+ American born Kibbutznik. Shmuel was a short thin fellow with a moustache, slight limp, and ever-cheerful smile. He was very friendly, but said little about himself. He mentioned that he had come to Israel in 1948 from New York as a volunteer, was married, and had a teenage son. He had studied journalism in New York and limped as the result as a car accident in “The Big Apple”.

My six months at the Kibbutz went quickly. I did not acquire a lot of Hebrew; nonetheless, I made many wonderful friends and learned to be a pretty fair maintenance man. The Kibbutz members were the most wonderful people. Many were survivors of the Holocaust. A number came to Israel as volunteers in 1948, primarily from The United States. They came to protect and build a new nation. At my “Going Away” party, I was stunned to learn that Shmuel and several of the other Kibbutz members were crew and passengers on the famous immigrant ship “The Exodus”. They had braved the British embargo to bring illegal immigrants into "Palestine." Some were interred in British prisons. For their first decade in Israel, they often lived in treehouses and tents. The situation was further compounded by conflict with the Arab legions during the struggle for a safe Jewish homeland. Some of their comrades died, or suffered serious wounds during their fight for freedom. Yet, they were warm, humble, and generous souls. Many of the volunteers had been members of Mahal.

The Mahalniks were mostly World War II veterans from American and British armed forces. Allied armies were reduced considerably after the end of the war and many soldiers were demobilised; moreover, the service experience became mundane and did not resonate with some servicemen, particularly pilots. In various circumstances they were invited, or heard of the Jewish state’s struggle for independence and enlisted. There were Jews and Christians, both ideological supporters of Zionism and just plain idealists. 

The Ha’apala movement, also called “Aliyah Bet”, which attempted to evade the 1939 and 1948 British Naval blockade restricting Jewish immigration to Palestine, was assisted by 236 Mahal former servicemen of the Allied Navies as crews of ten clandestine Jewish refugee ships, out of sixty-six participating vessels.The Exodus was the most famous of the clandestine fleet.The story was told in both print and in film. No one can accuse history of not having a sense of irony. Sixty-six years ago, in July 1947, a passenger ship destined for Palestine and named the Exodus was stopped and boarded by the British navy. 

Clandestine Immigration and Naval Museum in Haifa

The ship was crowded with Holocaust survivors determined to make a new life for themselves in British-controlled Palestine. The British, facing Zionist terrorism and trying to keep promises made to the Palestinian Arabs to limit Jewish immigration, were determined to stop it. Accordingly, when the Royal Navy boarded the ship twenty miles out from Haifa, a full-scale battle ensued. Three immigrants were killed and dozens injured as British troops beat the passengers on to three separate prison ships. From there these Holocaust survivors were transported back to Germany and were once again placed in camps. The world was horrified. Since then, the fate of the Exodus has achieved legendary status: Leon Uris used it as the basis of his 1958 bestseller of the same name; an award-winning film. It was "The Ship That Launched A Nation".

The 1948 Arab-Israeli War saw approximately 3,500 foreign volunteers from forty-three countries among the Jewish forces, out of an estimated 29,677–108,300 total (its size grew considerably in later stages of the war owing to immigration into Palestine). A total of 119 Mahalniks were killed in battle.

One of the most senior Mahal personnel was Mickey Marcus, a Jewish United States Army colonel who assisted Israeli forces during the war and became Israel’s first Brigadier General. Marcus’s wartime experience was vital in breaking the 1948 Siege of Jerusalem. He was killed during the war. 

" The Machal forces were the Diaspora's most important contribution to the survival of the State of Israel " "David Ben-Gurion, Founding Father and first Prime Minister of Israel"

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