David Raziel | |
|---|---|
_-_David_Raziel.jpg) | |
| Native name | דוד רזיאל |
| Born | (1910-11-19)19 November 1910 Smargon,Russian Empire |
| Died | 20 May 1941(1941-05-20) (aged 30) Habbaniyah,Kingdom of Iraq |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance | |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
| Spouse(s) | Shoshana |
David Raziel (Hebrew:דוד רזיאל; 19 November 1910 – 20 May 1941) was a leader of theZionist underground inBritish Mandatory Palestine and one of the founders of theIrgun.[1]
DuringWorld War II, Irgun entered atruce with the British so they could collaborate in the fight against "the Hebrew's greatest enemy in the world – German Nazism". Raziel was released from prison after agreeing to work with the British. He was killed in action inIraq in 1941.[2]
David Rozenson (later Raziel) was born inSmarhon in theRussian Empire. In 1914, when he was three, his familyimmigrated toOttoman Palestine, where his father taught at Tachkemoni, a religious school inTel Aviv. DuringWorld War I, the family was exiled to Egypt by the Turks due to their Russian citizenship. They returned toMandatory Palestine in 1923.
After graduation from Tachkemoni, he studied for several years at YeshivatMercaz HaRav inJerusalem. He was a regular study partner of RabbiZvi Yehuda Kook, son and ideological successor to theRosh Yeshiva andChief Rabbi of Israel, RabbiAbraham Isaac Kook.[3]
When the1929 Hebron massacre broke out, he joined theHaganah in Jerusalem, where he was studying philosophy and mathematics at theHebrew University of Jerusalem.
His sister,Esther Raziel-Naor, became a member of theKnesset forHerut, the party founded by Irgun leaderMenachem Begin.
When the Irgun was established, Raziel was one of its first members. In 1937, he was appointed by the Irgun as the first Commander of the Jerusalem District and, a year later, Commander in Chief of the Irgun. His term as leader was marked by violence against Arabs, including a sequence of marketplace bombings.[4] Some of those attacks were in response to Arab violence, although they did not target the specific perpetrators of this violence, as had been the case under the policy ofHavlagah. Dozens of Arabs were killed in the attacks and hundreds more were maimed. Raziel worked in the Irgun withAvraham Stern,Hanoch Kalai, andEfraim Ilin.[5] On 6 July 1938, 21 Arabs were killed and 52 wounded by a bomb in aHaifa market; on 25 July a second market bomb in Haifa killed at least 39 Arabs and injured 70; a bomb in Jaffa's vegetable market on 26 August killed 24 Arabs and wounded 39. The attacks were condemned by theJewish Agency.[6]
On 19 May 1939, Raziel was captured by the British and sent toAcre Prison.
After the1941 Iraqi coup d'état, British called on assistance from the Irgun, after General Percival Wavell had Raziel, an Irgun commander, released from custody atAcre Prison. They asked him if he would undertake to kill or kidnap Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti, and destroy Iraq's oil refineries. Raziel agreed on condition that he be allowed to kidnap the Mufti.[7] On 17 May 1941, he was sent toIraq with three of his comrades, includingYa'akov Meridor andJacob Sika Aharoni,[8] on behalf of the British army to help defeat theRashid Ali al-Gaylanipro-Axis revolt in theAnglo-Iraqi War. On 20 May, aLuftwaffe plane strafed nearHabbaniyah the car in which he was traveling, killing Raziel and a British officer Major Patrick .H. Freke Evans .[9][10] Meridor returned to Palestine and took over command of the Irgun, while Jacob Sika Aharoni commanded missions that led to the British entry into Iraq and the saving of the Jewish community following theFarhudpogrom.
In 1955, Raziel's remains wereexhumed and transferred toCyprus, and again in 1961 to Jerusalem'sMount Herzl military cemetery.
Ramat Raziel, amoshav in theJudaean Mountains, is named after Raziel, as well as many streets in Israel bearing his name in commemoration. The Israel postal service issued a stamp in his honor. There is a high-school inHerzliya named after him.[11]
During the period of command over Etzel by Moshe Rosenberg and David Raziel, a great many assaults (some of them en masse) were carried out against Arab bystanders and shoppers: men, women, and children (November 1937 – July 1939).
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
