Shlomo Ben-Yosef

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Shlomo Ben-Yosef (b. May 7, 1913 in Poland as Shalom Tabachnik, d. June 29, 1938) was a noted (and controversial) member of the Revisionist Zionism right-wing terrorist organization, the Irgun. He is most noted for his participation in an April 21, 1938 attack on an Arab bus, specifically intended as a retaliation for an earlier attack by Arabs against Jews, and emblematic as a rejection of the mainstream policy of Havlagah, or restraint. Precisely for this reason (and for reportedly having been the first Jew executed in Eretz Yisrael since the time of the Romans), Ben-Yosef is revered in the highest terms by extremist groups such as Betar, the Irgun and the Jewish Defense League and the Kach movement.

1 Background
2 April 21, 1938 revenge attack
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Background

Tabachnik made aliyah to Palestine in 1937. He joined the ultranationalist Betar labour company at Rosh Pina and changed his name to Shlomo Ben-Yosef. Later, he joined the Rosh Pina cell of the Irgun and became noted for his involvement in Irgunist communal orgnizationst there.

[edit] April 21, 1938 revenge attack

Although accounts differ in the details, beyond dispute is that Ben-Yosef, along with two Irgun (or variously, Betar) associates, Abraham Shein and Shalom Djuravin, specifically premediated the attack as a retribution for an earlier attack in which six Jews were killed (among them a young woman who was also raped.)

The Israeli-British historiam Avi Shlaim recounts the April 21, 1938 incident as follows:

On 21 April 1938, after several weeks of planning, he and two of his colleagues from the Irgun (Etzel) ambushed an Arab bus at a bend on a mountain road near Safad. They had a hand-grenade, a gun and a pistol. Their plan was to destroy the engine so that the bus would fall off the side of the road and all the passengers would be killed. When the bus approached, they fired at it (not in the air, as Mailer has it) but the grenade lobbed by Ben Yosef did not detonate. The bus with its screaming and terrified passengers drove on.^[1]

Notably, Ben-Yosef's attack failed its objectives, in that no civilians were actually killed.^{[citation needed]} However, the incident occurred at the crest of the 1936-1938 Arab Revolt, and during a high point in tensions between British authorities and the Revisionist Zionist movement; in any case Ben-Yosef was arrested, tried, convicted and hanged by the British on June 29, 1938. According to Shlaim, as the verdict was announced, Shein and Djuravin stood up and shouted at the top of their voices: "Long live the Kingdom of Israel on both banks of the Jordan!" In conversations with friends, Ben-Yosef's last words were "Havlagah is fatal."^{[citation needed]}