Night of the Beatings

The Night of the Beating (Hebrew: ליל ההלקאות‎) refers to an action taken by the Irgun on December 29, 1946 in the British Mandate of Palestine, in which several British soldiers were flogged in response to a similar punishment inflicted upon an Irgun member.

Background

Irgun poster warning the British not to carry out the flogging punishment.

On December 13, 1946 the Irgun robbed a bank in Jaffa. Three of the perpetrators - Benjamin Nes, Eliezer Sudit and seventeen years old Benjamin Kimkhi - were caught and tried a few days later. Nes and Sudit were convicted of robbery and illegal possession of firearms and were given long sentences, while Kimkhi was also convicted of discharging a firearm with intent to endanger life. He refused to recognize the British courts jurisdiction and was sentenced to an eighteen-year imprisonment and eighteen lashes. Twelve lashes was also the punishment given to another Irgun member, Aharon Katz, for possession of propaganda material.^[1]

Upon notification about the punishment, the Irgun headquarters convened and decided that such a "humiliating" punishment was not to be tolerated. It published a warning, in Hebrew and English, to the British authorities not to carry out the flogging, threatening to do the same to British officers.

On Saturday, December 28, Kimkhi was lashed eighteen times.^[2]

The action

After Kimkhi's sentence was carried out, armed Irgun squads were sent into the streets of Jewish cities throughout Palestine, with orders to abduct and flog British soldiers.

In Netanya, armed Irgun men broke into the Hotel Metropole where they found Major Paddy Brett sitting with his wife in the lounge. He was whisked away from the hotel, led to a eucalyptus grove, where he was stripped to his underwear, had his "sentence" read out to him, and was given eighteen lashes. His trousers were confiscated for future use by the Irgun, and he was returned to the hotel still in his underwear. At Cafe Theresa in Rishon LeZion, Irgun fighters seized a British sergeant-major who had been dancing with a local girl, and flogged him the street. In Tel Aviv, two sergeants were kidnapped in front of a hotel, tied to a tree in a public park, and lashed eighteen times each. Two other soldiers were caught in northern part of the city and suffered eighteen lashes as well.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

From 22:00 to 1:00 army cars drove around the streets of Tel Aviv and ordered the soldiers of the 6th Airborne Division to return to their bases. From Lod to Netanya, loudspeakers ordered the soldiers to return to their camps.^[4] In the Kfar Saba area, roadblocks were set and a car transporting five armed Irgun men (carrying a whip) was caught. One of them, Avraham Mizrahi, was killed when fire was opened at the car, while four other - Eliezer Kashani, Mordechai Alkahi, Yehiel Dresner, and Haim Golevsky - were captured. Kashani, Alkahi, and Dresner were later executed.^[7]

Aftermath

Irgun poster threatening to respond "with fire" to further lashing punishments.

The British Army launched a large cordon and search operation in the Karton Quarter of Tel Aviv, and in Netanya, Petah Tikva and Rishon LeZion, to hunt for the perpetrators, placing curfews and questioning thousands of people. British troops allegedly beat Jewish residents and engaged in looting and vandalism in homes and synagogues during the search operations. One man, Eliyahu Weinberger, was detained after Major Paddy Brett allegedly recognized him as one of the men who had participated in his abduction and beating.^[8]

After the action, the Irgun published another warning in order to prevent Katz's flogging. A British doctor offered him a medical exemption from the punishment but he refused, stating that he was fit to take it. He was never flogged, since immediately after the punishment was limited to the age of sixteen.^[4]

The unprecedented incident caused an outrage in Britain and prompted a strong hand policy.^[9] The flogging punishment was later abolished, but capital punishment was introduced.^[1][9]

References