Amongst things I was not expecting to do in 2008...
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 01:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lethargic_manToday I got to hear a terrorist speak. Well, someone who would be called a terrorist by the British government at any rate (and the speaker of the very next session I went to), though a freedom fighter by others: he was Yoske Nachmias, an Irgun member.
He had some amazing stories to tell, of fighting in the British Army to keep the Nazis out of Palestine during the War; of audacious raids on British army camps to steal their weaponry, and to destroy (along with (IIRC) the Palmach) the entirety of the British air fleet based in the Middle East; of being captured and sentenced to death, only to have his sentence commuted to life imprisonment when the Irgun threatened to kill five British soldiers they had captured; and then being rescued from Acre prison; of liberating Jaffa (which was filled with Arab snipers taking potshots at civilians in Tel-Aviv) when Menachem Begin was prepared to give up on the assault.
I didn't take any notes, as I was feeling a bit frazzled by then (I slept really poorly last night, and should really be in bed now), but wow. The man was truly a piece of living history.
ETA: And he encourages you to visit him at the Museum of the Irgun at 38 King George Street, Tel Aviv.
He had some amazing stories to tell, of fighting in the British Army to keep the Nazis out of Palestine during the War; of audacious raids on British army camps to steal their weaponry, and to destroy (along with (IIRC) the Palmach) the entirety of the British air fleet based in the Middle East; of being captured and sentenced to death, only to have his sentence commuted to life imprisonment when the Irgun threatened to kill five British soldiers they had captured; and then being rescued from Acre prison; of liberating Jaffa (which was filled with Arab snipers taking potshots at civilians in Tel-Aviv) when Menachem Begin was prepared to give up on the assault.
I didn't take any notes, as I was feeling a bit frazzled by then (I slept really poorly last night, and should really be in bed now), but wow. The man was truly a piece of living history.
ETA: And he encourages you to visit him at the Museum of the Irgun at 38 King George Street, Tel Aviv.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-01-05 01:50 pm (UTC)