AI Summary
5 min readIn the spring of 1924, a celebrated Dutch poet and lawyer named Jacob Israel de Haan was walking home from a synagogue in Jerusalem when he was shot three times and killed. He was a prominent anti-Zionist activist who had once been a committed Zionist—until he arrived in Palestine, witnessed the escalating violence, and changed his mind. No one was ever convicted for his murder. Decades later, a former member of the Haganah confessed that he had carried out the assassination on orders from Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, who would later become the second president of Israel. De Haan’s death is often called the first political assassination of a Jew by other Jews in the Zionist movement. It was not the last.
The Strategic Origins of Zionist Militarism
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:04) **Introduction & Setup** - Robert Evans and Dr. Donald Kerr return to discuss the origins of political violence in Palestine.
- 2 (04:37) **Vladimir Jabotinsky and the Jewish Legion** - How a right-wing Zionist used WWI to build a military force in Palestine.
- 3 (08:09) **World War I and Ottoman Repression** - The war escalated sectarian hatred and led to mass deportations and famine in Palestine.
- 4 (17:06) **Post-War Violence and the Nebi Musa Riots** - The end of the war brought the Balfour Declaration, returning armed Jewish exiles, and rising Arab nationalist fury.
- 5 (27:00) **Jabotinsky’s Militias and the Haganah** - The riots gave Jabotinsky the excuse to form armed self-defense militias, leading to the creation of the Haganah.
- 6 (32:27) **The Tragic Story of Jacob Israel de Haan** - A famous Dutch Jewish poet and Zionist who became an anti-Zionist and was assassinated by the Haganah.
- 7 (43:14) **Sexual Politics and Everyday Conflict** - Brothels, inter-communal relationships, and the policing of morality became flashpoints in the 1920s and 30s.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
After World War One, the British Mandate takes over in Palestine- and shit really starts to hit the fan, leading to a series of riots, pogroms, assassinations and the dissolution of the communities that has existed in harmony for generations.
Sources:
https://www.972mag.com/the-first-political-murder-in-jewish-palestine-lessons-of-intolerance/
https://archive.is/Rdwny#selection-1141.0-1141.321
https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1654849
https://rense.com/general76/zan.htm
https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/40692
https://anumuseum.org.il/blog/patria/
https://waqarahmed.org/menachem-begin-israeli-terrorist-who-became-prime-
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