Avshalom Haviv

Avshalom Haviv (אבשלום חביב; June 18, 1926 – July 29, 1947) was a member of the Irgun underground organization in Mandatory Palestine, and one of the Olei Hagardom executed by the British authorities during the Jewish insurgency in Palestine.

His hanging, along with that of two other Irgun members, triggered the Irgun's retaliatory hangings of two British sergeants.

Avshalom Haviv was born on June 18, 1926 (Tammuz 6, 5686, according to the Jewish calendar), in Haifa.

His father, Eliezer Haviv, was a well-known leather merchant.

His mother was Rivkah Haviv.

Haviv grew up and received his education in Jerusalem, residing with his family on Straus Street.

In his youth he studied at the Tachkemoni School, and as a high school student in Beit Hakerem he was drawn towards Zionist ideas.

His school essays expressed opinions on the achievements of the Zionist party and the policy of the British government, which then ruled Palestine.

In an essay entitled "The Aspirations of an Enslaved Youth" he included the passage:

"My aspiration is: one language will take hold in the land, not German, not Yiddish will be spoken in the land of Israel, but rather the language of the Tanakh, the ancient language of Hebrew. My ambition is the aliyah of all of the nation of Israel into the land of Israel and those that will dwell here on the two sides of the Jordan river, and the land that was promised to us by the English will be only ours. In this hoped-for time there will be here a Hebrew state like all states. Amen, ken yihyeh ratson! ['Amen, may it be your will!', a phrase used in the Jewish liturgy]"

At age 15, Haviv joined the Irgun Zionist underground movement and received the nickname "Efraim."

He was initially part of Hatam - the Irgun's propaganda unit.

On finishing high school, Haviv joined the Palmach, the elite fighting force of the Haganah as a condition for being allowed to study at university, as the Jewish Agency obliged all Jewish high school graduates to spend a year either working on a kibbutz or serving in the Palmach.

He underwent military training at Ein Harod.

On October 10, 1945, he participated in a Palmach raid on the Atlit detainee camp to free Holocaust survivors being held by the British authorities as illegal immigrants.

The raid freed 208 inmates, among them Yaakov Weiss, who would go on to join the Irgun and eventually be hanged alongside Haviv.

About a month after his release from the Palmach, he returned to Jerusalem and began to study Hebrew literature, philosophy, and economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and at the same time returned to the Irgun.

Gradually, he spent more and more time on operations with the Combat Corps of the Irgun (the HaK, hayil kravi), and as a result ended his university studies.

In many operations, Haviv took on the job of machine gunner, mainly participating in attacks on the British police's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Jerusalem and on the government income tax offices, as well as in mining operations in the Jerusalem-Bethlehem area against British security traffic.

On January 19, 1946, Haviv participated in a joint Irgun-Lehi attack on the Central Prison in Jerusalem's Russian Compound in a failed attempt to free Jewish underground prisoners, in which two of the raiders and a British soldier and policeman were killed.

On March 1, 1947, Haviv took part in an Irgun attack on a British officer's club in Goldschmidt House, which was in Jerusalem's Russian Compound.

The attack took place on Shabbat, and Haviv, who was traditionally religious, left the synagogue during prayer.

Haviv provided covering fire with a Bren gun for an Irgun sapper team which tossed explosive charges into the Goldschmidt House, leveling the building.

During the operation, Haviv burned his hand on the gun barrel, but stayed at his post until the end of the mission.

Haviv took part in the Acre Prison break on May 4, 1947, in which Irgun fighters raided Acre Prison to free Jewish underground prisoners.

Haviv was the leader of a blocking squad that laid mines to delay British pursuers, allowing the getaway trucks carrying escaped prisoners and retreating raiders to escape.

Dov Salomon, a senior commander participating in the operation who was responsible for calling away the blocking squads, forgot to tell Haviv that the operation was over.

As a result, his squad was left behind during the withdrawal.

During the retreat from Acre Prison, other Irgun members shouted at him that the operation was over, but Haviv felt he had to wait for a formal order from Salomon before withdrawing.

Thus, his team did not withdraw from their post.

Haviv and four other men; Meir Nakar, Yaakov Weiss, Amnon Michaelov, and Nahman Zitterbaum, were left behind.

Haviv and his men were still at their post when the British arrived.

Accounts as to what happened next vary.

According to some sources, they managed to hold the British at bay until their ammunition ran out, while the prosecutor allegedly stated that Haviv claimed to be a Haganah observer when he was arrested.

The trial began on Wednesday, May 28, 1947, after a delay of two days due to Yaakov Weiss' illness.

The judges were Colonel M.E. Fell (the President of the Court), Major D. Lee Hunter, and Captain I. Stewart.

The accused sang the Zionist anthem Hatikvah to the members of the court, whereupon the judges stood up to be later rebuked by the presiding judge for shaming the court.

Haviv asked to read a declaration in response to the judge's question, but was told by the President of the Court that he was there to answer questions, not to recite declarations.

When Haviv insisted, two policemen were ordered to bring him forward by force.

Meanwhile, the accused disrupted the trial by not answering the judge's questions, asking their friends to answer for them, or alternatively got up from their places or pretended to doze off.