Meir Feinstein

Meir Feinstein (מאיר פיינשטיין; October 5, 1927 – April 21, 1947) was an Irgun member in pre-state Mandatory Palestine, during the Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine.

Feinstein, who was sentenced to death by the British authorities, is remembered for his suicide together with Moshe Barazani, another Jewish underground fighter under sentence of death; the two killed themselves embracing each other with a live grenade lodged between them hours before their scheduled hangings.

He is memorialized in Israel today as one of 12 Olei Hagardom.

Meir Feinstein was born in the Old City of Jerusalem.

His parents, Bela and Eliezer, immigrated from Brisk.

As a boy, he received a religious education; he studied at the Etz Chaim Yeshiva for ten years, and was a disciple of Aryeh Levin.

During his childhood, his father died, and he had to work to help support the family.

He worked in a series jobs in Jerusalem, in Ramatayim, and in the kibbutzim of Negba and Givat HaShlosha.

While at Givat HaShlosha, Feinstein joined the Haganah.

During his military training, Feinstein, an aspiring writer, educated himself in secular subjects with books sent to him by his brother from Jerusalem.

In 1944, during World War II, after rumors of the Holocaust began spreading, Feinstein enlisted in the British Army.

Although only 16 at the time, he enlisted using a forged birth certificate claiming he was 20.

Feinstein was accepted and served for two and a half years in the Royal Engineers, during which he was stationed in Palestine, Alexandria, and Beirut.

He was discharged from the British Army in August 1946.

While still in the British Army, Feinstein had met other Palestinian Jews who were Irgun members, and he began helping them smuggle weapons stolen from British military camps to Palestine for Irgun use.

Following his discharge, he joined the Irgun's Jerusalem branch.

He initially worked in the Irgun's propaganda section, but was eventually promoted to join the Combat Corps.

On October 30, 1946, Feinstein participated in a raid on the Jerusalem railway station.

The attack was one of a series of sabotage operations the Irgun carried out against the railways that day, as part of the Irgun's overall efforts to paralyze the British Mandatory government.

The British had advance intelligence of the plan, and the operation was further compromised when the Irgun, not wanting to harm civilians in the station, published an advance warning.

On the day of the raid, the British were waiting in ambush at the station.

The Irgun raiders arrived in two taxis, and Feinstein drove the one carrying the bombs which were to be used - three suitcases filled with explosives.

The team then rushed into the station, laid the three suitcase bombs, and put up a sign warning of mines.

However, they came under British fire, and four of the attackers were hit, including Feinstein, whose left arm was shattered.

Feinstein and some teammates rushed back to his taxi, and managed to escape.

Despite his injury, Feinstein managed to drive the taxi, under a hail of British gunfire, away from the station using only one arm.

After their escape, the British attempted to remove the suitcase bombs they had abandoned.

When a police sapper tried to lift one of the bombs, it exploded, killing him and devastating the interior of the station.

After escaping, Feinstein drove the taxi to Jerusalem's Yemin Moshe quarter, where the team then scattered, hoping to slip away.

Feinstein's arm, however, continued bleeding heavily, and he left a trail of blood behind him.

Shortly afterward, the police discovered the abandoned taxi, riddled by bullets and with blood-soaked seats, in the Yemin Moshe quarter.

Feinstein was arrested when they followed the trail of blood from the taxi to Feinstein.

He was taken to hospital, where his shattered left arm was amputated.

Feinstein's trial in a Jerusalem military court opened on March 25, 1947.

He did not participate in the proceedings, refused legal counsel, and refused to recognize the authority of the British court to try him, other than to speak at the summation.

Before the reading of the verdict, Feinstein gave a defiant speech against British rule, saying:

Officers of the army of conquest!

A regime of hanging trees is the regime you wish to impose on this land, which was destined to be a lighthouse for all of humanity, and in your foolish wickedness, you presumed that by this regime you will break our people's spirit, the people to whom

this whole country had been a gallows.

You were wrong.