Avraham T'homi was a noted Jewish militant, and a key figure in the history of the Hebrew National Military Organization

Irgun

The Irgun , or Irgun Zevai Leumi to give it its full title , was a Zionist paramilitary group that operated in Mandate Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the earlier and larger Jewish paramilitary organization haHaganah...

 and allegedly in the killing of Jacob Israël de Haan

Jacob Israël de Haan

Jacob Israël de Haan was a Dutch Jewish literary writer and journalist who was assassinated in Jerusalem by the Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah for his anti-Zionist political activities and contacts with Arab leaders. He is believed to be the first victim of Zionist political violence...

. His nickname in the Irgun was 'Gideon'.

Migration to Palestine

Zilberg was born in 1903 in Odessa

Odessa

Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...

 in the Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

. He emigrated to Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 as a pioneer, adopting the name Avraham T'homi (sometimes transliterated as Tehomi though he spelled his surname as T'homi), and started working as a road-maker. He became a member of the Haganah

Haganah

Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...

, a Jewish paramilitary

Paramilitary

A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....

 organization in the British Mandate of Palestine period from 1920 to 1948. T'homi completed his Haganah courses with honors.

Murder of Jacob Israël de Haan

As an officer of the Haganah, he served under the leadership of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi

Yitzhak Ben-Zvi

Yitzhak Ben-Zvi was a historian, Labor Zionist leader, the second and longest-serving President of Israel.-Biography:...

, who would in 1952 become the second president of Israel

President of Israel

The President of the State of Israel is the head of state of Israel. The position is largely an apolitical ceremonial figurehead role, with the real executive power lying in the hands of the Prime Minister. The current president is Shimon Peres who took office on 15 July 2007...

. On June 30, 1924, T'homi allegedly shot and killed Jewish Dutch poet, novelist and diplomat Jacob Israel de Haan

Jacob Israël de Haan

Jacob Israël de Haan was a Dutch Jewish literary writer and journalist who was assassinated in Jerusalem by the Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah for his anti-Zionist political activities and contacts with Arab leaders. He is believed to be the first victim of Zionist political violence...

, who was living in Jerusalem as a journalist. De Haan had come to Israel as an ardent Zionist, but he had become increasingly critical of the Zionist organizations as he favored a negotiated solution to the struggle between Jews and Arabs.

The murder shocked Israel and Europe, but the killer and his motive were not discovered. Sixty years later, after two journalists had succeeded in finding him, T'homi readily admitted his action in an interview for Israeli TV and openly stated: "I have done what the Haganah decided had to be done. And nothing was done without the order of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi. I have no regrets because he [de Haan] wanted to destroy our whole idea of Zionism."

Haganah and Irgun Commander

In 1925 T'homi was appointed deputy commander of the Jerusalem District Haganah, and in 1929-1931 served as District Commander.

The 1929 Arab riots caused unrest in the Haganah ranks because the organization was not ready and did not respond appropriately to the Arab attacks. The disputes on this issue led to T'homi's departure from the Haganah, and the establishment, in 1931, of the Irgun Zvai Leumi (Etzel), a parallel Zionist organisation more prepared to violence, which T'homi headed. He later tried to unite the two organizations and in 1937 returned to the Haganah in order to take up a senior position. However, approximately only half of the 3000 fighters of the Irgun followed T'homi back into the Haganah. The remaining Irgun fighters became a clandestine organization, engaging in conflict with both British and Arabs in Palestine. When the Haganah failed to fulfill its obligations under the amalgamation agreement, T'homi resigned, and from then on allegedly engaged in independent illegal immigration activities and intelligence work. Several years later he retired from all activity. In the last years of his life, he lived in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

and in Hong Kong. He died in 1991 in Los Angeles.

External links

• http://www.etzel.org.il/english/people/tehomi.htm Irgun bio page on Avaraham T'homi