Night of the Beatings
Encyclopedia
The Night of the Beating refers to an action taken by the Irgun
on December 29, 1946 in the British Mandate of Palestine, in which several British soldiers were flogged in response to a similar punishment inflicted upon an Irgun member.
On December 13, 1946 the Irgun robbed a bank in Jaffa
. Three of the perpetrators - Benjamin Nes, Eliezer Sudit and seventeen years old Benjamin Kimkhi - were caught and tried a few days later. Nes and Sudit were convicted of robbery and illegal possession of firearms and were given long sentences, while Kimkhi was also convicted of discharging a firearm with intent to endanger life. He refused to recognize the British courts jurisdiction and was sentenced to an eighteen year imprisonment and eighteen lashes. Twelve lashes was also the punishment given to another Irgun member, Aharon Katz, for possession of propaganda material.
Upon notification about the punishment, the Irgun headquarters convened and decided that such a "humiliating" punishment was not to be tolerated. It published a warning, in Hebrew and English, to the British authorities not to carry out the flogging, threatening to do the same to British officers.
On Saturday, December 28, Kimkhi was lashed eighteen times.
and ordered major E. Brett to come along. He was led to a eucalyptus grove where he was given his "sentence" of eighteen lashes. He returned to the hotel in his underwear.
In Rishon Lezion a sergeant was captured and flogged in the street. Two other sergeants were kidnapped in Tel Aviv
and flogged in a park, while two others were caught in the northern part of the city and suffered eighteen lashes as well.
From 22:00 to 1:00 army cars drove around the streets of Tel Aviv and ordered the soldiers of the 6th Airborne Division to return to their homes. From Lod
to Netanya, loudspeakers ordered the soldiers to return to their camps.
In the Kfar Sava area, roadblocks were set and a car transporting five armed Irgun men (carrying a whip) was caught. One of them, Avraham Mizrahi, was killed when fire was opened at the car, while three other - Eliezer Kashani, Mordechai Elkahi and Yehiel Drezner - would be executed.
After the action, the Irgun published another warning in order to prevent Katz's flogging. A British doctor offered him a medical exemption from the punishment but he refused, stating that he was fit to take it. He was never flogged, since immediately after the punishment was limited to the age of sixteen.
The unprecedented incident caused an outrage in Britain
and prompted a strong hand policy. The flogging punishment was later abolished, but capital punishment was introduced.
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...
on December 29, 1946 in the British Mandate of Palestine, in which several British soldiers were flogged in response to a similar punishment inflicted upon an Irgun member.
Background
Jaffa
Jaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical story of the prophet Jonah.-Etymology:...
. Three of the perpetrators - Benjamin Nes, Eliezer Sudit and seventeen years old Benjamin Kimkhi - were caught and tried a few days later. Nes and Sudit were convicted of robbery and illegal possession of firearms and were given long sentences, while Kimkhi was also convicted of discharging a firearm with intent to endanger life. He refused to recognize the British courts jurisdiction and was sentenced to an eighteen year imprisonment and eighteen lashes. Twelve lashes was also the punishment given to another Irgun member, Aharon Katz, for possession of propaganda material.
Upon notification about the punishment, the Irgun headquarters convened and decided that such a "humiliating" punishment was not to be tolerated. It published a warning, in Hebrew and English, to the British authorities not to carry out the flogging, threatening to do the same to British officers.
On Saturday, December 28, Kimkhi was lashed eighteen times.
The action
On Sunday night an armed Irgun unit broke into a hotel in NetanyaNetanya
Netanya is a city in the Northern Centre District of Israel, and is the capital of the surrounding Sharon plain. It is located north of Tel Aviv, and south of Haifa between the 'Poleg' stream and Wingate Institute in the south and the 'Avichail' stream in the north.Its of beaches have made the...
and ordered major E. Brett to come along. He was led to a eucalyptus grove where he was given his "sentence" of eighteen lashes. He returned to the hotel in his underwear.
In Rishon Lezion a sergeant was captured and flogged in the street. Two other sergeants were kidnapped in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
and flogged in a park, while two others were caught in the northern part of the city and suffered eighteen lashes as well.
From 22:00 to 1:00 army cars drove around the streets of Tel Aviv and ordered the soldiers of the 6th Airborne Division to return to their homes. From Lod
Lod
Lod is a city located on the Sharon Plain southeast of Tel Aviv in the Center District of Israel. At the end of 2010, it had a population of 70,000, roughly 75 percent Jewish and 25 percent Arab.The name is derived from the Biblical city of Lod...
to Netanya, loudspeakers ordered the soldiers to return to their camps.
In the Kfar Sava area, roadblocks were set and a car transporting five armed Irgun men (carrying a whip) was caught. One of them, Avraham Mizrahi, was killed when fire was opened at the car, while three other - Eliezer Kashani, Mordechai Elkahi and Yehiel Drezner - would be executed.
Aftermath
The unprecedented incident caused an outrage in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and prompted a strong hand policy. The flogging punishment was later abolished, but capital punishment was introduced.