Stern is an extremist Zionist organization that participated in the Deir Yassin massacre

Logo of the armed Zionist Stern Organization (Al Jazeera)

The "Lehi Herut Israel" organization or (Fighters for the Freedom of Israel), known by the abbreviation "Lehi" or "Stern" after its founder Abraham Stern, is one of the most extremist armed Jewish organizations in the history of Israel. It participated in the Deir Yassin massacre and waged an armed conflict. Against Britain and assassinated its Resident Minister for Middle Eastern Affairs.

Origin and establishment

It was founded in 1940 after Abraham Stern defected from the Irgun, of which he was a member of its senior leadership. It was called “Lahmi Herut Israel,” meaning (Fighters for the Freedom of Israel), and it is called “Lehi” for short, but it is better known by the name of its founder, Stern.

It went into secrecy and began distributing leaflets explaining its ideas and how to make weapons and explosives to incite against the Palestinians. Sources indicate that many of its members received military training in fascist Italy and at the hands of Polish trainers.

Thought and ideology

The organization adopted an extremist ideology, even compared to its contemporary Jewish organizations, and sought to implement it in various ways, which made it tend toward independent work away from the tutelage of the World Zionist Organization, and even from the Haganah, with which it sometimes clashed in some political positions.

It raised the dream of establishing an "Israeli state" from the Euphrates to the Nile, and for that reason it adopted war on Britain - while it was fighting the common enemy, Nazi Germany - until it completely withdraws from the land of Palestine as it is the land of the Jews.

It also adopted tactical cooperation with any party that stood by its side in its military operations against the British Mandate, which it saw as an obstacle to accelerating the realization of the dream of establishing the “Israeli State.”

Flags and symbols

The founder of the organization, Abraham Stern, is considered its most famous symbol and is associated with his name. He was hostile to the British. During his reign, the organization carried out many attacks against the Mandate authorities, and after his death the conflict spread to Europe and the United States.

He is a Jew of Polish origin, born in 1907 and came to Palestine in 1925. He studied in Jerusalem and received a scholarship to study languages ​​and classical literature at the University of Florence in Italy, but he returned to Palestine in 1929 to work within settler gangs, and was tasked with purchasing weapons from European countries. His supporters say that British investigators shot him dead after arresting him in his hiding place inside an apartment in Tel Aviv on February 12, 1942.

Yitzhak Shamir - who was born in 1915 in Poland and died in 2012 in Israel - is also considered the second figure in the Stern Organization. He assumed its leadership after the killing of its founder, and led a period of conflict with the British during the 1940s.

After the establishment of Israel, Shamir worked in the Mossad, then was elected to the Israeli parliament (the Knesset), and assumed the position of Israeli Prime Minister for two separate terms during the eighties and the beginning of the nineties of the 20th century.

Massacres and attacks

The Deir Yassin massacre - which targeted the village west of occupied Jerusalem on April 9, 1948 - is considered the most horrific massacre carried out by the Stern Organization, which was in cooperation with the Irgun.

The organization's leader, Yitzhak Shamir, was one of the participants in the massacre, and he saw the massacres as an effective method for expelling and exterminating the Palestinians.

Some historical accounts circulate that the Israelis slaughtered between 250 and 300 Palestinians, mutilated the bodies, cut open the stomachs of pregnant women, stripped some of their clothes, and paraded them through the Jewish streets of Jerusalem, where they were subjected to the ridicule and insults of the Jewish settlers.

Yitzhak Shamir is the second figure in the Stern Organization and took over its leadership after the killing of its founder, Abraham Stern (European)

While Palestinian historians believe that the victims of the massacre were less than 100, and that Israeli statistics at the time deliberately inflated the number of victims, to instill terror in the souls of the rest of the Palestinians in the neighboring villages to force them to flee their homes.

On April 4, 1948, Stern carried out what was known as the “bombing” operation (the old brigades) in the city of Jaffa, which led to the martyrdom of 17 Palestinians and the wounding of more than 100, including the elderly and children, who were in a shelter for the poor and orphans, which caused the Nakba of Jaffa and led to A major migration among its residents who realized the ugliness of the crimes of the Zionist gangs.

The organization also participated in many massacres, attacks, and forced displacement operations against Palestinians and incitement against them.

War against Britain

The Stern Organization fought a long war against the British Mandate and carried out many operations. It believes that the Jewish leaders during the Mandate era did not know how to say “no” to the British, whom it considered an enemy occupying the land and obstructing the project of the State of Israel.

The conflict reached its peak in January and February 1942, when the British killed the founder of the organization, which weakened its activity. However, it quickly reorganized its ranks and assassinated the British Resident Minister for Middle Eastern Affairs, Lord Moyne, in Cairo on November 6, 1944. .

The conflict with Britain extended to Europe and the United States, where Stern carried out many operations, including bombing the British embassy in Rome in October 1946, and sending explosive letters to many senior British figures and others. In return, Britain pursued the organization’s officials at home and abroad.

In May 1948, Stern joined the Israeli army, but its wing operating in Jerusalem remained rebellious and called itself the “Homeland Front,” which coordinated with other gangs to assassinate the first UN mediator, Count Bernadotte, on September 17, 1948.

This incident angered many world governments, and forced the Israeli government to pursue members of the Stern Organization and arrest its leaders. Two of them were sentenced to 8 years and 5 years in prison, respectively, but they were soon released with a special pardon.

Destiny

After Natan Friedman - one of those convicted of Bernadotte's assassination - won the first Knesset elections in 1949 on the list of warriors, divisions occurred in Stern's ranks, becoming three wings.

The first wing was led by Friedman, who later joined the Histadrut, the second wing joined some extreme left-wing movements, and founded the third wing, which is led by the Veterans Association.

Later, the Israeli government recognized that military service in the ranks of Stern was a service subject to retirement, so it paid all those who served in it the retirement salaries due to them and awarded some of them the State Warriors Medal. Then the organization dissolved within the Israeli army over the years, and a general amnesty was issued in 1980 for the convicted members of Stern. From the judiciary.

On the political level, the organization no longer has an existing entity and no political party emerged from it, as happened with other organizations, but its ideas remained strongly present, as they constituted inspiration for many of the settler gangs that emerged after the establishment of Israel.

Through the “Lehi” Museum or “Yair House” - which was established in a house in Tel Aviv where the British Mandate police allegedly killed Stern - presentations are presented about the life of the organization’s founder and its activities to visitors, including tourists, students, students, and others.

Source: websites