Avshalom Haviv was born in
Haifa on June 18 1926. As a young child he moved with his family to
Jerusalem and while in high school there, he joined the Irgun. After finishing school, Haviv served for a year in the Palmach as a condition for continuing his studies at the Hebrew University (a Jewish Agency ruling obliged every high school graduate to spend a year working on a kibbutz or serving in the Palmach). When he returned to
Jerusalem, he enrolled at the
Hebrew University’s humanities department and resumed his activities in the Irgun, this time in the organization’s combat unit.
The Acre prison was a Crusader citadel restored by the Turks and considered impregnable. Even the legendary Napoleon had failed in his two month effort to take it by siege. Under British rule, the place served as a maximum security prison where Jewish underground fighters were jailed and executions carried out. The prison was the most highly guarded fortress in the country, surrounded by thick walls and a deep moat. On May 4 1947, the Irgun launched an attack on the Acre fortress, freeing twenty of their comrades and seven Lehi fighters. Despite the heavy toll in human lives, the action was described by foreign journalists as the “greatest jail break in history” while military circles around the world described it as a “strategic masterpiece.” British prestige was greatly damaged and many began questioning the future of their rule over the country.
During the operation, Avshalom Haviv commanded the covering unit (which included Yaakov Weiss and Meir Nakar) that was captured by British soldiers. The trial opened on May 28 and the fighters were sentenced to death on June 16. The trial opened on May 28 and the three were sentenced to death on June 16. The Irgun kidnapped two British sergeants in Netanya and threatened to execute them if Haviv and his comrades mounted the gallows. The British decided to call the Irgun’s bluff and on July 29, Avshalom Haviv, Yaakov Weiss and Meir Nakar were hanged at the Acre prison. All three mounted the gallows with dignity and all three sang HaTikva before their death.
After the execution of the three freedom fighters, the Irgun hanged the two British sergeants in a forest. A large outcry went up from the people of England demanding that their soldiers be brought home and that their government end its occupation of Palestine. The British never again executed Hebrew fighters and in less than one year they had withdrawn their forces from the country. The London Sunday Times would later write the following: “If any one event forced us to leave Israel and permit the Jews to create a Jewish state, it was the defiant resistance of these young Jews who were led to the gallows. It may be said that after two thousand years, the Jewish state rose again on the broken necks of those who mounted the gallows.”
In an act of retribution upon leaving, the British gave over their weapons and military positions to the Arab armies waiting to attack the newly freed Jewish state. In the war that ensued between Israel and seven surrounding countries, two armies – the Egyptian and Trans-Jordanian – were armed, trained and led into battle by British officers. Israel lost large territories to these armies but survived and eventually regained the lands 19 years later in the 1967 Six Day War.
Avshalom Haviv was born in 