June 22 1948 – 15 Sivan 5708
On June 22 (15 Sivan), 1948, a shell was fired from the Tel Aviv beach, hitting the hold of a ship stuck on an offshore sandbar. A great plume of smoke arose from the ex-U.S. tank-landing vessel, confirming rumors of ammunition stashed in its belly. Just a month after the Jewish state’s birth, Jew was firing on Jew.
On board the Altalena (literally “see-saw”) – named for the nom de plume of Zionist Revisionist head Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky – Irgun militia leader Menachem Begin raised a white flag, but the firing continued. Disregarding orders, some of his supporters reputedly shot back, while on shore a full-fledged battle broke out between Irgun fighters and IDF forces, leaving eleven Jews dead.
Captain Monroe Fein gave the order to abandon ship, fearing the shells, rifles, and millions of rounds of bullets in the hold – so vital for Israel’s War of Independence and the defense of Jerusalem – could explode any moment. Begin was among the last to leave, after all the wounded had been evacuated.
Two days earlier, the Altalena had slipped into shore by the sleepy village of Kfar Vitkin, defying a UN embargo denying arms to the hard-pressed Jewish state and its Arab foes. Two thousand rifles, two million rounds of ammunition, three thousand shells, and two hundred Bren guns were unloaded, and most of the nine hundred passengers – Holocaust refugees determined to help defend the new Jewish homeland – were transferred to an IDF training camp. Begin had been negotiating with Ben-Gurion’s government to preserve the independence of Irgun fighters within the IDF, hoping to reserve at least some of the sorely needed ammunition for the Irgun unit struggling to protect Jerusalem. Now Ben-Gurion sent Begin an ultimatum: he had ten minutes to surrender the Altalena to IDF command.
Rushing back to the beach, Begin had himself rowed out to the ship. A gunfight broke out on the beach, killing six Irgun and two IDF soldiers. The Altalena steamed back out to sea, over half its precious cargo still on board.
By the evening of June 22, a cease-fire had been brokered, and the Irgun men within the IDF were dispersed among the regular forces. Ben-Gurion ordered the arrest of hundreds of activists for fear of civil war, though most were released within a few weeks. The blackened hulk of the Altalena remained beached on the sandbar off Tel Aviv’s promenade for a year, a mute reminder of the rifts barely papered over to create a united Jewish state.