History of The Jewish Underground: Jewish Espionage Network in Palestine

The Jewish Underground
History of The Jewish Underground: Jewish Espionage Network in Palestine
Directed by: Shai Gal
Runtime: 1hr 30min Year: 2017 This rare documentary retraces the moment in history when a terrorist plot to blow up the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine in Jerusalem, was prevented.

A moment that could have sparked a nuclear war in the Middle East, Director Shai Gal interviews those involved; from members of the Jewish Underground, a right-wing terrorist organisation, to the Israeli secret service.

Tracing the events in the form of a detective story and using interviews with key figures including the perpetrators, who claim they have nothing to hide, Gal builds an account of this potentially catastrophic event. This political thriller goes on to expose how the members of this Isreali right-wing terrorist organisation have now paved their way into the heart of Israel’s current power.

Jewish Underground: At the Center or on the Periphery of Israeli Society?
NCJ Number 123228
Journal Terrorism Volume: 11 Issue: 5 Dated: (1988) Pages: 350-354

Author(s)
G Cromer
Date Published 1988
Length 5 pages

Annotation
The Labour party's opposition to the "nationalist camp" (right-wing and religious parties) in Israel has focused on the Jewish underground, which has engaged in terrorist attacks on Arab targets on the West Bank, arguing that the underground is a logical extension of "nationalist" posturing. Watch "Exodus" the 1960 film with Paul Newman.

Abstract
The Labour opposition has pointed to action, ideology, and policy under the Likud rule (May 1977 to July 1984) to support its argument that the nationalist camp poses a serious threat to law, order, and democracy in Israel. Regarding Likud action, Labour points to the government's failure to act against Jewish vigilantism among West Bank settlers, such that the Jewish settlers believe they are above the law. Regarding policy, Labour accuses the government of creating the context for the West Bank violence by authorizing an Israeli presence on the West Bank and other occupied territories.
Regarding ideology, Labour claims that the Jewish underground is a logical extension of the nationalists' Greater Israel ideology. The nationalists, in response to these attacks from Labour, argue that the underground is a deviant group that it disavows. 15 notes.

Google AI Overview

In the early 1900s, the "Jewish underground" of settlers most famously refers to Nili, a Jewish espionage network in Palestine that spied for the British against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The group emerged from the Zionist settlement movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was distinct from the later, more widespread Jewish defense organizations.

Background and formation of Nili
Settler origins: The members of Nili largely came from the agricultural settlements (moshavot) established during the First Aliyah (1882–1903), a wave of Eastern European Jewish immigration to Palestine. The movement sought to create self-sufficient farming communities.

Key figures: The network was founded by the Aaronsohn family, particularly agronomist Aaron Aaronsohn, and his sister Sarah, along with their friend Avshalom Feinberg. The family's home in Zikhron Ya'akov served as the group's headquarters.

Motivation: Nili was created in 1915 to assist the British. The group was convinced that the Ottomans posed a dire threat to the Jewish community in Palestine, a fear intensified by witnessing the Armenian genocide firsthand. Nili's founders believed that aiding the British would lead to a more favorable future for the Jewish community in Palestine.

Opposition and risk: Nili went against the majority opinion of their fellow Jews in the Yishuv (the Jewish community in Palestine).
Many feared that the Ottoman authorities would respond with mass reprisals if they discovered such activities. Some locals even turned in Jewish spies.

Espionage activities
Intelligence gathering: Nili provided crucial intelligence to the British military in Cairo on Ottoman troop movements, fortifications, railways, and water sources.

Communication: Spies used signal lights to communicate with a British warship stationed off the coast of Palestine. When this failed, they relied on homing pigeons.

Humanitarian aid: The network also secretly distributed funds from American-Jewish organizations to help feed the starving Jewish population in Palestine, which was suffering under harsh Ottoman policies.

Tragic end
Exposure: In 1917, Ottoman authorities discovered the network after a carrier pigeon with coded messages landed in the wrong place.

Arrests and torture: The Ottomans began arresting and torturing Nili members. Sarah Aaronsohn was captured but committed suicide after enduring several days of torture to avoid betraying her comrades.

Legacy: Despite its collapse, Nili provided intelligence that was highly valued by British General Edmund Allenby and aided in his conquest of Palestine. Sarah Aaronsohn became an early icon of Zionist and Israeli nationalism.

Nili's distinction from later groups
While Nili was one of the first Jewish paramilitary or underground organizations, it is distinct from later, more widely known defense groups.

Haganah: Founded in 1920, the Haganah was a national, underground defense organization that served the Yishuv's mainstream leadership.

Jewish Underground (1980s): The term was used again to refer to an extremist group in the 1980s that carried out attacks against Palestinians. This later group is entirely unrelated to Nili and the earlier settlers.

In the early 1980s, a network of right-wing settlers plotted to blow up the Dome of the Rock, the oldest existing Islamic monument situated on the most volatile site in the Middle East, the Temple Mount. Arrested in 1984 by the Israeli secret service Shin Bet, the conspirators were found to be responsible for several other attacks against Palestinians, including a series of car bomb attacks against West Bank mayors and schemes to blow-up civilian buses at rush-hour. Shai Gal’s documentary recounts the events surrounding their case and reveals the ties between the convicted plotters and leaders of the current Israeli government.
Join us for a viewing and stay for a conversation with the documentary’s filmmaker, Shai Gal, and U-M’s director of screenwriting program, Jim Burnstein.

Watch the trailer “The Jewish Underground”

About the Filmmaker:
Shai Gal is an Israeli filmmaker and investigative TV journalist. He was a correspondent for Channel 2 (Israel) and a 2012-2013 Knight-Wallace Fellow studying how extremists control the lives of others.

About the Moderator:
Jim Burnstein is a screenwriter, professor and director of the screenwriting program at the University of Michigan. He managed to beat the odds and make it as a successful Hollywood screenwriter without moving from his home in Plymouth, Michigan. Burnstein’s screen credits include “Renaissance Man,” the 1994 comedy directed by Penny Marshall and starring Danny DeVito; “D3: The Mighty Ducks” (1996-1997); “Ruffian,” the 2007 drama starring Sam Shepard co-written with Garrett Schiff of Los Angeles for ABC and ESPN; and “Love and Honor” (2013) starring Liam Hemsworth and Teresa Palmer, also written with Schiff.

The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy is a co-sponsor of the event.

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From Terrorist Plots to Political Power

Tablet Magazine
tabletmag.com
Aug 21, 2018 — ... The Fall and Rise of the Jewish Underground.” The film's subject is a terrorist group of religious, Jewish (not-at-all fringe) messianic ...

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