Nathan Yellin-Mor (Hebrew: נתן ילין-מור, Nathan Friedman-Yellin; 28 June 1913 – 18 February 1980) was a Revisionist Zionist activist, Lehi leader and Israeli politician. In later years, he became a leader of the Israeli peace camp, a pacifist who supported negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization and concessions in the Israeli-Arab conflict.
Nathan Yellin-Mor | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Faction represented in the Knesset | |
| 1949–1951 | Fighters List |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 28 June 1913 Grodno, Russian Empire |
| Died | 18 February 1980 (aged 66) New York City, New York, United States |
Biography edit
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Nathan Friedman-Yellin was born in Grodno in the Russian Empire (now Belarus). His father was a builder who was killed after getting drafted into the Russian Army during World War I. Following his father's death his family moved to Lipsko where he went to public school[1] He studied engineering at the Warsaw Polytechnic. He was active in Betar and Irgun in Poland.
Between 1938 and 1939 he was the coeditor, along with Avraham Stern (Yair), of Di Tat ("The Action "), the Irgun's newspaper in Poland.[2]
Zionist activism edit
He immigrated clandestinely to the British Mandate of Palestine and joined Lehi, a Jewish paramilitary group, Lohamei Herut Yisrael (Hebrew acronym LHI - in English, Fighters for the Freedom of Israel; derogatorily called by the British the Stern gang) where he operated under the name "Gera". In December 1941, Yair Stern assigned Yellin-Mor to travel to Turkey and the Balkans to recruit Jews living there for the underground in Palestine. He was arrested near Aleppo, Syria, and brought back to Palestine, where the British put him into detention first at the Mizrah detention camp and then transferred to Latrun. There Yellin-Mor masterminded digging a 74-meter-long tunnel over 8 months and, together with 19 comrades, escaped on November 1, 1943. After Stern's murder, he became a member of Lehi's guiding triumvirate, with Israel Eldad as chief of Lehi's propaganda and Yitzhak Shamir as chief of operations.[citation needed] Yellin-Mor was in charge of Lehi's political activities.
He was one of the planners of the assassination of Lord Moyne in 1944. He saw the struggle against the British in an international context and advocated collaboration with other anti-colonialist forces, including Palestinian and other Arab forces. After the Deir Yassin massacre, he privately confronted Eldad.[3] After the assassination in September 1948 of United Nations mediator Count Folke Bernadotte, he was arrested along with Lehi member Matityahu Shmuelevitch and charged with leadership of a terrorist organization.[4] They were found guilty on January 25, 1949, the day on which Yellin-Mor was elected to the Knesset.[5] On February 10, 1949, Yellin-Mor was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment.[6][7] Though the court was confident that Lehi was responsible for Bernadotte's death, it did not find sufficient evidence that the murder had been sanctioned by the Lehi leadership.[7][8] The court offered to release the defendants if they agreed to certain conditions, including forswearing underground activity and submitting to police supervision, but they rejected the offer.[7] However, the Provisional State Council soon authorized their pardon.[9]
Political career edit
In 1948 Yellin-Mor formed a political party, the Fighters List, and was elected to the first Knesset. He served from 1949 to 1951 and was a member of the Internal Affairs Committee.
In 1949, he denounced the Partition of Palestine as "bartering with the territory of the homeland" and opposed the Palestinian right of return.[10] Later, he moved increasingly to the left, in a return to the pro-Soviet position of some Lehi militants in the 1940s, by advocating a pro-Soviet foreign policy.[citation needed] In 1956 he helped found the group Semitic Action, whose journal Etgar ("Challenge") he edited.
Final years and death edit
In his later years, he dedicated himself to working for reconciliation with the Palestinians, promoting negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organisation.[3]
In the late 1970s, he got sick with leukemia, and an awards ceremony was hosted at his house the day before his death. [11]
Published works edit
- Yellin-Mor, Nathan (1974). Fighters for the Freedom of Israel – Personalities, Ideas, and Adventures (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Shiḳmonah.
- Yellin-Mor, Nathan (1990). Shnot BeTerem (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv: Kinneret. ISBN 978-965-286-237-2.
References edit
- ^ [[1]]. Lehi.org
- ^ "Tuvia Friling – A blatant oversight? The Right-Wing in Israeli Holocaust historiography". Israel Studies. 14 (1): 123–169. 2009. doi:10.2979/isr.2009.14.1.123. S2CID 143143477.
- ^ a b Shindler, Colin (2001). The Land Beyond Promise: Israel, Likud and the Zionist Dream. I.B.Tauris. pp. 182–183. ISBN 1-86064-774-X.
- ^ Heller, p256.
- ^ Heller, p261.
- ^ Heller, p265.
- ^ a b c "LHY leaders get 8,5 years", Palestine Post, Feb 11, 1949.
- ^ Heller, p265-6.
- ^ Heller, p267.
- ^ Shavit, Jacob; Yaacov Shavit (1987). The New Hebrew Nation: A Study in Israeli Heresy and Fantasy. Routledge. p. 148.
- ^ [2]. The National Library Of Israel
Further reading edit
- Joseph Heller (1995). The Stern Gang — Ideology, Politics and Terror 1940–1949. London: Frank Cass. ISBN 0-7146-4106-5.
External links edit
- Nathan Yellin-Mor on the Knesset website