Netanyahu hails locating of Irgun arms ship Altalena, denounces Ben-Gurion for attacking it in 1948, highlights Israelis’ shared fate

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hails the locating of the Altalena, and vows to raise the ship — sunk amid a deadly 1948 confrontation between Israel’s nascent army and the right-wing Irgun militia — out of the water.

He says the incident — the most prominent instance of violent conflict between Jews during Israel’s War of Independence — shows the danger of civil war, but also denigrates his political opponents and ends his statement with a campaign pledge.

In a prerecorded video shot on the Tel Aviv promenade overlooking the beach, Netanyahu reopens the bitter wound over first prime minister David Ben-Gurion’s decision to attack the ship, denouncing Ben-Gurion’s “tragic decision to open fire” on the vessel “bringing essential weapons to our fighters in the War of Independence.”

“Instead of letting it unload,” he laments, “the Haganah men on the beach opened fire.”

Sixteen Irgun members and three IDF soldiers were killed during the sinking of the Altalena. The incident on the shore of Tel Aviv is viewed by many on Israel’s right as an injustice and has since become a rallying cry for them about the dangers of internal conflict and violence, and about the ostensible perfidy of the political left.

“Brothers killed brothers” off the coast of Tel Aviv when “the Altalena went up in flames,” Netanyahu says. Irgun leader Menachem Begin “stopped the fight” and pledged that “we are not going to have civil war,” Netanyahu recalls. “That’s the lesson of the Altalena.”

The ship was located early this morning by divers following a yearslong effort funded by the government.

Netanyahu says he spearheaded that effort and says he will now order that the ship be raised from the water.

“For me, and I am certain for you as well, citizens of Israel, this is an exciting moment, a defining moment,” he says. “I promise one more thing: To raise [the ship] from the depths of the sea so that it will be a tangible symbol for our generation and generations to come.”

Experts have said raising the ship will be difficult and costly, and may prove impossible.

Netanyahu praises the Irgun fighters for not escalating the gunfight to a civil war, and for going on to fight in the War of Independence. He notes that he attends the yearly ceremony commemorating the Altalena’s victims at the site, and criticizes opponents of his for protesting at the event.

“In recent years something absurd has happened,” he says. “During the ceremony, I hear cries of incitement against us from political rivals standing outside and simply desecrating this sacred ceremony. Have they not learned its lesson?”

“This is the lesson, and it’s very simple,” he says. “We are brothers. Political rivals, yes, but we are brothers. We are of one nation, one future, one fate.”

Near the end of the video, asserting that he is acting in the spirit of that lesson, he repeats his campaign pledge to establish a “broad national government” following the October 27 election.

The Altalena reached the shores of Kfar Vitkin during the War of Independence on June 20, 1948. Ben-Gurion demanded that Begin, who was in charge of this Irgun operation, hand over the weapons it was carrying and the ship. The decision was made to attack the ship if an ultimatum to do so was not complied with. Begin did not comply, and the ship was attacked. Begin, anxious to avert civil war, ordered his forces not to retaliate.

While it is generally accepted that a sovereign state cannot tolerate an independent militia running its own arms supply, the cost of imposing that principle — the death toll, the loss of vital weaponry and the act of Jews fighting and killing Jews — has remained immensely controversial, especially given the left-right political divide that has continued throughout modern Israeli history. Begin would later say, “My greatest accomplishment was not retaliating and causing civil war.”

Praising those involved in locating the vessel, Netanyahu does not mention Itamar Ben Gvir, the national security minister whose far-right Otzma Yehudit party announced the discovery of the Altalena this morning. Ben Gvir was about to hold a press conference, but delayed it, and Netanyahu issued his video statement first.