Matthew Bell

Matthew Bell

Matthew Bell is a Jerusalem-based Middle East reporter. He has been with The World since 2001 and has filed stories from cities across the US and abroad.

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Effort in Israel Underway to Bring Up the Altalena from the Deep

November 8, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment

Altalena memorial (Photo: Matthew Bell)

This memorial on the Tel Aviv beach in remembrance of the Jewish militiamen killed by the Israeli army in 1948. (Photo: Matthew Bell)

Israel’s Begin Center in Jerusalem is raising money to commemorate a painful but pivotal episode in Israel’s history.

In 1948, a Jewish group headed by Menachem Begin brought in a cache of weapons aboard the Altalena, a ship carrying Jewish refugees.

The fledgling state’s leader, David Ben Gurion, ordered the army to attack the ship, arguing that Begin’s group, the Irgun, was a rogue militia.

Matthew Bell reports from Jerusalem on Israel’s “Altalena moment”.

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