Acre Prison also known as Akko Prison is a former

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

and current museum in Acre, Israel. The citadel was built during the Ottoman period over the ruins of a 12th-century Crusader fortress. The Ottomans used it at various times as a government building, prison, army barracks, and arms warehouse. In the time of the British Mandate the citadel in the old city of Acre was used as a prison in which many

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

s were imprisoned as criminals or for participating in the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. Around 140 prisoners were executed during the

Palestinian general strike The Arab general strike in Mandatory Palestine of 1936 was a general strike of all Arabs in Mandatory Palestine engaged in labour, transport and shopkeeping, which began on 19 April 1936 and lasted until October 1936; and which degenerated into vi ...

alone. On June 17, 1930, Fuad Hijazi, ‘Ata Al-Zeer, and Mohammad Khaleel Jamjoum who participated in the incidents of 1929 were executed by hanging by the British Mandate for Palestine authorities. Tamari, Salim & Nassar, Issam (2014) ''The Storyteller of Jerusalem. The life and Times of Wasif Jawhariyyeh, 1904-1948''. Olive Branch Press. . pp.202,291. On April 19, 1947

Dov Gruner Dov Béla Gruner ( he, דב בלה גרונר; 1912–1947) was a Hungarian-born Zionist activist in Mandatory Palestine and a member of the pre-state Jewish underground Irgun. On April 16, 1947, Gruner was executed by the British Mandatory ...

and the three men (

Yechiel Dresner Yehiel Dov Dresner ( he, יחיאל דב דרזנר; 1922–1947) was an Irgun member in pre-state Mandatory Palestine and one of 12 Olei Hagardom. Early life Dresner was born in Poland to a Jewish family, one of four sons; his mother was from a d ...

, Mordechai Alkahi and Eliezer Kashani) captured by the British 6th Airborne Division were

hanged Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging i ...

in Acre Prison to become the first post war ‘martyrs’ of the

Irgun Irgun • Etzel , image = Irgun.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = Irgun emblem. The map shows both Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan, which the Irgun claimed in its entirety for a future Jewish state. The acronym "Etzel" i ...

. Dov Gruner in a broadcast declared the British Army and Administration to be ‘criminal organizations’. Two weeks later, 4 May, the Irgun attacked the prison in the

Acre Prison break The Acre Prison break was an operation undertaken by the Irgun on May 4, 1947, in the British Mandate of Palestine, in which its men broke through the walls of the Central Prison in Acre and freed 27 incarcerated Irgun and Lehi members. History ...

, blowing a hole in the wall through which 27 Irgun prisoners escaped. 214 Arab prisoners also escaped. Three Irgun men who took part in that attack (

Avshalom Haviv Avshalom Haviv ( he, אבשלום חביב; June 18, 1926–July 29, 1947) was a member of the Irgun underground organization in Mandatory Palestine, and one of the Olei Hagardom executed by the British authorities during the Jewish insurgenc ...

Meir Nakar Meir Nakar ( he, מאיר נקר; July 26, 1926 – July 29, 1947) was an Irgun member in pre-state Mandatory Palestine and one of 12 Olei Hagardom. Early life and army service Meir Nakar was born in Jerusalem to a poor Orthodox-Jewish family o ...

, and

Yaakov Weiss Yaakov Weiss ( he, יעקב וייס; July 15, 1924 – July 29, 1947) was a Hungarian Jew born in Czechoslovakia and member of the Irgun Jewish guerrilla organization in Mandatory Palestine. After saving hundreds of Jews during Holocaust, he ille ...

) were captured during that attack and imprisoned and executed there. The prison also contained Jewish prisoners, members of the

Hagana Haganah ( he, הַהֲגָנָה, lit. ''The Defence'') was the main Zionist paramilitary organization of the Jewish population ("Yishuv") in Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and its disestablishment in 1948, when it became the core of the Is ...

, Lehi, and

. One of those prisoners was

Eitan Livni Yeruham "Eitan" Livni ( he, ירוחם "איתן" לבני; 1 April 1919 – 27 December 1991) was a Revisionist Zionist activist, Irgun commander and Israeli politician, father of Israeli politician Tzipi Livni. Life and career Livni was born in ...

(father of

Tzipi Livni Tziporah Malka "Tzipi" Livni ( he, ציפי (ציפורה) מלכה לבני, ; born 8 July 1958) is an Israeli politician, diplomat, and lawyer. A former member of the Knesset and leader in the center-left political camp, Livni is a former for ...

), the Irgun operations officer. In total, the prison contained 700 Arab prisoners and 90 Jewish prisoners. A room in the prison was occupied for some months by Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the

Baháʼí Faith The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people. Established by Baháʼu'lláh in the 19th century, it initially developed in Iran and parts of the ...

, and members of his family, who were exiled to Ottoman Syria in 1868. The cell is now a site of pilgrimage for Baháʼís making a wider pilgrimage to the Baháʼí shrines in Haifa and Bahji, outside Akko.

References

{{coord, 32, 55, 25, N, 35, 04, 09, E, display=title Prisons in Israel

Prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

See also

References