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Abba Ahimeir (, ; 2 November 1897 – 6 June 1962) was a Russian-born Israeli journalist, historian, and political activist. One of the ideologues of
Revisionist Zionism Revisionist Zionism is a form of Zionism characterized by territorial maximalism. Revisionist Zionism promoted expansionism and the establishment of a Jewish majority on both sides of the Jordan River. Developed by Ze'ev Jabotinsky in the 1920s ...
, he was the founder of the Revisionist Maximalist faction of the Zionist Revisionist Movement (ZRM) and of the clandestine Brit HaBirionim.


Biography

Abba Shaul Gaisinovich (later Abba Ahimeir) was born in Dolgoe, a village near
Babruysk Babruysk (, ) or Bobruysk (, ; , ) is a city in Mogilev Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Babruysk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. It is situated on the Berezina, Berezina River. Bab ...
in the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
(today in
Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
). From 1912 to 1914, he attended the Herzliya Gymnasium high school in
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
. While with his family in Babruysk for summer vacation in 1914,
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
broke out and he was forced to complete his studies in Russia. In 1917, he participated in the Russian Zionist Conference in
Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...
and underwent agricultural training as part of Joseph Trumpeldor’s HeHalutz movement in
Batum Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ), historically Batum or Batoum, is the second-largest city of Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast of the Black Sea in Georgia's southwest, north of the border ...
, Caucasia to prepare him for a life as a pioneer in the
Land of Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine. The definition ...
. In 1920, he left Russia and changed his name from Gaisinovich to Ahimeir (in Hebrew: Meir’s brother) in memory of his brother Meir who had fallen in battle that year fighting against Poles during a pogrom. Ahimeir studied philosophy at the
Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...
University in
Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
and at the University of
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
, completing his PhD thesis on
Oswald Spengler Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler (29 May 1880 – 8 May 1936) was a German polymath whose areas of interest included history, philosophy, mathematics, science, and art, as well as their relation to his organic theory of history. He is best know ...
's ''
The Decline of the West ''The Decline of the West'' (; more literally, ''The Downfall of the Occident'' or even more literally, "The Going-Under of the Evening Lands"; some of the poetry of the original is lost in translation) is a two-volume work by Oswald Spengler. Th ...
'' in 1924 just before immigrating to the British Mandate of Palestine. Upon his arrival in the country, Ahimeir became active in the
Labor Zionist Labor Zionism () or socialist Zionism () is the Left-wing politics, left-wing, socialism, socialist variant of Zionism. For many years, it was the most significant tendency among Zionists and Zionist organizations, and was seen as the Zionist ...
movements
Ahdut HaAvoda Ahdut HaAvoda () was the name used by a series of List of political parties in Israel, political parties in Israel. Ahdut HaAvoda in its first incarnation was led by David Ben-Gurion. It was first established during the period of Mandatory Pales ...
and
Hapoel Hatzair Hapoel Hatzair (, "The Young Worker") was a Zionist group active in Palestine from 1905 until 1930. It was founded by A.D. Gordon, Yosef Aharonovich, Yosef Sprinzak and followed a non-Marxist, Zionist, socialist agenda. Hapoel Hatzair was a ...
. For four years, he served as librarian for the cultural committee of the General Workers Organization in
Zikhron Ya'akov Zikhron Ya'akov () often shortened to just Zikhron, is a local council (Israel), town in northern Israel, south of the city of Haifa, and part of the Haifa District. It is located at the southern end of the Mount Carmel, Carmel mountain range over ...
and as a teacher in
Nahalal Nahalal () is a moshav in Northern District (Israel), northern Israel. Covering , it falls under the jurisdiction of the Jezreel Valley Regional Council. In it had a population of . Nahalal is best known for its general layout, as designed by ...
and Kibutz Geva. During these years he regularly published articles in
Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...
and
Davar ''Davar'' (, lit. ''Speech, Word'') was a Hebrew-language daily newspaper published in the British Mandate of Palestine and Israel between 1925 and May 1996. A similarly named website was launched in 2016, under the name ''Davar Rishon'' as an ...
, where he began to criticize the political situation in Palestine and of Zionism, as well as of the workers’ movement to which he belonged.


Political activism

In 1928, Ahimeir, along with Yehoshua Yeivin and famed Hebrew poet
Uri Zvi Greenberg Uri Zvi Greenberg (; September 22, 1896 – May 8, 1981; also spelled Uri Zvi Grinberg) was an Israeli poet, journalist and politician who wrote in Yiddish and Hebrew. Widely regarded among the greatest poets in the country's history, he was a ...
, became disillusioned with what they viewed to be the passivity of Labor Zionism and founded the Revisionist Labor Bloc as part of Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s Revisionist Zionist Movement. Ahimeir and his group were regarded by Revisionist Movement leaders as an implant from the Left whose political Maximalism and revolutionary brand of nationalism often made the Revisionist old guard uncomfortable.Shindler, Colin. ''The Triumph of Military Zionism: Nationalism and the Origins of the Israeli Right''. I.B.Tauris, 2006. In 1930, Ahimeir and his friends established the underground movement Brit HaBirionim (The Union of Zionist Rebels) named for the Jewish anti-Roman underground during the
first Jewish-Roman War First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...
. Brit HaBirionim was the first Jewish organization in Palestine to call for the independence and creation of a Jewish state in the region. The group formulated a series of protests directed against the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, Drummond Shiels, when he was on a visit to Tel-Aviv on October 9, 1930 calling for the end to the mandate. This was the first movement calling for independence by Jews in Palestine, and it would go on to have a major influence on other Jewish groups such as the
Irgun The Irgun (), officially the National Military Organization in the Land of Israel, often abbreviated as Etzel or IZL (), was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of th ...
and the Lehi. In 1931, Ahimeir also led a protest against the census of Palestine, which he urged his fellow Jews to refrain from partaking in, using the slogan ''al tippaqdu'' ("do not be counted"). In 1933, Brit HaBirionim turned its activities against Nazi Germany. In May of that year, Ahimeir led his followers in a campaign to remove swastikas from the flagpoles of the German consulates in Jerusalem and Jaffa. Brit HaBirionim also organized a boycott of German goods. Brit Habirionim became fierce critics of the Haavara Agreement and of its chief negotiator, Haim Arlosoroff. When Arlosoroff was killed on a Tel-Aviv beach in June 1933, Ahimeir and two friends were arrested and charged with inciting the murder. Ahimeir was cleared of the charge before the trial even began but remained in prison and began a hunger strike that continued for four days. He was convicted of organizing an illegal clandestine organization and was sentenced to 21 months in prison. He remained in the Jerusalem Central Prison until August 1935. His imprisonment put an end to Brit HaBirionim. Upon his release, Ahimeir married Sonia née Astrachan and devoted himself to literary work and scholarship. His articles in the newspaper Hayarden led to his re-arrest at the end of 1937. He spent three months in Acre Prison together with members of the Irgun Zvai Leumi and other prominent Revisionist activists. Following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Ahimeir became a member of the editorial board of the
Herut Herut () was the major conservative nationalist political party in Israel from 1948 until its formal merger into Likud in 1988. It was an adherent of Revisionist Zionism. Some of their policies were compared to those of the Nazi party. Early y ...
party daily in Tel-Aviv, as well as a member of the editorial board of the Hebrew Encyclopedia in Jerusalem where he published (under the initials A. AH.) scores of important academic articles, mostly in the fields of history and Russian literature. Ahimeir died at the age of 65 of a sudden heart attack on the eve of June 6, 1962. His sons, Ya'akov and
Yosef Yosef (; also transliterated as Yossef, Josef, Yoseph Tiberian Hebrew and Aramaic ''Yôsēp̄'' and Yosseph, or Joseph, Arabic ''Yusof'') is a Hebrew male name derived from the Biblical character Joseph. The name can also consist of the Hebrew ...
, both went on to become journalists.


Ideology

Ahimeir regarded Zionism as a secular, territorial phenomenon. He was the first to speak of "revolutionary Zionism," and call for a revolt for the cause of an independent Jewish state. His worldview generally placed the contemporary political situation into the context of
Jewish history Jewish history is the history of the Jews, their Jewish peoplehood, nation, Judaism, religion, and Jewish culture, culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions and cultures. Jews originated from the Israelites and H ...
, specifically the
Second Temple Period The Second Temple period or post-exilic period in Jewish history denotes the approximately 600 years (516 BCE – 70 CE) during which the Second Temple stood in the city of Jerusalem. It began with the return to Zion and subsequent reconstructio ...
, often casting himself and his friends as pro-Jewish state freedom fighters, the mandate administration as a modern incarnation of ancient Rome and the official Zionist leadership as Jewish collaborators.} Ahimeir's views had a profound influence on the ideology of the
Irgun The Irgun (), officially the National Military Organization in the Land of Israel, often abbreviated as Etzel or IZL (), was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of th ...
and Lehi organisations during their operations in the mandate and later the 1947–1949 Palestine war. Although Ahimeir described himself as a
fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...
during the late 1920s, and wrote a series of eight articles in the
Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
Doar Hayom newspaper in 1928 entitled "From the Notebook of a Fascist," few of his contemporaries took these leanings seriously. Ze’ev Jabotinsky, who consistently maintained that there was no room for Fascism within his Revisionist movement, dismissed Ahimeir's rhetoric and argued that he and his Maximalist followers were merely playacting to make a point and were not serious in their professed Fascist beliefs. In the 7 October 1932 edition of '' Hazit HaAm'', Jabotinsky wrote:
Such men, even in the Maximalist and activist factions, number no more than two or three, and even with those two or three – pardon my frankness – it is mere phraseology, not a worldview. Even Mr. Ahimeir gives me the impression of a man who will show flexibility for the sake of educational goals. … to this end he has borrowed some currently fashionable (and quite unnecessary) phrases, in which this daring idea clothes itself in several foreign cities."
Ahimeir himself confirmed that for a while he thought fascism was a realistic way to oppose the "horrors of the
Russian revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...
" but that he quickly turned his back on
Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his overthrow in 194 ...
's ideology and in the beginning of 1929 Jabotinsky "cured him of fascism." Ahimeir's fascist image during the 1920s was seized upon by author
Christopher Hitchens Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British and American author and journalist. He was the author of Christopher Hitchens bibliography, 18 books on faith, religion, culture, politics, and literature. He was born ...
in a 1998 article titled "The Iron Wall" to argue that fascism was the ideology guiding Benzion Netanyahu, a disciple of Ahimeir, and consequently his son, Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin Netanyahu (born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who has served as the prime minister of Israel since 2022, having previously held the office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime min ...
. In an April 16, 2010, interview with ''
The Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is an English language, English-language Israeli broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, Israel, founded in 1932 during the Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate of Mandatory Palestine, Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''Th ...
'', Ahimeir's son Yossi defended his father against accusations of fascism, saying:
"Hitchens is a known anti-Israel writer who takes my father's writing completely out of context. Fascism in 1928 can't be viewed in the context of the 1930s. Of course he would not be a fascist in view of how it developed."


References


External links


"Dr.Aba Ahimeir: The man who turned the tide"
Beit Aba Museum in Israel

Christopher Hitchens Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British and American author and journalist. He was the author of Christopher Hitchens bibliography, 18 books on faith, religion, culture, politics, and literature. He was born ...
on Ahimeir's relationship with the Netanyahu family
"Abba Ahimeir"
A website featuring articles on noteworthy Jewish figures from the Mandate period who helped bring about the state of Israel {{DEFAULTSORT:Ahiemeir, Abba 1897 births 1962 deaths Belarusian Jews People from Babruysk Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the Ottoman Empire Jews from Mandatory Palestine Jewish fascists Israeli fascists Israeli people of Belarusian-Jewish descent Members of the Assembly of Representatives (Mandatory Palestine) Russian fascists Revisionist Zionism Burials at Nahalat Yitzhak Cemetery Immigrants to Ottoman Palestine Israeli prisoners and detainees Inmates of Acre Prison People acquitted of murder Immigrants of the Fourth Aliyah