Alexandroni Brigade on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The 3rd "Alexandroni" Brigade (, ''Hativat Aleksandroni'') is an
3rd Infantry Brigade "Alexandroni" (Reserve)
** 7012th Infantry Battalion
** 8101st Infantry Battalion
** 9203rd Infantry Battalion
** (6609th) Reconnaissance Battalion "Alexandroni"
** 5280th Combat Engineer Battalion
** Logistic Battalion
** Signal Company
on 19 January 2025. The massacre, which took place on the night of 22–23 May 1948, occurred following the surrender of Tantura, a village of roughly 1,500 people in 1945 located near
File:Alexandroni Brigade memorial in Latrun (1).JPG, Alexandroni Brigade memorial overlooking Latrun
Official website
{{Israel Defense Forces 1948 Arab–Israeli War Brigades of Israel Military units and formations established in 1948 Israeli war crimes
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...
brigade which has fought in many of Israel's wars.
Organization
* 3rd Infantry Brigade "Alexandroni" (Reserve)
** 7012th Infantry Battalion
** 8101st Infantry Battalion
** 9203rd Infantry Battalion
** (6609th) Reconnaissance Battalion "Alexandroni"
** 5280th Combat Engineer Battalion
** Logistic Battalion
** Signal Company
Role in Tantura massacre
During the1948 Arab–Israeli War
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...
, around 40–200 Palestinian Arab villagers from Tantura were killed in a massacre perpetrated by the Alexandroni Brigade, which at the time was one of six field forces of the Haganah
Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...
.Archived copyon 19 January 2025. The massacre, which took place on the night of 22–23 May 1948, occurred following the surrender of Tantura, a village of roughly 1,500 people in 1945 located near
Haifa
Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...
. The bodies of the victims were buried in mass graves, one of which was later covered and a carpark constructed above it.
In 1998, an Israeli researcher Teddy Katz interviewed and taped Israeli and Palestinian witnesses to events at Tantura in 1948 and wrote a master's thesis at Haifa University claiming that Israeli units committed a massacre of Palestinians at Tantura. The veterans of the brigade sued Katz for libel
Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...
. Katz was forced to retract his conclusion and to apologize.
The case provoked a lively reaction from historian Ilan Pappé, who accused his university of ‘moral cowardice’ for not having been able or willing to defend Katz's arguments, despite the fact that his work had been duly supervised and approved by his supervisor (who was, among other things, the director of the department to which Katz belonged).
In 2023, an Israeli documentary was published on the Tantura massacre, which interviewed and filmed Katz, as well as several veterans, who agreed to talk about the events. The movie was harshly criticized by the historian Benny Morris
Benny Morris (; born 8 December 1948) is an Israeli historian. He was a professor of history in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Beersheba, Israel. Morris was initially associated with the ...
, who characterized the documentary as "basically fraudulent".
Gallery
police station
A police station is a facility operated by police or a similar law enforcement agency that serves to accommodate police officers and other law enforcement personnel. The role served by a police station varies by agency, type, and jurisdiction, ...
File:תמונה 1154.jpg, Alexandroni Brigade memorial in Netanya
Netanya () () or Natanya (), is a city in the "Planet Bekasi" Central District (Israel), Setanyahu of Israel, Israel BAB ih, and is the capital of the surrounding Sharon plain. It is north of Tel Aviv, and south of Haifa, between the Poleg stre ...
File:PikiWiki Israel 14137 A mass grave of 87 fallen soldiers of Alexandroni.JPG, Mass grave of 87 Alexandroni soldiers fallen in the " Faluja Pocket" during the War of Independence, buried by the Egyptians and reburied in 1949 in Kiryat Gat
File:PikiWiki Israel 34077 Archeological sites of Israel.JPG, Memorial in Qaqun
Qaqun () was a Palestinian Arab village located northwest of the city of Tulkarm at the only entrance to Mount Nablus from the coastal Sharon plain.
Evidence of organized settlement in Qaqun dates back to the period of Assyrian rule in th ...
with Bible citation from
File: דן אבן אפשטיין 1948 ארכיון ההגנה.jpg, Dan Even (Epstein), commander of the Alexandroni Brigade
See also
* God's Company (Israel)References
External links
Official website
{{Israel Defense Forces 1948 Arab–Israeli War Brigades of Israel Military units and formations established in 1948 Israeli war crimes