The Birya affair (, ''HaAliya LeBirya'', lit. ''The Ascent to Birya'') was an attempt by the British army to take over

Kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

Birya Birya (, also Biriya) is an agricultural village in northern Israel. Located in the Upper Galilee near Safed, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Merom HaGalil Regional Council. As of its population was . Biriya existed in the Classic Era, a ...

during the

British Mandate for Palestine The Mandate for Palestine was a League of Nations mandate for British administration of the territories of Palestine and Transjordanwhich had been part of the Ottoman Empire for four centuriesfollowing the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in Wo ...

History

On March 5, 1946, British soldiers searched the new settlement of Birya, in the northern

Galilee Galilee (; ; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon consisting of two parts: the Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and the Lower Galilee (, ; , ). ''Galilee'' encompasses the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and ...

, near the city of

Safed Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. Safed has been identified with (), a fortif ...

, and having found hidden weapons, arrested all 24 inhabitants and declared the settlement an "Occupied military zone". The Jewish Zionist leadership saw the British action as a dangerous precedence against Jewish settlements and as violation of the Jews' right to settle freely 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 ...

. On March 14 (Yud-Alef Adar, close to the date of

Tel Hai Tel Hai ( , "Hill of Life") is a name of the former Jewish settlement in northern Galilee, the site of an early battle between Jews and Arabs heralding the growing civil conflict, and of a monument, tourist attraction, and a college. It is curren ...

events) thousands of young people, organized by the Hagana underground climbed the mountain on which Birya was built and resettled it, proclaiming their tents "Birya Bet" (the second Birya). After a few hours they were driven off by British armoured cars and

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; ...

s, only to reappear the same night and build "Birya Gimel" (the third Birya). On March 17 the British authorities agreed to the presence of 20 Jewish settlers on Birya soil. The affair was considered a great triumph for Zionist resistance to British rule in Palestine, and was the subject of books and poems. The

Bnei Akiva Bnei Akiva (, , "Children of Akiva") is the largest religious Zionist youth movement in the world, with over 125,000 members in 42 countries. It was first established in Mandatory Palestine in 1929, advocating the values of Torah and labor. Bne ...

youth movement marks the event by marching to Birya on the Hebrew date (Yud Alef Adar, 11th of Adar) of the 1946 ascent to Birya.

References

External links

The Birya affair on the Palmach site
1946 in Mandatory Palestine Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine {{israel-stub

History

See also

References

External links