Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

Martin Fletcher cites: Yoske Nechmias was "sixth-generation Jerusalem,ten brothers ans sisters, two in the Palmach and three in the Irgun."

Yosef Nachmias served in the British military during World War II, and exploited his knowledge of British Army procedures and his command of English to liberate weapons and rescue captured comrades.

In 1946, Yosef Nechmias was arrested by the British and sentenced to be shot as a traitor by the army firing squad, but his sentence was reduced to 15 years' jail.

Martin Fletcher cites: "Yoske (Nechmias) had forged his birth certificate and joined the British army at age fourteen, fighting in Syria, Lebanon and Egypt until he was wounded in Cyprus in 1944."

Beginning in 1944, Yosef Nechmias led a double life, as a British soldier and a fighter in ITzL אצ"ל, attacking British "occupation" targets.

Yosef Nachmias, who served in ITzL , and commanded 80 men, cites: "The Irgun decided to liberate Jaffa and cut the arms that were sending death into Tel Aviv," "forces moved from house to house, hammering holes in the walls to enter", “We handed Jaffa to the new state on a platter of silver and blood,”
Yosef Nachmias cites: "chasing away the Palestinians was not the intention. However, according to other Israeli accounts, Amichai Paglin, the Irgun's chief of operations, said in a pre-battle briefing that relentless mortar bombardment would be used to fuel chaos among the population "to create a mass flight"."

 

ITzL אצ"ל fighters battled with snipers positioned at the top of the Hassan Bek Mosque מסגד חסן בק‎ مسجد حسن بك‎, at the edge of Tel Aviv תל אביב.
Yosef Nechmias cites: "We shelled the municipality, the electric power and the water power so they would surrender. We didn't want to hit citizens, only strategic points."
Arabs took flight amid heavy and, according to official British accounts, “indiscriminate” Irgun shelling over a wide area of Yafo יפו.
Yosef Nechmias cites: "The toughest part of the battle came when British forces intervened to force the Irgun to pull out of parts of Jaffa, Of the 41 dead we suffered, 28 were killed by the British. Their cannons gave us hell. But the British intervention failed to stem the Arab exodus."

 

The British forces withdrew at the close of the Palestine Mandate.
In May 14, 1948, ITzL fighters entered Jaffa for a victory parade.
Yosef Nachmias cites ITzL commanders had prepared buses and trucks in order to expel any remaining Arabs; "Jaffa’s pre-war population had been 80,000. After the fighting, 3,000 Arabs were left."

Martin Flectcher cites: Yosef Nechmias was "among the only group ever to escape from thecenturies-old fortess-prison."

Hillel Daleski. was a Haganah recruit who had been in Palestine for only two months, when he was ordered to fire the artillery cannon that destroyed Altalena.
Machal.org.il cites: "Hillel (Billy) Daleski. Billy, an expert artillery man who had served with the South African Defense Forces in World War II, was commanded by Yitzhak Rabin who was in command of the Government troops, to fire at the Altalena. When Billy refused the order, he was threatened with a court martial and so he fired the mortar."
On June 20, 1948, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed in his Tutach HaKadish Holy Cannon Speech to the State Council: “Blessed be the cannon that bombed that ship!”

Yaakov Meridor was arrested for 10 days.

Yosef Nachmias, a company commander on board Altalena אלטלנה, cites: Menachem Begin, on the shore, said:
“Don’t fire back!” There will be no war between brothers! The first and second House of David was destroyed by brother hate ... There won’t be a destruction of the third House of Israel!”
Menachem Begin went out to Altalena אלטלנה, and from the command position of the bridge, and using loudspeaker saying - "Don’t fire back!” “Let them kill us all!” “We will never lift a hand on a Jew!”
He then sent Yoske Nachmias to negotiate, saying:
“Yoske - go ashore and with negotiation try to stop the fighting! You are going down without any arms ... You are going only with the ‘wireless’.”
Machal.org.il cites: "After the Altalena had run aground on the beach at Tel Aviv, the IAF was put on standby to attack the ship if necessary. Machal aircrews informed Aluf Aharon Remez, Chief of Air Force, that they would refuse to carry out such an order as they had not volunteered from abroad to fight against fellow-Jews, and that the Chief of Air Force had two options – either to court martial those who refused his order, or to discharge them from the service, and happily the standby order was promptly rescinded."
Yosef Nachmias cites: the refusal of his own brother, a Palmach fighter, to shoot at the ship because he knew that his sibling was on board, meant for him, that killing brothers was not merely a metaphor.
Jerold S. Auerbach cites: "Begin commanded his loyal fighters not to return fire. His insistence upon restraint demonstrated his unyielding determination to prevent civil war from once again dividing the Jewish people and shattering Jewish sovereignty, as it had done nineteen centuries earlier.”

Yosef Nachmias served in the ITzL אצ"ל company sent to unload the cargo aboard Altalena אלטלנה.
His brother was part of the Palmach פלמ"ח forces on the beach, and was ordered to shoot at Altalena אלטלנה, but, knowing that his brother was on the boat, he refused to shoot.

Yael Sherez, age 16 years old, was a Palmach fighter, who followed orders and shot at Altalena.

Boris Senior was ordered to bomb Altalena, but was enraged by the prospect and intended to drop the bombs elsewhere, but the mission was cancelled.

Hilary Dilesky, who had arrived in Israel only two months earlier, commanded the battery that was chosen to fire the first shot.
Hilary Dilesky cites: After receiving the orders, “I suddenly was struck with a heavy, deep feeling that I didn’t want to shoot.”
He told his corps commander, in English: “I hadn’t come to Israel to fight Jews.”
The commander responded that his job was to obey orders.
Hilary Dilesky cites: he realized that “following orders was the right thing to do, but my heart was broken when we began firing. This has been a burden all my life, and still is.”