Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

I.F. Stone sailed aboard SS Haganah הגנה to France, where he joined displaced persons as they sought a clandestine port of embarcation, joined an illegal convoy, ran the British blockade, and landed illegally in Palestine.
I.F.Stone sent regular dispatches on the conflict between the British and Palestinian Jews, and Harry Silverman helped him with photographs of the ship and its passengers.
Underground to Palestine first appeared as a series of articles published in PM, which won the Newspaper Guild of New York, Page One award in 1947.
It was published in 1946, then reprinted in 1978 as Underground to Palestine - and Reflections Thirty Years Later
I.F. Stone cites: “They have been kicked around as Jews and now they want to live as Jews. Over and over I heard it said: ‘We want to build a Jewish country. ... We are tired of putting our sweat and blood into places where we are not welcome.' ... These Jews want the right to live as a people, to build as a people, to make their contribution to the world as a people. Are their national aspirations any less worthy of respect than those of any other oppressed people?”
I.F. Stone cites in Underground to Palestine: "We felt proud and exultant to arrive with the Jewish flag at our mast. The refugees looked for the first time upon the Holy Land with wondering and often tear-filled eyes. This was the sight for which they had longed with all their hearts, the sight for which they had risked their lives crossing one illegal border after another and on the high seas.¨