The Sergeants affair

( Learn how and when to remove this message ) The Sergeants affair ( ) was an incident that took place in Mandate Palestine in July 1947 during Jewish insurgency in Palestine , in which the Jewish underground group Irgun kidnapped two British Army Intelligence Corps NCOs , Sergeant Clifford Martin and Sergeant Mervyn Paice , and threatened to kill them if the death sentences passed on three Irgun militants: Avshalom Haviv , Meir Nakar , and Yaakov Weiss , were carried out. The three had been captured by the British during the Acre Prison break , tried, and convicted on charges of illegal possession of arms, and with 'intent to kill or cause other harm to a large number of people'. When the three men were executed by hanging, the Irgun killed the two sergeants and hung their booby-trapped bodies in a eucalyptus grove near Netanya . This act was widely condemned in both Palestine and the UK. After hearing of the deaths some British troops and policemen attacked Jews in Tel Aviv , killing five and injuring others. The killings also sparked off rioting in some British cities. The hanged bodies of Sergeants Clifford Martin (left) and Mervyn Paice.

The Sergeants affair ( ) was an incident that took place in Mandate Palestine in July 1947 during Jewish insurgency in Palestine , in which the Jewish underground group Irgun kidnapped two British Army Intelligence Corps NCOs , Sergeant Clifford Martin and Sergeant Mervyn Paice and threatened to hang them if the death sentences passed on three Irgun militants: Avshalom Haviv , Meir Nakar , and Yaakov Weiss , were carried out. The three had been captured by the British during the Acre Prison break , tried, and convicted on charges of illegal possession of arms, and with 'intent to kill or cause other harm to a large number of people'. When the three men were executed by hanging, the Irgun killed the two sergeants and hanged their booby-trapped bodies in a eucalyptus grove near Netanya . When the bodies were found, the booby trap injured a British officer as they were cut down. This act was widely condemned in both Palestine and the UK. After hearing of the deaths, some British troops and policemen attacked Jews in Tel Aviv , killing five and injuring others. The killings also sparked off rioting in some British cities. The hanged bodies of Sergeants Clifford Martin (left) and Mervyn Paice.

1947 incident in Mandate Palestine The hanged bodies of Sergeants Clifford Martin (left) and Mervyn Paice. The Sergeants affair ( ) was an incident that took place in Mandate Palestine in July 1947 during Jewish insurgency in Palestine , in which the Jewish underground group Irgun kidnapped two British Army Intelligence Corps NCOs , Sergeant Clifford Martin and Sergeant Mervyn Paice, and threatened to hang them if the death sentences passed on three Irgun militants— Avshalom Haviv , Meir Nakar , and Yaakov Weiss —were carried out. The three had been captured by the British during the Acre Prison break , tried, and convicted on charges of illegal possession of arms, and with 'intent to kill or cause other harm to a large number of people'. When the three men were executed by hanging, the Irgun killed the two sergeants and hung their booby-trapped bodies in a eucalyptus grove near Netanya . When the bodies were found, the booby trap injured a British officer as they were cut down. This act was widely condemned in both Palestine and the UK. After news of the deaths became widely known, some British troops and policemen went on rampages in Tel Aviv ; five were killed and others wounded by the police, while anti-Jewish rioting broke out in some British cities.

1947 incident in Mandate Palestine Belligerents Irgun United Kingdom Mandatory Palestine Commanders and leaders Menachem Begin Amichai Paglin Gordon MacMillan Strength At least three kidnappers Two sergeants of the British Army Casualties and losses None 2 hanged 5 Jewish civilians killed in reprisals by British security forces The Sergeants affair ( Hebrew : פרשת הסרג'נטים ) was a terrorist attack that took place in July 1947 during Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine , in which the Zionist paramilitary organization Irgun abducted two British Army Intelligence Corps NCOs , Sergeant Clifford Martin and Sergeant Mervyn Paice, and threatened to hang them if the death sentences passed on three Irgun militants— Avshalom Haviv , Meir Nakar , and Yaakov Weiss —were carried out. The three had been captured by the British during the Acre Prison break , tried, and convicted on charges of illegal possession of arms, and with "intent to kill or cause other harm to a large number of people". When the three men were executed by hanging, the Irgun killed the two sergeants and hung their booby-trapped bodies in a eucalyptus grove near Netanya . When the bodies were found, the booby trap injured a British officer as they were cut down. The crime was widely condemned in both Palestine and the United Kingdom. After news of the deaths became widely known, enraged British security forces rampaged in Tel Aviv , in which five Jews were killed and another 15 were wounded. Instances of anti-Jewish rioting and looting broke out in several British cities. There is general consensus that the incident heavily contributed to Prime Minister Attlee's decision to permanently evacuate all British Forces until the end of the Jewish insurgency and the civil war between Jews and Arabs . The permanent evacuation of all British Forces in Palestine, along with the Palestine Police Force , created a power vacuum in the area, from which the 1948 Arab–Israeli War ensued after David Ben-Gurion declared Israeli independence the same day on which the British abandoned the area. Menachem Begin , the commander of Irgun , was barred from entry to the United Kingdom and rejected for a visa to the United States for many years afterwards. Terror out of Zion : Irgun Zvai Leumi, LEHI, and the Palestine underground, 1929-1949 .