Throughout the history of the State of Israel since 1948, the finest contribution to the defense and survival of the country has been, and still is, the untiring role of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The creation of today’s IDF goes back to the formation of the Haganah in 1920, an underground paramilitary organisation defending the Jewish population in British Mandate Palestine.
It was founded by a collection of Jewish labour leaders and veterans, with Eliyahu Golomb serving as the primary founder and chief architect.
Golomb was born within the Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire and educated at a cheder and Russian gymnasium where he was exposed to revolutionaries and Russian literature.
In 1909 his parents sent him to Palestine to study at the Herzliya Gymnasium in Tel Aviv, the historic high school whose faculty and alumni included many people influential in the history of Israel.
In 1911, with the growing threat of antisemitism in Russia, Eliyahu’s parents immigrated to Israel, settling in Tel Aviv, and his father – who owned a flour mill in Russia – established one in Jaffa.
Following graduation at the Gymnasium, Golomb and his classmates organised a pioneering training nucleus of working youth, the first in Palestine.
The group worked in Degania Alef and Kinneret.
Shortly after, two of Golomb’s members were murdered.
It shocked the group and, together with other events of cruelty, left a deep impression on the gymnasium students which affected their entire lives.
Golomb concluded that without the ability to defend, agricultural development and settlement could not become established.
Observing Their Commandments
In 1914, Eliyahu’s father died and he had no option but to return to Tel Aviv and manage the flour mill in Jaffa.
Hassan Bey, the regional ruler in Jaffa appointed by the Ottoman invaders, insisted the mill continue grinding flour throughout the week, including Shabbat.
Initially, Golomb did not regard this order offensive as work was done in urgent cases, but the religious workers at the mill refused to work on Shabbat, so he decided to defend their right to observe the commandments.
This angered Hassan Bey and Eliyahu was punished by whipping!
Initially, Golomb decided to take revenge and planned to kill Hassan Bey, but his good friend Dov Hoz, following a long discussion, managed to convince him that personal revenge would not be beneficial.
Even if he escaped execution by hanging, Jews would be penalised and another Turkish officer could be even worse.
Instead, the two decided to establish a nationwide defense organisation for the Jewish settlement.
This humiliation was a prime factor in the initiation of the Haganah in 1920.
Protection of the Zionist Enterprise
Eliyahu led the Haganah for many years, including the involvement of purchasing weapons from abroad.
He stood out among the Haganah leadership as a representative of the young generation raised in British Mandate Palestine.
It was a popular organisation composed of anyone who could defend themselves under the command of the public-political leadership, with the goal of protecting not only property, life and honour, but also the Zionist enterprise.
