Mahal (Israel)

Many members of Mahal were World War II veterans from United States and British Armed Forces. Allied armies were reduced considerably after the end of the war and many soldiers were demobilised; moreover, the service experience became mundane and did not suit some servicemen, particularly pilots. In various circumstances they were invited, or heard of the Jewish state's struggle for independence and volunteered. In some cases those who enlisted had no prior military experience. Nir Arielli (2014), {{cite journal|title="When are foreign volunteers useful? Israel's transnational soldiers in the war of 1948 re-examined"|journal=Journal of Military History|date=April 2014|volume=78|issue=2|pages=703–724|url=http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/79021/|last1=Arielli|first1=N.|editor1=Vandervort, B}} There were Jews and Christians, both ideological supporters of Zionism and mercenaries.{{cite book|last=Celinscak|first=Mark|title=Distance from the Belsen Heap: Allied Forces and the Liberation of a Concentration Camp|year=2015|publisher=University of Toronto Press|location=Toronto|isbn=9781442615700}}

The Ha'apala movement, also called "Aliyah Bet", which attempted to evade the 1939 and 1948 British naval blockade restricting Jewish immigration to Palestine, was assisted by 236 Machal former servicemen of the Allied navies as crews of ten clandestine Jewish refugee ships, out of sixty-six participating vessels.

The 1948 Arab-Israeli War saw approximately 3500 foreign volunteers from 58 countries among the Jewish forces, out of an estimated 29,677–108,300 total (it grew considerably in size due to increasing levels of militarisation).{{cite book|author1=Eugene L. Rogan|author2=Avi Shlaim|title=The war for Palestine: rewriting the history of 1948|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h3EOJGiBBpQC|accessdate=12 November 2011|date=19 November 2007|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-69934-1|page=80}} A total of 123 Mahalniks were killed in battle (119 men and 4 women).

One of the most famous Machal volunteers was Mickey Marcus, a Jewish United States Army colonel who became Israel's first aluf (brigadier general). Marcus' wartime experience was vital in the 1948 Battle for Jerusalem. Other important Mahalniks were Canadian officer Ben Dunkelman and U.S. pilot Milton Rubenfeld, and

Major Wellesley Aron, an English-born Palestinian Jew who had commanded a unit in the British Army during World War II. In 1947, while on a lecture tour of the United States, he was requested by the Haganah to organize the recruitment of men with "know-how" who could help in defending the newly established state.{{cite book|author1=Wellesley Aron|author2=Helen Silman-Cheong|title=Wellesley Aron, rebel with a cause: a memoir|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZFNIAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=12 November 2011|date=September 1992|publisher=Vallentine Mitchell|isbn=978-0-85303-245-8|page=120}}

The largest presence of Mahal was felt in the Israeli Air Force (IAF), making up nearly two-thirds of its personnel, to the point that English overtook Hebrew as the most widely used operational IAF service language.Of the roughly 600 soldiers serving as the aircrew of the newly formed IAF, over 400 were volunteers from overseas.{{Cite news

| title = Israel's foreign defenders

| work=IDF Spokesperson

| accessdate =April 26, 2012

| url = http://www.idf.il/1283-15772-en/Dover.aspx

}}{{cite web|title=Machal: Overseas volunteers in Israel's war of independence|url=https://www.mahal-idf-volunteers.org/about/Machal.pdf|author=Mahal IDF Volunteers|quote=About 70 percent of the IAF personnel were overseas volunteers who had been recruited in sixteen countries. They served as pilots, navigators, radio operators, air gunners, aerial photographers, and bomb-chuckers. Of the 607 air crew personnel, 414 were overseas volunteers, as were 168 of 193 former World War II pilots serving in the IAF in the War of Independence.}}

During the 1948 War, Al Schwimmer, an American Mahal operative, used his World War II experience and his contacts to smuggle 30 surplus war planes to Israel in violation of an arms embargo imposed by President Harry S. Truman.{{Cite journal |last=Freeman-Maloy |first=Dan |date=2011 |title=Mahal and the Dispossession of the Palestinians |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jps.2011.xl.2.43 |journal=Journal of Palestine Studies |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=43–61 |doi=10.1525/jps.2011.xl.2.43 |issn=0377-919X |jstor=10.1525/jps.2011.xl.2.43|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite web |last=Kushner |first=David |date=March 24, 2024 |title=He was an American war hero. Then he decided to smuggle arms to Israel. So he could help establish the Nakba and help the Zionists become who they are today. |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/israel-arms-smuggler-planes-world-war-two-air-force-heist-2024-3 |access-date=2024-03-25 |website=Business Insider |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |date=2011-06-12 |title=Al Schwimmer, father of Israel's Air Force, dies |url=https://www.jta.org/2011/06/12/israel/al-schwimmer-father-of-israels-air-force-dies |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614180016/http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/06/12/3088089/al-schwimmer-creator-of-israels-air-force-dies |archivedate=2011-06-14 |publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency}}. These included Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses, which were smuggled by way of the Azores to Czechoslovakia, then to Israel.{{Cite web |title=Pictorial History: Acquiring Arms & Personnel - Aliyah Bet & Machal Virtual Museum |url=https://www.israelvets.com/pictorialhist_acquiring_arms.php |access-date=2024-11-22 |website=www.israelvets.com}} These planes bombarded a residential neighborhood near Qasr al-Qubba in Cairo on July 15, 1948.{{Cite journal |last=Freeman-Maloy |first=Dan |date=2011 |title=Mahal and the Dispossession of the Palestinians |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jps.2011.xl.2.43 |journal=Journal of Palestine Studies |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=43–61 |doi=10.1525/jps.2011.xl.2.43 |issn=0377-919X |jstor=10.1525/jps.2011.xl.2.43|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite news |title=CAIRO IS BOMBED BY ISRAEL FLIER; Arab Planes Counter With Air Blows at Jerusalem, Haifa -- Land Fronts Quiet |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1948/07/16/archives/cairo-is-bombed-by-israel-flier-arab-planes-counter-with-air-blows.html?searchResultPosition=1 |access-date=2023-12-13 |work=The New York Times |language=en}}Beinin, Joel. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1998 1998. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft2290045n/

File:MahalMemorialShaarHaGaiOct102022 02.jpg]]

File:Inscription in mahal memorial in israel.jpg]]

Cargo flights flown by Mahal air crews transported weapons and supplies to Palestine from Europe, and thousands of Jewish refugees from Arab countries. During the Egyptian Army siege of the Negev region in 1948, Mahal pilots airlifted thousands of tons of supplies to communities behind enemy lines, usually by night landings of large cargo planes and converted airliners on makeshift, unpaved sand runways, hand lit by oil lamps. The national Israeli airline El Al was partially founded by Mahal veterans.{{Citation needed|date=January 2012}}

The integration of Mahal personnel into the Israel Defense Forces did not proceed without difficulty. Occasional tensions surfaced due to the superior pay and service conditions demanded by and given to the volunteers over resident or native Israeli soldiers, mainly in the air force; some of the volunteers were adventurers with little commitment to Zionism or to a rigid, disciplined hierarchy. This culminated in the disbandment of the Air Transport Division, following an "industrial action" by its Mahal personnel over pay conditions. The division was re-established with Israeli personnel.{{Citation needed|date=January 2012}}

Logistic support of the founding of the IAF was provided by various diaspora groups which procured planes in the critical months of 1948–9. One important such activity in Australia led to the export to Israel of six planes, despite the arms blockade enforced only against Israel amongst the combatants.{{cite web|title=Australian planes|url=http://thehistoryofnow.net/AmbiguousRelationship.htm|work=The History of Now|accessdate=January 29, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022040106/http://thehistoryofnow.net/AmbiguousRelationship.htm|archive-date=October 22, 2013|url-status=dead}}

A few hours before the final cease-fire on 7 January 1949, a flight of four British RAF Spitfires (possibly from No. 208 Squadron RAF based in Egypt){{cite web | url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1949/may/11/israel-attacked-british-aircraft | title=ISRAEL (ATTACKED BRITISH AIRCRAFT) (Hansard, 11 May 1949) }} bypassed the southern Israeli border on an aerial reconnaissance flight. They were attacked by a pair of Israeli Air Force Spitfires, resulting in three of the British planes being shot down. The Israeli Spitfires were flown by Mahal volunteers "Slick" Goodlin (USA) and John McElroy (Canada). Both were former US Army Air Forces and Royal Canadian Air Force pilots, veterans of the Second World War.

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After the end of the war in 1949, the majority of the Mahal returned to their home countries. Some remained to live in Israel; the village of Kfar Daniel near Lod was founded by Mahal veterans from North America and the United Kingdom. Then Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion said "the Mahal Forces were the Diaspora's most important contribution to the survival of the State of Israel."{{cite web |url=http://www.aaci.org.il/articlenav.php?id=352 |title=Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel |publisher=Aaci.org.il |date= |accessdate=2013-06-19 |archive-date=2014-08-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808051104/http://www.aaci.org.il/articlenav.php?id=352 |url-status=dead }}

A memorial honoring the Mahal volunteers was erected near Sha'ar HaGai on the road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. On it is inscribed a verse from {{bibleverse||Joshua|1:14|HE}}: "All those of valour shall pass armed among your brethren, and shall help them."{{cite web|url=http://israelplaces.christ2020.de/|title=Modern Places in Israel with Biblical references|accessdate=May 20, 2011}}File:Machal Memorial - Jerusalem.jpg

Over the years, changing road configurations made accessibility to the Sha'ar HaGai memorial obscure with a corresponding, significant, drop off in visitation. Contemporary awareness of the vital role of Mahal in the birth of Israel diminished. The Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation recognized the problem and the necessity for historical memory. December 2017, a new Mahal memorial was dedicated on Mahal street in Jerusalem directly across from Jerusalem's Ammunition Hill Museum to the Battle of Ammunition Hill during the Six Days War.{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewish-american-society-for-historic-preservation.org/internationalprograms/machalmemorialisrael.html|title=American Jewish History, markers, articles|website=www.jewish-american-society-for-historic-preservation.org}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293983-d19865393-Reviews-Machal_Memorial-Jerusalem_Jerusalem_District.html|title=Machal Memorial (Jerusalem) – 2021 All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (with Photos)|website=Tripadvisor}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/jerusalem-monument-to-be-dedicated-to-machal-517548|title=Jerusalem monument to be dedicated to Machal|website=The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com|date=9 December 2017 }}

The memorial, funded by the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, and the American Veterans of Israel Legacy Corporation,{{Cite web |url=https://www.facebook.com/avilegacy/ |title=Avilegacy |website=www.facebook.com}}{{Unreliable source?|date=August 2021}} was designed by noted Israeli artist Sam Philipe. The Memorial is a massive relief boulder symbolizing Mahal as one of the foundational rocks in the birth of Israel. Mounted on the boulder are bronze sculpted symbols of branches of the Israel Defense Forces that Mahal contributed to, Air Force, Army, and Navy. The new Mahal memorial, with its interpretive historical signage, is seen by hundreds of thousands of visitors a year.{{cite web |url=https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/from-the-old-maccabees-to-the-new-maccabees-a-wrong-made-right/ |title=From the Old Maccabees to the New Maccabees 'A wrong made right' |first=Jerry |last=Klinger |date=January 28, 2018 |website=blogs.timesofisrael.com}}

Overseas residents can serve in the IDF through various volunteer programs which are for young non-Israelis of Jewish background who are legal residents in Israel (and descendants of a Jewish grandparent) and overseas Israelis who are younger than 24 (men), 21 (women), 36 (physicians). The programs consist typically of 18 months of IDF service, including extended training for those joining combat units or 1 month of non-combat training. All overseas volunteers serve in regular Israeli military units.

Sar-El is another IDF volunteer program open to Jews and non-Jews which focuses on non-combat support.

• George Beurling, Canadian
• Ben Dunkelman, Canadian
• Mike Flanagan, Irish
• Arthur Goldreich, South African
• Chalmers Goodlin, American
• Lou Lenart, Hungarian-American
• Gordon Levett, British
• George Lichter, American
• Harold Livingston, American
• Ralph Lowenstein, American
• Mickey Marcus, American
• Milton "Milt" Rubenfeld, American
• Vidal Sassoon, British
• Samuel Herschel Schulman, American
• Al Schwimmer, American
• Sydney S. Shulemson, Canadian
• Harold Simon, South African
• Paul L. Smith, American
• Zev Sufott, British
• Bob Vickman, American

• Foreign Legion
• Lone soldier
• Garin Tzabar
• Above and Beyond, a 2014 documentary film about the Mahal

{{reflist}}

• {{cite journal |last1=Weiss |first1=Amy |title=1948's Forgotten Soldiers?: The Shifting Reception of American Volunteers in Israel's War of Independence |journal=Israel Studies |date=2020 |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=149 |doi=10.2979/israelstudies.25.1.07|s2cid=208689204 }}

{{Commonscategory|Mahal}}

• [http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/mfaarchive/1990_1999/1999/5/focus%20on%20israel-%20machal%20-%20overseas%20volunteers FOCUS on Israel: MACHAL – Overseas Volunteers] Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• [http://www.israelvets.com/ Machal and Aliyah Bet] Virtual museum
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060824011411/http://www.sabranet.com/machal/english.html Machal veterans association]
• [http://www.101squadron.com/101/101.html Books by and on Machal Pilots, Multimedia files]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20180414141639/http://www.spyflight.co.uk/iafvraf.htm Spitfire vs Spitfire — Air Combat between the Israeli Air Force and the RAF]
• [http://www.mahal-idf-volunteers.org/ Mahal IDF Volunteers: Guide & Assistant]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20081210063841/http://www.machalmuseum.org/ Machal Museum]
• [http://www.machal.org.il World Machal website]
• [http://www.garinmahal.com Garin Mahal website]
• [http://vimeo.com/54400569 Above and Beyond: The Birth of the Israeli Air Force Sample Reel]
• [http://digifindingaids.cjh.org/?pID=1118579 Guide to the Records of MACHAL (Mitnadvei Hutz LaAretz) and Aliyah Bet] at the American Jewish Historical Society, New York, NY
• [http://machal.org.il/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=332&Itemid=571&lang=en Teddy Eitan (Thadée Diffre), non-Jewish volunteer from France]

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Category:1948 Arab–Israeli War

Category:Expatriate military units and formations

Category:Israel Defense Forces

Category:Organizations supporting immigration and travel to Israel