| Operation Atlas | |
|---|---|
| Part of Middle East theatre of World War II and the intercommunal conflict in Mandatory Palestine | |
| Location | |
| Planned by | Sicherheitsdienst[1] |
| Objective | Attacking the British rule and fomenting tensions among Palestinian Jews and Arabs.[1] |
| Date | October 1944 |
| Executed by | A special commando unit of the Waffen-SS |
| Outcome | Operation failed |
| Casualties | None |
Operation Atlas[1] was the code name for an operation carried out by a special commando unit of the Waffen SS which took place in October 1944. It involved five soldiers: three who were previously members of the Templer religious sect in Mandatory Palestine, and two Palestinian Arabs who were close collaborators of the mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini.[1]
Atlas aimed at establishing an intelligence-gathering base in Mandatory Palestine, radioing information back to Germany, and recruiting and arming anti-British Palestinians by buying their support with gold.[2]
The plan failed utterly, and no meaningful action could be undertaken by the commandos. Three of the participants were arrested by the Transjordan Frontier Force a few days after their landing. The German commander was captured in 1946 and the fifth, Hasan Salama, succeeded in escaping.
One version of the incident advanced by Michael Bar-Zohar and Eitan Haber alleges that the mission included a plan to poison the drinking water resources of the residents of Tel Aviv. British and German archives have yet to reveal any evidence for this story, and the mufti's biographers ignore it.