The Sergeants affair

The Sergeants Affair
Part of the Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine

The hanged bodies of Sergeants Clifford Martin (left) and Mervyn Paice (right)
Date29 or 30 July 1947
(77 years, 3 months, 1 week and 5 days ago)
Location
Mandatory Palestine
Result British public opinion turns against the war in Palestine, leading to Britain's withdrawal
Anti-Jewish riots in the United Kingdom and reprisals against Jewish civilians in Palestine
Belligerents
Irgun

 United Kingdom

Commanders and leaders
Menachem Begin
Amichai Paglin		 Mandatory Palestine 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 an incident that took place in Mandate Palestine in July 1947 during Jewish insurgency in Mandatory 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'.[1] 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 Mandatory Palestine and the UK. After news of the deaths became widely known, some British troops and policemen went on rampages in Tel Aviv; five Jews were killed and others wounded by the police, while days of anti-Jewish rioting and looting broke out in many British cities.[2][3][4]

The incident happened in the backdrop of the ongoing civil war in Mandatory Palestine, and there is general consensus the incident directly led 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.[5] 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.[1]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference gallows was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference bethell79 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Bagon, Paul (2003). "The Impact of the Jewish Underground upon Anglo Jewry: 1945-1947" (PDF). M.Phil Thesis. St Antony's College, University of Oxford. pp. 127–28. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
  4. ^ "Britain's last anti-Jewish riots". New Statesman. 22 May 2012. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
  5. ^ Bowyer J. Bell (1977). Terror out of Zion : Irgun Zvai Leumi, LEHI, and the Palestine underground, 1929-1949. New York: Avon Books. pp. 228, 237–238. ISBN 9780380393961.