Avraham Tehomi

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Avraham Tehomi (b. Silberg) was a noted Israel independence fighter, and a key figure in the history of the Hebrew National Military Organization.

[edit] Biography

Silberg was born in 1903 in Odessa in the Russian Empire. Immigrated to Palestine as a pioneer, adopted the name Avraham Tehomi and worked on roadmaking. Completed Haganah courses with honors.

On June 30, 1924 Tehomi shot Dutch author and politician Jacob Israël de Haan, who was living in Jerusalem as a journalist. The murder shocked Palestine and Europe, but the killer and his motive were not discovered. Sixty years later, after two journalists had succeeded in finding him, Tehomi readily admitted his action in an interview for Israeli TV and openly stated: "I have done what the Haganah decided had to be done. And nothing was done without the order of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi (who later became the second president of Israel 1952-1963)... I have no regrets because he (de Haan) wanted to destroy our whole idea of Zionism."

In 1925 Tehomi was appointed deputy commander of Jerusalem District, Haganah, and in 1929-1931 served as District Commander.

The 1929 Arab riots caused unrest in the Haganah ranks because the organization was not ready and did not respond appropriately to the Arab attacks. The disputes on this issue led to Tehomi's departure from the Haganah, and the establishment of the Irgun Zvai Leumi which he headed. Tehomi tried to unite the two organizations and in 1937 returned to the Haganah in order to take up a senior position. When the Haganah failed to fulfill its obligations under the amalgamation agreement, Tehomi resigned, and from then on engaged in independent illegal immigration activities and intelligence work. Several years later he retired from all activity. In the last few years of his life, he lived in the United States. He died in 1990.