Ha’aretz, Israel
April 27 2008
Yossi Harel, commander of Exodus, dies at 90
By Eli Ashkenazi
The man who commanded the clandestine operations that brought in four
ships carrying some 24,000 illegal immigrants between 1945 and 1948,
Yossi Harel, died yesterday in Tel Aviv at the age of 90.
The writer Yoram Kaniuk, a friend of Harel, told Haaretz that when the
ships he commanded sailed past the coast of Turkey, Harel would think
of the Armenian village in Franz Werfel’s novel "40 Days of Musa
Dagh," which described the Armenian genocide. "He loved the Armenian
people and felt close to them," Kaniuk said, adding that he wanted to
mention Harel’s sensitivity to the Armenians as a sign of the great
humanitarianism and compassion that were central to his Harel’s
character.
Harel was born in 1919, a sixth-generation Jerusalemite. He joined the
Haganah at age 15 and later became part of the unit commanded by Orde
Wingate, where he earned a reputation for bravery. Kaniuk related that
David Ben-Gurion and Shaul Avigur (commander of the Aliyah Bet illegal
immigration campaign and founder of Shai, the Haganah intelligence
service) had marked him out as suitable to command the clandestine
immigration ships because in addition to his leadership skills and
fighting prowess, "there was something very hevreman [sociable] about
him. He was not the kind of clap-you-on-the-back hero. He was a man of
manners, the type who didn’t raise his voice. He was a man of
conscience and a daring fighter." He was also sensitive, and showed
special care for women about to give birth on the ship, Kaniuk said.
Kaniuk also said, "Many of the sabras were snobs. They felt like
heroes and did not show great sensitivity to the [Holocaust]
survivors. It was hard for them to get in touch with their
Jewishness. To Yossi, his Jewishness was important, as someone who had
grown up in Jerusalem and not in Tel Aviv or on a kibbutz."
Harel commanded the major clandestine immigrant operations, including
four ships: Knesset Israel, The Exodus, Atzma’ut and Kibbutz
Galuyot. By the time he was 28 he had been responsible for about
24,000 immigrants had come in under his command, more than one-third
of those smuggled into the country secretly between 1945 and 1948.
The Exodus, whose captain was Yitzhak "Ike" Aharonovich, went down in
history for its heroic voyage from France in July 1947, carrying 4,500
Holocaust survivors, and the fight for months to keep it from being
turned back by the British. Eventually the ship was forced back to
Europe and sailed to Hamburg, Germany.
But the high point in Harel’s career was not the more famous Exodus,
according to an earlier article in Haaretz by historian Dr. Aviva
Halamish. It was the two-and-a-half week voyage of the Knesset
Israel. The ship set sail in November 1946 from Yugoslavia with 4,000
souls on boad. According to Halamish, this voyage brought to the fore
the contrasts between the Yishuv, the Jewish community in pre-state
Israel, and the clandestine immigrants, who were Holocaust survivors
and "carried their struggle with them." Inspired by the story of the
Knesset Israel, the poet Natan Alterman wrote in the newspaper Davar
of the "division of labor" between the two groups.
Harel later went on to study mechanical engineering in the United
States. He was called back by Israel Defense Forces chief of staff
Moshe Dayan to command Unit 131, the intelligence unit that operated
the Israeli spy ring that collapsed in Egypt in 1954. Eventually,
Harel left the army and went into business.
Harel is to be buried tomorrow at Kibbutz Sdot Yam, near Caesarea.