Heritage minister reportedly seeking to recover sunken Irgun ship Altalena

Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu told the cabinet yesterday that he is investigating how to recover the Altalena ship, an Irgun cargo ship that was sunk on the orders of then-prime minister David Ben-Gurion in 1948, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

According to the report, Justice Minister Yariv Levin agreed with the idea, adding that it should be converted into a “monument and symbol for the heroism of Revisionist Zionism.”

The Altalena ship, carrying a large consignment of arms and weapons, was brought to Israel by Menachem Begin’s Irgun militia during the country’s War of Independence in June 1948.

However, the nascent government of Ben-Gurion, at bitter odds with Begin, demanded that the ship and its supplies be turned over to the newly formed IDF.

As the ship reached the coast and then ran aground, a standoff ensued that ended in a shootout between Irgun members aboard and IDF soldiers on the shore, who were ordered to destroy the vessel. The ship was set ablaze by fire from cannon used by the forces on the shore under the command of a young Yitzhak Rabin, later the IDF chief of General Staff and prime minister.

Sixteen Irgun members and three IDF soldiers died in the incident, and the ship’s cargo was lost.