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Arab landowners sold land to
Zionists, and stressed that “Jewish
agricultural methods” would be
employed. Chaim Arlosoroff him
self was the architect of the plan.
Suddenly, for the first time in
Palestine’s turbulent history, mod
erate Arabs began to make them
selves heard. With the security of
German Jewish money forecast by
Arlosoroff. many finally began to
say “yes” to co-existence. For
example, on May 24, dozens of
Arab sheiks and property owners,
representing 2.1 villages and a large
town in Transjordan, visited the
Jewish Agency in Jerusalem. They
collectively invited Zionists to pur
chase Arab land in Transjordan
for mass settlement of Jews.
As Arlosoroff traveled across
Europe, publicly dropping hints of
a deal with Hitler, Jewish groups
reacted with outrage. They were
actively promoting a worldwide
boycott of Nazi Germany, hoping
to overthrow the regime in its first
year. Gentiles in many countries
had joined the boycott. Arloso-
roffs deal seemed to pivot on the
sale of the very merchandise the
boycott had declared taboo. The
Jews could not wage economic war
against Hitler if the Zionist move
ment was its export agent.
Rumors began to spread every
where. On June 9, the Palestinian
Revisionist newspaper Hazit Haam
declared: “When the people of Israel
are in a defensive war of honor
against Germany...an official of
the Jewish Agency suggests not
only a cancellation of the boycott
but also a promise of a market for
German imports... This should be
viewed as putting a knife in the
back of the Jewish people.”
Friends and foes alike began to
fear and hate Arlosoroff. Many
Jews suspected that he was about
consummate a binational break
through with the Arabs, and a con
troversial trade-off with the
Nazis—much of it as a fait accom
pli without public debate. Arab
activists considered Arlosoroff the
most dangerous Zionist in Pales
tine, not because he sought to con
quer but because he sought to
combine.
Many believed Arlosoroff would
have to be stopped. The question
was: Who would stop him and
how'.’
The desperation of German
Jewry, the animosity of many Jews
and the possibility of failure in the
days ahead cast the 34-year-old
Arlosoroff into a deep depression.
As he journeyed home to Palestine
from Europe in early June, his
gloom was worsened by a sequence
of missed trains, a lost wallet and
tiring delays. He felt that every
thing had gone wrong and that the
omens were not good.
A travel-weary Arlosoroff re
turned to Tel Aviv on June 14 and
went directly to his Tel Aviv
apartment at 82 Yarkon. There
Arlosoroff hugged his children for
the first time in more than a month.
Later he visited his mother.
T hroughout the day, his dejection
was clearly visible to all those he
met.
That night. Arlosoroff tried to
-Arlosoroff-
find solace by playing with his
infant son, Shaul. One of Shaul’s
favorite games was to remove his
father’s ring from his finger and
replace it. But this time, when
Shaul removed the ring, he placed
it on his mother’s finger. Arloso
roff cried out, “Not yet!”
The evening of June 15, Arloso
roff and his wife Sima tried to
soothe their nerves with a quiet
walk along a deserted stretch north
of Tel Aviv beach. But Sima was
fearful. That day. the Revisionist
newspaper Hazit Haam had pro
claimed: “There will be no forgive
ness for those who have for greed
sold out the honor of their people to
madmen and anti-Semites... The
Jewish people have always known
how to size up the betrayers of the
nation, and it will know today how
to react to this crime.”
The moon was not out that
night. As Sima and Arlosoroff
began walking, little could be seen
except the red running lights of
freighters in the Mediterranean to
the west, and the crescent of lights
formed by Tel Aviv and Jaffa to
the south. But Sima noticed two
men following them. She was
frightened, but Arlosoroff reassured
her: “Don’t worry, they’re Jews.”
The two finally passed them. But
then later, as the Arlosoroffs neared
a Moslem cemetery, they saw two
men again positioned on either
side of their path. As the couple
passed between them, the taller
man shone a flashlight into Chaim’s
face and said, “kaman hashaa”—
an erroneous construction of the
Hebrew phrase for “What time is
it?”
The other man pulled out a
Browning automatic and a bullet
flashed into Arlosoroffs chest. He
dropped to all fours, his life spil
ling out onto the sand. The two
assailants fled into the dunes as
Sima screamed in horror, “Help,
help! Jews shot him!!” The bleed
ing Arlosoroff immediately cor
rected her, saying, “No, Sima,
no.”
She raced into a nearby lobby,
crying, “They’ve shot Chaim,” and
begged for help. Meanwhile, peo
ple on the beach carried Arlosoroff
to the roadway and began looking
for someone to take him to a hospi
tal. But at 10:30 p.m. on Shabbat
there was no automobile traffic. In
desperation, a bystander sounded
the horn of a parked car; the owner
came out and at once agreed to
drive Arlosoroff to the hospital.
At Hadassah hospital, ill-pre
pared doctors were indecisive; no
surgeon was on duty because ol
Shabbat. No surgery was performed
until well after midnight—hours
after Arlosoroff was wounded.
By this time, word had spread
throughout Tel Aviv that the
loved-hated son of Zionism had
been shot. Political friends and
associates began gathering around
his bed. They and the police asked
him question after question, but
Arlosoroff was too weak to respond
clearly.
They were all helpless. Nothing
could be done. Arlosoroff had just
a few powerless moments remain
ing; no one expected him to speak.
But he did.
With the last air in his lungs, he
turned toward the mayor of Tel
Aviv, Meir Dizengoff, looked up
and whispered: “Look what they
have done to me.”
And then he died.
No one will ever know who
murdered Chaim Arlosoroff. Three
Revisionists were put on trial. Two
were acquitted. The third, Abraham
Stavsky, a young Polish activist,
was found guilty and condemned
to death. A long appeal finally
released him on an evidence tech
nicality. Charges and counter
charges were made for years, im
plicating various Zionists and
Arabs, and have persisted to this
day.
As for the Transfer Agreement,
Arlosoroffs murder became the
impetus for the Mapai wing of the
Zionist movement to ostracize
Revisionist opponents of the pact.
The final form of the Transfer
Agreement was concluded in the
summer of 1933, directly and indi
rectly facilitating the transfer to
Palestine of 60,000 German Jews
and $100 million in assets. It also
helped expand the Palestinian
economy so that hundreds of thou
sands of Euorpean chalutzim were
subsequently able to enter and
escape Hitler. The binational
moment, if it ever truly existed,
passed. Yet we can only look back
and wonder what might have been
had Arlosoroff not been murdered.
This article is adaptedfrom “ The
Transfer Agreement, The Untold
Story of the Secret Pact Between
the Third Reich and Jewish Pales
tine (Macmillan), winner of the
Carl Sandburg A ward for the best
non-fiction of 1984, and nominated
for the Pulitzer Prize.
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PAGE 7 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE June 13, 1986