Patria disaster
The Patria disaster was the sinking of the French transatlantic liner SS Patria 25 by the Jewish terrorist organisation Haganah. The Patria was supposed to sail with approximately 1,800 Jewish refugees who had been deported to Mauritius by the British authorities. Zionist organisations opposed the deportation, and the Haganah planted a bomb to immobilise the ship and prevent it from leaving Haifa. 267 people were killed.
At the beginning of World War II, Jewish organisations cooperated with the Third Reich in order to emigrate Jews to Palestine, thereby violating the immigration regulations applied by the British government. One of the ships carrying Jewish emigrants, the SS Pacific, was detained by the British and was to serve as an example that the British government would not tolerate illegal immigration. The British Colonial Office decided that it was less risky to provoke the anger of the Jews than to risk an Arab rebellion. The refugees from the SS Pacific were transferred to another ship, the SS Patria, to travel to Mauritius.
Meanwhile, Zionist organisations were considering how to thwart the deportation plan. The general strike had little effect. One of the terrorist organisations, Irgun, unsuccessfully attempted to plant a bomb on the Patria to immobilise it. The Haganah also attempted to immobilise the Patria, with the aim of forcing it to remain in port for repairs, thereby gaining time to put pressure on the British to cancel the deportation order. It smuggled a 2-kilogram (4.4-pound) bomb onto the ship. The bomb failed to detonate, so a second, more powerful bomb was smuggled on board. The Haganah miscalculated the effects of the charge and blew a large hole in the ship's hull, sinking it within 16 minutes.
When the bomb exploded, the SS Patria was carrying 1,770 refugees. Most of them were rescued by British and Arab boats that rushed to the scene. However, 267 people were reported missing – over 200 Jewish refugees plus 50 crew members and British soldiers – and another 172 were injured. Many of the dead were trapped in the Patria's hold and could not escape when the ship capsized and sank. Ultimately, 209 bodies were found and buried in Haifa.
In 1945, the Mapai party newspaper, Ha-Po'el ha-Tza'ir (‘Young Worker’), wrote: On a bitter and stormy day, a malicious hand sank the ship
. It was not known that all those responsible for this were Mapai leaders. Enraged by the newspaper's comments, some Haganah leaders sent Ben-Gurion's son to the newspaper's office, where he punched the editor, Isaac Lofven, in the face.
A fierce debate erupted within the secret Zionist leadership about the legitimacy of the operation. The decision was made without consultation, outside the established procedures, which later caused internal divisions in the organisation. An attempt was even made to turn the incident into a glorious icon of "Zionist determination", but this largely failed.
https://en-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Patria_disaster?_x_tr_sl=en&_x_tr_tl=pl&_x_tr_hl=pl&_x_tr_pto=wapp
https://www.jpost.com/blogs/my-nation-lives/this-week-in-israeli-history-operation-moses-raful-eitan-and-the-patria-disaster-435421
