Raising the Altalena: Netanyahu digs up sunken 1948 arms ship in ‘pre-election stunt’

Eight decades after driving a fledgling Israel to the brink of civil war, the Altalena has suddenly resurfaced in the run-up to elections widely regarded as the most consequential in the nation’s history.

An arms-smuggling ship, the Altalena was sunk off the coast of Israel in 1948 after a deadly confrontation between the country’s nascent army and the right-wing Irgun militia, led by Menachem Begin. It has served as a foundational symbol for the Israeli right ever since.

The discovery of the ship’s wreckage on August 24 was hailed as a breakthrough in a joint statement by Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu and hardline National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, both members of the far-right Jewish supremacist party Otzma Yehudit.

“At 12:30am, at a depth of 503 metres, west of the coast of Israel, the Altalena ship was located intact – 78 years after that painful and seminal event that shook the young State of Israel,” said Eliyahu. The discovery closes a “historic chapter in one of the most painful and formative events in the history of Israeli society", added Ben-Gvir.

Seemingly side-stepped by his allies’ announcement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rushed to join in the celebrations.

“For me, and I am certain for you as well, citizens of Israel, this is an emotional moment, a defining moment,” Netanyahu, whose Likud party was founded by Begin, said in a video clip. The ship “will be a tangible symbol for our generation and generations to come".

Civil war averted

The Altalena set sail from the French port of Marseille in June 1948, loaded with some 5,000 rifles as well as 450 machine guns and carts of ammunition destined for the Irgun – a militant organisation known for targeting Palestinians as well as British colonial authorities.

“The aim of the Irgun members in France was to bolster their forces in Palestine – both in terms of weapons and manpower – ahead of the looming war against neighbouring Arab countries,” said Israeli historian Yoav Gelber, a professor emeritus at the University of Haifa.

But the recent establishment of the State of Israel, just weeks earlier, had changed the situation on the ground.

Read moreFrom 1947 to 2023: Retracing the complex, tragic Israeli-Palestinian conflict

The provisional government set up by David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, decided to disband the various clandestine militias and create a single army. The Haganah, the main paramilitary force prior to the establishment of Israel, ceased to exist as an independent organisation and became the core of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

While the Irgun was also ordered to disband, its representatives in Paris decided to press ahead with the Altalena’s mission.

Upon learning of the shipment, Ben-Gurion demanded that the ship and its cargo be handed over to the fledgling Israeli army. The prime minister wished to assert his authority and prevent the emergence of any rival paramilitary force.

Begin, however, requested that part of the weapons be allocated to Irgun units in Jerusalem.

Talks soon collapsed and Israeli forces opened fire at Ben-Gurion’s orders. Sixteen Irgun members and three soldiers were killed, before Begin asked his fighters to surrender with words that would become famous: “There will be no civil war with the enemy at our gates.”

Damaged by a shell, the ship remained visible off the coast for nearly a year, before being towed out to sea and sunk in 1949.

Decades later, the deadly confrontation remains one of the most sensitive episodes in Israeli history, said Ofira Gruweis Kovalsky, a historian at the University of Haifa. “The incident could have escalated into a civil war, but Begin helped prevent such an outcome,” she explained.

Blaming the left

The Altalena standoff brought face to face the two political blocs that would go on to shape the young state.

“Ben-Gurion accused members of the right of stoking violence and attempting a coup, while the right accused the left of seeking to physically eliminate its political opponents,” said Gruweis Kovalsky.

Begin eventually became prime minister in 1977, signaling the rise of the nationalist right and the decline of Ben-Gurion's socialist camp. Decades later, the discovery of the ship’s wreckage “brings the confrontation between the Israeli right and left back to the forefront of public debate", added Gruweis Kovalsky.

Begin’s political heir, Netanyahu has long been a fixture of annual memorial ceremonies for those killed on board the Altalena. When the wreckage was finally located, he was quick to pay tribute to the Irgun fighters who, in his view, helped stave off a civil war and secure Israel’s independence.

The prime minister also took the opportunity to denigrate his political opponents and “reopen the bitter wound” over Ben-Gurion’s decision to fire on the ship, wrote the Times of Israel.

In his video message, Netanyahu said Israel’s founding leader had made a “tragic decision to open fire” on the ship while it was “bringing essential weapons to our fighters in the War of Independence".

The dig at a symbol of the Israeli left was a calculated move ahead of legislative elections on October 27, argued local daily Haaretz.

Netanyahu has “found the perfect time to find the Altalena", read an editorial in the left-leaning newspaper. “With elections approaching, all means are justified to get a headline, and all the more so if it involves a hot potato like the Altalena, a ship carrying weapons to the Irgun militia that has served as a vehicle for right-wing incitement against the left for almost 80 years.”

Haaretz added: “'Finding' the Altalena shortly before the most fateful election in the country's history provides excellent fuel for continuing the incitement against the 'left', and serves the false narrative cultivated by the right and enthusiastically promoted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”

Writer Amotz Asa-El was equally scathing in an op-ed published by the Jerusalem Post, arguing that, “Netanyahu’s plan to raise the Altalena wreck is designed to revive a political myth, redirect Israel’s election debate and evade judgment over his own record.”

A midsummer media stunt

One key witness to the infamous shipwreck has spoken out against renewed attempts to politicise the issue.

Renowned historian Saul Friedlander, a specialist of the Holocaust, was 15 years old when he boarded the Altalena, alone in his family to have survived World War II. A member of Habonim, a Zionist youth movement close to Ben-Gurion, he was attempting to emigrate to Israel.

“The memory of the Altalena must not be used today for election propaganda by the most extreme camp – the descendants of the hot-headed men of that period, who through their actions effectively defied Menachem Begin’s will,” Friedlander wrote in an op-ed, stressing that Begin had committed to disbanding the Irgun and integrating its members into the IDF.

As well as weaponising the Altalena’s memory, Netanyahu has promised to “raise it from the depths of the sea so that it can serve as a tangible symbol for our generation and generations to come".

Experts, however, have cast doubt on the feasibility of recovering the wreck.

“Salvaging the Altalena, which weighs about 18,000 tons and is apparently partially embedded in the clay seabed, would be an extraordinarily complex and costly operation that cannot be carried out with the means currently available in Israel,” Ehud Galili, a maritime archaeology expert at the University of Haifa, said in an interview with Haaretz.

Gelber, the historian, said such promises amounted to little more than a publicity stunt.

“The current Israeli government is carrying out numerous senseless actions, and this is one of them, just like so many others,” he said. “No one will recover the wreckage, and Netanyahu will forget all about it once the elections are over.”

He added: “It’s part of the election campaign: a media stunt in the middle of the summer – traditionally a quiet period – and a sign of the fragmentation of Israeli society.”

This article was adapted from the original in French.