mokhtar@ubc-vision.UUCP (Farzin Mokhtarian) (03/07/86)
Subject: The Patria incident > This is getting to be interesting. The "Patria" was prevented from > landing, and the British were about to force it to sail back to > Nazi-occupied Europe, where its passengers would face certain death. > The Hagana tried to save their lives by blowing a small hole in the hull > of the ship, thus preventing their de facto murder by deportation. The > hope was that the British, who were still pretending to be civilized, > would permit the passengers to land once the ship began to sink. What > seems to have happened is that the sapper miscalculated, and the ship > sank too quickly. To the mind of any civilized person there is a world > of difference between a failed attempt to save lives, as by the Haganah > in the "Patria" incident, and the deliberate killing of civilians as > practiced by terrorists. We may learn something about the defenders of > terrorism from the fact that they ignore this difference. [Adam Reed] The mere sinking of the ship (provided through some miracle, there would be no casualties) would not force the British government to change its policy. It could simply put the passengers on the next available ship and send them back to sea. Haganah knew that. The passengers would have to become victims of a tragedy so that it would be considered immoral for Britain to do that. It was the British policy against the Zionist push for mass immigration into Palestine that motivated Haganah. This is further supported by the fact that at the time of the incident the deaths were attributed to the British. Only ten years later was the truth revealed. If this was "a failed attempt to save lives", why didn't Haganah claim responsibility for it instead of trying to discredit the British? They did claim responsibility for things far worse than "a failed attempt to save lives". Haganah claimed responsibility for blowing up the Arab-owned Semiramis Hotel in Jerusalem killing 23 civilians including the Spanish Consul and participated in the massacre at Deir Yassin of 254 women, children and old men. Farzin Mokhtarian