A pamphlet warning Britons to leave the Middle East or face death has come to light in a stash of illicit propaganda. The document does not hail from Basra or Baghdad, nor was it penned by the Islamists of al-Qaeda or the al-Mahdi Army. It was found in Haifa, about 60 years ago, and it was issued by the underground group led by Menachem Begin - the future Prime Minister of Israel and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. The document, which surfaced at an auction house this week, is addressed to "the soldiers of the occupation army" and aimed at British soldiers serving in Palestine, then under the British Mandate, preceding the establishment of Israel in 1948. The print has faded and the paper has discoloured since it was unearthed from a grove of trees in Haifa in the summer of 1947. Yet the language and the concerns remain current. Bombings and murders by underground groups, such as Begin's Irgun, hastened the British withdrawal and the United Nations declaration that led to the founding of modern Israel.
A pamphlet warning Britons to leave the Middle East or face death has come to light in a stash of illicit propaganda.
The document does not hail from Basra or Baghdad, nor was it penned by the Islamists of al-Qaeda or the al-Mahdi Army. It was found in Haifa, about 60 years ago, and it was issued by the underground group led by Menachem Begin - the future Prime Minister of Israel and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
The document, which surfaced at an auction house this week, is addressed to "the soldiers of the occupation army" and aimed at British soldiers serving in Palestine, then under the British Mandate, preceding the establishment of Israel in 1948. The print has faded and the paper has discoloured since it was unearthed from a grove of trees in Haifa in the summer of 1947. Yet the language and the concerns remain current.
Bombings and murders by underground groups, such as Begin's Irgun, hastened the British withdrawal and the United Nations declaration that led to the founding of modern Israel.
Frank Delaney ~ Ireland
