Sunken Ship Sparks Fight Over Israel's Right and Militia's Violent Legacy

The discovery of the Irgun’s cargo vessel, the Altalena, has sparked a political dispute in Israel between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, each asserting their role as the true heir of the Irgun militia.

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On Monday, Itamar Ben-Gvir announced the discovery of the Altalena, which was sunk in June 1948 on the orders of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, after a dispute over control of the weapons it carried from France.

Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the Likud party, visited the Etzel Museum near Jaffa to release a video address, attempting to claim the symbolic legacy of the wreck for his own right-wing supporters.

Netanyahu, facing potential imprisonment over corruption charges since 2019 and criticism for his government’s failures before the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, has seen declining poll numbers ahead of the October elections.

The sinking of the Altalena, following a disagreement between the Irgun and the Israeli military over weapon control, had raised fears of a civil war among Israelis.

Netanyahu referenced the episode during a ceremony, recalling how Irgun commander and future Prime Minister Menachem Begin had ordered his fighters not to retaliate after Israeli forces opened fire.

“During the annual ceremony to mark the Altalena’s sinking, I hear calls of incitement against us by political rivals standing outside the ceremony and simply desecrating it,” Netanyahu said. “Have they not learned the lesson? We are brothers - political rivals, but we are brothers, sons of one nation with one future and one destiny.”

Historians note that the split between the Irgun and the main Israeli military remains a visible faultline in Israeli politics today.

Alongside the Lehi militia, the Irgun was responsible for some of the worst violence during the Nakba, including the April 1948 massacre of over a hundred villagers, including women and children, in Deir Yassin, despite a non-aggression pact.

Weeks later, the Irgun shelled Jaffa, contributing to an offensive that expelled most of its Palestinian population, who fled by sea and road as fighting intensified.

Prior to Israel’s establishment, the Irgun waged an insurgency against British forces under a League of Nations mandate, hanging soldiers and bombing the King David Hotel in 1946, killing more than 90.

“The Irgun was a fascist, anti-Arab organisation that also used violence against the British Empire, causing the deaths of many Arabs and Britons,” said Israeli sociologist Yehouda Shenhav-Shahrabani.

However, Shenhav-Shahrabani argued that assigning all responsibility for the Nakba to the Irgun overlooks the role of Zionist paramilitary groups linked to the Labour movement.

“This is why I have always argued that there is no real left within Zionism. What is called the Zionist ‘left’ has repeatedly functioned as a fig leaf for a settler-colonial movement organized around Jewish supremacy,” he said.

Polls show Netanyahu’s Likud trailing Yashar Party, led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, with far-right voters, including supporters of Ben-Gvir, potentially decisive in the election.

“The story of finding the Altalena is only important to the battle between Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir,” said Tel Aviv University’s Daniel Bar-Tal. “It does not have any importance for most of the voters.”

Ben-Gvir took control of the announcement, further highlighting their rivalry by noting that Netanyahu had refused to be photographed with him.

Ben-Gvir, involved in Israel’s war on Gaza, compared himself to Begin, stating, “He [Begin] knew, intimately, what it tastes like when others don’t want to be photographed with you on the same stage.”

Yossi Mekelberg, senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, said both leaders use victimhood to appeal to their base, calling Ben-Gvir’s actions as “out-Netanyahuing Netanyahu.”

Mekelberg warned that references to civil war, amid rising political violence in Israel, are dangerous, even if rhetorical, and noted Netanyahu’s history of incitement, including before the 1995 assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.

“He likes to throw these hand grenades into Israeli society, to keep the sense of crises going and then to claim to be its saviour,” Mekelberg added.