The Murder of Haim Arlosoroff

Following the killing of his former colleague, Haim Arlosoroff, the rising star of the labour movement, in June 1933, Ahimeir and his followers in Berit Ha-Biryonim were immediately viewed by the British as self-evidently the assassins. Within a few days of the killing, Ze'ev Rosenblatt was accused of the actual assassination, and a new arrival from Brest in Poland, Avraham Stavsky, was charged with shining a torch in Arlosoroff's face before the fatal shots were fired. On the same day Hazit Ha'am had published a provocative article entitled ‘Berit Shalom-Ben-Gurion-Hitler’.

In the eyes of Berit Ha-Biryonim, Arlosoroff had been responsible for the transfer agreement so that Jews leaving Nazi Germany could depart with some of their belongings. In return, German goods would be marketed in Palestine. Jabotinsky and the Revisionists passionately supported the anti-German boycott. Ben-Gurion had taken a pragmatic view that the Zionist movement should not provoke the Nazis by initiating ‘an irresponsible battle against Hitler’. After all, even Stalin's Soviet Union maintained diplomatic relations with Hitler's Germany.

Moreover, in the eyes of the leaders of Mapai, Arlosoroff was a bright star in the socialist firmament, potentially a future prime minister of Israel. Ahimeir, on the other hand, was seen as the éminence grise, the inspiration for the dark deed. Five weeks later the police seized the Revisionist archives and some of Ahimeir's writings.

On the evening of the assassination, Ahimeir was lecturing at the Revisionist Club in Jerusalem. Avraham Stavsky had recently arrived in Palestine and was lodging with Ahimeir. Stavsky did not attend Ahimeir's talk because he ‘was not a high brow and did not speak Hebrew’. On the night in question, Stavsky was staying at the Turjeman Hotel in Jerusalem. The police believed that he had slipped out unnoticed, travelled to Tel Aviv, committed the act and returned swiftly. Rosenblatt said that he was at a social gathering in Kfar Saba. Eventually Avraham Stavsky and Ze'ev Rosenblatt were charged with the murder of Arlosoroff.