Yossi Harel | Refugee-ship captain, 90
Yossi Harel, 90, the ship commander who built support for Israel's founding by attempting to take Holocaust survivors to Palestine, died Saturday of cardiac arrest at his Tel Aviv home, his daughter said.
Yossi Harel, 90, the ship commander who built support for Israel's founding by attempting to take Holocaust survivors to Palestine, died Saturday of cardiac arrest at his Tel Aviv home, his daughter said.
Mr. Harel commanded four expeditions that took thousands of refugees to the shores of Palestine, his daughter said. But the best known was that of the Exodus 1947, a ship that left France in July 1947 carrying more than 4,500 people - mostly Holocaust survivors and other displaced Jews - in a secret effort to reach Palestine.
At the time, Britain controlled Palestine and was attempting to limit the immigration of Jews.
The British Royal Navy boarded the vessel off Palestine. After a battle that left three people dead, the ship and its passengers were sent back to Europe, where the refugees were forced to disembark in Germany.
The ship's ordeal was widely reported, garnering sympathy for the refugees, especially because they were taken to Germany. - AP