Jacob de Haan - Zionisms First Political Murder Victim

In 1924 Jacob de Haan was the victim of what could be called Zionism's first political murder. De Haan was an Orthodox Jew and anti-Zionist and was shot dead in Jerusalem in 1924 just a few days before he was due to leave for London for talks at the Colonial Office where he would argue against Zionism. His killer was Avraham Tehomi, a member of the Haganah.

Jacob de Haan, a writer and Lawyer, was born in Holland in 1881. He first came to prominence when he wrote of the appalling conditions in Russian prisons where he wrote that "Bestial cruelty is inflicted upon even political prisoners" and that the cruelty in one prison "rivals the old Star Chamber of the Spanish Inquisition".

He was at first a member of the Mizrachi, a religious Zionist organisation and was an ardent supporter of Zionism. In 1919 he emigrated to Palestine where, amongst other things,  he became Palestine reporter for the Daily Express and a lecturer at the Government Law School.

After arriving in Palestine however he became an anti-Zionist, the Daily Express saying that “He was so disappointed with the attitude towards Judaism adopted by certain [members] of  the Zionist [leadership] in Jerusalem that he left them and joined the [anti-Zionist] Agudas Israel World Organisation, the independent union of Orthodox Jews, to which he became legal adviser.De Haan had also wanted a negotiated settlement between Jews and Arabs. The Express adds"He had frequently been threatened, and for a considerable time had felt that his life was in danger'

He was also asked to resign as a lecturer 'because of the hostile attitude of his students on account of his anti-Zionist views'

His killer, Avraham Tehomi, was never caught and he did not even hang around in Palestine long enough to see the State of Israel come into existence, he immigrated to the  United States in 1945. Six decades later he was tracked down and interviewed by two Israeli journalists and he admitted to killing de Haan saying 'I have done what the Haganah decided had to be done. And nothing was done without the order of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi*. I have no regrets because he [de Haan] wanted to destroy our whole idea of Zionism'

*Yitzhak Ben-Zvi later became the second President of Israel.