Israel’s Begin Center in Jerusalem is raising money to commemorate a painful but pivotal episode in Israel’s history.
In 1948, a Jewish group headed by Menachem Begin brought in a cache of weapons aboard the Altalena, a ship carrying Jewish refugees.
The fledgling state’s leader, David Ben Gurion, ordered the army to attack the ship, arguing that Begin’s group, the Irgun, was a rogue militia.
Matthew Bell reports from Jerusalem on Israel’s “Altalena moment”.