Bidspirit auction | ”Lashes Shall Be Answered with

”Lashes Shall Be Answered with Lashes” – Militant Broadside Issued by the Irgun During the ”Night of the Beatings” Affair - Rare Irgun (Etzel) broadside, printed and distributed in Tevet 5707 (late December 1946), in which the organization claims responsibility for the flogging of British soldiers carried out in retaliation for the flogging sentence imposed on Irgun member Benjamin Kimchi. The broadside also accuses the British intelligence services of murdering Irgun member Ze'ev Epstein. The first part of the broadside documents, in real time, one of the most famous and consequential episodes in the struggle of the Jewish underground, known as the ”Night of the Beatings.” The text denounces the Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in Palestine, General Sir Evelyn Barker - described here as the ”Nazi-British General”, who authorized the humiliating sentence of eighteen lashes to be administered to the young Irgun member Benjamin Kimchi in Jerusalem Central Prison. In direct and immediate retaliation, and in accordance with the organization's earlier warning that ”lashes will be answered with lashes, ” Irgun fighters abducted British officers and soldiers in Netanya, Tel Aviv, and Rishon LeZion two days later, administering eighteen lashes each to one British major and three sergeants. The broadside concludes this section with a stern warning that should the authorities again dare to violate the dignity and bodies of Hebrew fighters, the underground would no longer answer with the whip, but with fire, and that the honor of the Hebrew soldier would never again be humiliated in his own homeland. The incident, which stunned the British command and severely damaged its prestige, was followed shortly thereafter by the official abolition of corporal punishment throughout Mandatory Eretz Israel. The second part of the broadside turns to the international arena, responding to an official report from Rome concerning the death of Irgun member Ze'ev Epstein, who was said by the Italian police to have been killed inside prison while attempting to escape. The Irgun categorically rejects the official Italian account, characterizing the incident as a deliberate murder intended to eliminate a political prisoner without trial. It directly accuses the British intelligence services of orchestrating the killing by allegedly employing local agents within the Italian police to carry out the covert assassination. The organization calls upon the Italian government to establish an independent commission of inquiry into the circumstances of Epstein's death and declares that it will not rest until the truth behind what it describes as the murder in Rome has been fully exposed. [1] leaf. 35×15 cm. Fold mark. Very good condition.