יומנים > יומן - מלא 06/12/1947
[Saturday,] December 6, 1947
Haim Laskov came to see me. He wants to leave, because: 1) He has to take care of his mother (housing) and help [her]. His salary hasn't been set yet. 2) Men who know less [than he does] are being placed over him (now Eliahu Cohen [Ben-Hur]). The lesson [course] that was supposed to start on November 15 was postponed to December 10, because Lehrer [Moshe Zadok] didn't provide him with the instructors that he wanted to take from the battalions. The men are now being assembled, but he won't accept instructions on matters of training from Eliahu. H.L. requested 35 men from the army [former soldiers in the British army]. The men were requested by Lehrer [Zadok] and he doesn't know if the men complied.
- Ya'akov Neuderfer [sp.], Pinchas Weinstein [sp.]. Neuderfer and seven others came at 9 (or 10) and took up a position in [the Tel Aviv neighborhood of Shkhunat] HaTikva, in the hatzer ["yard" - an outpost, in the area between the neighborhood of Bet Ya'akov and Salameh, an Arab village]. The Arabs fired and our men returned fire. Our men had two Stens, a German submachine gun, two rifles, and more. They were instructed that if a [British] armored vehicle shows up, they should vanish to the hatzer and after it passed - return to the outpost. Hillel [Nudelman] was commander of the outpost. One scout was in the observation post near the road. Children were standing on the roof of the coffee shop, watching the road, and would signal with a kerchief (not Gadna children, but neighborhood children). An armored vehicle passed along the Lod road a few times - and the men would vanish. When the armored vehicle was gone they returned to the outpost. After 12 the children signaled, the scout reported: the army is approaching. The men fled towards the neighborhood; as they fled, they came under fierce automatic gunfire (our men ran through fences). The Arabs were also shooting from the field (Salameh orchard). When our men ran through the field no one was hurt, not by the army nor by the Arabs. An armored vehicle was stationed on the road and fired along the street, preventing the men from entering the neighborhood. Only two men managed to pass through - the commander and another one. Ya'akov Neuderfer wasn't able to get into the neighborhood. Ya'akov N. glanced behind and saw a British sergeant and policeman advancing through the alley of HaTikva (perpendicularly to the Salameh Road), with [Ya'akov] Schiff [sp.] walking in front of them, his hands raised in the air and the sergeant holding the back of his neck, shooting along the street and the policeman too was shooting. Ya'akov and four or five others wanted to enter one of the yards. Two soldiers or policemen appeared before them with Stens and shouted, "Hands in the air!" They raised their hands. The sergeant and the policeman along with Schiff showed up in the same yard. The sergeant shot Schiff in the back. Schiff shouted out and fell down. One of our comrades produced a bandage. Ya'akov gave him first aid, tried to lift up his head, said, "Speak, Schiff" - but Schiff didn't reply, struggled for air, wheezed, and died, in Ya'akov's opinion. The sergeant ordered our men to remove him. Before that the sergeant cursed our men in a foreign language and asked: Where's your Bren [machine gun]? Our men took Schiff across the road. [The Englishmen] took weapons from all of our guys. Many people and children gathered in the coffee shop along the road. They shouted, "Water!" He gave permission to bring water. At that point one of our men snuck out. They poured water on Schiff. After one got away they watched over those who remained. Our men shouted, "Taxi." The sergeant said, "No taxi." After that a pickup truck approached. He allowed it [to approach]. Then a large crowd gathered. Children started shouting, picking up sticks. When the English looked over at the people - Ya'akov snuck out. All the others (4 or 5) were arrested and are currently in Jaffa.
Pinchas Weinstein reports on an incident yesterday - when a comrade (Michael Fisher) was killed near [the Arab village of] Salameh. An armored vehicle showed up (around 12:15) and alongside it a pickup with notrim [British-appointed auxiliary police] of ours [i.e., Jewish]. After a while the notrim disappeared. The armored vehicle crossed over the [train] track and stood in the open field, not far (200 meters) from a unit [of our men] in the wadi. Pinchas approached the armored vehicle with a white sheet and shouted at it, after it opened [its door], that the men who were there were Haganah men, "special police," and to let them return home. The policeman cursed him. Pinchas shouted in reply. The policeman turned the armored vehicle's turret in Pinchas's direction. Pinchas went back and sent a runner through the orchard to make contact with the unit that had gone down [and instruct them] to retreat to the orchard. The armored vehicle continued firing in the direction of the unit and targeting the unit members. They began to retreat, although [the path] was very difficult. In the meantime another unit returned, with the man [Nissim Zayit (sp.)] who'd been killed near the Arab house. The dead man was loaded onto a Magen David ambulance. The members of the unit from the wadi reached Shkhunat HaTikva by crawling, although one of them [Micha Fisher] was killed and another was wounded in the wadi by the armored vehicle. The one who'd been killed was struck by a bullet in the back of the head, the wounded man - in his leg. Our men approached the dead man and the wounded man, and found policemen there. After arguing, they took the dead man and the wounded man with them. Later Pinchas was informed by a man in the pickup truck that they'd told the policemen in the armored vehicle that they were Haganah men. In response they were cursed and ordered to leave.
- [Abraham] Zabrasky came.