The weapon used to fire on the Irgun vessel was nicknamed the "holy cannon" by Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion.
(Sept. 3, 2025 / JNS) Israel’s Defense Ministry has agreed to transfer the cannon that shelled the Altalena, the Irgun cargo ship that the newly created Israel Defense Forces shelled off the Tel Aviv beach in 1948, to the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, Hebrew media reported on Wednesday.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz authorized the transfer after Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu requested that the “holy cannon” be relocated from the IDF’s Glilot military base in Ramat Hasharon to Begin’s national memorial in Jerusalem.
The weapon was nicknamed the “holy cannon” by Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion.
Katz “instructed his staff to act for the transfer of the cannon to the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, so that it will express the true meaning of the event,” the minister’s office responded Tuesday.
Katz’s missive to Eliyahu expressed “deep appreciation for the actions and legacy of the late Menachem Begin, who prevented a civil war.”
The Altalena—secretly loaded with fighters, immigrants and Holocaust survivors, as well as weapons and supplies—sailed from France on June 11, 1948, the day a U.N.-brokered truce in the War of Independence banned new arms.
When the vessel anchored off Kfar Vitkin on June 20, the Irgun refused to surrender its cargo, sparking clashes that killed six Irgun fighters and two IDF soldiers. Begin ordered the vessel to Tel Aviv, where crowds of civilians, journalists and U.N. observers watched the face-off unfold.
The next day, the IDF shelled the ship as Begin, who boarded the vessel, ordered his men not to retaliate in order to avoid civil war. Even under a white flag, fighting continued until a ceasefire on June 22. In total, 16 Irgun fighters and three IDF troops were slain.
Eliyahu and others who pushed for the relocation of the cannon said that its display at the IDF base in Glilot distorts the historical record.
The cannon is presented at the IDF Command and Staff College with an inscription highlighting how the Jewish state avoided civil war. However, ministers argue that the plaque implies that firepower prevented further bloodshed, when in their view it was the restraint of Begin and his Irgun fighters that preserved Israel’s national unity.
Despite the death of 16 Irgun members in the confrontation, Begin told his followers: “Do not raise a hand against a brother, not even today. It is forbidden for a Hebrew weapon to be used against Hebrew fighters.”
The Irgun leader, who later became Israel’s sixth prime minister, wrote of the incident shortly before his 1992 passing: “After my death, I hope I will be remembered above all as someone who prevented civil war.”
Last week, Israel’s Heritage Ministry announced it was investing a million shekels (~$270,000) to locate the remains of the Altalena. The search is still in its preliminary stage.
(About a year after the battle, the Altalena, which had run aground at the foot of David Frischmann Street, was refloated, towed 15 miles out to sea, and sunk.)
The goal of the search is to convey a message against internal division, while also raising awareness of the important historical role of the Revisionist Zionists—the ideological forefathers of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party.
03/09/2025 by JNS
https://www.jns.org/cannon-that-sunk-altalena-in-1948-to-be-moved-to-menachem-begin-heritage-center/
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