The remains of David Raziel, the first commander of the underground Irgun Zvai Leumi of the pre-state period, were reinterred today in the national military cemetery on Mount Herzl with full military honors. Among those paying final honors were Knesset Speaker Kaddish Luz, senior army officers, Mapai leaders and representatives of all parties and various youth contingents. A tremendous crowd heard a eulogy of the first Irgun commander.
Raziel was killed in Iraq in 1940 when he led a British raid of the Irgun’s “sabotage squad” against Rashid Al-Ghaliani, a pro-Axis rebel. He was buried at Habania, the British Royal Air Force base near Baghdad and-reinterred in Cyprus. The remains were flown back to Israel yesterday after David Ben-Gurion, as Defense Minister, approved reburial on Mount Herzl. Appreciation for the gesture was expressed by Menahem Beigin, leader of Herut, political successor of the Irgun.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
