This Week in History: Four hanged in secret at Acre

Premium special: A glimpse into historical moments in Israeli news from this week in 'The Jerusalem Post' front covers.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
 
On April 16, 1947, during the British Mandate of Palestine, Irgun members Dov Gruener, Dov Rosenbaum, Eliezer Kashani and Mordechai Alkoshi became the first Jews to be executed for crimes with political backgrounds since the hanging of Shlomo Ben Yossef in 1938. Gruener (33) was convicted of discharging firearms at a police station and personnel within it, and with the laying and throwing of bombs, in an Irgun attack on Ramat Gan Police Station. Rosenbaum (24), Kashani (23) and Alkoshi (21) were sentenced to death for carrying firearms and raw-hide whips on December 29, the night a British Army Officer and three non-commissioned officer were flogged by terrorists. A month later, on May 4, 1947, 251 prisoners escaped from Acre jail in a massive prison break, including 131 Arabs and 120 Jews. 
On April 13, 1984, four Palestinian terrorists hijacked a bus heading from Tel Aviv to Ashkelon, carrying 33 passengers, in what became known as the Kav 300 Affair, and one of the biggest ever scandals surrounding the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency). The hijackers demanded the release of 500 Arab prisoners jailed in Israel, or they threatened to kill the passengers. IDF soldiers eventually stopped the bus by shooting at its tires. A special force of Sayeret Matkal conducted a take-over operation in which they killed two of the hijackers and captured the other two. A 19-year-old female Israeli soldier who was a passenger on the bus was also killed by IDF fire in the take-over. The surviving two hijackers were captured, bound and taken to a nearby field, where they were beaten by passersby, before being infamously killed by the Shin Bet. The Shin Bet affair was initially covered up by the military censor, and the first media reports stated that all four hijackers were killed during the take-over. The New York Times, however, reported that two of the hijackers had been captured alive, and a few days later Israeli daily Hadashot published a photo confirming this, leading to a public outcry and a subsequent investigation into the Shin Bet's actions. 
On April 14, 1975, US Senator Henry Jackson accused then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger of staging a press campaign to hold Israel responsible for the failure of his Middle East diplomacy, in a familiar blame-game over Israeli-Arab peace negotiations. Jackson was known for his pro-Israel stance.
On April 18, 1996, an IDF shelling of a United Nations compound in Qana, southern Lebanon killed 106 Lebanese civilians who had sought refuge there, during Israel's Operation Grapes of Wrath against Hezbollah. Israel said that it had hit the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNFIL) compound accidentally, and had been aiming for a Hezbollah Katyusha rocket and mortar launching pad. A UN investigation found that it was unlikely that the shelling had been a technical or procedural error. The IDF maintained that the incident was due to a sequence of operational mistakes and technical failures, compounded by chance.