A preschool complex (Ben Yehuda St 193, Tel Aviv-Jaffa) was designated 'Training Center 1' by the Israeli Haganah. Little preschoolers were fronted for secret militant training camps and a secret arms cache. Plaque visible.
For decades, Israeli airstrikes have targeted schools (and school-cum-shelters) in Gaza. The claims are always similar – the schools were hiding Hamas militants or were fronts for weapons caches, or both. This narrative is widely echoed in Western media and policy circles.
Hamas and the other terrorist organizations use [schools] them assuming that Israel will refrain from attacking them, thus increasing the terrorists’ chances of survival and preserving the weapons located there.
The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
But Israel’s founding militias also used schools for military purposes.
This dispatch explores more than two dozen schools that were used by the Israeli Lehi (Stern Gang), Etzel (Irgun), and Haganah. After 1948, these groups formed the Israeli government and the IDF.
As we read through the pictures, the non-readable plaques are linked to a high-quality photo in the caption, hosted by an Israeli website. Every single school in this post is supported with factual evidence.
In the coastal Jewish town of Netanya, the Israeli Haganah used a three-story tower built in the compound of the Bialik Public School to monitor ships bringing Jewish immigrants into Palestine against the British law.
The Bialik Public School (HaRav Kuk St 18, Netanya) hid an underground weapons cache used by the Israeli Haganah. Image credit: Danny Gershoni.The Beit Zviquot school (42 Bialik St, Ramat Gan) was used by Irgun / Etzel for weapons training and storage. The official Israeli plaque can be seen here.
During the earlier years, Zionist militias would raid British Army camps and storage units to plunder their weapons stocks (or the local police station when desperate). These caches included rifles, mortars, mines, detonators, grenades, and bomb-making equipment.
The former Kalischer School (30 Kalischer St, Tel Aviv-Jaffa) was used by the Haganah as a weapons cache and training ground for militants. The official Israeli plaque can be seen here.The former Ahad Ha’Am School for Boys (37 Ahad Ha’Am St, Tel Aviv-Jaffa) was used as a hidden weapons cache (slick) and for training fighters in weapons and signals communication. The official Israeli plaque can be seen here.The Yehieli School for Girls (Neve Tzedek, Tel Aviv) was used by Zionist militants for light weapons training, first aid, and signals. The school was also used as a weapons stockpile. The official Israeli plaque can be seen here.
While Palestinians get falsely maligned by Western media for militarising their children, the Israeli Haganah created special training programs called ‘Hagam’ designed to militarise and train children.
Innocent Jewish children in Hagam programs would be ideologically indoctrinated and given firearms, explosives, and discipline training. The young recruits would then be assigned operations (massacres, murders, burglaries, theft) against the Palestinians and British.
Geula Commercial School (30 Ge’ula St, Tel Aviv-Jaffa) served as a military training ground for Zionist militias, training high schoolers under the ‘Hagam’ program in weapons and explosives. It also served as an arms cache, hiding stolen and illegally manufactured weapons. Image credit: Dr. Avishai Teicher.This nursery school (95 Levinski St, Tel Aviv-Jaffa) was nicknamed ‘Training Site 9’ by the Haganah and used as a training ground for weaponry and explosives. It also housed a secret arms cache. A bomb shelter has been built right next to the school. The official Israeli plaque can be seen here.The Hostel Hayarkon (48 HaYarkon St, Tel Aviv-Jaffa) is the historical site of Geula School (Training Center 5). The Haganah used the school to patrol the Tel Aviv coastline. Also held a secret arms cache. The official Israeli plaque can be seen here.The former Tel Hai School (12 Zamenhoff St, Tel-Aviv-Jaffa) was a secret training centre used by the Israeli Haganah. The school premises were used as a cover to train operatives, and a secret arms cache was stored in the school. The official Israeli plaque can be seen here.The Herzliya High School (11 Ahad Ha’Am St, Tel Aviv-Jaffa) was used as the headquarters of the Israeli Haganah. This school was fronted for militant training and tactical assembly, knowing that the British would not look there. The official Israeli plaque can be seen here.Formerly the Alliance High School (Neve Tzedek, Tel-Aviv Jaffa). This school was used by Irgun Zvai Leumi as a headquarters. Mortars were launched from the school courtyard, as documented in the plaque. The official Israeli plaque can be seen here.Formerly the Balfour High School (34 Maze St, Tel Aviv-Jaffa). The school was used as a training centre for militants. A secret arms cache was also located on the school premises. The official Israeli plaque can be seen here.The Bnei Akiva Ulpana (Girl’s religious school) located at 7 Lilienblum Street in Neve Tzedek, Tel Aviv is the historical site of the Tachkemoni Boys’ School. The school’s basement was used by Zionist militant groups (Haganah, in this case) to store guns, ammunition, grenades, mines, and bombs. The 3rd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment of the British Army thereafter occupied the building.
The Tachkemoni School, unlike most other schools, was raided by the British Army in 1946. The Official Communique by the British Army had the following to report (emphasis my own):
“Three separate arms caches were discovered in the basement of the school in Lilienblum Street where they had been built into the structure of the school. Seizures included: – 51 rifles; 75 pistols; 12 shotguns; 23 2″ mortars; 1,270 2″ mortar bombs; 1,841 bombs and grenades; 124,175 rounds of assorted ammunition; 1,100 ballistite cartridges; 1,650 shotgun cartridges; 1,500 assorted grenade caps; 7 grenade discharges
145 detonators; 50 electrical detonators; 72 bomb primer sets; 800 cordite sticks in containers; 7 booby traps; 73 assorted magazines; 1,072 grenade ignitor sets; 5 field telephones; 5 rolls of explosive slow burning fuse. Numerous spare parts for pistols, rifles and mortars were seized together with other military equipment in large quantities and documents.”
This raid was of a single school. Imagine the vast quantities of dangerous weapons that were kept in the other schools (more below), under the cowardly safety of children.
The former site of Meshek Hapoalot, an agricultural school for girls (Adam HaChoen St 1, Tel Aviv-Jaffa). The girls’ school was used as a secret mortar parts factory by the Haganah between 1938-40. The official Israeli plaque can be seen here.The Balfour School (12 Balfour St, Tel Aviv-Jaffa) was designated ‘Training Center 3’ by the Haganah. It was used to train militants in light weapons, fieldcraft, topography, and signals. The school also housed an arms cache. The official Israeli plaque can be seen here.The Tel Nordau School (Mendele Mokher Sfarim St 19, Tel Aviv-Jaffa) was used by female militants of Zionist groups. The school’s trained battalions became the IDF’s Women’s Corps. The official Israeli plaque can be seen here.A preschool complex (Ben Yehuda St 193, Tel Aviv-Jaffa) was designated ‘Training Center 1’ by the Israeli Haganah. The school’s premises were used to train militias and hide weapons caches. The official Israeli plaque can be seen here.Former site of the HaHashmon’im School (Warburg 5, Tel Aviv-Jaffa). The school hid a recruitment centre to induct militants into the Israeli Haganah & Etzel. The school was also used for the illegal radio broadcast ‘Telem Shamir Boaz’. The official Israeli plaques can be seen here.The former site of the Tchernikovsky School for Workers’ Children (35 Tchernikhovski St, Tel Aviv-Jaffa). The school was used as a militant training centre for weapons, fieldcraft, topography, first aid, and signals. The official Israeli plaque can be seen here.The former site of Netzach Israel School (Netsach Israel St 26, Tel Aviv-Jaffa). The school was used as a training centre for Haganah militants, who received training in weapons, fieldcraft, first aid, and signals. The official Israeli plaque can be seen here.Park Shuni, Binyamina-Giv’at Ada. Between 1946 and 1948, the site hosted an educational institute for youth aliya (young illegal immigrants). The site was used by Etzel / Irgun as a training centre. Image credit: BukvoedThe Ness Ziona community centre (Tel Aviv St 19, Ness Ziona) housed a school and a synagogue. The site was used as the Haganah headquarters and contained two concealed arms caches. Image credit: Israel Preker Pikiwiki Israel (left), Danny Gershoni (right).The Children’s Day-Care facility at the Mehavia Kibbutz (Derech HaOen, Merhavia) was used as a secret arms cache. The weapons and munitions were hidden in the kitchen of the children’s home, as documented in the official Israeli plaque. Image credit: Danny Gershoni.
Synagogues and Teacher’s Colleges
Schools were not an exception to militarisation by Zionists. There is also a trend of using other public and civilian infrastructure, including Synagogues and Teacher’s Colleges.
The Yeshurun Synagogue (Ha-Biluyim St 26, Gedera) fronted as a secret arms cache for the Haganah during the British Mandate period. At one point, it also housed a school for children, as documented in the official Israeli plaque. Image credit: Daniel VenturaThe Stern Gang hid weapons and bomb-making equipment in Tel Aviv’s Great Synagogue (110 Allenby St, Tel Aviv), reported after a raid by the British Army. A false wall was made in the building’s interior to hide further caches. Image credit: BekoThe historical site of the Kibbutzim Teacher’s College (Bnei Dan St 36, Tel Aviv-Jaffa). The teachers’ college was used as an operations base for Haganah militants and as a tactical assembly area. The official Israeli plaque can be seen here.The David Yellin Teacher’s College (Ma’agal Beit HaMidrash St 7, Al-Quds (Jerusalem)) was used as a recruitment centre for Haganah militancy and a local command post. It was also used as a secret arms cache. The official Israeli plaque can be seen here.
This dispatch is meant as an ‘anchor’ for myself and other journalists seeking evidence against the Israeli narrative of Palestinians using their schools as armouries and training camps.
Further raids by British military and police in August 1946 revealed large caches of arms and explosives, including thousands of homemade mines and bombs, in Tel Aviv churches, schools, and houses, establishing almost ot the point of certainty that Tel Aviv is the main supply base of the Jewish forces in Palestine.
CIA, ORE 48-48
But this is not an exhaustive list, far from it. Most of these schools are in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, without covering other Zionist strongholds (Haifa, Al-Quds, Safed, Netanya, Galilee). I will update this report as more locations are identified.
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