Altalena 1994

Overview

This documentary examines the 1948 episode of the Altalena, a ship whose fate nearly incited civil war in the newly-established State of Israel. Immediately after Israel attained statehood, Prime Minister David Ben Gurion established a national army into which several independent Jewish defense forces, small armies with their own political philosophies, were supposed to unite. However, on June 20, 1948, the Altalena arrived off Israel carrying 930 World War II refugees and a stockpile of ammunit