The Sergeants Affair - The Search For Paice and Martin

The Search For Paice and Martin

Weinberg, who remained in the orchard until daybreak, then reported the kidnapping to the British army. Shortly afterwards he was interviewed by the Palestine Police, and gave them the details of what had happened. Reports of the kidnapping also reached the Haganah in Netanya. Oved Ben-Ami, head of the Netanya council, called an emergency council meeting. He did not invite the revisionist party members, who were identified with Irgun. The decision was made in accordance with the Yishuv's position, which was published the next day, calling the kidnapping a provocation that might jeopardize what hope was left for clemency for those condemned to death. It pleaded for every decent civilian to assist in the search for the hostages.

Meanwhile Haganah set out to find and release the kidnapped men, by force if necessary. The SHAI commander in the region arrived in order to personally oversee the search. Bar-Ziv, who had resigned as SHAI commander in Netanya in the meantime, provided him with information about a recently built underground bunker under the house of Irgun member Haim Banai in Ramat Tiomkin. They were convinced that this was where the hostages were kept, and passed that information to Haganah.

All the while, Ben-Ami was desperately trying to pacify the British authorities and promise them that Yishuv would do anything to find the hostages. However, after his conversation with Netanya council members of the Revisionist party, he published an announcement in a newspaper saying that he had been told by Irgun that the hostages would not be returned until the condemned Irgun members' fate was made clear. Subsequently, the British Army placed a cordon around Netanya and the surrounding area of Emek Hefer, and on July 13 they began an extensive search of the settlements.

At this point Haganah believed that they had accurate information on the location of the hostages. The information made it all the way up to the Haganah chief of staff, Yisrael Galili who passed it on to the Haganah high commander and chairman of the Jewish Agency, David Ben-Gurion. Ben-Gurion was conducting the "Little Saison" against Irgun and Lehi, and was determined to cooperate with the authorities. Galili, on the other hand, opposed any collaboration with the British, and had already ordered preparations for a forced release by the Haganah. Ben-Gurion thought that a forced release, no matter by whom, would lead to the hanging of the condemned in Acre, and Irgun's finger would be pointed at the Agency, Haganah and SHAI. He therefore made two decisions: First, the hostages were to be released by force; but not by Haganah, as Galili suggested, but by the British. Second, the information regarding the location of the hostages was to be passed anonymously not only to the British, but to Ben-Ami as well. By doing this he hoped to give the impression that Ben Ami had passed the information to the British. Ben-Gurion was relying on this, plus Ben Ami's call to the Netanya residents "to leave no stone unturned" to attract reprisals from Irgun if the hostages were rescued.