Ben Dunkelman
Encyclopedia
Benjamin Dunkelman (1913–June 11, 1997) was a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 Jewish officer who served in the Canadian Army in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 and the Israel Defense Forces
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...

 in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. In Israel, he was called Benjamin Ben-David.

Benjamin Dunkelman was the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants. His father was David Dunkelman, the founder of the Canadian men's retailers, Tip Top Tailors
Dylex
Dylex Limited was one of Canada's largest retailers, involved in the operation of specialty retail stores, such as women's wear, menswear, and family stores...

 and his mother was a committed Zionist. Dunkelman and his siblings grew up on an estate, Sunnybrook Farm (now the site of Sunnybrook Medical Centre), northeast of Toronto. He attended Upper Canada College
Upper Canada College
Upper Canada College , located in midtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is an independent elementary and secondary school for boys between Senior Kindergarten and Grade Twelve, operating under the International Baccalaureate program. The secondary school segment is divided into ten houses; eight are...

 in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

.

At 18 Dunkelman went off to work on a kibbutz
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...

 in Palestine, at that time still under a British mandate. He returned to Toronto in 1932 to assist his father, but went again to Palestine in the late 1930s to develop new settlements.

He was back in Toronto in 1939 when war broke out and attempted to enlist in the Royal Canadian Navy, but an atmosphere of anti-Semitism that prevailed in the RCN at the time precluded a naval career. Instead Dunkelman enlisted as a private with The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada
The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada
The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada is a militia regiment within the Canadian Forces, based in Toronto, Ontario. The regiment is part of Land Force Central Area's 32 Canadian Brigade Group. It is the only Primary Reserve regiment in Canada to have a parachute role. The regiment consists of the reserve...

. For the duration of the war, he rose from Private to Major. He was in the second wave to hit Juno, the Canadian beach in Normandy on 6 June 1944. During his combat career, he earned numerous commendations and a Distinguished Service Order for his service in the Hochwald
Hochwald
Hochwald may refer to:* Hochwald, Switzerland, district of Dorneck in the canton of Solothurn* Hochwald , Saxony, southeastern Germany* Hochwald, a peak in the Hunsrück in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...

 campaign. He also fought in the difficult campaigns in northern France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, including bloody battles at Caen
Caen
Caen is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of the Basse-Normandie region. It is located inland from the English Channel....

, Falaise
Falaise pocket
The battle of the Falaise Pocket, fought during the Second World War from 12 to 21 August 1944, was the decisive engagement of the Battle of Normandy...

, and the Battle of the Scheldt Estuary
Battle of the Scheldt
The Battle of the Scheldt was a series of military operations of the Canadian 1st Army, led by Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds. The battle took place in northern Belgium and southwestern Netherlands during World War II from 2 October-8 November 1944...

 that led to the critical port of Antwerp.

After the war, was offered command of the Queen's Own Rifles but declined owing to business interests at home. Dunkelman returned to Canada, but again decided to travel to war, this time to fight for Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 in the spring of 1948. He arrived there at a time when the Israeli army was short of officers with combat experience. Initially, he took command of a mortar unit in the Mahal, the legion of Jewish and Christian foreign volunteers fighting for Israel. Dunkelman's skill with mortars brought him to the attention of the Israeli High Command, and he was instrumental in the breaking of the siege of Jerusalem. Shortly afterwards, he became the commander of the 7th Brigade, the country's best-known armored brigade.

In his autobiography, called Dual Allegiance, Dunkelman tells the story of how, between July 8 and 18, 1948 during Operation Dekel
Operation Dekel
Operation Dekel , was the largest offensive in the north of Israel after the first truce of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It was carried out by the 7th Armoured Brigade, a battalion from the Carmeli Brigade along with some elements from the Golani Brigade between 8–18 July. Its objective was to...

, he led the 7th Brigade and its supporting units as it moved to capture the town of Nazareth
Nazareth
Nazareth is the largest city in the North District of Israel. Known as "the Arab capital of Israel," the population is made up predominantly of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel...

. Nazareth surrendered after little more than token resistance. The surrender was formalized in a written agreement, where the town leaders accepted to cease hostilities in return for solemn promises from the Israeli officers, including Dunkelman, that no harm would come to the civilians of the town.

Shortly following the capture, Dunkelman received orders from General Chaim Laskov
Chaim Laskov
Haim Laskov was an Israeli public figure and the fifth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces.-Early life:...

 to expel the civilian population in the town, but he refused to implement these orders. The Israeli journalist and translator Peretz Kidron
Peretz Kidron
Peretz Kidron was an Israeli pacifist, writer, journalist, and translator.-Biography:Born in Vienna, his family moved to Great Britain following the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany. After completing his secondary education he emigrated to Israel, where he lived for 20 years in Kibbutz...

, with whom Dunkelman collaborated in writing Dual Allegiance, reproduced his record of Dunkelman's account of the capture of Nazareth in a book chapter entitled "Truth Whereby Nations Live":
[less than a day later] Haim Laskov [came] to me with astounding orders: Nazareth's civilian population was to be evacuated! I was shocked and horrified. I told him I would do nothing of the sort -in view of our promises to safeguard the city's people, such a move would be both superfluous and harmful. I reminded him that scarcely a day earlier, he and I, as representatives of the Israeli army, had signed the surrender document in which we solemnly pledged to do nothing to harm the city or its population. When Haim saw that I refused to obey the order, he left.

A scarce 12 hours after Dunkelman had refused to expel the inhabitants of Nazareth, Laskov had appointed another officer as military governor.
Two days after the second truce came into effect, the Seventh Brigade was ordered to withdraw from Nazareth. Avraham Yaffe, who had commanded the 13th battalion in the assault on the city, now reported to me with orders from Moshe Carmel
Moshe Carmel
Moshe Carmel was an Israeli soldier and politician who served as Minister of Transportation for eight years.-Background:Born in Mińsk Mazowiecki in the Russian Empire , Carmel emigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1924 when he was 13 years old. He was a founding member of kibbutz Na'an, and was...

 to take over from me as its military governor. I complied with the order, but only after Avraham had given me his word of honour that he would do nothing to harm or displace the Arab population. [....] I felt sure that [the order to withdraw from Nazareth] had been given because of my defiance of the evacuation order.

Dunkelman's defiance of the evacuation order forced Laskov to attempt to obtain sanction from a higher level. However, David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion
' was the first Prime Minister of Israel.Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946...

 finally vetoed the order. The Arab inhabitants in Nazareth were never forced to evacuate.

During the war, he met, fell in love, and married his wife Yael, a fellow volunteer in the Israeli Army.

After the war, Dunkelman turned down the offer of a commission in the peacetime Israeli Army. He and his wife returned instead to Toronto where he went into the family business, growing it until he sold it to Dylex Limited
Dylex
Dylex Limited was one of Canada's largest retailers, involved in the operation of specialty retail stores, such as women's wear, menswear, and family stores...

 in 1967. He later became a developer. Among his developments were both the Cloverdale Mall as well as the Constellation Hotel. He and his wife also ran the Dunkelman Gallery in Toronto as well as several restaurants. He was also one of the founders of the Island Yacht Club.

Dunkelman lived in retirement in Toronto until his death.

There is a bridge on the Lebanese
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

border called Gesher Ben in Dunkelman's honor. His story is told in the film Ben Dunkelman: The Reluctant Warrior.
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