Ezra Danin (b. Jaffa, 1903 - d. 1985) was the head of the Arab section of the
SHAIShai was the intelligence and counter-espionage arm of the Haganah and the forebear of the Military Intelligence Directorate in pre-state Israel...
, the intelligence arm of the Hagana, Israeli politician and an orange grower. Danin specialized in Arab affairs.
Danin was born to Yechezkel Danin Socholovsky, one of the founders of
Tel AvivTel Aviv-Yafo , usually called Tel Aviv, is the second largest city in Israel, with an estimated population of 391,300. The city is situated on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline, with a land area of...
.
During the Arab Revolt of 1936-1939, Danin was the leader of a spy network for the Hagana in the district of Samaria.
Ezra Danin (b. Jaffa, 1903 - d. 1985) was the head of the Arab section of the
SHAIShai was the intelligence and counter-espionage arm of the Haganah and the forebear of the Military Intelligence Directorate in pre-state Israel...
, the intelligence arm of the Hagana, Israeli politician and an orange grower. Danin specialized in Arab affairs.
Biography
Danin was born to Yechezkel Danin Socholovsky, one of the founders of
Tel AvivTel Aviv-Yafo , usually called Tel Aviv, is the second largest city in Israel, with an estimated population of 391,300. The city is situated on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline, with a land area of...
.
During the Arab Revolt of 1936-1939, Danin was the leader of a spy network for the Hagana in the district of Samaria. In 1940, He formed the Arab section of the
SHAIShai was the intelligence and counter-espionage arm of the Haganah and the forebear of the Military Intelligence Directorate in pre-state Israel...
and remained their until 1948. He was instrumental in the formation of the "Syrian Platoon" of the
PalmachThe Palmach was the regular fighting force of the Haganah, the unofficial army of the Yishuv during the period of the British Mandate of Palestine. The Palmach was established on May 15, 1941...
in 1940-41, whose goal was to infiltrate
SyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
and
LebanonLebanon , officially the Republic of Lebanon
[Republic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies...]
who were under
Franch VichyVichy France, or the Vichy regime are the common terms used to describe the government of France from July 1940 to August 1944. This government, which succeeded the Third Republic, officially called itself the French State , in contrast with the previous designation, "French Republic." Marshal...
rule.
Danin accompanied
Golda MeirGolda Meir was the fourth prime minister of the State of Israel....
, the Jewish Agency representative, in her meetings with
King Abdullah of JordanAbdullah I bin al-Hussein, King of Jordan [‘Abd Allāh ibn al-Husayn] عبد الله الأول بن الحسين born in Mecca, Ottoman Empire, was the second of three sons of Sherif Hussein bin Ali, Sharif and Emir of Mecca and his first wife Abdiyya bint Abdullah . He was educated in Constantinople , Turkey and...
, in the moths leading to the establishment of the State of Israel. Together with Eliahu Sasson they participated in the 17 November 1947 meeting at
NaharayimNaharayim was a hydroelectric power-plant located near the point where the Yarmuk River flows into the Jordan River. The plant was established by Pinchas Rutenberg in 1930, in what was then Transjordan, and produced much of the energy that was consumed in the British Mandate of Palestine until...
on the river Jordan. The Danin-Sasson reports were then produced based on this meeting.
On May 11, 1948, three days before the proclamation of the independence of Israel Danin again accompanied Meir to
AmmanAmman , sometimes spelled Ammann , is the capital city of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, a city of 2,525,000 inhabitants , and the administrative capital and commercial center of Jordan. It is also the largest city in Jordan. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world...
, trying to persuade Abdullah not to join the
coming Arab-Israeli war of 1948The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known by Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation and by Palestinians as the Catastrophe , was the first in a series of wars fought between the newly declared State of Israel and its Arab neighbours in the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict.The war...
.
According to Nur Masalha and
Benny MorrisBenny Morris is professor of History in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Be'er Sheva, Israel. He is a key member of a group of Israeli historians known as the 'New Historians', because they are rewriting the history of Israel since its...
Danin was a member of the various unofficial
Transfer CommitteeThe Transfer Committee was set up, unofficially, by non-Cabinet members of the first government of Israel in May 1948, with the aim of overseeing the removal of Palestinian Arabs from their towns and villages, and preventing their return...
s, from May to August 1948. .
Danin then served as a Director of the Foreign Ministry's Middle East Department under Golda Meir.
Danin published two books: a collection of documents captured from Arab gangs in the Arab Revolt of 1936-1939 and an Autobiography titled ``Unconditional Zionist" (written with Yaakov Sharet).