1940 in Mandatory Palestine

1940 in the British Mandate of Palestine
««« 1939 1938 1937		»»» 1941 1942 1943
See also: 1940 in the United Kingdom

Events in the year 1940 in the British Mandate of Palestine.

Incumbents

• High Commissioner - Sir Harold MacMichael
• Emir of Transjordan - Abdullah I bin al-Hussein
• Prime Minister of Transjordan - Tawfik Abu al-Huda

Events

The "Patria" sinking in the Haifa harbor, 25 November 1940

• June - The right-wing Zionist armed underground paramilitary group "Lehi" (Hebrew acronym for Lohamei Herut Israel, meaning "Fighters for the Freedom of Israel") is established by Avraham Stern with the avowed aim of forcibly evicting the British authorities from Palestine, allowing unrestricted immigration of Jews - and the formation of a Jewish state.
• 9 September - World War II: The Italian Air Force bombs Tel Aviv causing 137 deaths.^[1]
• 25 November - Patria disaster: The Patria, a French-built ocean liner, carrying approximately 1,800 Jewish refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe to Palestine, sinks in the Haifa harbour after a bomb carried covertly on board by the Haganah explodes; 260 people are killed and another 172 were injured. The Haganah had planted the bomb with the intention of disabling the ship to prevent it from leaving Haifa, as the British were deporting the refugees, who did not possess entry permits. However, the Haganah had miscalculated the effects of the explosion and the bomb causes the ship to sink within fifteen minutes, trapping hundreds in the hold.
• 12 December - The MV Salvador, which carries approximately 327 Bulgarian Jewsish refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe to Palestine, is wrecked in a violent storm in the Sea of Marmora, near Istanbul. The ship sinks taking the lives of 204 passengers including 66 children. There were 123 survivors.

Notable births

• 25 January - Avraham Lanir, the highest ranking Israeli fighter pilot to fall into enemy hands (died 1973)
• 25 January - Giora Leshem, Israeli poet and publisher (died 2011)
• 6 June - Asa Kasher, Israeli philosopher and linguist
• 13 June - Esther Ofarim, Israeli singer
• 17 July - Faisal Husseini, Palestinian Arab politician and senior member of PLO (died 2001)
• 24 August - Yaron London, Israeli media personality, journalist, actor and songwriter
• 23 October - Fouad Twal, the Roman Catholic archbishop and Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem since June 2008
• 24 October - Yossi Sarid, Israeli politician
• 24 October - Dan Shilon, Israeli radio broadcaster, journalist, TV host and media personality
• 18 November - Haim Harari, Israeli theoretical physicist
• Full date unknown
  • Amin al-Hindi, Palestinian Arab, intelligence chief of the Palestinian National Authority (died 2010)
  • Laila Shawa, Palestinian Arab artist

Notable deaths

Ze'ev Jabotinsky

• 4 August - Ze'ev Jabotinsky (born 1880), Russian (Ukraine)-born Revisionist Zionist leader, author, orator, soldier, and founder of the Jewish Self-Defense Organization in Odessa

References

1. Maya Zamir, The Day of The bombing , Tel Aviv Magazine, 7 September 2007 (Hebrew)