The assassination of Count Bernadotte in Jerusalem | Featured Documentary
Al Jazeera English
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Episode 1: • Folke Bernadotte: Enemy of Israel? | Featu...
Al Jazeera's two-part documentary Killing the Count examines the eventful life of Count Folke Bernadotte, head of the Swedish Red Cross and a leading figure in the rescue of thousands of concentration camp prisoners in World War II.
Count Folke was appointed as UN Mediator in the first Arab-Israeli war, shortly before he was assassinated by Zionist extremists in 1948.
In part two, we look at the appointment of the Count, three years later, as the United Nation's first mediator in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and his assassination four months later in September 1948 by Zionist extremists during an official visit to Jerusalem.
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Transcript
[Music] the northern
Cemetery principal burial ground of the city of Stockholm last resting place for
Sweden's most celebrated
citizens not far from Alfred Nobel whose famous prize is bear his name lies
another illustrious swed count faler Bernard do of
vizbor like Nobel his name is linked with peace as the first un mediator in
the Arab Israeli [Music] conflict unlike Nobel his life ended
[Music] violently I think for us like ADOT who
want to make peace have a little chance of doing so
because they don't really understand the deep roots of the
conflict on the 17th of September 1948 shortly after arriving in
Jerusalem Bernard do was assassinated The Killers right-wing
Israelis the stern gang people were seen as true Patriots they got off scotf
free and one of them isak Shamir became the prime minister of
[Music] Israel this is the story of how peace can be frustrated by
extremism our assassination can turn the tide of
history with consequence that still Scar the Middle
East this is the story of killing the
[Music]
count February 1945 count faler bernot is about to
board a Nazi plan Bound for Berlin as vice president of the Swedish
Red Cross he was leading the biggest humanitarian effort of World War
II he had come to Germany to negotiate with Heinrich himler Nazi minister of
the Interior this meeting would secure the
release of thousands of concentration camp prisoners [Music]
by the end of the war Bernard Do's Mission known as the white
buses would successfully evacuate 30,000 prisoners of over 20 nationalities to
Safety in Sweden onethird of them were
Jews in the aftermath of War those Jews who
had survived the Holocaust began to leave a continent that had become for them a personal
hell after the war we began like the
birds to flee to [Music]
Palestine English uh ships they discovered
us they didn't allow us to come to our
country the British the ruling Authority in Palestine had decided to put a stop
to the tide of Jewish immigration
a tide that had been swelling since fascism had begun its march across
[Applause] [Music]
[Applause] [Music]
Europe in 1936 local Arab objections to both
British colonial rule and mass Jewish immigration to their Homeland erupted
into a fullscale [Music]
Revolt Jewish settlements in Palestine had been protecting themselves against
sporadic Arab attacks with a defense militia
the hagana in 36 in the face of Arab
Rebellion suddenly it dawned on the younger
generation that unless they are ready to undertake the military effort in the
country the Jews won't be able to stay so the defensive ethos changed into an
offensive
p a more extreme group now emerged from the
hagana called the National military organization in the land of
Israel in March 1937 iRun launched a series of bomb
attacks against Arab cafes markets buses and
trains with the cycle of violence in Palestine growing the British decided to
[Applause] act at St James's Palace a conference is hoping to arrive at a solution of the
Arab Jewish problem of Palestine after a conference in London
attended by both Arabs and Jews the British government produced a white paper setting a limit on Jewish
immigration to Palestine for the next 5 years hope to bring peace to a land that
has been so long a beyond that it would be left to the Arab majority to
decide to the Jews this was complete betrayal soon the British would feel
their
anger on the 26th of August 1939 iRun started its own war against
the British killing two officers in a bomb
attack 6 days later the whole world descended into war
the iron immediately coed off its campaign so as not to hinder Britain's
fight against what they called the Jews greatest enemy in the
world German Nazism but within iRun a splinter group
now emerged led by a man determined to fight
on Abraham Stern thought that Britain was a greater enemy of the Jews than
Nazi Germany and he wanted to continue to fight the British during the second
world war in order to expel
them in July 1940 Stern created a new militant Breakaway from iRun called Lei
or Fighters for the freedom of Israel to the British it was simply the
stern gang the fate of falka bernad do would
be determined by these
men they wanted the British out of the Middle East the Germans wanted the British out of the Middle East so Lei
decided to make common cause with the Nazis tried to make contact with them in Istanbul the Nazis weren't interested
nothing came of it it was a mixture of stupidity and
fanaticism they thought that they should join the enemy of England in order to
obtain help for their goals uh in Palestine which was just stupid they
were very brave and very stupid people in February 1942 to during his
arrest in Tel Aviv by the British Abraham Stone was shot
[Music] dead on the 6th of November
1944 Lei commanded Now by Yak Shamir
struck back in an unexpected Place
Cairo two assassins killed Lord Mo the British Minister resident in the Middle
East outside his home itak Shamir was a terrorist and not
just he but the other members of the stern gang defined themselves as
terrorist and wrote that terrorism is a perfectly legitimate means for a
expelling the foreign occupier from the land of [Music]
Israel after the end of World War II in 1945 as Jewish organizations were
honoring Bernard do for his work with the white
buses many of the Holocaust Survivors trying to enter Palestine found their
way [Music] barred
[Applause] Britain had refused to raise immigration
limits set before the [Music] war to the Jews the Betrayal now seemed
even [Music]
greater having won one war Britain found itself fighting
another this time against Jewish militant
groups what developed was a kind of competition thei was the most extreme
the Aron had to become more extreme in order to compete with
thei and the hag became more extreme in order to compete with Theon so the whole
process became more extreme violence and death ride the
ancient streets of [Music]
Jerusalem terrorism here as in Jaffa and Tel Aviv has been the chief outward sign of a critical
situation Palestine continues to present one of the most obstinate problems of
today
[Applause] responding with a Draconian
counterinsurgency campaign the British arrested [Applause]
thousands imposing the death penalty on convicted [Music]
insurgents in response iRun under the command of another future Israeli Prime
Minister manah Bean bombed the King David Hotel the main base for the British
Administration in
Palestine killing British Arabs and Jews
alike by October 1947 Jewish underground groups had
killed 100 27 British
servicemen I have been instructed by his Majesty's government to announce that in
the absence of a settlement they must plan for an early withdrawal of British
forces and of the British Administration from
Palestine Britain had washed its hands of a problem of its own
making the fate of Palestine now lay with the United
[Music]
Nations Saudi Arabia in November 1947 the UN General Assembly adopted
resolution 181 recommending that Palestine be partitioned into separate
Arab and jewi [Applause]
States news of the United Nations decision to recommend partition brings wild Jubilation among the Jewish
communities in Jerusalem and Tel [Applause] Aviv this was the first ever
International recognition of the L hoped for Jewish
state but the extremists saw no cause for celebration
they thought that the Jews had a absolute right to the hall of Palestine
and that the borders of the Jewish State shouldn't be defined by any foreign bodies like the United Nations so they
wanted greater Israel as it had existed in biblical
[Music]
times in April 19 19 48 hag forces began a military operation to take control of
Arab areas assigned to the Jewish State under the partition
plan extremist militias joined the effort but soon they had overstepped the
mark the lean etel that is the stern gang and the urun as the British called
them participated in one famous atrocity which was of course the conquest and
Massacre which occurred in the village of deia on the 9th of April 1948 when
about 100 villagers were killed most of them [Music]
civilians with the departure of the last High
Commissioner of Palestine the British mandate was
[Music]
[Music] over that same day in Tel Aviv David
benan declared the establishment of the state of
Israel the celebrations would be
shortlived within hours the Egyptian Air Force would bomb the capital of the newly formed
[Music]
State at the same time the armies of Egypt Jordan Syria and Iraq crossed the
borders into Palestine whereas the maintenance of
order and Security in Jerusalem is an urgent question which concerns New York the United Nations faced a major
challenge to its power and Prestige the first Arab Israeli
War on the 20th of May 1948 the United Nations named its first
mediator in [Music] Palestine the man who would take on the
task was count fulka Bernard do hero of the white [Music]
buses he was uh from a noble family he was relative of the king and he thought
he could deal very good with people meeting eye to eye and making
compromises and things like that at the end of of May
1948 Bernard do left Paris for the Middle East seen off by his American Born wife
Estelle in a pointed echo of the white bus's campaign Bernard do had his
specially chared plane painted white with un and Red Cross
markings Into the Fire count berot is by United Nations as Last Hope mediator his
wartime record as an intermediary raises him above suspicion of partisan sympathies in Tel Aviv his first task is
to his first task was to bring about a ceasefire which needed that he went to
the different Capitals in kind of shuttle diplomacy uh which he really invented
because everybody was very impressed about his uh energy the the tempo he
used when he was traveling around and you can say he made all possible efforts
to bring this ceas fire about after only 10 days in the Middle
East Bernard do scored his first success on the 9th of June he announced
a 4-week [Music] truce if it had been a full feather
politician knowing all the tricks I'm not sure he would have succeeded better
because uh they were surprised of his uh total openness he never had these
diplomatic roundabouts all the time and many people say that that was clear
Advantage by the end of June after weeks of diplomacy Bernard do was finally able to
unveil a new plan for peace in Palestine
bernad do was a realist and he did not
want to abandon the UN partition plan but he wanted to modify it to fit in
with a new reality on the ground and if you look at the map of the UN partition
plan it doesn't make much sense it's three Jewish enclaves with kissing
points and then there is the Arab state which is also
fragmented so basically what you wanted to do is to give the Jews the Hall of
the Galilee in the North and the coastal plane but to deprive them of the neave
and to give the neave to the Arab state but there was not to be an
independent Palestinian state by this time the Arab part of Palestine was to
be incorporated with Trump trans
Jordan despite there being no independent state allocated to the Palestinians Bernard Do's proposals did
include one key provision for them the right of return for refugees
expelled by force from their homes in Israeli controlled
areas bernot proposed the right of return and he managed to obtain a UN
resolution that this is a humanitarian right that can't be ignored with no
limits or numbers the complete and immediate right to [Music]
return and bernad Do's plan included one more provision which would outrage the
Israelis in his first peace plan uh which I think was uh his biggest mistake
he said that Jerusalem would be inside the Arab State because there was no
possibility whatsoever to have the Jews agree to something like [Music]
that under Bernard Do's plan judaism's most holy place would come under the
control of the [Music] Arabs Jewish militants decided they must
fight on in defense of Jerusalem [Music]
the campaign against bernot was building and plans were soon being laid for
killing the [Music]
[Applause] count the Greek island of
[Applause]
RADS a world heritage site today it's one of the most popular tourist
destinations in [Music] Europe Rose's hotel is one of the oldest
on the [Music]
[Applause] [Music]
island in the summer of 1948 count fuler burn do the un's first
mediator for Palestine had chosen the island as his [Music]
headquarters the arrival of his American Born wife Estelle and their two sons fulare and
bertil eased the tension as bernot waited for the official response to his
proposals to end the war that had broken out in Palestine
after 2 weeks relaxing with his family bernad do set out on another
round of shuttle diplomacy in the morning one day he came
with a red cross uniform in his head and said put this on and I put it on and
then I was allowed to travel with him in the United Nations airplane to
Jerusalem but I was told to stay in the
car bernot had come to Jerusalem to meet the Israeli foreign minister Moshe
sharet Israel's response to bernad Do's plan was total
rejection I think they saw him as an enemy of the Jewish State he was going
to him Reduce by large measure the size of the state the Jews were to have so
they regarded him as pro-arab basically and he was in some ways a an agent of
the British government who were regarded rightly or wrongly by the Israelis as
anti-zionist after the failure of Bernard Do's first plan and with a 4-we
truce coming to its end fighting broke out again in
[Music] Palestine
3 Days Later Bernard do accompanied by his wife Estelle flew into to Laguardia
Airport in New York I think that every possibility has
been exhausted he wanted to impress on the security Council the urgent need need
for firm and decisive action in the first place to my mind the
action should leave no room for doubt that the United Nations will not
permit the Palestine issue to be settled by use of
force in the second place the action should be so strong and
firm that neither party could afford to run the risk of
ignoring or defying
[Music] it back in the Middle East and with a
second fragile truce in place bernad do began a new round of
negotiations but securing that pieace seemed
[Music] impossible he didn't have anything that would convince either the Arabs or the
Israelis that he had real Authority or power so there was a lot of resistance from both sides to his
propos in mid August an exhausted Bernard do flew to
Sweden he was to chair the International Red
Cross conference and it was a chance to see his
family he took me out for a whole day we went to a museum we went to saw football
and things like that and I remember afterwards that having my father for myself a whole day was a very very
fantastic thing to happen once
before returning to the Middle East he arranged to meet Estelle in Paris 3 weeks
later for her birthday it was a meeting he would never
[Music]
make during the first two weeks of September 1948 Bernard do spent what
would prove to be the last days of his life in roads putting the final touches to a
revised peace plan completed on the 16th of September
it contained a major concession to Israel Jerusalem the city would no longer be
under Arab control it would be administered by the United
Nations but this change had come too late
6 days earlier in an apartment in Tel aviv's bahuda Street the commanders of
Lei the stern gang had come together to seal the fate of fol
bernot nataniel Mo voted against the assassination of
bernad Dr Israel elad voted for the
assassination and itak Shamir cast his vote in favor of the assassination of
the UN Envoy so it was two against one that's
how the decision was [Music]
made on the 17th of September 1948 at 10:00 in the morning morning
count fulka bernot landed at Candia airport north of
Jerusalem shortly after his three car Convoy arrived at the mandal Bal
gate the crossing point into the Western Jewish part of Jerusalem
waiting at the gate was a liazon officer assigned to him by the Israeli
government Captain Moshe [Music] Hilman the count noticed that Mr Hilman
was armed with a pistol so he turned to him and said no no no no you have to get
rid of that pistol give it to the other officers here you're under the protection of the UN and when you're
protected by the UN there are no weapons with no military escort no
protection other than the UN flag Bernard Do's Convoy entered Jewish
Jerusalem after a few hours spent visiting the former British Governor's house they headed to the YMCA for the
night as they left Andre Sero a French Colonel
traveling with the UN Convoy asked Hilman to do him a
[Applause] favor right away the liaison officer
swaps seats in Bernard Do's car and goes to sit in another car in the
Convoy and switches with colonel s who ask for the chance to thank Bernard do
for the Red Cross campaign that had saved his wife from a German concentration
camp s's wife had been liberated by one of the white
buses his gratitude would cost him his [Music]
life heading towards the YMCA the three car convo was suddenly
halted an Army jeep pulled out from a side street to block the
road three men in Israeli Army fatigues sprang out of the
Jeep they blocked the road and then two of the Assassins come out Steinberg and
Ben Moshe and puncture the tires of the vehicles in
front they don't know which car the count is in then suddenly the count opens the
window of his car so he can see what's happening he hears the
shots then they identify him and yahoshua Cohen goes to the car puts his
schisa submachine gun in through the window and unloads on everyone sitting in the re
seat Six Bullets tore into Bernard Do's left arm throat and
chest Cohen kept firing pumping 18 bullets into Colonel
[Music] SRO in a matter of seconds the Assassins had made their
[Music] escape by 5:00 in the afternoon Bernard
OT lay dead in hospital alongside him colonel
s I heard it on the radio which was um a bit deplorable in many ways um the news
had come first of all to the Swedish King and um he debated with members of
the family who would inform the my mother and that debate carried on so
much that the Swedish radio assumed that the family had been told but we hadn't
so therefore it came as a bit of a shock I got up and went to my mother and said
something's happened to my father and she said I I I felt it I had a
feeling she knew that he was
dead the next day bernad Do's body left Israel on the same White plane that had
carried him in search of Peace it was on its way to Paris where
Bernard do had been due to present his second peace plan to a un
meeting and to meet his wife to celebrate her
birthday politicians and diplomats representing their countries at the UN meeting in Paris came to oy airport to
pay their last [Music]
[Laughter] respects with the assassination of its
mediator the UN had failed its first great
[Music] test that evening Bernard Do's body
arrived in Stockholm and was carried to the family
home my father lay in a room in our house but um my mother didn't think it a
good idea and neither did I that I should go in and see him like that so I didn't never saw
[Music]
[Music] him
5 days later swedes came onto the streets of Stockholm to Bid Farewell to
burnard [Music]
do 90-year-old King Gustaf arrived to mourn the death of his beloved
[Music] nephew
Scouts and Red Cross workers from the two organizations Bernard do chaired lit
the coffin along its way to the northern
[Music]
Cemetery in Israel Prime Minister David benorian ordered an immediate hunt for
The Killers but it soon became apparent that the hunt was not what it
seemed Moshi Hilman the liazon officer traveling with bernot had recognized the
driver of the Jeep used by the
Assassins my dad went to mhe Dian who was then the military commander of Jerusalem and said to him listen I
received a threatening letter that said Hilman be careful why because he knew one of them but he said he didn't want
to mess anything up and Diane said to him you know what let's leave things in secret for the time being we didn't hear
we didn't [Music]
see with bernad Do's death his plan also
died but the legacy of his assassination had only just
begun Israel covertly strengthened during the truce successfully launched a
series of military operations to drive out the Arab armies Israel at the end of the 48th war
was interested in retaining its conquests and all the territory which it had in its hands which included of
course all of Galilee and the negtive would it have relinquished them in line
with what Bernard had planned um I doubt
it in 1949 a series of armistice agreements were signed in Bernard Do's
former headquarters in roads between Israel and its Arab
[Music] neighbors but the solutions Bernard do had been seeking and had paid for with
his life remained
elusive a the Jerusalem problem is still unresolved to this day and bernad wanted
the city to be part of the Arab state or under International Administration the proposal for the
immediate return of refugees if that had happened relations between the zionists and Palestinians would have been better
more able to find a common future for
Palestine with Israel Victorious benorian announced a General
amnesty Bernard Do's killers were freed to return to normal life in the new
state of
Israel yahoshua Cohen would head south to the newly occupied neev to a kibutz
called Z Baker in years to come Prime Minister
David Boran would make this place his home
Yeshua Coen was one of the founders of this deare the kibuts deare and was the
closest member of the kibuts to Boron they were going together for the morning
March and the evening March and they were talking and they were friendly and I thought to myself wow
this was the guy who Boran wanted to find anywhere he wanted to find him to
crush him and now they're they're friends
while Bernard Do's killer became a friend of the Prime Minister one of the men who ordered the
killing would eventually rise to that role himself when the British government in
1922 when the right wing swept to power for the first time in
1977 manah beIN the former iRun leader became prime minister
Yak Shamir the former Lei Commander became speaker of the Israeli Parliament
[Music]
theet when beg resigned Shamir took his [Music]
place so this is not really unusual except that Shamir was an honest to
goodness terrorist which be was not Shamir was a
real terrorist who led personally LED underground
operations under Shamir a Palestinian Uprising the first intifada provoked a
brutal reaction
Arabs they have to stop all this nonsense of the Riots of throwing
stones of wounding people it's
useless in 1992 Israeli politics veered sharply
left Yak Rabin leader of the labor party came to power as prime
minister he quickly began to secure peace deals after Decades of struggle
with the [Applause]
Arabs but right-wing extremism was still alive in Israel and in November
1995 while attending a peace rally in Tel Aviv
yack Rabin like bernot paid the ultimate price for the pursuit of
Peace he was killed by one of his own [Music]
countrymen a piece which had seemed Within Reach was once again snatched
[Music] away [Music]
in Sweden the memory of Fula bernot has
faded except in this place the Royal Palace in
Stockholm on the 25th of February 2012 King Carl Gustaf of Sweden
announced that his newborn granddaughter would be called
[Music] Estell Estelle was the wife of F badot
and U to me it's a clear uh demonstration uh that they want in some
way to uh to honor Kult and if uh this baby would have been
a boy I guess he would have been named
fan second in line to the throne princess Estelle May one day be queen of
Sweden her christening has rekindled public interest in Bernard Do's life
[Music]
story but in this house in Gothenburg there is one Man For Whom the
Count's story has been a life's work in 1957 ㅁwas a member of
a Swedish un Battalion guarding the Armistice line between Egypt and
Israel this his first contact with the struggle in the Middle East would shape
the remainder of his life that was TI of military life I went
to University studying political science
sooner or later I had to write a dissertation and I
found a good je
P mediating on the
conflict so I met his widow and stuck and we had a cup
of tea she looked into my blue eyes to out all of f berard's documents
from 1948 gave it to me I appli for
money WR my
dissertation that dissertation mediation and assassination was the start of a
lifetime's work sunna perason's books and articles have
ensured that faler bernad Do's place in history will not be
forgotten they were the inspiration for this [Music]
film
The Holocaust
Wikipedia • The Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered around six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, approximately two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population.
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