Historical Background and Interviews
III. A New Beginning A New Beginning
The entire country was in turmoil but the search was particularly extensive at Yagur, where the British suspected a hidden arsenal of illegal weapons and the presence of key underground leaders. Thousands of soldiers, called in Hebrew kalaniot (anemones) “because of their red berets and black hearts,” besieged Yagur and occupied it for seven days. The day before, a British officer secretly informed the kibbutz’s leaders about the upcoming occupation, and they asked the Dror children to help protect the kibbutz. Speak- ing in Yiddish, they explained that the British were going to try to take over the kibbutz the following day. The Dror children could help, they said, by joining the sabras and other children along the kibbutz fence at four am, and standing with their arms crossed in non-violent resistance. “We woke up and saw all the Carmel Mountain covered with soldiers,” Peleg recalled, “and we went to the fence. We could hear the armored vehicles surround the kibbutz.” A delegation of British officers asked permission to enter and identify the male kibbutz members, and were refused “because it was the Sabbath.” The sol- diers dragged away tractors and other large pieces of machinery the kibbutz had set up to block their way and lobbed tear gas to make the children give up their positions along the fence. According to Peleg, “An officer stood on an armored vehicle with his hand up in the air. And we, who were used to the Germans, thought that once he takes his hand down, they will finish us.” The children left the fence and joined the majority of the kibbutz members. Upon a signal from the officer, the troops turned on strong jets of water and oil, forcing them all into the dining room. There, soldiers with machine guns guarded every window. “People were soaked with oil,” recalled Haklay, “and in our innocence, we were sure they were going to kill us.” The army gave the crowd ten minutes to surrender themselves, leave the building, and be identified. It was a long ten minutes, during which tension ran high, but no one budged. A Yagur Book account by Rakabi recalls that when the Dror children were told to retreat to the kitchen for safety, they refused, and shouted “Mit
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