THE PALM BEACH POST MONDAY SEPTEMBER 12, 1988
Israeli guerrillas admit they killed U.N. envoy in '48
New York Times News Service
JERUSALEM -- Two former guerrillas of an underground Jewish band once led by
Yitzhak Shamir have said they carried out the assassination of a United
Nations' peace envoy 40 years ago.
It has been widely speculated that the band, know as the Stern Gang,
assassinated envoy Count Folke Bernadotte, but Friday was the first public
acknowledgment by the guerrillas.
The Stern Gang was the most radical of the underground organizations
struggling to establish the State of Israel. Count Bernadotte, a Swedish
diplomat, had been sent by the U.N. Security Council in May 1948 to try to
establish a truce between the Israeli soldiers and Arab armies.
Yehoshua Zeitler, who said he directed the assassination, told Israel radio
that he had decided to speak out because of what he said was his fear that
the United Nations would again try to force Israel into concessions that
would endanger its existence.
Meshulam Markover said he led the four-man assassination squad that cut off
Bernadotte's car with a jeep on a Jerusalem street Sept. 17, 1948.
Three guerrillas jumped out, he said, and one, Yehoshua Cohen, who died two
years ago, fired the shots that killed Bernadotte and his French
aide-de-camp.
A spokesman for Shamir, now Israel's prime minister, said that Shamir had no
role in the killing because the organization had officially disbanded six
months before.
Shamir assumed leadership of the group after its first leader, Azram Stern,
was shot to death while in the custody of the British police.
At the time, Shamir praised the tactics, saying, "First and foremost,
terrorism is for us a part of the political battle being conducted under the
present circumstances, and it has a great part to play in our war against
the occupier."
Although the Stern Gang was outlawed by the Israeli government after the
assassination of Bernadotte, its members have since been honored, along with
the other groups that took part in the fight for the establishment of the
State of Israel.
