A state memorial service was held on Sunday to commemorate Etzel (Irgun) fighter Baruch Mizrahi, who was born a Muslim, converted to Judaism, and was killed fighting for the Jewish people in a battle near Jenin.

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Mizrahi, who did not leave a family behind, was born Hamoudeh Abu al-Aynin to a nationalistic Muslim family from Safed.

He converted and changed his name after joining the Revisionist Zionist youth movement Betar and learning about Judaism and Zionism.

Baruch Mizrahi

He was exiled in 1946 by the British to a prison camp in Eritrea, where he was wounded in a shooting incident. When then-Chief Rabbi Herzog came to visit him, Mizrahi asked him to bring him back to Israel for burial should he die there.

But he recovered and returned to Israel, where was killed in April 1948 during an intelligence gathering operation in Jenin, near Sa-Nur. He was 22 when he died.

Mizrahi's grave

His body, however, had to wait 20 years for burial, as it was only found by his friends in 1968.

The Samaria Regional Council has "adopted" Mizrahi's memory, and even ensured he was recognized as a fallen IDF soldier. Every year, about a dozen people from the evacuated settlement Sa-Nur hold a memorial service for him at the military plot in the Netanya cemetery.





The annual memorial service at Mizrahi's grave

The head of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, said the council took on the task of keeping Mizrahi's memory alive "mostly because of the great respect we have for our fighters. It's unimaginable that a fighter who gave his life, as well as any chance of having a family, won't have anyone to remember him."