A 95-year-old has become the oldest Israeli reservist to put his uniform back on and help the country fight Hamas terrorists. Ezra Yachin served as a combat soldier with Lehi — an underground paramilitary group active during British rule — who fought against the British and the Arabs to create a Jewish homeland.
He has now been called back up “to motivate the IDF troops and to recount how he survived Arab pogroms in Jerusalem during his childhood,” according to Israel National News, which shared a photo of the elderly man in his old uniform holding a rifle. Yachin is being celebrated as a hero for his efforts, with Israeli media personality Hananya Naftali tweeting that his message is, “Don’t give up, not even now.”
Speaking of his childhood in the years before Israel gained independence, Yachin told how Arabs killed Jewish citizens in the streets — aided by British forces. He said the British “prevented Jews from immigrating in many ways, and more than that, they did not prevent the Arabs who lived there from murdering the Jews.
“The Jews in the Land of Israel understood that they had to defend themselves,” Yachin said in a 2021 interview with the Israeli Defense Forces. “And so they set up the underground organizations, one of them being the Lehi organization.”
Yachin said he felt compelled to join the efforts, and started providing the group with “vital information” while also spreading the word about its cause. “It was essential to fight the British so that we would have a country with an effective way to defend ourselves against anyone who tried to harm us,” he explained. “So that we would feel independent in our own country.”
But tensions came to a head after the United Nations voted on Nov. 29, 1947, to grant the Jewish people a homeland in Israel.
Just one day later, he said, “Arabs killed and slaughtered entire families and murdered Jews everywhere. They threatened us and kept their promises. “Then what is called the War of Independence began,” he recounted.
“We found ourselves in a very difficult situation with both the British and the Arabs rioting and mobilizing against us. “From the roofs, from the windows, they were everywhere,” Yachin said.
“Jews were killed, and Jewish blood was spilled like water, and the British helped them.” Eventually, the Arabs got hold of cannons and started to “celebrate,” Yachin said, and the situation only became worse for the Jews living in Israel.
“Every Jew who fell into their hands did not stay alive for more than a few seconds,” he claimed. “They had an exchange of photos — whoever had more photos of dead Jews was considered more senior in the community.
“They kept saying that they were going to complete what Hitler had failed to do,” Yachin said. “Their goal was one: to lead the Jews to the slaughterhouse of history.” But Yachin said the Jews living in Jerusalem knew they had to fight back, and started to storm Arab strongholds.
At first, their efforts were slow going — as they would announce where they were planning to attack ahead of time in an effort to warn women and children to vacate the area, prompting the Arabs to shoot them on sight. Soon, though, the Jews were able to fight the Arabs back as they continued to flee the area.
Yachin said in the 2021 interview he now dedicates his life to “pass on to future generations to come — to tell them about the price we had to pay for this land.”
