Michael (Micha) Fisher, age twenty-one, was killed near Salameh on 22 Kislev 5708. His Ministry of Defense memorial says that, after an ally was killed during a patrol near the village orchard, Fisher went out with a rescue party. An English Empire armored vehicle appeared and opened fire; Fisher was struck in the head.1

דוד בן-גוריון DAVID BEN-GURION's diary entry the next day also records Fisher's death in an armored-vehicle shooting. This contemporaneous report corroborates the central fact of the encounter, but it is not a police inquiry or an independent determination of the English Empire crew's orders or justification.2

The official memorial preserves Fisher's last words to his comrades: “אין דבר, חבריה, תמשיכו” (“It's all right, friends, carry on”). TJD's translation is checked against the Hebrew text.3

How is this dated?

The official memorial gives both 5 December 1947 and 22 Kislev 5708 for Fisher's death. The civil date converts to the same daytime Hebrew date. The later Ben-Gurion diary entry reports the death on 6 December; that is the diary's record date, not Fisher's death date.4

Guided reflections

  • What do the memorial and contemporaneous diary jointly establish about Fisher's death, and what does the missing police record leave unresolved?
  • How does the timing of lethal imperial fire during a rescue operation complicate accounts that treat all early defense of יהודים YEHUDIM as fighting only Arab forces?

Footnotes

  1. https://www.izkor.gov.il/%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%9B%D7%90%D7%9C%20%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%A8/en_be8fb1d01c9328fb8d0d241a7fa75317 Hebrew memorial, life story and date. ↩
  2. https://bengurionarchive.bgu.ac.il/en/node/10726 Diary entry dated 6 December 1947, archival record 219097, English archive translation. ↩
  3. https://www.izkor.gov.il/%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%9B%D7%90%D7%9C%20%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%A8/en_be8fb1d01c9328fb8d0d241a7fa75317 Hebrew memorial, life story. ↩
  4. https://www.izkor.gov.il/%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%9B%D7%90%D7%9C%20%D7%A4%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%A8/en_be8fb1d01c9328fb8d0d241a7fa75317; https://bengurionarchive.bgu.ac.il/en/node/10726; https://www.hebcal.com/converter?cfg=json&g2h=1&gd=5&gm=12&gy=1947 ↩