The discovery of the wreck of the Altalena has already opened a second battle, this time not over weapons or military authority but over political credit.
The announcement that the Irgun arms ship, shelled off Tel Aviv in 1948 and later deliberately sunk, had been located about 20 kilometers off Israel’s coast first appeared Monday morning in an unusual venue: the WhatsApp group of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party.
“We found the Altalena, making history,” the party’s statement declared, presenting the discovery as an achievement of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu.
The search itself, however, was a state project funded by the Heritage Ministry at a cost of about 1 million shekels and carried out by the Survey of Israel, the government body whose marine mapping division ultimately located the wreck.
Ben-Gvir quickly released a video claiming the discovery as a joint achievement with Eliyahu.
“Today is a historic day. We found the Altalena,” he said. “After so many years of searching, Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu and I are happy to announce that the Altalena has been found.”
He added that the discovery carried a message at the current political moment: “Disagreements are allowed, differences of opinion are allowed, but there must not be a civil war.”
Likud left on the sidelines
The political ownership of the discovery is particularly sensitive because the Altalena is closely associated with Menachem Begin, the Irgun commander who later became prime minister and one of the founding figures of Likud.
Yet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz were largely absent from Monday morning’s announcement.
Netanyahu’s office was surprised by the timing of the report, despite being aware that searches for the ship were underway. Katz’s office, as far as is known, was not informed in advance.
(Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)
The Survey of Israel, which conducted the search and identified the wreck, does not operate under either Ben-Gvir or Eliyahu. It falls under the Construction and Housing Ministry, headed by Likud minister Haim Katz, meaning another Likud figure was also excluded from the initial announcement.
Otzma Yehudit said further details would be presented at a news conference, including updated findings and underwater documentation. It was not immediately clear whether Netanyahu would take part.
The episode amounts to an unusual political appropriation of what had been a government heritage project, with the discovery of one of the most politically charged symbols of Israel’s founding years quickly folded into an election-season struggle over historical legacy.
What exactly was found?
The wreck was located at a depth of 503 meters using sonar systems capable of mapping the seabed and identifying objects through sound waves.
Officials initially said the Altalena had been found “intact,” but that description has already drawn questions.
Shlomo Nakdimon, a veteran Yedioth Ahronoth journalist, former adviser to Begin and author of a book on the Altalena affair, said the original ship cannot exist in its complete form because significant sections were removed before the wreck was sunk.
“If they are talking about the Altalena as it was, that does not exist,” Nakdimon said. “Ben-Gvir and Eliyahu announced that they had discovered the Altalena in its entirety. That would be an act of God, because I saw it when it was sunk and it disappeared. The lower section was sunk, while the upper section was dismantled and burned.”
The Altalena sailed from France to Israel in June 1948 carrying about 930 immigrants, including Holocaust survivors and Irgun fighters, as well as a large shipment of weapons.
A dispute broke out over how the weapons would be distributed after the formation of the IDF and the dissolution of the underground organizations. Begin demanded that part of the shipment go to Irgun units in Jerusalem, while prime minister David Ben-Gurion insisted that all weapons be handed over to the army.
The Altalena before it sunk
(Photo: Seven Seas Blog)
The confrontation escalated into armed clashes at Kfar Vitkin and later off Tel Aviv. Sixteen Irgun members and three IDF soldiers were killed.
The damaged ship remained off the Tel Aviv coast for months before Ben-Gurion ordered it removed. Its upper sections were dismantled, and the remaining hull was later towed into deep water and deliberately sunk.
The exact location was lost, leading to decades of unsuccessful searches.
Another fight over the Altalena legacy
The latest dispute is not the first political battle over how the Altalena should be remembered.
Last year, seven ministers led by Eliyahu asked Defense Minister Katz to transfer the IDF cannon associated with the shelling of the ship from the military’s Command and Staff College at Glilot to the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem.
The ministers argued that displaying the cannon at a military institution conveyed the wrong lesson from the episode, saying Begin’s refusal to allow his forces to retaliate was what prevented civil war.
Katz later said he would order the cannon transferred to the Begin center.
No decision has yet been made on what will happen to the newly located wreck. Raising the entire hull from 503 meters is considered extremely difficult and likely impractical.
Options under consideration include creating a floating memorial or maritime heritage center, or recovering selected parts of the wreck. Authorities are first working to document its condition on the seabed.