December 9, 1914
Shmuel Katz, a leader of Revisionist Zionism and a founder of the Herut party in Israel, is born in Johannesburg, South Africa. As a young man in South Africa, Katz attends a speech by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the founder of Revisionist Zionism, and is greatly moved by Jabotinsky’s views on the need for a Jewish homeland to save the Jewish people and for Jewish self-defense. He joins the Betar youth movement and becomes a leader of many Zionist groups in South Africa. At 16, he translates Jabotinsky’s book The Story of the Jewish Legion into English.
Known as “Mookie,” Katz makes aliyah in 1936. He joins Ha-Irgun HaTzevai HaLe’umi B’Eretz Yisrael (“National Military Organization,” known as the Irgun or Etzel) in 1937. Jabotinsky in 1939 sends him to London, where he represents the Revisionist Movement and founds and edits The Jewish Standard, a weekly Revisionist magazine. During his years in Britain, Katz gives speeches, raises money and urges Jews to help procure arms for the struggle against the British in Palestine.
He returns to the Land of Israel in 1946, resuming his Irgun activities and becoming a member of the High Command. Katz servs as a de facto foreign minister for the Irgun and commander of its Jerusalem operations. In 1948, after most of the Irgun disbands, Katz visits Paris to try to procure Irgun arms from the French for the battles in Jerusalem. All of the pre-state military groups are independently engaged in the fighting in Jerusalem at the time, even after the unification of the Israel Defense Forces on May 31. In June, Katz is able to arrange for the arms to be sent to Israel, and the Altalena leaves Marseilles with Irgun weapons and immigrants. The ship becomes a flash point for the young state and its central government. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion orders the ship sunk, making it clear that no dissident armed force will be tolerated.
Katz is elected to the first Knesset as a member of Herut, which he helps create with Menachem Begin. He leaves the Knesset in 1951 after one term and opens a publishing house. After the Six-Day War in June 1967, he becomes active in the Land of Israel Movement, which advocates the annexation of territories conquered in the war. When Begin becomes prime minister in 1977, Katz serves as an adviser to him but resigns over his opposition to the peace process with Egypt and the return of the Sinai. He writes five books, including a two-volume biography of Jabotinsky and a critique of Begin’s premiership, and numerous articles. He dies in May 2008.