‘Godfather of Israeli Army’ John Henry Patterson’s Belfast Memorial Defaced With ‘Scum,’ ‘Nazis’
by Ruthie Blum
The defacement of the Belfast memorial for John Henry Patterson. Photo: Twitter.
A Belfast war memorial for the officer who led the British Army’s “Zion Mule Corps” and “Jewish Legion” fighting against the Ottoman Empire in Gallipoli and Palestine during World War I was discovered Friday morning to have been defaced during the night, the UK’s The Independent reported on Saturday.
According to the report, the words “scum” and “Nazis” were scrawled on a mural honoring Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson, an Irish Protestant who became an ardent Zionist after the war.
Stephen Silverman, the director of investigations and enforcement at the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, told The Independent: “Whilst his men fought with distinction, Lt.-Col. Patterson had to defend them from the anti-Semitism of his superiors, even threatening to resign his commission.”
Patterson and his wife both died and were cremated in 1947 in California. Patterson’s grandson said, however, that one of his grandfather’s final wishes was that he and his wife eventually be interred in Israel, near the men he commanded during the war. His wish would be granted in December 2014, when the ashes of the Pattersons were transferred to Moshav Avihail, north of Tel Aviv.
At the reinterment ceremony, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Patterson the “godfather of the Israeli army.”
Netanyahu had more than a national interest in Patterson, however, as the Irish officer had been close friends with his father, Benzion. According to the Israeli prime minister, Benzion named his first son, Yonatan – who was killed in the 1976 Entebbe Raid — after Patterson. Patterson attended Yonatan’s circumcision ceremony, and gave him a silver cup engraved with the words: “To my beloved godson Yonatan from Lt.-Col. John Henry Patterson.”
According to the UK’s ITV, this is not the first time that Patterson’s memorial has been vandalized.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland said it was treating the incident as a hate crime.
Non-Jewish L.A. Zionist
John Henry Patterson
buried in Israel
Days after announcing the dissolution of his coalition, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu closed a circle in modern Israel’s history, and his own family’s history, when he fulfilled Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson’s final wish to be buried among his Jewish comrades in Israel – 67 years after Patterson’s burial in a Los Angeles cemetery.
“Your grandfather, Col. Lt. John Henry Patterson, was the commander of the first Jewish fighting force in nearly two millennia,” Netanyahu said at the reburial ceremony on Dec. 4, personally addressing Patterson’s only living descendent, Alan Patterson. “As such, he can be called the ‘godfather of the Israeli army.’ He also happened to be the godfather of my late brother, Jonathan, who was named after him. So I feel in doing what we’re doing today, we’re repaying a great historical debt and personal debt.”
Born in Ireland in 1867, Patterson became an ardent Zionist as he commanded the Zion Mule Corps and, later, the 38th and 40th battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, also known as the Jewish legions fighting under the British army in mandate Palestine. Raised Christian, Patterson grew up on biblical tales, which animated his support for a Jewish state and the resurrection of the Jewish
warrior.
warrior.
“He himself re-instilled in them – you’re the descendants of Joshua,” Netanyahu recalled. “You’re the descendants of Judah the Maccabee.”
Patterson died in Los Angeles in 1947, penniless, buried in obscurity at L.A.’s Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery, despite three Hollywood movies dramatizing his exploits hunting man-eating lions in East Africa. (Val Kilmer played him in 1996’s “Ghost and the Darkness”). But it was his bravery in organizing and befriending Jewish fighters, much to the chagrin of his anti-Semitic British officers, that was dutifully commemorated at the Jewish Legions Museum in Avihayil, a coastal town in central Israel founded by Jewish legionnaires and whose name aptly means “my father the soldier.”
The Prime Minister described how Zionist firebrand Vladimr Jabotinsky heeded the advice of his father, Benzion Netanyahu, to move their base of operations from England to the United States. In the U.S., Patterson and Netanyahu Sr. together advocated for the formation of a Jewish army. “They, too, were dismissed sometimes as fringe elements,” Netanyahu said. “But this was the basic thing that changed our fate, and it was a grand partnership.”
The Prime Minister described how Zionist firebrand Vladimr Jabotinsky heeded the advice of his father, Benzion Netanyahu, to move their base of operations from England to the United States. In the U.S., Patterson and Netanyahu Sr. together advocated for the formation of a Jewish army. “They, too, were dismissed sometimes as fringe elements,” Netanyahu said. “But this was the basic thing that changed our fate, and it was a grand partnership.”
Patterson’s Zionist advocacy led the British to cut off his army pension. He died in the Bel Air mansion of Marion Travis, a Zionist who looked after him.
The transfer of Patterson and his wife Frances’ cremains was spearheaded by Jerry Klinger, head of the Jewish American Society for Historical Preservation and somewhat of an expert in granting Zionist figures rightful rest in the Jewish state. He had campaigned successfully for the transfer of the remains of Stephen Norman, Theodor Herzl’s grandson and only descendent, from a neglected Washington D.C. gravesite to Israel’s national Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem.
Klinger learned about Patterson’s final wish after reading Alan Patterson’s afterward in Denis Brian’s biography “Seven Lives of Colonel Patterson.” Alan, a Boston resident, took him up on his offer to fulfill it.
“One thing I learned in the army is that you don’t leave your own behind,” Klinger, an Israel Defense Forces veteran, told the Jewish Journal while in Israel. “This is the right thing to do, and I’m glad I was able to have a part in it.”
To his dismay, the Jewish attorneys he approached asked for steep fees to facilitate the transfer. Then Doris Wise Montrose, head of the L.A.- based Jewish Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, introduced him to L.A. attorney, Myrna Strapp, who took up the cause pro-bono.
“I remember I said to him it would be an honor and privilege to help,” Strapp said in a phone interview. “I couldn’t promise any results, but I’d see what I could do. I never tried to go to court to get custody of cremains prior to the event.”
She succeeded. The ashes were disinterred at a private ceremony held at the peak of Operation Protective Edge, the day after the memorial of slain Los Angeles-born Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier, Max Steinberg. “All things are linked,” Klinger remarked on the timing.
Netanyahu’s participation as Israel’s leader in this historic reburial resounded throughout the auditorium.
“In the brit [circumcision], your grandfather gave to my brother a silver cup which we have in our family – should have brought it here,” he continued to Alan. “It says: ‘To my dear godson Johnathan, from your godfather, John Henry Patterson.’ Now there's a link of fate here and it's not accidental…The progenitor of the Israeli army was at the birth of one of the future brave commanders of this army. Both of them are gone now.”
Jonathan “Yoni” Netanyahu died an IDF hero during the historic 1976 Entebbe raid.
As the choir and IDF soldiers performed tribute, and the Prime Minister extended his salute, Lt.-Col John Henry Patterson officially achieved the status of time-honored Christian Zionist legend.
“When I began to consider how I would accomplish it, I felt that his reburial might very well be a case of ‘next year in Avihayil,’ ” Alan Patterson told the children and grandchildren of Patterson’s comrades present in the audience. “Happily, we are here together this year in Avihayil, and the Colonel, together with my grandmother Frances, are resting under the bright sky and fresh air of Israel, far from the dusty corners in Rosedale cemetery.”
John Henry Patterson
Godfather Of The Israeli Army
Here are panels 8, 5, 6, and 7 from the Patterson board featured yesterday. The final panel shows the star of David and a quote from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “In all of Jewish history we have never had a Christian friend as understanding and devoted.” The interim panels described Patterson’s raising and leading of the Jewish battalions of the Royal Fusiliers in WWI. After dying in obscurity in Los Angeles in 1947, his remains were transported to Israel in December 2014 and reinterred (video). For more, including a recording of Patterson’s voice, see this BBC Magazine article.
Video of the launch:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTRY-OBMnjk]
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text: X02621 X02618 X02619 X02620 X02622 The Zion Mule Corps. Lt. Colonel Patterson rejoined the British Army in 1914, upon the outbreak of World War I, and saw service in Flander[s] before being sent to Egypt. In Alexandria he met Joseph Trumpeldor and Zeev Jabotinsky who were attempting to form a Jewish military force. By the end March 1915, Jewish volunteers from among deportees in Egypt had started training. The British military command opposed to participation of Jewish volunteers on the Palestinian front and suggested the volunteers serve as a detachment for mule transport. In 1915, Lt. Colonel Patterson was made commander of the approximately 750 man Zion Mule Corps, organized in Egypt in March, with a rank of “honorary Lieutenant Colonel.” Swearing in the new volunteers on March 31, 1915. Patterson wrote in his diary “never since the days of Judah Maccabee had such sights and sounds been seen and heard in a military camp – with the drilling of uniformed soliders soldiers in the Hebrew language”. In April of 1915, after the Mule Corps had been in training for just 3 weeks, Lt. Colonel Patterson landed with the corps at V Beach, Gallipoli. About half of the corps were seconded to the Anzacs, who treated them discourteously and had them shipped back to Alexandria, the rest under Lt. Colonel Patterson then landed at Cape Helles on April 27th where they saw action for the very first time, there the corps served with distinction out of the 300 men that landed, 14 were killed. The Mule Corps disbanded in early 1916, Lt. Colonel Patterson returned to Ireland where he commanded the 4th Royal Irish Fusiliers and 5th Royal Dublin Fusiliers. In 1917, after 3 years of lobbying by the British Jewish community, and the likes Jabotinsky the British government finally agreed to the raising of a specifically Jewish unit to fight in the British Army in World War One against the Turks in Palestine/Israel. the force was to be part of the Royal Fusiliers and were given the battalion numbers 38th-42nd. The whole force became known as the Jewish Legion or colloquially as “The First Judeans” The most famous photograph of the men on their march shows Lt. Colonel Patterson clearly and proudly at the head of his men on his horse with one of his offices mounted behind him though the image is blurred has the Lt. Colonel clearly with a broad smile on his face. Indeed every man was smiling as they were lionised by the crowds before embarking on their journey to the Jordan Valley. In June 1918 38th Battalion began engaging the Ottomans some twenty miles north of Jerusalem the Legion also participated in the Battle of Megiddo in mid-September 1918 widely considered to have been one of the final and decisive victories of the Ottoman front. The legion’s mission was to cross the Jordan river. Jabotinsky led the effort. Later he was decorated and Major General Chaytor told the Jewish troops “By forcing the Jordan fords, you helped in no small measure to win the great victory gained at Damascus. faced ongoing anti-semitism superios peers subordinates engendered much respect sacrificed promotion and position in his quest to ensure fair treatment of them several years living in American wife frances reunited with fellow soldiers zionist legend historic past in the present future is yours if you have the will faith aged 79 18th June 1947 buried los angeles david ben-gurion we salute you
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ONE THOUGHT ON “GODFATHER OF THE ISRAELI ARMY”
ReplyDeleteAN SIONNACH FIONN
2015-05-27 / 8:56 pm
The weirdly one-sided affection for the state of Israel in some unionist circles, especially the more extremist ones, is slightly surreal given the “armed struggle” waged by Jewish guerrillas against the British mandate in Palestine in the 1930s and ‘40s. Not to mention the widespread anti-Semitism amongst unionist politicians and writers at the start of the 20th century, and the links to far right and neo-Nazi groups in Britain amongst loyalist militants from the 1970s to the present day. I suppose the cultish nonsense around the Lost Tribes of Israel partly informs the contemporary obsession.
Then again the hostility to Israel in some Irish republican circles puzzles me too given the close links between Fenians and Zionism in the late 1800s, the role of the Jewish-Irish community during the Irish revolution, and the IRA’s training of Irgun guerrillas in the ‘40s.
I wonder what the Israelis make of it all? A Jewish friend of mine says they are completely oblivious of the unionist community in the north-east of Ireland, let alone aware of the unreciprocated love affair.
’tis a strange world we live in.
Belfast memorial to Christian Zionist officer vandalized
ReplyDeleteJune 9, 2016 5:20pm
John Henry Patterson and his wife's new gravesite in Israel. (Hillel Kuttler)
The Israel gravesite of John Henry Patterson and his wife. (Hillel Kuttler)
(JTA) — In what is being treated as a hate crime, a Belfast mural honoring a local Christian citizen who led a historic Jewish legion in World War I and then advocated for the creation of the State of Israel was vandalized.
The memorial to Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson was damaged early Thursday morning after two containers were set ablaze nearby, the Irish News reported. Belfast is in northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom.
An officer in the British army, Patterson during World War I commanded the Zion Mule Corps, the first Jewish fighting force in nearly two millennia, which fought in the Gallipoli Campaign. He went on to become an ardent supporter of the creation of a Jewish state.
His remains were moved to Israel last year and buried alongside the Jewish soldiers, belatedly fulfilling a wish he had expressed before his death in 1947, one year before the establishment of the State of Israel. At the 2015 burial ceremony in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Patterson “can be called the godfather of the Israeli army.”
“In doing what we are doing today, we are repaying a great historical debt and a personal debt to a great friend of our people, a great champion of Zionism, and a great believer in the Jewish state and the Jewish people,” said Netanyahu, whose father was a personal friend of Patterson.
Netanyahu’s older brother, Yonatan, who was killed leading the 1976 Entebbe rescue operation, was named for Patterson, who was his godfather.
The Belfast memorial features a large star of David and a quote from Netanyahu: “In all of Jewish history we have never had a Christian friend as understanding and devoted.”
In addition to recognizing Patterson, the Belfast memorial also honors Jewish soldiers in World War I and World War II.
Pastor Paul Burns, a local Christian leader, told the U.K.’s iTV he believed the attack was anti-Semitic and said it was particularly disturbing coming just hours after four Israelis were killed in a Tel Aviv terror attack.
William Humphrey, a Belfast elected official, told iTV the attack was “clearly designed to raise tensions.” The memorial was “welcomed in the community … but also by the Jewish community as it showed the historic links between Belfast and Israel.”
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