Nili

NILI (Hebrew: נִילי) was a Jewish espionage network which assisted the United Kingdom in its fight against the Ottoman Empire in the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem between 1915 and 1917, during World War I. NILI was centered in Zikhron Ya'akov, with branches in Hadera and other Moshava.^[1] Nili is an acronym which stands for the Hebrew phrase from the First Book of Samuel: "Netzah Yisrael Lo Yeshaker" (1 Samuel 15:29), which translates as "the Eternal One of Israel will not lie".^[2] The British government code-named NILI the "A Organization", according to a 1920 misfiled memorandum in the British National Archives, as described in the book Spies in Palestine by James Srodes.^[3]

During the Armenian genocide, the group opposed the Yishuv leadership at the time, and tried to intervene on behalf of the Armenians.^[4]

In choosing to side with the British Empire, the members of Nili went against the majority view of their fellow Jews from the Yishuv, who feared fierce persecution. These fears almost materialised when the spy ring was discovered, and the Jews of Palestine escaped the tragic fate of the Armenians only due to the intervention of the Vatican, the German government and General Erich von Falkenhayn, commander of the Ottoman-German troops in Palestine.^[5]^[6]

^ Marom, Roy (9 March 2023). "Hadera: transnational migrations from Eastern Europe to Ottoman Palestine and the glocal origins of the Zionist-Arab conflict". Middle Eastern Studies: 11. doi:10.1080/00263206.2023.2183499. ISSN 0026-3206. S2CID 257443159.
^ O'Malley, J. P. (14 December 2016). "With Spy Sarah Aaronsohn's Suicide, Israeli History was Rewritten, Claims Author". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
^ Srodes, James (2016). Spies in Palestine. Berkeley: Counterpoint Press. p. viii. ISBN 978-1619026131.
^ Melson, Robert (2002). "The Banality of Indifference: Zionism and the Armenian Genocide (review)". Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies. 20 (4): 124–126. doi:10.1353/sho.2002.0075. S2CID 144179420.
^ "Reply by historian Michael Hesemann". Did a German Officer Prevent the Massacre of the Jews of Eretz Yisrael during World War I?. IsraelDailyPicture.com. 9 December 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
^ Holger Afflerbach (1994). Falkenhayn: Politisches Denken und Handeln im Kaiserreich. Beitrage zur Militargeschichte. Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag. p. 485. ISBN 9783486559729.

[:0-1] Marom, Roy (9 March 2023). "Hadera: transnational migrations from Eastern Europe to Ottoman Palestine and the glocal origins of the Zionist-Arab conflict". Middle Eastern Studies: 11. doi:10.1080/00263206.2023.2183499. ISSN 0026-3206. S2CID 257443159.

[2] O'Malley, J. P. (14 December 2016). "With Spy Sarah Aaronsohn's Suicide, Israeli History was Rewritten, Claims Author". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 17 November 2019.

[3] Srodes, James (2016). Spies in Palestine. Berkeley: Counterpoint Press. p. viii. ISBN 978-1619026131.

[4] Melson, Robert (2002). "The Banality of Indifference: Zionism and the Armenian Genocide (review)". Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies. 20 (4): 124–126. doi:10.1353/sho.2002.0075. S2CID 144179420.

[5] "Reply by historian Michael Hesemann". Did a German Officer Prevent the Massacre of the Jews of Eretz Yisrael during World War I?. IsraelDailyPicture.com. 9 December 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2015.

[6] Holger Afflerbach (1994). Falkenhayn: Politisches Denken und Handeln im Kaiserreich. Beitrage zur Militargeschichte. Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag. p. 485. ISBN 9783486559729.

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