In Palestine, he adopted the Hebrew surname
Giladi and joined
Irgun, the underground paramilitary organization of the
revisionist Zionists, under the leadership of
David Raziel. Giladi became the head of the section of Irgun in
Ness Ziona. When the Irgun split in 1940, Giladi became part of breakaway militant Zionist group named
Lehi, led by
Avraham Stern, which decided, despite
England's declaration of war on Germany, to continue its actions against the British rule of Palestine. Giladi was highlighted by his charisma and recklessness.
Yitzhak Shamir was impressed at first by his personal qualities - imagination, boldness, courage and total lack of fear. The years of 1941-1942 were difficult for Lehi. Like most Lehi members, Giladi was caught by the British security services and imprisoned at a detention camp in
Mazra'a. Several militants of the movement were killed by the British, including its commander, Avraham Stern, who was killed in Tel Aviv in February 1942. Only a small group of fighters remained free.
Conflict and violent denouncement On September 2, 1942, Giladi and Shamir managed to escape arrest. They arrived at the house of Yerahmiel Aharonson, where they disguised themselves in new clothes and went incognito. Together with the other members, led by
Yehoshua Cohen, Shamir and Giladi, they went on to reorganize the network. According to the testimony of
Nathan Yellin-Mor and other Lehi members, from the spring of 1943 Giladi entered into sharp conflicts of ego and opinion with Shamir, and his behavior, which showed signs of imbalance, began to endanger the organization. He threatened his comrades, including Shamir, with a
revolver, launched hasty and dangerous actions against the
British Army personnel among the Jewish civilian population, allegedly proposing that members of the movement work as
prostitutes. According to Yelin-Mor, Giladi seemed to be completely indifferent to human lives. Arie Perliger and Leonard Weinberg state that Giladi was assassinated because he wished to return to the Irgun. According to Josef Heller, a researcher of the history of Lehi, Giladi could not bear to accept someone else's authority. When Shamir proposed that the organization get back on its feet through a training program, strengthening fighting capacity, and launching massive propaganda among the Jewish public, Giladi, who was competing to lead the movement, proposed self-financing by organizing rapid expropriations fundraising, such as the one he led at the Anglo-Palestinian Bank in September 1940, and supported the idea of assassinating the leaders of rival organizations - Irgun,
Haganah and the Zionist parties, including
David Ben-Gurion. When Shamir overturned an order by Giladi which he considered particularly reckless, Giladi appeared at the house where Shamir was hiding and threatened to kill him with his revolver, in case he would cancel his orders again. In June 1943, one of Lehi's members committed suicide, believed to be due to pressure from Giladi. Shamir was convinced that Giladi was endangering the existence of the organization and decided that there was no choice but to kill him. At that time, Lehi had great difficulty procuring weapons in
Haifa and in the north. Giladi was commissioned to send a shipment of weapons by boats from the Zevulun naval school in northern
Tel Aviv. On August 7, 1943, he was summoned to a meeting at this area, accompanied by two other Lehi fighters, Tzfoni Shomron and Yerahmiel Aharonson. On the way, they pulled out their revolvers and shot Giladi in the back and front. Then they buried him in an unknown location, according to one of the hypotheses, at a
beach in Bat Yam. After the execution, Shamir summoned thirteen members of Lehi to
Bat Yam, and reported them on Giladi's deeds and execution. By a retroactive vote, the group unanimously approved the execution. Later, the detained Lehi members were also notified and approved the decision. The fighters closest to Giladi finally reconciled with his killing. ==Legacy==