Danin was born in
Jaffa. His father, (originally Socholovsky, 1868–1945), was "an entrepreneur from
Białystok (in modern
Poland)," and emigrated to Palestine as part of the
First Aliyah. Yehezkel became active in Zionist circles and eventually settled in Jaffa, where Ezra was born. He was later one of the founders of
Tel Aviv. His mother Rachel Yellin, had been born in Palestine to a family of the
Old Yishuv. His maternal grandfather, rabbi
Yehoshua Yellin, was a prominent rabbi in Jerusalem, and his maternal grandmother, Sarah Yehuda, was from an
Iraqi-Jewish family originally from
Baghdad.73 During the
Arab Revolt of 1936-1939, Danin was the leader of a spy network for the
Haganah in the district of Samaria. According to
Roy Marom, "Fluent in colloquial Arabic from childhood, and versed in Arabic culture and lore, Ezra Danin had no difficulty communicating with Arabs. During the Revolt, Ezra used his family’s extensive connections in order to recruit, train and operate dozens of informants. [...] Danin’s intelligence enabled British troops to locate and expel the rebel commander
Fawzi al-Qawuqji from Samaria". In 1940, he formed the Arab section of the
SHAI and remained there until 1948. He was instrumental in the formation of the "Syrian Platoon" of the
Palmach in 1940–41, whose goal was to infiltrate
Syria and
Lebanon who were under
French Vichy rule. Danin accompanied
Golda Meir, the
Jewish Agency representative, in her meetings with
King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan, in the months leading to the establishment of the
State of Israel. Together with
Eliahu Sasson they participated in the 17 November 1947 meeting at
Naharayim on the river Jordan. The Danin-Sasson reports were then produced based on this meeting. On May 11, 1948, three days before the proclamation of the
independence of Israel Danin again accompanied Meir to
Amman, trying to persuade Abdullah not to join the
coming Arab-Israeli war of 1948. According to
Nur Masalha and
Benny Morris Danin was a member of the various unofficial
Transfer Committees, from May to August 1948. According to Roy Marom, Danin was a prime instigator of the
Nakba, the Palestinian Exodus, around Hadera. [...] On 6 April 1948, however, Danin’s committee ordered the evacuation (pinuy) of all Arabs in the Jewish zone of control [...] Danin’s order resulted in the eviction and demolition of all but two Palestinian villages along the country’s coastal plain between Haifa and Jaffa. [...] Israeli authorities appropriated Arab lands, and partitioned them among Jewish settlements. Danin was responsible for allocating Arab properties around Hadera. [...] In the summer of 1948, Danin was a member of the Foreign Ministry committee to formulating a final ‘Settlement of the Arab Refugee Problem’. Danin then served as a Director of the Foreign Ministry's Middle East Department under Golda Meir. Danin published two books: a collection of documents captured from Arab gangs in the Arab Revolt of 1936-1939 and an Autobiography titled "Unconditional Zionist" (written with
Yaakov Sharet). ==Footnotes==