Behind an innocent-looking Tel Aviv storefront, Israel’s infant arms industry churned out bullets, mortars, and guns right under the British Mandate’s nose

Where To?

The Store
Secret Hagana armory
10 Ha-sharon Street, Tel Aviv

A few decades ago, Tel Aviv was quietly, almost stealthily plastered with 125 gray-brown metal plaques. Affixed to houses and fences or erected in parks, these signs were intended to lift the veil of secrecy long shrouding Zionist underground activity in the first Jewish city during the British Mandate. No longer could anyone accuse Tel Avivians of blithely drinking coffee at beachside cafés while others risked their lives blowing up bridges and posting illegal announcements. The plaques were all placed right where the deeds were done: on the walls of retired arms caches and hidden training compounds, and precisely where brave Jewish fighters were gunned down by Perfidious Albion.

The project was launched by Shlomo “Chich” Lahat, the legendary Tel Aviv mayor and former Hagana commander. Lahat started off in 1987 by marking Hagana sites but included their Irgun and Lehi counterparts once veterans of those militias began grumbling about discrimination. By 1993 the job was more or less done, with seventy-five Hagana plaques and fifty for the competition.

The Store was a munitions factory located amid heavy traffic in Tel Aviv. Commemorative plaque at 10 Ha-sharon Street | Photo: Kfir Sivan

In a Word | Albion

Like Albania and the Alps, this ancient name for Britain may originate in the Gallic word albiyo, meaning world, or the Welsh elfydd, denoting a place or land. Other suggestions are based on the White Cliffs of Dover, which greet sailors approaching southern England; Albion would then derive from the Greek alpes or the Latin albus, each describing the color white, or possibly from the proto-Indo-European albʰo, meaning hill.

“Perfidious Albion” was a derogatory term coined by French revolutionaries in the late 18th century to convey their sense of betrayal when Britain, at first been mildly supportive of the overthrow of the French monarchy, embarked on the Hundred Years War against Napoleon’s French forces. The pre-state Zionist community in the land of Israel adopted the expression in protest at British “treachery” in backtracking its support for a Jewish homeland, contrary to the Balfour Declaration.