September 17 1948 – 13 Elul 5708
Folke Bernadotte, son of Swedish aristocracy, was born in Stockholm in 1895. He headed the Swedish Red Cross during World War Two, and was responsible for the prisoner exchange between Britain and Germany. These included 400 Jews from the Theresienstadt Ghetto and thousands more from Bergen Belsen and Ravensbruck concentration camps. The rescue operation Bernadotte co-ordinated was known as the White Buses mission, because of the white Red Cross ambulances used to transport the prisoners to safety.
After the war, Bernadotte was involved as “United Nations Mediator in Palestine” in negotiations between Jews and Arabs on the borders of the Jewish State. In June 1948, he suggested a Jewish Arab federation be established, rather than separate states. After both sides rejected his proposal, he presented another plan for Arab recognition of the State of Israel, return of Arab refugees who had fled to their homes and internationalization of Jerusalem. On September 17 1948, the day after this proposal was set before the United Nations, Lehi activists assassinated Bernadotte in Jerusalem. In response, Prime Minister Ben Gurion disbanded the militia.