A debt of honor

Paul Veron visited his grandfather's grave in the Mount Zion Cemetery in Jerusalem for the first time a few weeks ago. Veron's grandfather, Lewis Yelland Andrews, 41, was murdered on Sept. 26, 1937, while on his way to a prayer service at the Anglican Christ Church in Nazareth. He was shot dead by four gunmen.

Australian-born Andrews was the British district commissioner for the Galilee during the British Mandate and a known friend to the local Jewish community. His killers were never brought to justice and remain unknown to this day, although it is believed they were followers of Sheikh Izz ad-Din Abd al-Qassam, for which Hamas' infamous military wing, the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, are named.

Andrews' assistance to the Jewish community stretched far and wide, raising an important question: Why has the memory of a man who was most likely assassinated for his support of the Zionist enterprise faded into oblivion-

During his years in Israel, Andrews transferred tens of thousands of acres of land into Jewish hands, promoting the establishment of communities formed as part of the tower-and-stockade settlement enterprise. Dozens of communities in Israel's northern Hula and Beit She'an valleys and in the central Hefer Valley would probably not exist if not for him.

Andrews also provided vital diplomatic protection to the Jewish community during the hearings held in the late 1930s by the Peel Commission, which was tasked with investigating the 1936-1939 Arab revolt, factually debunking the Arabs' assertion of being "dispossessed" of their land.

He was instrumental in the commission's 1937 decision to partition the western portion of the historic Land of Israel into a Jewish state and an Arab state.

He saved dozens of Jewish lives during the 1921 Jaffa riots and the 1929 Palestine riots, and had survived two previous attempts on his life: one in Acre in 1922, and another in Jerusalem in the early 1930s. The Arabs rejoiced at his murder in 1937, dancing on their roofs in Jaffa and Acre.

A mysterious case

I first heard Andrews' name in my grandfather Shlomo Zalman Shragai's home. He was a member of the Jewish National Council, whose departmental structure served as a basis for Israel's government.

Decades down the road, as I was researching my book "The Story of Rachel's Tomb," I learned that early in the Arab revolt, Andrews had saved the site from being destroyed. The British mistook the compound as one of the dozens of Arab homes from which gunfire was aimed at the Hebron-Jerusalem road. They rigged it with explosives and were about to detonate them when Andrews arrived and was able to prevent the holy site's destruction.

Over the past few years, I have been trying to track down his descendants, to no avail. It was only a few months ago, with the help of historian Dr. Dotan Goren and genealogist Roni Eliach, that a breakthrough was achieved. It was not easy, as descendants seemed to be nowhere to be found. Eliach tracked down Andrews' official records dating back to World War I, but they proved useless in this respect.

Eventually, the clue came from a mention of his wife, Maude Elizabeth, and three children in an Australian newspaper. Eliach found that Maude had died in 1985, and he managed to track down Andrew and Paul Veron, the sons of Andrews' daughter, Diana.

We exchanged letters for a while, and finally met when Veron arrived in Israel recently. For the first time, I learned firsthand how the murder affected the family.

The widowed Maude never remarried and never visited Israel, even though she knew the Jewish state was the culmination of many of her husband's hopes. The couple's two daughters, Georgina and Diana, never visited Israel either. Only their son, Tony, who passed away a year and a half ago, had come with his family to visit Israel and his grandfather's grave, shortly before he himself died.

In recent weeks, I learned I was not the only one interested in Andrews. For several years now, lawyer and amateur historian Yaron Bashan has been studying the Andrews case. Bashan heard about Andrews from an Arab friend and plans to write a book about his story. At this point, however, he has more questions than answers, with the identity of the murderers being the biggest question of all.

To this day, he noted, the identity of the killers remains unknown. No suspects were ever found and no one has ever been indicted.

Bashan combed through British records housed in the Haganah Historical Archive in Jerusalem. He is currently sifting through other sources, which so far have offered no solution. The actual investigation notes, however, are still beyond his reach.

"There was a sizeable reward offered at the time for any information leading to the killers, but no one ever came forward. Looking through the various archives, you can't even find the names of any suspects," he said.

Bashan has a few theories about the case, one deriving from the British course of action following the murder.

"They arrested anything that moved and were brutal about it. People were executed for even having a gun," he said. "Unknown to them, they might have executed the killer. The brutality with which the case was handled could have destroyed the evidence."

Long overdue recognition

Last week, in a move facilitated by Israel Hayom, the State of Israel officially acknowledged Andrews' unique contribution to the Jewish community and the fledgling country: Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely was happy to meet with Veron, and expressed the state's profound gratitude for his grandfather's actions.

Mentioning Andrews in the same breath as Lord Arthur James Balfour, who in 1917 penned the historic declaration in which Britain recognized the right of the Jewish people to establish a national home in British-ruled Palestine, Hotovely said the Jewish people will forever remember the support these two men gave them in their quest to form a sovereign Jewish state in their historical homeland.

We visited Andrews' grave. Almost 80 years ago, when Andrews was laid to rest in the Mount Zion Cemetery during the Simchat Torah holiday, scores of worshippers left the synagogues and stood by the road, saluting him on his final journey, and the 50 Jewish communities in the British District of Galilee published an obituary lamenting "the death of a friend to all farmers, a man of justice and integrity."

The Jewish National Council announced: "The history of this land and the community will forever remember Andrews among the names of the saints who sacrificed their lives for the revival of this land." Jewish leaders, from JNC President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi (who would later become Israel's second president) to the last community head, arrived in Jerusalem to pay their respects. British flags were lowered to half-mast in the cemetery. Alongside them, blue-and-white flags bearing a black strip of mourning also flew at half-mast.

The murder was followed by a wave of raids and mass arrests. Jerusalem Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini was detained, the Arab Higher Committee was outlawed and its members arrested, and all national Arab committees, including the Supreme Muslim Council, were dispersed.

Hundreds of Muslim leaders were arrested, and five were deported to the Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean. Husseini fled to the Al-Aqsa mosque, surrounded himself with dozens of armed terrorists, and was eventually able to flee, disguised as a woman, and escape the country through the Jaffa Port, joining forces with Adolf Hitler in Europe.

Yigal Eyal, whose book "The First Intifada" focuses on the Arab revolt, said that despite the closure and curfew imposed on Nazareth, the murderers had planned their escape route well and were able to get away.

It was initially believed that they fled by car before the British police were able to set up roadblocks, but it was later found that they fled on foot, through the mountains.

Corroborating Bashan's account of mass arrests following the murder, Eyal said 44 people were arrested across the Galilee the morning after the murder, 44 were arrested in Haifa, and 21 were arrested in Samaria. The finally tally of people arrested in connection to the murder eventually exceeded 200, he said.

British policy changed once the Arab revolt waned. They published the White Paper of 1939, restricted immigration, banned the purchase of land by Jews almost completely, and reneged on much of their practical commitment to establish a Jewish state.

Oved Ben-Ami, a close friend of Andrews and later the mayor of Netanya, recalled one of the conversations they had about the possibility of a Jewish state.

"Andrews rose [from his chair] suddenly, and with great excitement said, 'We Christians believe Christ will return to redeem mankind only when the Jewish state is established ... and I, who all my life have aspired to be one of those who help in the rebirth of Israel, have been privileged to see it.'"

Indeed, the journals and memoirs of the country's leaders, including first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, his successor Moshe Sharett, Jewish National Fund Director Joseph Weitz, and renowned Zionist activist Yehoshua Hankin, to name a few, all acknowledge Andrews' contribution.

Still, over the years, Andrews was forgotten. The city of Netanya named a street after him, but until a few weeks ago the state failed to express its gratitude. Hotovely was the first to rise to the challenge, but the Australian-born captain who served in the British army and took the Balfour Declaration at its word deserves much more.

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