Yellin-Mor, Natan (1913–1980)

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YELLIN-MOR, NATAN (1913–1980)

Israeli underground leader. Born as Nathan Friedman-Yellin in Grodno, Poland, Natan Yellin-Mor became active in the Polish branch of Betar, then in the Irgun Zvaʾi Leʾumi. With Abraham Stern, he edited the Irgun's Polish newspaper, Di Tat. He then left for Palestine with Stern, joining Stern's underground organization, Lohamei Herut Yisrael (LEHI), which conducted a campaign of propaganda and terror attacks against the British. After Stern's death in 1942, Yellin-Mor assumed leadership of LEHI, as part of a triumvirate, along with Israel Eldad and Yitzhak Shamir. Yellin-Mor was tried and convicted in 1949 for the 1948 assassination of United Nations emissary Count Folke Bernadotte. The sentence, however, was commuted in exchange for Yellin-Mor's vow to refrain from further terrorist activities. As a leader of the Fighters Party, LEHI's political entity, he was elected to the Knesset in 1949. In later years Yellin-Mor embraced the politics of the left, renouncing Zionism and advocating the creation of an Arab-Jewish socialist state.

SEE ALSO Lohamei Herut Yisrael;Stern, Abraham.