David Raziel

David Raziel (December 19, 1910 - May 17, 1941) was a Jewish freedom fighter during the British mandate in Palestine, and one of the heads of the Irgun.

Born in Vilna district in the Russian Empire, he immigrated with his family at the age of three to Eretz Israel, where his father became a Hebrew teacher at a Tel-Aviv elementary school. When the 1929 Arab riots broke out, he joined the Haganah in Jerusalem, where he was studying philosophy and mathematics at the Hebrew University. When the Irgun was established, he was one of its first members, and displayed outstanding military skills.

In 1937 he was appointed Commander of Jerusalem District and a year later Commander in Chief of the Irgun. His term as leader was especially marked by violence against Arabs, including a sequence of market-place bombings.

On May 17, 1941 he was sent, with three of his comrades, to Iraq on behalf of the British army. The next day a bomb from a German aircraft killed him.