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Dear visitors to the Aliya Bet (Clandestine Immigration) & Rekhesh Website,

The website is an initiative of mine dating back to the end of 2006. Currently I’m the only one maintaining it, serving as both its Webmaster and Editor-in-chief. During the 1st eight years of the website’s existence though – the period during which almost all the displayed material was collected, checked, proofread and organized – few others were heavily involved in the website’s development. Two of them deserve special recognition for their tremendous, critical and unique contribution combined with endless dedication: my father and partner to the development since day one, the Palyam & Israel Navy veteran Commander Yehuda ("Pere") Ben-tzur – a well known expert on the website’s subject matter, he was in charge of the historical research and the contacts with the public and relevant institutions, until he became too old for the task; and our friend Aryeh Malkin who passed away at the end of January 2014 – a veteran of Aliya Bet and Kibbutz Ein Dor, he made a critical contribution to the project of establishing the website's English version by translating hundreds of personal stories and articles from Hebrew (speaking of this project, the contribution of Nava Goren and Avi Livny must be noted as well).

We, the past and current developers of this website, have received many positive feedbacks over the years from visitors to the website and we thank those visitors for their support and encouragement.  We thank The Hertzl Institute for Research & Study of Zionism at the University of Haifa for sponsoring the website (with special thanks to Prof. Yoav Gelber). We also thank various volunteers who helped us along the way, and the people who have contributed material to be published on the website.

Our goal has been to tell the story of Aliya Bet (Ha'apala), the Palyam, and all maritime activities/events related to the establishment of The State of Israel as truthfully as humanly possible. We provide a media for the veterans of Aliya Bet and the Palyam to publish their individual stories. As a repository to hundreds of stories, research articles, maps, and testimonies, this website should be of great value to those who have interest in some of the most important and exciting events leading to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. We apologize for this English version of the website being noticeably less rich and developed compared to the Hebrew version, due to lack of resources.

We acknowledge and respect the contribution to Aliya Bet of all organizations, groups and individuals, including the immigrants (ma'apilim) themselves. We invite people to submit relevant stories/articles, and we would be glad to publish them, subject of course to our judgment that the stories are genuine and accurately reference historical events.

Hoping you are enjoying your visit and wishing you well,

Tzvi Ben-tzur

Webmaster & Editor-in-chief



Tzvi Ben-tzur (left) – webmaster & editor-in-chief,
Commander (Ret'd) Yehuda Ben-tzur – in charge of historical research
 
The Palyam & Aliya Bet Website

באתר מפורסמים סיפורים אישיים רבים; אין למערכת האתר אפשרות לאמת את כל פרטיהם ולכן הכתוב בהם באחריות בלעדית של כותביהם.

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