Hula Massacre

The Hula massacre took place between 31 October and 1 November 1948. Hula (Hule) was a village in Lebanon 3 km west of Kibbutz Manara, not far from the Litani River. It was captured on October 24 by the Carmeli Brigade of the Israel Defence Forces without any resistance at all. Between 35 and 58 captured men were executed in a house which was later blown up on top of them. Revenge was the motive.

Two officers were responsible for the massacre. One of them, first lieutenant Shmuel Lahis, who served as Company Commander, was brought to justice in an Israeli military court where he was given a seven-year sentence later reduced on appeal to one year, and was released in 1950. He received a retrospective presidential amnesty in 1955. He became a lawyer, and later Director General of the Jewish Agency.

At his trial, Lahis put forth the defence that the crime had been committed outside the borders of Israel. The military court rejected this defence but gave Lahis a postponement so that he could appeal this point to the High Court of Justice. In the same HCJ case, the Israeli government argued that the HCJ did not have the right to interpret military law. In February 1949, the HCJ rejected both the claim of Lahis and the claim of the government, allowing the trial to continue.