A makeshift pistol dated to Israel’s War of Independence was recently discovered in the Ha’emek Museum’s storage warehouse by museum staff running to and from bomb shelters during Operation Roaring Lion, after being forgotten for decades.
The near 80-year-old pistol was built by 16-year-old Uzi Aharoni in Kibbutz Gvat’s blacksmith shop in early 1948 to defend his settlement ahead of and during the war.
"In 1947, we in Kibbutz Gvat suffered harassment from gangs belonging to [Fawzi] al-Qawuqji’s army, who settled in the villages near us and came out to harm us," Yoav Aharoni, 86, Uzi’s brother, who now lives in Kibbutz Yifat in the Jezreel Valley, told Ynet. "They used to shoot us from a hill above Gvat, and today Kibbutz Yifat is located there.”
It was Israel’s severe weapons and ammunition shortage during the Independence War that led to Uzi to build his improvised weapon “based on a tube that was used as a mole trap,” Yoav shared.
Uzi donated the pistol to the Ha'emek Museum in the late 1970s, alongside a handwritten letter explaining its history.
“Eliyahu Gozani and I decided that we needed to make personal weapons for ourselves,” Uzi wrote in his letter. “At the Gvat [blacksmith's] workshop, they were making fence mines at the time, composed of a barrel and a striking mechanism, attached to the fence post. A touch of a wire, which was stretched along the fence, would trigger the firing of a bullet.”
Uzi added that “the production of the mines was underground, done in secret, and with great effort, we obtained parts of mines that were rejected during production, which we worked hard to repair, and eventually assembled the pistol.”
“When I was on duty, I kept the mechanism with the stock, cocked and locked, in my [left] pocket, and in my right pocket, I kept the barrel loaded with a bullet, as well as a rescue baton."
Only boy in Jezreel Valley to always be armed in 1948
Yoav explained that Uzi was able to put the firearm back together in seconds “with the skills of an engineer.”
“He carried it in his pocket throughout the War of Independence and was constantly on the alert to use it,” Yoav told Ynet. “He was the only boy in the valley who always walked around with a gun.”
Aside from a short exhibition at the President’s Residence, the pistol has never been publicly displayed by the museum itself. However, upon discovery, the museum made the immediate decision to put the historical artifact on display.
The new exhibit will be made public during a special, free Independence Day event on Wednesday, April 22.
Ha'emek Museum is located in Kibbutz Yifat in the Galilee, northern Israel.