Bavli, Ezra

Born in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq in the early 1920s, son of Aziza and Meir-Zion was seven years old when the family immigrated to Israel because of the riots against the Jews. Ezra grew up and was educated in Jerusalem. He studied at Yeshivah, worked in various jobs and specialized as a diamond polishing worker in Jerusalem. From his youth he was a member of Betar, and during the riots he participated in “Haganah Bet” (Hagana B) activities in Jerusalem, and increased his activities from 1944 onward when he joined the Irgun underground. His underground name was “Sergeant Yiftah”. Ezra organized an Etzel branch in the factory where he worked, recruited dozens of young people to the underground, trained in the eyes of the foreign secret police, and knew not to raise suspicion, and his friends called him “puku-muku”. To Latrun, where he did not cease his activities, and only two years later, at the beginning of the War of Independence, he was released and immediately joined the Irgun forces that operated openly. He organized training courses for instructors in one of the Etzel bases, completed a first aid course. He participated in the battles of Jaffa, Yehudia and Ramle. Ezra fell in battle for Ramla on the 16th of Iyar 5708 (16.5.1948), while he was helping a wounded paramedic, and his soul came out in words: “Shema Yisrael.” He was brought to eternal rest in the Nahalat Yitzhak Military Cemetery.