Shul, Naftali (Butch)

Naftali (Butch), son of Hela and Reuven-Rudolf Shul, was born on 15 March 1922 in the state of Brunsweig, Germany and immigrated to Israel with his family in 1936. The family settled near Tiberias and Naftali began to study electrical engineering at the Technion and was particularly fond of mathematics. Naftali was an active member of the “Haganah” from the time of the bloody riots of 1936-1939. In 1942, he and his brother joined the Jewish settlement police and served in the Jordan Battalion. In 1946, Naftali moved to Holon and served as a squad leader in the Jewish Fighting Organization. In January 1948 he was sent to Jerusalem and took part in the battles for Sheikh Jarrah, was a courageous and even-tempered commander in times of danger. On the 2nd of Adar, 12.2.1948, while on duty near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, several British armored vehicles approached the Hagana positions. According to the instructions of the Hagana headquarters not to respond to the provocation of the British, they did not fight them and some members of the Haganah were taken prisoner. Naftali volunteered to accompany them. The British brought them to the Old City and handed them over to the Arabs, who executed them. Naftali was buried in the military cemetery on Har HaZeisim. His name was engraved on the monument erected in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in memory of those who perished in the Jewish Quarter and the memory of soldiers who fell in the battle for Jerusalem and were buried on Har HaZeisim.