Yaakov Banai

Yaakov Banai was born in 1920 in Baranavichy

Yaakov Tunkel was born in 1920 in Baranowicze, Poland, now in Belarus. His parents were Shraga and Brakha Tunkel, and the family owned a barber shop. His parents and two of his siblings died in the Holocaust.

He was a member of Betar and a founder of Irgun cells in Poland. He finished the state Gymnasium in 1938 and then studied law at Vilnius University. In 1941 he obtained a Sugihara visa and reached the Land of Israel through Turkey.

He joined Lehi and worked as a watchman in the Jezreel Valley, then moved to Haifa in 1943. He received the alias Mazal after avoiding a British search, and later changed his name to Banai. He took part in the 1944 attempt on High Commissioner Harold MacMichael and in the killing of Thomas Wilkin, and later headed Lehi's Fighting Brigade.

With the founding of the IDF he joined the 8th Brigade and commanded the Lehi Battalion. He later wrote the book Anonymous Soldiers about Lehi and lectured widely.

He worked for Egged and later directed an assisted living company in Ramat Gan until he retired in 1997. He chaired the Lehi heritage association and was named Yakir Ramat Gan in 2000. He died in 2009.