Yaakov Heruti

Yaakov Heruti was born in 1927 in Tel Aviv

Heruti was born in Tel Aviv in 1927 to parents who came from Poland. His father, Mordechai, had helped found Hashomer Hatzair in Poland and later joined Mapai. He studied at the Herzliya Gymnasium.

He joined the Jewish Settlement Police and then Lehi, where he worked in the technical department making explosives. In April 1947 a bomb from the department destroyed the British police building at Sarona, killing four police officers. In 1947 he was sent to Britain to set up a Lehi cell, and studied law at London University.

The cell sent letter bombs to General Evelyn Barker and to Roy Farran. Farran's brother Rex opened the package and was killed. Heruti returned in 1948 and fought with Lehi in Jerusalem during the War of Independence.

In the 1950s he led Kingdom of Israel, which bombed the Soviet embassy in Tel Aviv in February 1953. He was arrested in May 1953 and sentenced to 10 years by a special military court, but the sentence was commuted. In 1958 he was convicted over leaflets against the judge in the Kasztner case and released for time served.

He helped found the Tehiya and Tsomet parties and coined the name Moledet. As a lawyer he helped settlers buy land. He died in 2022.