Yehoshua Cohen was a leading member of Lehi, a Zionist militant group, who assassinated United Nations envoys Folke Bernadotte and André Sérot on September 17, 1948. Cohen was never charged for his role in the assassination, and was one of the founders of the Sde Boker kibbutz in the Negev Desert, where David Ben-Gurion later lived. While Ben-Gurion lived at Sde Boker, he and Cohen became close friends.
Yehoshua Cohen
Cohen (right) on Wanted Poster of the Palestine Police Force offering rewards for the capture of Lehi members
Yehoshua Cohen on the left, with David Tovyahu
Lehi, often known pejoratively as the Stern Gang, was a Zionist paramilitary militant organization founded by Avraham ("Yair") Stern in Mandatory Palestine. Its avowed aim was to evict the British authorities from Palestine by use of violence, allowing unrestricted immigration of Jews and the formation of a Jewish state. It was initially called the National Military Organization in Israel, upon being founded in August 1940, but was renamed Lehi one month later. The group referred to its members as terrorists and admitted to having carried out terrorist attacks.
Avraham Stern
Lehi commemoration in Petah Tikva. Half-clenched fist, in reference to Psalms 137:5.
The 18 Principles of Rebirth, the ideology of Lehi as laid out by Avraham Stern, notes the need to "solve the problem" of the "alien population".
Wanted Poster of the Palestine Police Force offering rewards for the capture of Stern Gang members: Jaacov Levstein (Eliav), Yitzhak Yezernitzky (Shamir), and Natan Friedman-Yelin