View source for Ta'as

{{Use shortened footnotes|date=December 2022}}
[[File:MY-Davidka-1.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Davidka mortar, [[Givati]] Museum, Israel]]
'''Ta'as''', an abbreviation of the Hebrew for "Military Industry" ([[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]: ''Ta'asiya Tzvait''), was the clandestine arms industry of the Jewish settlement in [[Mandatory Palestine]]. In the 1930s, it was headed by [[Yisrael Amir]].<ref name=milstein>Milstein & Sacks, 1997, p. 32.</ref> Ta'as was based on a number of small workshops and factories, the first one being hidden in a tannery ("The Aleph Institute") on the north beach of [[Tel Aviv]].<ref>Allon, 1979, p. 161.</ref><ref name=sacharov20>Sacharov, 2004, p. 20.</ref> "Aleph" had a professional staff of lathe operators, metalworkers, plane operators, milling machine operators and others.<ref name=sacharov20/>
[[Eliahu Sacharoff|Eliahu Sacharov]], one of the heads of the organisation,<ref>Mardor, 1966, p. 212.</ref> was responsible for testing the first weapons produced by Ta'as at the [[Solel Boneh]] quarry at [[Migdal Afek| Migdal Tzedek]].<ref name=sacharov19>Sacharov, 2004, p. 19.</ref>
Haim Slavin, an engineer from [[Russia]] who worked with [[Pinhas Rutenberg]] on building a power station at [[Naharayim]], was the general manager from 1937 to 1952.<ref name=sacharov>Sacharov, 2004, p. 58.</ref> Under Slavin's leadership Ta'as was reorganised and thereafter reached new heights of production such that it became the primary supplier of weapons to the [[Haganah]].<ref name=sacharov/> Slavin also developed new plants for Ta'as.<ref>Sacharov, 2004, p. 53.</ref>
During the [[1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine]], Ta'as developed an [[Ordnance ML 3 inch Mortar|81-mm mortar]], the Haganah's heaviest weapon at that time, and manufactured mines and grenades, 17,500 of the latter being produced for use during the revolt.<ref>Sacharov, 2004, p. 23.</ref><ref>Adelman, 2008, p. 156.</ref><ref name=morris160>Morris, 1999, p. 160.</ref>
The Haganah decided to develop mortars locally in 1934, beginning with a copy of the British [[2-inch mortar]].<ref name=sacharov19/> This task was given to David Leibowitz, one of the founders of Ta'as, who was later to win fame as the developer of the [[Davidka]] mortar that was used extensively in the [[1948 Arab-Israeli War]].<ref name=sacharov19/> Leibowitz was assisted by Yisrael Yoshpe, who became Ta'as's expert in metal casting.<ref name=sacharov19/>
==Notes==
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==References==
*Adelman, Jonathan R. (2008). ''The Rise of Israel: A History of a Revolutionary State''. Routledge. {{ISBN|978-0-415-77510-6}}
*Allon, Yigal (1970). ''Shield of David: the story of Israel's Armed Forces. Random House''.
*Mardor, Munya (1966). ''Haganah''. New American Library.
*Milstein, Uri and Sacks, Alan (1997). ''History of the War of Independence: The First Month''. University Press of America. {{ISBN|978-0-7618-0721-6}}
*[[Benny Morris|Morris, Benny]] (1999). ''Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-1999''. John Murray. {{ISBN|0-7195-6222-8}}
*[[Eliahu Sacharoff|Sacharov, Eliahu]] (2004). ''Out of the Limelight: Events, Operations, Missions, and Personalities in Israeli History.'' Gefen Publishing House Ltd. {{ISBN|978-965-229-298-8}}
[[Category:Arab–Israeli conflict]]
[[Category:1948 Arab–Israeli War]]
[[Category:1930s in Mandatory Palestine]]