On a sweltering July evening in 1954, outside the Rio Cinema in Alexandria, Egypt, history shifted because of a seemingly minor accident. A 19-year-old man, Philip Natanson, collapsed in agony as his jacket caught fire. When Captain Hassan El-Manawy of the Special Police Division tore the burning garment open, he didn't find a packet of cigarettes; he found explosives.
That small flame exposed a massive shadow: the first Jewish spy network on Egyptian land. It was the beginning of the scandal known to the world as the Lavon Affair.
At Rajaeen, we believe that to support the voices of Palestinian refugees, we must first understand the historical mechanisms that sought to erase our narratives and destabilize our region.
Today, we are diving deep into the history of the Lavon Affair, the formation of Mossad intelligence, and the cost of colonial manipulation.
From Migration to Militarization: The Early Zionist Movement
In the early 20th century, the Zionist movement faced a demographic challenge: they needed to increase the Jewish population in Palestine to pressure the British Empire to act on the Balfour Declaration.
While the world watched the rise of Nazi Germany, which provided the Zionist movement with a tragic moral justification to accelerate migration, a covert infrastructure was being built in the shadows.
The Rise of the Haganah and Israeli Intelligence Agency Roots
In 1929, the Jewish Agency was established. On paper, it was an administrative body. In reality, it was the nerve center for:
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Coordinating immigration from across the globe.
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Supporting underground armed groups like the Haganah.
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Preparing the groundwork to seize control of the land.
By 1937, this evolved into “Mossad LeAliyah Bet,” an organization dedicated to illegal immigration and acquiring weaponry, and by the time the 1948 Nakba shattered Palestinian society, these groups were no longer ragtag militias. They were sophisticated units that would eventually give birth to Mossad intelligence, trained in cryptography, disguise, and surveillance.
The Machinery of Instability: Mossad Israel Takes Shape
After the establishment of Israel in 1948, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion consolidated these scattered militias into three powerful arms:
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Mossad Israel (The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations) for foreign intelligence.
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Aman for military intelligence.
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Shin Bet (Shabak) for internal security.
The objective of Mossad intelligence shifted from mere survival to active destabilization. The goal was to create chaos within Arab nations to delay their independence from British and French colonial rule.
The Lavon Affair: A Failure of the Israeli Intelligence Agency
This strategy culminated in the Lavon Affair. Agents from the nascent Israeli intelligence agency planted bombs in British and American-owned facilities in Egypt. The plan was wicked in its simplicity: detonate the bombs, blame it on Egyptian nationalists, and convince the British that Egypt was too unstable to be left alone.
It was a false-flag operation designed by Mossad Israel and military intelligence to sabotage Egypt's relationship with the West. However, the premature explosion in Philip Natanson’s pocket revealed the truth: the chaos was manufactured.
The Human Cost of The Zionist Movement Ideology
Perhaps the most tragic aspect of these intelligence operations was the exploitation of identity. The script of history asks a valid question: Why would respected doctors, teachers, and artists in Iraq, Egypt, or Lebanon betray their home countries for the Zionist movement?
The answer lies in psychological and ideological pressure.
Leaders of the Zionist movement utilized a strategy of fear, convincing Jewish communities in the Arab world — communities that had existed for centuries — that they could never be safe outside of Israel. They reframed Jewish identity from a religion into a nationality. This manipulation didn't just destabilize governments; it tore apart the social fabric of the Middle East, serving the goals of Mossad intelligence by turning neighbors into suspects.
As noted in research by Oxford Academic, this wasn't done in isolation. Deep operational cooperation existed between British intelligence and Mossad, further proving that the region’s instability was often imported, not indigenous.
Why This History Matters to Rajaeen
You might ask: Why does a platform dedicated to Palestinian art and heritage write about Mossad intelligence and 1950s espionage?
Because erasure takes many forms.
The same Israeli intelligence agency that planted bombs to rewrite the political reality of the 1950s is the same system that attempts to erase Palestinian culture, history, and existence today.
At Rajaeen, our response to destruction is creation.
- Where Mossad Israel’s tactics create chaos, we preserve heritage.
- Where they silence history, we amplify voices.
- Where they displace people, we create economic opportunities for refugees.
Watch the Full Episode on YouTube
This article is based on our in-depth documentary episode “The Mossad Files: Spies, Sabotage, and the Untold Story” on the Rajaeen YouTube channel.
In the episode, we walk through the Lavon Affair, the rise of Mossad, and the wider web of colonial intelligence operations that reshaped the region — with maps, archival material, and clear explanations that build on what you’ve just read.
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