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NILI was a secret pro-British spying organization that operated under Turkish rule in Syria and Palestine during World War I, from 1915 to 1917, under the leadership of Aaron Aaronsohn, Avshalom Feinberg, Sarah Aaronshn and Yosef Lishansky. Its name consists of the initial letters of the Hebrew verse "Nezah Yisrael Lo Yeshaker" (the Strength of Israel will not lie I Sam. 15:29) which served as its password. NILI was founded by a number of Jews in the Jewish agricultural villages, most of whom were native born. Disappointed with the Turkish authorities’ treatment of the Jewish population and fearing a fate similar to that of the Armenians, they concluded that the future of the Jews depended on Palestine being taken over by Britain. In January 1917, Feinberg and Lishansky, disguised as Bedouin, tried to get to Egypt by land.. They were attacked by Bedouin and Feinberg was killed near the British front in Sinai. Lishansky was wounded but found his way to the British lines and joined Aaronsohn. In February 1917 contact was first established between the espionage center at Atlit and British intelligence in Egypt through Lishansky, who was brought to the coast by a British boat. The connections were maintained by sea for several months and the British received useful information collected by the group. In September 1917 the Turks caught a carrier pigeon sent from Atlit to Egypt that provided indisputable proof of espionage within the Jewish population. One of the group, Na’aman Belkind, was captured by the Turks while trying to get to Egypt and gave his interrogators information on the organization and its operations. On October 1, 1917, Turkish soldiers surrounded Zikhron Ya’akov and arrested numerous people, including Sarah Aaronsohn, who committed suicide after four days of interrogation and torture. Lishansky managed to escape. Zikhron Ya’akov was given an ultimatum: if Lishansky was not handed over, the village would be destroyed. Lishansky took shelter among his former friends in Ha-Shomer and was taken from village to another. The Ha-Shomer committee decided however that he must die in case he fell into the Turkish hands and brought disaster to the whole Yishuv. Emmisaries of Ha-Shomer set out to assassinate Lishansky, but succeeded only in wounding him and he managed to escape. On his way to Egypt he was caught by Bedouin near Rishon L’Zion and handed over to the Turks. Following his interrogation in Damascus, more people were arrested. Lishansky and Belkind were sentenced to death and executed on December 16, 1917. The remaining members of the organization went on with their spying activities. Aaronsohn was sent by Weizmann on a political and public relations mission to the U.S.
and returned to Palestine in the Spring of 1918 with the Zionist Commission. With his
death in an air accident on May 15, 1919, the group finally broke up.
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