Birya affair

The Birya affair (Hebrew: העלייה לביריה, HaAliya LeBirya, lit.

On March 5, 1946, British soldiers searched the new settlement of Birya, in the northern Galilee, near the city of Safed, and having found hidden weapons, arrested all 24 inhabitants and declared the settlement an "Occupied military zone".

On March 17 the British authorities agreed to the presence of 20 Jewish settlers on Birya soil.

The affair was considered a great triumph for Zionist resistance to British rule in Palestine, and was the subject of books and poems.

The Bnei Akiva youth movement marks the event by marching to Birya on the Hebrew date (Yud Alef Adar, 11th of Adar) of the 1946 ascent to Birya.