Yosef Lishansky (Hebrew: יוסף לישנסקי; 1890 – 16 December 1917) was a Jewish spy for the British in Ottoman Palestine.

Upon making Aliyah, Lishansky sought to join HaShomer but, denied membership, he founded a rival organization, HaMagen.

Yosef Lishansky was born to Edel (Adina) and Yaakov Tuvia in a town in the Kyiv Governorate in the southwest of the Russian Empire (Ukraine).

[citation needed] In early 1917 Avshalom Feinberg decided to travel to Egypt to renew contact with the British, which had been cut off.

[5] This was the only testimony about what happened in the desert, which later raised suspicion that Lishansky himself killed Feinberg and fabricated the Bedouin attack story.

[8] After the Six-Day War, Shlomo Ben Elkana discovered the location of Feinberg's grave and investigated the elderly Bedouins in the area.

Thorough research indicates that Lishansky likely met Sarah Aharonson only once, briefly, before the journey to Egypt, ruling out any romantic connection between them.

[citation needed] In February, after fully recovering from his wounds, Lishansky returned to Atlit aboard the British ship "Mengan".

[5] In early September 1917 the Ottomans intercepted a carrier pigeon carrying an encrypted message, confirming their suspicion that spies were among the Jews of the country.

Nili members learned of the Turks' arrival beforehand, and Lishansky managed to escape, carrying a pistol, some money, a loaf of bread, and a little water.

For twenty days, he wandered through the land, reaching as far north as Metula and as far south as Rishon LeZion before being captured.

According to Dr. Moshe Naiman, who was with Lishansky in prison and spoke with him, "…about the organization (HaShomer), he said it was a secret society dangerous to the homeland.

Regarding the issue of smuggling funds to the Land of Israel during the war famine, Lishansky refused to testify, thereby saving several Hebrew activists involved in it.

Nevertheless, when the Jewish community leaders tried to assist the prisoners – many of whom had no connection to espionage – they refrained from aiding Lishansky out of a sense of vengeance and hatred.

On one occasion, Lishansky asked Dr. Moshe Naiman, a fellow Nili member imprisoned with him, for poison to take his own life.

At three in the morning on 16 December 1917, Yosef Lishansky and Naaman Belkind were taken from their cells to the central square in Damascus, to the gallows.

We have never loved the homeland of the 'falaka' (torture) and the 'baksheesh' (bribes) ... We hated it with absolute hatred... We, the members of Nili, led by the great Jew [referring to Aaron Aharonson], dug a large grave for you, despicable Ottoman Empire!..

Less than twenty people attended the funeral, held on Tishrei 30, 5680; it was less than two years after Nili's capture, and the Yishuv in the country boycotted its members.

In August 1979, as part of the public struggle to rehabilitate his name, his remains were transferred in a state military ceremony to the Plot of the Ascenders of the Gallows on Mount Herzl near the grave of Avshalom Feinberg.

The controversy over his character was closely linked to the divisions within the Jewish Yishuv in the Land of Israel at that time and the disputes between the "HaShomer" and "HaMagen" guard organizations.

There was something adventurous about Yosef (...) he had a turbulent character, but he possessed many virtues, was familiar with the environment and the Arabs, rode well, and was courageous.

The hatred towards him at that time was so intense that Jeremiah Yafeh, the son of Hillel Yaffe, recounted: "On that bitter day when Zikhron was surrounded...

I was in the synagogue when all the Torah scrolls were taken out of the ark, black-wrapped candles were lit in the middle of the day, the shofar was blown, and a curse was pronounced against Yosef Lishansky... and these were not just words said to placate the Turks.

In the play "Guardians" by Ever Hadani, performed by Habima Theatre in 1937, facts were distorted to present Lishansky negatively.

About the play, his daughter Avriya wrote: "...[Did the members of HaShomer] have a hidden intent to distort the truth to cover up the burden of conscience weighing upon them for falsely accusing a man for whom no one has yet appeared to defend?

In 1962, Kol Yisrael prepared a radio drama called "Chase," but it was banned from broadcasting by the Prime Minister's Office, likely due to concerns about reviving a painful issue involving people close to the government (including Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi, wife of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, the president).

After the Six-Day War, when Avshalom Feinberg's death site was discovered, Lishansky's name was fully cleared of the murder accusations.

His widow and children approached Prime Minister of Israel, Levi Eshkol, requesting that their father's remains be transferred to Mount Herzl.

In 1997 the book "Chase" by Ephraim Rahman was published, describing Lishansky's twenty-day escape from the Turks and his execution.

On 22 December 1982 Israel Post issued a commemorative sheet of 20 stamps titled "Gallows Martyrs of the Rebirth Generation."