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Pescavelho (talk | contribs) Shifted infobox to the top of the page. Also changed nationality section, she died before the State of Israel was founded and thus claiming she was "Israeli" is erroneous. |
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==Torture and suicide==
[[Image:SarahAaronsohnGrave.jpg|thumb|right|Sarah Aaronsohn's (right) and her mother's graves at the Zikhron cemetery in Israel]]
In September 1917, the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]]s intercepted her [[carrier pigeon]] carrying a message to the British and decrypted the Nili [[code (cryptography)|code]]. In October, the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]]s surrounded Zichron Yaakov and arrested numerous people, including Aaronsohn. Her captors tortured her father in front of her. She endured four days of [[torture]] herself, but she gave no information beyond what she thought of her torturers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.think-israel.org/pollack.lonepalmtree.html|title=Think-Israel|website=www.think-israel.org|accessdate=5 October 2017}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=May 2018}} Before she was to be transferred to Damascus for further torture, she asked permission to return to her home in Zichron Yaakov to change her blood-stained clothes. While there, she managed to shoot herself with a pistol concealed under a tile in the bathroom.<ref>Auron, Yair (2001). ''The Banality of Indifference''. Routledge. pp. 179–80. {{ISBN|978-0765808813}}</ref><ref>Kahana, Ephraim (2006). ''Historical dictionary of Israeli intelligence''. Scarecrow Press. p. xix. {{ISBN|978-0810855816}}</ref> According to [[Scott Anderson (novelist)|Scott Anderson]], in his book ''Lawrence in Arabia'', Aaronsohn shot herself in the mouth on Friday 5 October 1917. "Even this did not end the torment of Sarah Aaronsohn. While the bullet destroyed her mouth and severed her spinal cord, it missed her brain. For four days she lingered in agony." In ''Spies in Palestine'', [[James Srodes]] quotes the diary of Dr. [[Hillel Yaffe]] as saying that Sarah pleaded with him, "For heaven's sake, put an end to my life. I beg you, kill me…I can't suffer any longer…." Instead, Dr. Yaffee administered morphine.<ref>Srodes, James (2016). ''Spies in Palestine''. Berkeley: Counterpoint Press, p. 175. {{ISBN|978-1619026131}}.</ref> She died on 9 October 1917.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Anderson|first1=Scott|title=Lawrence In Arabia: War, deceit, imperial folly and the making of the Modern Middle East|url=https://archive.org/details/lawrenceinarabia00ande|url-access=registration|date=2013|publisher=Doubleday|location=New York & Canada|edition=First}}</ref> In her last letter, she expressed her hope that her activities in [[Nili]] would bring nearer the realization of a national home for the Jews in [[Land of Israel|Eretz Israel]].
Because of the [[Jewish views on suicide]], Aaronsohn was denied a traditional burial in a [[Jewish cemetery]]. However, refusing a Jewish burial for her was unpopular. As a compromise, a small fence was placed around her grave in the cemetery (symbolically removing her grave from the surrounding hallowed ground).
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