Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

In 1942, Teddy Kollek, on behalf of the Jewish Agency, was assigned to Istanbul, with the purpose of saving the Jews of Europe.
Teddy Kollek cited: "Immediately after my arrival in Istanbul, I visited Major Arthur Vitol, a British passport inspection officer at the British embassy. The passport control bureau was a secret agency of the intelligence services and Major Vitol was the man with whom I had to establish contact and to work in close cooperation. He supported our cover and assisted in every possible way".

Parallel to his activities in Istanbul, Teddy Kollek was sent by Jewish Agency to Cairo, to set up a ring of spies in the German and Italian prisoner of war camps set up by the British in North Africa.

In 1945, Teddy Kollek replaced Reuven Zaslani Shiloach as head of the intelligence network of the Jewish Agency.

In 1946, Teddy Kollek was sent to London as a representative of the Jewish Agency.
According to MI5 documents, while in London, he met with his British handlers.
Teddy Kollek did not deliver information to the British in exchange for favors or gratuities, but operated as part of the cooperation between the Jewish Agency and British intelligence, to eradicate ITzL and Lechi, and the British viewed the activities of Teddy Kollek and of the Jewish Agency as being sanctioned by the leaders of the Yishuv.

Teddy Kollek received approvel from Colonel Hunloke for passage of a truck from Egypt to Palestine. and when a Jewish Brigade member, Shalom Levin, who drove the truck carrying tons of weapons and ammunition stolen from British warehouses, destined for hidden weapons caches of the Haganah הגנה. and was caught by chance, he was released after a short time, through Teddy Kollek's connections.

Ricky-Dale Calhoun cites: "Kollek, who was a relatively low-level Haganah field operative at the time, may not have had detailed knowledge of
the high-level circle around Sonneborn, or he may have sought to preserve the secret of its members’ identities when writing his memoirs."

Teddy Kollek cites: "My work touched on weapon production . . . speculations on ship purchases; dealings with factories and junkyards; liaison with spies, mobsters, movie moguls, statesmen, bankers, professors, industrialists, and newspaper men; and no lack of illegalities, from petty to international. . . . Deals were made with South American governments to buy tanks and innumerable other things and ship them on to Palestine."

Ricky-Dale Calhoun cites : "Kollek described his job as that of a harried organizer and coordinator. The principal—or at least the most audacious—buyer-operative in the field was Yehuda Arazi, described as a flamboyant risk-taker who used multiple aliases (Yehuda Alon, Joseph Tannenbaum, Jos´e de Paz, Rabbi Lefkowitch, Dr. Schwartz, Mr. Oppenheim, Albert Miller) and who had been active smuggling arms for the Haganah into Palestine from Europe since 1938. Although Arazi made several major arms purchases, his main value to the Hotel Fourteen effort seems to have been his knowledge of the world arms trade and his contacts, one of whom was Count Stefan Czarnecki, a Polish arms dealer with whom Arazi had done business in Europe before World War II. Another Arazi associate was Leonard Weisman, who was probably a member of the Sonneborn group. Weisman was a 34-year-old from Pittsburgh who had made a fortune in scrap metals and construction materials. His businesses included Materials Redistribution Company, a firm that dealt in scrap machinery; Paragon Design and Development Corporation, a company that traded in building materials; and Pratt Steamship Lines. A fourth Weisman company, Foundry Associates, Inc., existed only on paper. All assisted in the purchase and illegal export of arms from the United States."

In 1947, David Ben Gurion expanded the Haganah הגנה's arms acquisition system, sending Yehuda Arazi, Ehud Avriel and Munia Mardur abroad to find arms sources and to arrange shipmens to Palestine.
Each of them was given his own budget, and operated independently, reporting directly to David Ben Gurion.

Teddy Kollek met with a friends at the Hotel Fourteen, searching for someone wealthy enough and willing to help, and Joseph Shulman said he knew William Levitt, who was mass-producing houses in Levittown, and arranged a meeting between Kollek and Levitt at his offices on Northern Boulevard, in Manhasset.
Teddy Kollek cites: he told William Levitt "We need money. I can't tell you what it's for. But if you'll lend us the money the provisional government of the State of Israel will give you a note and pay you back in a year."
Teddy Kollek asked for a million dollars, offering no collateral, no interest, and no certainty that the money would ever be returned, and William Levitt gave him the money on the spot.

Ronen Bergman cited secret MI5 documents revealed that Teddy Kollek delivered to the British crucial secret information on the activities of ITzL and Lechi activities, which led to the thwarting of missions, the capture of weapons and the arrests of scores of fighters from both movements.
Teddy Kollek, code name 'Scorpion', also tried to help the British in capturing Menachem Begin.

In 1989, during Teddy Kollek's mayoral campaign, posters were hung around Jerusalem that accused Teddy Kollek of attempting to turn Menachem Begin and other underground leaders to the British.
"Don't Vote for Teddy the Traitor", was written on the posters, "His Hands are Covered in Jewish Blood".

In 1965, Teddy Kollek was elected Mayor of Jerusalem, and remained in that position for a total of six terms of office, until 1993.

After Teddy Kollek's death, the British Foreign Ministry renewed its request whether it would be possible to reveal the full personal file of Teddy Kollek, which was to be deposited in the British National Archives.