Jewish Invention Myths: The Galil Rifle

I have covered several gun and/or military-related jewish invention myths before – such as the Uzi, (1) the Desert Eagle (2) and the MiG series of fighter planes – (3) but another less well-known myth concerns the origins of IDF’s main weapons of the 1970s to the 1990s although more in theory than practice: the Galil Rifle.

Although often touted as some ‘amazing Israeli invention’ by commentators who should know better (4) the truth is the Israeli Galil was simply – rather like the Uzi – a straight copy of an existing weapon in the form of the Egyptian-made variant of the Soviet AK 47 but then modified using a Finnish improved version of the AK 47: the Valmet RK 62.

As Seth Cane writes at ‘Forgotten Weapons’:

‘The initial Galil design has been accredited over the years as being a direct-copy of the Finnish Valmet rifle series, but this is not quite accurate. The first Galil prototypes began as simple modifications of captured Soviet AK-47s by Yisrael Galili, which included a number of features later implemented into the final design. Dubbed the Balashnikov, these included a modified fire-selector for use with the shooter’s thumb or fingers while holding the grip; a bipod mounted directly on the gas block; a modified/enlarged handguard to accommodate sustained fire and the bipod when in the folded position, and a folding stock.

[…]

The Balashnikov won out against the American M16 and Stoner, the Russian AK47, and the German HK33. Yisrael Galili’s Balashnikov would eventually be further altered into what became the Galil. The initial production version of the Galil had taken a number design features directly from the Finnish Valmet, most notable being the Gas Block and Rear-Sight assemblies with night-sight provisions. The Galil receiver was also directly copied off the Valmet; popular rumor has been that the first Galil rifles to leave the IMI factory used blank Valmet receivers before production was started in-house, though no evidence has yet come forth to confirm this.’ (5)

Cane’s point here is the Galil was simply the Israelis adapting captured Egyptian AK 47s then copying the modification the Finns had made to the AK 47 in their RK 62 then re-chambering it from a 39 mm round used by the AK and RK to the US standard round: the 45 mm. Then they named it the Galil rather than simply stating they were using a rechambered AK/RK in order to make it appear like they’d invented something new when they in fact had not.

Indeed, Cane’s point there is a popular rumour ‘the first Galil rifles to leave the IMI factory used blank Valmet receivers before production was started in-house’ has now been confirmed. (6)

So thus, we can see that the Galil is no more a ‘jewish invention’ than the bagel is! (7)

References

(1) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/the-non-jewish-origins-of-the-uzi

(2) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-the-desert

(3) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-the-mig

(4) For example: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/israels-galil-rifle-was-deadly-weapons-innovation-194425

(5) https://www.forgottenweapons.com/rifles/galil-arm/

(6) https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2017/12/28/galil-ace-iwi-brings-the-ak-into-the-modern-era/

(7) On the myth that jews invented the bagel see my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-the-bagel