Zionist political violence

Zionist political violence or Zionist terrorism in the British Mandate of Palestine occurred mainly in the 1930s and 1940s aimed at making the functioning of the British rule difficult and government restrictions of illegal jewish immigration impossible. The extremist Zionist organizations Irgun and Lehi targeted Palestinian Arabs, Arab militants, United Nations personnel, British policemen, Jewish Palestinians, killing many 100s of British and Danish soldiers and in the worst case executing British soldiers.

Irgun was described as a terrorist organization in media such as the The New York Times newspaper, and by the Anglo-American Committee of Enquiry. In 1946 The World Zionist Congress strongly condemned terrorist activities in Palestine and "the shedding of innocent blood as a means of political warfare". Irgun was specifically condemned.

King David Hotel after Irgun bombing in 1946

Background

In 1935, the Irgun, a Zionist Jewish military organization, split off from the Haganah. The Irgun were the armed expression of the nascent ideology of Revisionist Zionism founded by Ze'ev Jabotinsky. He expressed this ideology as "every Jew had the right to enter Palestine; only active retaliation would deter the Arabs and the British; only Jewish armed force would ensure the Jewish state". During the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine mainstream Zionists, represented by the Vaad Leumi and the Haganah practiced the policy of Havlagah (restraint), while Irgun members did not obey this policy and called themselves "Havlagah breakers." The Irgun began bombing Palestinian civilian targets in 1938. While the Palestinians were "carefully disarmed" by the British Mandatory authorities by 1939, the Zionists were not.

Etzel (irgun) memorial in ramat gan

After the beginning of World War II the Haganah and Irgun suspended their activity against the British in support of the war against Nazi Germany. The smaller Lehi continued anti-British attacks and direct action throughout the war. In February 1944 the Irgun resumed attacks.

The official leadership of the Yishuv was opposed to these activities and demanded their cessation. After the assassination of Lord Moyne, the Jewish Agency Executive condemned the act and decided on a series of measures against what they called "terrorist organizations" in Palestine. Although J. Bowyer Bell writes of the killers:

"In June 1975, the Egyptian government released the bodies of Eliahu Hakim and Eliahu Bet-Zouri, thirty years after the assassination of Lord Moyne, in return for twenty Arabs jailed in Israel as fedayeen or intelligence agents. In Jerusalem the two were given a heroes' burial in the Mount Herzl military cemetery, the resting place of Israeli premiers and presidents."(also corroborated by other accounts)

According to Yehuda Lapidot, the Hunting Season was "the code-name for the Haganah's persecution of the Irgun, aimed at putting an end to its activities." He says that many of those handed over to the British had no connection to Irgun terrorism, but were active members of the Revisionist party, political opponents of the Jewish Agency.

Selected Irgun, Haganah and Lehi attacks

Main articles: List of Irgun attacks during the 1930s and List of massacres committed during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war

• July 1, 1924. According to Israeli journalists Shlomo Nakdimon and Shaul Mayzlish, Dutch Jew Jacob Israël de Haan was assassinated by Avraham Tehomi on the orders of Haganah leader Yitzhak Ben-Zvi for his anti-Zionist political activities and contacts with Arab leaders.

Irgun emblem

• 1937-1939 The Irgun conducted a campaign of violence against civilians resulting in the deaths of at least 250.
• Nov 6, 1944 Lehi assassinated British minister Lord Moyne in Cairo. The action is condemned by the Yishuv, but the bodies of the assassins are brought home in 1975 to a state funeral and burial on Mount Herzl.
• 1944-1945 The killings of several suspected collaborators with the Haganah and the British mandate government during the Hunting Season.
• July 26, 1946 The bombing of British headquarters at the King David Hotel, killing 91 people — 28 British, 41 Arab, 17 Jewish, and 5 others. Around 45 people were injured.
• 1946 Railways and British military airfields were attacked several times.
• Oct 31, 1946 The bombing by the Irgun of the British Embassy in Rome.
• Jul 25, 1947 The execution of two British sergeants who had been taken prisoner, were also subjected to a mock trial. After their death the British sergeants bodies were boobytrapped with explosives and hung from an orange grove.
• December 1947-March 1948 Numerous attacks on Arabs in the context of Civil War after the vote of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine
• April 1948 the Deir Yassin massacre carried out by the Irgun and Lehi, killed between 107 and 120 Palestinian villagers, the estimate generally accepted by scholars.
• Sept 17, 1948, Lehi assassination of the UN mediator Count Bernadotte, whom Lehi accused of a pro-Arab stance during the cease-fire negotiations.

See also

• Violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• Palestinian political violence
• Kahanism
• Jewish terrorism

Bibliography

• Berberoglu, Berch (2006), Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict: Class, State, and Nation in the Age of Globalization, Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 0742535444, 9780742535442 {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)

Further reading

• J. Bowyer Bell (1977). Terror out of Zion: Irgun Zvai Leumi, LEHI, and the Palestine underground, 1929-1949. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-79205-0.