Irgun

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Irgun (ארגון), shorthand for Irgun Tsvai Leumi (ארגון צבאי לאומי, also spelled Irgun Zvai Leumi), Hebrew for "National Military Organization", was a clandestine militant Zionist group that operated in Palestine from 1931 to 1948. In Israel, this group is commonly referred to as Etzel (אצ"ל), an acronym of the Hebrew initials. In the time in which the Irgun operated, often people referred to the Irgun as 'הגנה ב or ההגנה הלאומית. Its political association with Revisionist Zionism rendered it a predecessor movement to Israel's right-wing Herut party.

Contents

[edit] Founding, development and key events

The group was an offshoot of the Haganah in protest both against its policy of restraint and socialist leanings. Based on the premises formulated by Ze'ev Jabotinsky that "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," (Howard Sachar: A History of the State of Israel, pps 265-266) the group made retaliation against Arab attacks a central part of their initial efforts. The Jewish Agency denounced the existence, strategy, and tactics of the group from the very outset, although the Haganah cooperated with Irgun on several occasions.

Irgun was founded in 1931 by Avraham Tehomi, following a largely political and ideological split with the Haganah after he had assumed leadership over the district of Jerusalem. Irgun differentiated itself from the Haganah by disassociating from the socialist ideology and the prevalent strategy of Havlagah, or restraint. Throughout its history Irgun advocated a more decisive use of force in the defense of Jews in Mandate Palestine and in advancing the formation of a Jewish state.

While the strategy, tactics, and operational methods of the organization changed through the years, its primary goals were to:

  • Provide a non-Socialist alternative to the leading Zionist organizations;
  • Eliminate or reduce the threat of Arab attacks on Jewish targets by assured and harsh retaliation for such attacks;
  • Bring to an end the British mandatory rule, which they considered in violation of international law

The group went through several phases in its short lifespan:

  • From 1931 to 1937 it was a small, renegade group that undertook scattered attacks against Arab targets. This phase ended when the group itself split, with some of its leaders, including the original founder, Tehomi, returning to the Haganah, and the group began formally identifying itself as "Etzel" (Irgun).
  • During the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, in which about 320 Jews were killed in Arab attacks, Irgun resumed its reprisal attacks against Arabs. Following the killing of five Jews at Kibbutz Kiryat Anavim on November 9, 1937, Irgun launched a series of attacks which lasted until the beginning of World War II, in which more than 250 Arabs were killed.
  • These attacks coincided roughly with Irgun's campaign to facilitate the immigration of European Jews who faced discrimination, murder and pogroms in Europe. The first vessel arrived on April 13, 1937, and the last on February 13, 1940. All told, about 18,000 Jews left Europe in this way.
  • Upon the publication of the White Paper in May of 1939, Irgun concentrated all its efforts against the British.
  • From 1940 through 1943, Irgun declared a truce against the British, and supported Allied efforts against Nazi forces and their allies in the area by enlisting its members in British forces and the Jewish Brigade. A small group lead by Avraham Stern, who insisted on continuing to fight the British, broke off and formed an independent group, Lehi. In 1941, the Irgun leader, David Raziel volunteered for a dangerous British military mission in Iraq to capture or kill Amin al-Husayni, but was killed by a German bomber before the operation could be finished.
  • In February of 1944, under the new leadership of Menachem Begin, Irgun resumed hostilities against the British authorities. The purpose of these attacks was to increase the cost of British mandatory rule and influence British public opinion so as to encourage British withdrawal. It included attacks on prominent symbols of the British administration, including the British military, police, and civil headquarters at the King David Hotel on July 22, 1946 which killed 91 people and the British prison in Acre. Although these attacks were largely successful, several Irgun operatives were captured, convicted, and hanged. Refusing to accept the jurisdiction of the British courts, those accused refused to defend themselves. The Irgun leadership ultimately responded to these executions by hanging two British sergeants, which effectively brought the executions to an end.
  • The extremist Lehi group assassinated Lord Moyne in Cairo 1944. The two assasins, Eliyahu Hakim and Eliyahu Beit-Zouri were captured and executed. Though the Irgun joined the Jewish community of Palestine in condemning the murder, the Zionist leadership demanded that both separatist underground movements immediately disband. The Stren group accepted the ultimatum, but the Irgun refused. The Haganah initiated what is known as the Saison "The Hunting Season", in which it attempted to paralyze Irgun activity by arresting its members and turning them over to the British. Though many captured Irgun members were tortured, and some deported and even executed, Menachem Begin forbid them to fight the Haganah forces. The Irgun's costly determination to place the concern for national unity over the concern for its fighting ability or even the safety of its members gradually raised sympathies for the marginalized group, and serious disputes within the Haganah command. All in all, over 1000 members of the Irgun and Lechi were arrested and interred in British camps during the Saison. Several hundred were deported to camps in Kenya and Eritrea.
  • From about October of 1945 until July 1946, Irgun was in an alliance with the Haganah and Lehi called the Jewish resistance movement (תנועת המרי העברי), organized to fight British restrictions on Jewish immigration. The Haganah's active participation in the Resistance Movement ended as a result of Operation Agatha, and it formally abandoned the alliance following the Irgun bombing of British military, police, and civil headquarters at the King David Hotel which was a retaliation for the Agatha raid.
  • From July 1946 until June 1948, Irgun fought as irregulars against the British mandate and Arab forces, informally in coordination with Haganah forces. Their participation in massacre at Deir Yassin , which accelerated the Arab exodus from Palestine on the eve of the founding of Israel[1] ,has been widely discussed and documented. Their largest single operation was a successful assault on Jaffa (an Arab enclave according to the UN partition plan) starting on April 25.
  • In 1948, the group was formally dissolved and its members integrated into the newly formed Israeli Defense Forces. This integration largely coincided with the sinking of the Altalena, a ship with fighters Irgun had recruited and arms Irgun had acquired for the Israeli forces.

[edit] Views about Irgun

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Leaders within the mainstream Jewish Agency, Haganah, Histadrut, as well as British authorities, routinely condemned (publicly at least; privately the Haganah kept a dialogue with the dissident groups) Irgun operations as terrorist and branded it an illegal organization [2] as a result of the group's attacks on civilian targets. In their defense, former Irgun leaders assert that:

  • The premises for their founding and strategy were vindicated by subsequent events. Arab violence against Jews in the mandate of Palestine could only be deterred through retaliation; the British authorities only ended their restrictions on Jewish immigration when pressured by force; and unrestricted Jewish immigration was a matter of saving lives, both during the Shoah (Holocaust) and during post-World War II pogroms in Poland and Ukraine.[citation needed]
  • Some of the operations that are usually characterized as "terrorist" had another character. The King David Hotel bombing, in which 91 people were killed, most of them civilians, was considered a legitimate military target, being the British military headquarters; the attack on Deir Yassin was part of a campaign to control the road between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv; the attack on the Acre prison was to release prisoners the British intended to hang.[citation needed]

Yet, as later reported, the Irgun used Arab rioting in early December to launch a murderous terrorist campaign that claimed the lives of many Arab civilians in numerous towns and villages. Irgun leader Menachem Begin later explained, “My greatest worry in those months was that the Arabs might accept the UN plan. Then we would have had the ultimate tragedy, a Jewish State so small that it could not absorb all the Jews of the world.” Irgun terrorism would make sure that no agreement would be possible. [3]

The British could have stepped in and avoided the catastrophe; they simply preferred to turn their backs to what was going on. On 13 December 1947, Sir Alan Cunningham, the British High Commissioner in Palestine, admitted that “The initial Arab outbreaks were spontaneous and unorganized and were more demonstrations of displeasure at the UN decision than determined attacks on Jews. The weapons initially employed were sticks and stones and had it not been for Jewish resource to firearms, it is not impossible that the excitement would have subsided and little loss of life been caused. This is more probable since there is reliable evidence that the AHC as a whole and the Mufti in particular although pleased at the strong response to the strike call were not in favor of serious outbreaks. [4]

Thomas Arthur Russell of the HMS Saumarez, says of Irgun, "It seemed so strange to us older hands that these people who we had fought to liberate, now had become our enemies, I recall two incidents where they called us Nazis and shouted insults across to us. Boarding parties were sent aboard armed with pistols and Lancaster sub machine guns." [5]

[edit] Radio station

The Irgun had, from 1939, a Radio station: Kol Tsion HaLokhemet ("The Voice of Fighting Zion").

[edit] British Anger over Israeli celebrations of the anniversary of the King David Hotel Bombing

On July 20, 2006, right-wing Israeli leaders including former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former members of Irgun celebrated the 60th anniversary of the bombing of the King David hotel which killed 91 people, sparking British protests. [6]


[edit] References

Lossin, Yigal. Pillar of Fire: The Rebirth of Israel trans. Zvi Ofer, Shikmona Publishing Ltd., 1983.

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

  • J. Bowyer Bell, Terror Out of Zion: Irgun Zvai Leumi, Lehi, and the Palestine Underground, 1929-1949, (Avon, 1977), ISBN 0-380-39396-4
  • Menachem Begin, The Revolt - Memoirs of the leader of the Irgun, Dell Books, (New York, NY, 1978)

[edit] External links

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