Zionist political violence

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Zionist political violence in the British Mandate of Palestine occurred mainly in the 1930s and 1940s aimed at making the functioning of the British rule difficult and restriction of immigration impossible. The Zionist organizations Irgun and Lehi targeted British policemen and soldiers, United Nations-personnel, Jews suspected of collaborating with the British, and Arab civilians .^[1]

Irgun was described as a terrorist organization in media such as the The New York Times newspaper,^[2][3] and by the Anglo-American Committee of Enquiry.^[4] Irgun was formally condemned by the World Zionist Congress in 1946.^[5]

Contents 1 Background 2 Haganah attacks 2.1 First victim: Jacob Israël de Haan 2.2 Sinking of the "Patria" 3 Irgun and Lehi attacks 4 During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading

[edit] Background

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."

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.^[6] But in February 1944 the Irgun resumed attacks. The smaller Lehi continued anti-British attacks and direct action throughout the war.

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:

"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."^[7](also corroborated by other accounts^[8][9])

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.^[10]

[edit] Haganah attacks

[edit] First victim: Jacob Israël de Haan

Probably the first victim of Zionist political violence was the Dutch Jewish novelist, poet, lawyer, and legal scholar Jacob Israël de Haan. As a religious Jew, he had developed an interest in Zionism, and in 1919 he emigrated to Palestine, "anxious to work at rebuilding land, people and language", as he stated. Although an ardent Zionist initially, he became increasingly critical of the Zionist organizations in Palestine, whose attitude towards the Palestinian Arabs he considered too hostile. As an idealistic person, he sought a negotiated end to the struggle between Jews and Arabs and not one based on war and conflict, a view that was not seen with favour by all secular Zionist leaders at the time.^[11]

De Haan also opened negotiations with the Hashemite leader Hussein bin Ali for the recognition of a Jewish state and the establishment of an official Palestinian state in Jordan within a federation. This alarmed the secular Zionist leadership and was a factor which contributed to the decision to eliminate him from the scene.

De Haan was eventually assassinated on July 1, 1924 by the Hagana. His assassination was well researched and reported in the book De Haan: The first political assassination in Palestine written by Israeli journalists Shlomo Nakdimon and Shaul Mayzlish^[12]. Nakdimon and Mayzlish conducted an in-depth investigation and they traced the assassin, who then lived in Hong Kong as a businessman, Avraham Tehomi. Tehomi was interviewed for Israeli TV by Nakdimon and stated: "I have done what the Haganah decided had to be done. And nothing was done without the order of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi [who later became the second President of Israel 1952-1963] (...) I have no regrets because he wanted to destroy our whole idea of Zionism."^[12]

[edit] Sinking of the "Patria"

On 25 November 1940, the sinking of the Patria killed over 200 Jews and some Britons and Arabs, and injured 172 people.^[13] The ship carried around 1,800 illegal Jewish immigrants who were being deported by the British authorities from Palestine to Mauritius and Trinidad.^[14] The Hagana opposed the deportation and planted a bomb with the intention of disabling the ship to prevent it from leaving Haifa. However, the Haganah had miscalculated the effects of the explosion, and the ship sank in less than fifteen minutes, trapping hundreds in the hold.^[15] The role of the Haganah was not publicly revealed and for years the British believed that the Irgun was probably responsible. The action was condemned by the Yishuv, the truth became known in 1957 when Munia Mandor, the operative who had planted the bomb, wrote an account of his activities in the Jewish underground.^[16]

[edit] Irgun and Lehi attacks

Main article: List of Irgun attacks during the 1930s

• 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. A warning was sent before the explosion, but the British authorities claimed they received it too late to act on it.
• 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 reprisal killing of two British sergeants who had been taken prisoner in response to British execution of two Irgun members in Akko prison.
• Sept 17, 1948, Lehi assassination of the UN mediator Count Bernadotte, whom Lehi accused of a pro-Arab stance during the cease-fire negotiations.

[edit] During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War

Main article: List of massacres committed during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war

• April 1948 the Deir Yassin massacre carried out by the Irgun and Lehi.

[edit] See also

• Violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• Palestinian political violence
• Religious terrorism#Jewish
• Allegations of Israeli apartheid
• Kahanism

[edit] References

[edit] 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.