Editing David Ben-Gurion (section)

=== Stances on British rule ===
The British [[White Paper of 1939|1939 White paper]] stipulated that Jewish immigration to Palestine was to be limited to 15,000 a year for the first five years, and would subsequently be contingent on Arab consent. Restrictions were also placed on the rights of Jews to buy land from Arabs. After this Ben-Gurion changed his policy towards the British, stating: "Peace in Palestine is not the best situation for thwarting the policy of the White Paper".<ref>[[Shabtai Teveth]], 1985, ''Ben-Gurion and the Palestinian Arabs'', p. 199</ref> Ben-Gurion believed a peaceful solution with the Arabs had no chance and soon began preparing the [[Yishuv]] for war. According to Teveth "through his campaign to mobilize the Yishuv in support of the British war effort, he strove to build the nucleus of a 'Hebrew Army', and his success in this endeavor later brought victory to Zionism in the struggle to establish a Jewish state."<ref>S. Teveth, 1985, ''Ben-Gurion and the Palestinian Arabs'', p. 200</ref>

During the Second World War, Ben-Gurion encouraged the [[Yishuv|Jewish population]] to volunteer for the [[British Army]]. He famously told Jews to "support the British as if there is no White Paper and oppose the White Paper as if there is no war".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://bgarchives.bgu.ac.il/moreshet/ben_gurion/horshi.html |title=Ben-Gurion's road to the State |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060215143209/http://bgarchives.bgu.ac.il/moreshet/ben_gurion/horshi.html |archive-date=15 February 2006 |publisher=Ben-Gurion Archives|language=he}}</ref> About 10% of the Jewish population of Palestine volunteered for the British Armed Forces, including many women. At the same time Ben-Gurion assisted the illegal immigration of thousands of European Jewish refugees to Palestine during a period when the British placed heavy restrictions on Jewish immigration.

In 1944, the [[Irgun]] and [[Lehi (group)|Lehi]], two Jewish right-wing armed groups, declared [[Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine|a rebellion]] against British rule and began attacking British administrative and police targets. Ben-Gurion and other mainstream Zionist leaders opposed armed action against the British, and after Lehi assassinated [[Walter Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne|Lord Moyne]], the British Minister of State in the Middle East, decided to stop it by force. While Lehi was convinced to suspend operations, the Irgun refused and as a result, the [[Haganah]] began supplying intelligence to the British enabling them to arrest Irgun members, and abducting and often torturing Irgun members, handing some over to the British while keeping others detained in secret Haganah prisons. This campaign, which was called the [[The Saison|Saison]] or "Hunting Season", left the Irgun unable to continue operations as they struggled to survive. Irgun leader [[Menachem Begin]] ordered his fighters not to retaliate so as to prevent a civil war. The Saison became increasingly controversial in the Yishuv, including within the ranks of the Haganah, and it was aborted at the end of March 1945.<ref name=Hoffman>[[Bruce Hoffman|Hoffman, Bruce]]: ''Anonymous Soldiers'' (2015)</ref><ref name=Bell>[[J. Bowyer Bell|Bell, Bowyer J.]]: ''Terror out of Zion'' (1976)</ref>

At the end of World War II, the Zionist leadership in Palestine had expected a British decision to establish a Jewish state. However, it became clear that the British had no intention of immediately establishing a Jewish state and that limits on Jewish immigration would remain for the time being. As a result, with Ben-Gurion's approval the Haganah entered into a secret alliance with the Irgun and Lehi called the [[Jewish Resistance Movement]] in October 1945 and participated in attacks against the British. In June 1946, the British launched [[Operation Agatha]], a large police and military operation throughout Palestine, searching for arms and arresting Jewish leaders and Haganah members in order to stop the attacks and find documentary evidence of the alliance the British suspected existed between the Haganah, Irgun, and Lehi. The British had intended to detain Ben-Gurion during the operation but he was visiting Paris at the time. The British stored the documents they had captured from the Jewish Agency headquarters in the [[King David Hotel]], which was being used as a military and administrative headquarters. Ben-Gurion agreed to the Irgun's plan to bomb the King David Hotel in order to destroy incriminating documents that Ben-Gurion feared would prove that the Haganah had been participating in the violent insurrection against the British in cooperation with the Irgun and Lehi with the approval of himself and other Jewish Agency officials. However, Ben-Gurion asked that the operation be delayed, but the Irgun refused. The Irgun carried out the [[King David Hotel bombing]] in July 1946, killing 91 people. Ben-Gurion publicly condemned the bombing. In the aftermath of the bombing, Ben-Gurion ordered that the Jewish Resistance Movement be dissolved. From then on, the Irgun and Lehi continued to regularly attack the British, but the Haganah rarely did so, and while Ben-Gurion along with other mainstream Zionist leaders publicly condemned the Irgun and Lehi attacks, in practice the Haganah under their direction rarely cooperated with the British in attempting to suppress the insurgency.<ref name=Hoffman/><ref name=Bell/><ref>[[Paul Johnson (writer)|Paul Johnson]], ''A History of the Jews'', p. 523.</ref>

Due to the Jewish insurgency, bad publicity over the restriction of Jewish immigrants to Palestine, non-acceptance of a partitioned state (as suggested by the United Nations) amongst Arab leaders, and the cost of keeping 100,000 troops in Palestine the British Government referred the matter to the United Nations. In September 1947, the British decided to terminate the Mandate. In November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution approving the [[United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine]]. While the Jewish Agency under Ben-Gurion accepted, the Arabs rejected the plan and the [[1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine]] broke out. Ben-Gurion's strategy was for the Haganah to hold on to every position with no retreat or surrender and then launch an offensive when British forces had evacuated to such an extent that there would be no more danger of British intervention. This strategy was successful, and by May 1948 Jewish forces were winning the civil war. On 14 May 1948, a few hours before the British Mandate officially terminated, Ben-Gurion [[Israeli Declaration of Independence|declared Israeli independence]] in a ceremony in Tel Aviv. A few hours later, the State of Israel officially came into being when the British Mandate terminated on 15 May. The [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]] began immediately afterwards as numerous Arab nations then invaded Israel.<ref name=Bell/>