Editing Irgun (section)

==Revolt==
[[File:PalestineAntiterrorCommunique1944.png|thumb|The British government accuses Jewish terrorists of assisting the Nazis by their attacks in Palestine while the war in Europe continued.]]
In 1943 the [[II Corps (Poland)|Polish II Corps]], commanded by [[Władysław Anders]], arrived in Palestine from [[Iraq]]. The British insisted that no Jewish units of the army be created. Eventually, many of the soldiers of Jewish origin that arrived with the army were released and allowed to stay in Palestine. One of them was [[Menachem Begin]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ibiblio.org/sullivan/bios/MenachemBegin-Bio.html|title=Menachem Begin Biography|website=www.ibiblio.org}}</ref> whose arrival in Palestine created new-found expectations within the Irgun and Betar. Begin had served as head of the Betar movement in [[Poland]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1978/begin-bio.html |title=Menachem Begin – Biography |publisher=Nobelprize.org |access-date=2013-08-12}}</ref> and was a respected leader. [[Yaakov Meridor]], then the commander of the Irgun, raised the idea of appointing Begin to the post. In late 1943, when Begin accepted the position, a new leadership was formed. Meridor became Begin's deputy, and other members of the board were Aryeh Ben Eliezer, Eliyahu Lankin, and Shlomo Lev Ami.

On February 1, 1944, the Irgun put up posters all around the country, proclaiming a revolt against the British mandatory government. The posters began by saying that all of the [[Zionism|Zionist]] movements stood by the [[Allies of World War II|Allied Forces]] and over 25,000 Jews had enlisted in the British military. The hope to establish a Jewish army had died. European Jewry was trapped and was being destroyed, yet Britain, for its part, did not allow any rescue missions. This part of the document ends with the following words:
<blockquote>
[[MacDonald White Paper|The White Paper]] is still in effect. It is enforced, despite the betrayal of the Arabs and the loyalty of the Jews; despite the mass enlisting to the British Army; despite the [[ceasefire]] and the quiet in The Land of Israel; despite the massacre of masses of the Jewish people in Europe....

The facts are simple and horrible as one. Over the last four years of [[World War II|the war]] we have lost millions of the best of our people; millions more are in danger of eradication. And The Land of Israel is closed off and quarantined because the British rule it, realizing the White Paper, and strives for the destruction of our people's last hope.
</blockquote>

The Irgun then declared that, for its part, the ceasefire was over and they were now at war with the British. It demanded the transfer of rule to a Jewish government, to implement ten policies. Among these were the mass evacuation of Jews from Europe, the signing of treaties with any state that recognized the Jewish state's sovereignty, including Britain, granting social justice to the state's residents, and full equality to the Arab population. The proclamation ended with:
<blockquote>The God of Israel, God of Hosts, will be at our side. There is no retreat. Liberty or death.... The fighting youth will not recoil in the face of sacrifices and suffering, blood and torment. They will not surrender, so long as our days of old are not renewed, so long as our nation is not ensured a homeland, liberty, honor, bread, justice and law.</blockquote>

The Irgun began this campaign rather weakly. At the time of the start of the revolt, it was only about 1,000 strong, including some 200 fighters. It possessed about 4 submachine guns, 40 rifles, 60 pistols, 150 hand grenades, and 2,000 kilograms of explosive material, and its funds were about £800.<ref name=Hoffman/>

===Struggle against the British===
{{Main|Jewish insurgency in Palestine}}
The Irgun began a militant operation against the symbols of government, in an attempt to harm the regime's operation as well as its reputation. The first attack was on February 12, 1944, at the government immigration offices, a symbol of the immigration laws. The attacks went smoothly and ended with no casualties{{snd}}as they took place on a Saturday night, when the buildings were empty{{snd}}in the three largest cities: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa. On February 27 the income tax offices were bombed. Parts of the same cities were blown up, also on a Saturday night; prior warnings were put up near the buildings. On March 23 the national headquarters building of the British police in the [[Migrash Harusim|Russian Compound]] in Jerusalem was attacked, and part of it was blown up. These attacks in the first few months were sharply condemned by the organized leadership of the Yishuv and by the Jewish Agency, who saw them as dangerous provocations.

At the same time the [[Lehi (group)|Lehi]] also renewed its attacks against the British.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishagency.org/JewishAgency/English/Jewish+Education/Compelling+Content/Eye+on+Israel/120/Chapter+Eight+The+Struggle+for+the+Establishment+of+the+State+of+Israel.htm |title=Chapter Eight: The Struggle for the Establishment of the State of Israel |publisher=Jewishagency.org |access-date=2013-08-12 |archive-date=2012-06-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120607061434/http://www.jewishagency.org/JewishAgency/English/Jewish+Education/Compelling+Content/Eye+on+Israel/120/Chapter+Eight+The+Struggle+for+the+Establishment+of+the+State+of+Israel.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The Irgun continued to attack police stations and headquarters, and [[Tegart fort|Tegart Fort]], a fortified police station (today the location of [[Latrun]]). One relatively complex operation was the takeover of the radio station in [[Ramallah]], on May 17, 1944.

One symbolic act by the Irgun happened before [[Yom Kippur]] of 1944. They plastered notices around town, warning that no British officers should come to the [[Western Wall]] on Yom Kippur, and for the first time since the mandate began no British police officers were there to prevent the Jews from the traditional [[Shofar]] blowing at the end of the fast.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.daat.ac.il/daat/history/hayom/2a-2.htm|title=שער שני המרד|website=www.daat.ac.il}}</ref> After the fast that year the Irgun attacked four police stations in Arab settlements. In order to obtain weapons, the Irgun carried out "confiscation" operations – they robbed British armouries and smuggled stolen weapons to their own hiding places. During this phase of activity the Irgun also cut all of its official ties with the [[New Zionist Organization]], so as not to tie their fate in the underground organization.

Begin wrote in his [[memoir]]s, ''[[The Revolt]]'':
<blockquote>History and experience taught us that if we are able to destroy the prestige of the British in Palestine, the regime will break. Since we found the enslaving government's weak point, we did not let go of it.<ref>{{cite book
| title = The Revolt
| url = https://archive.org/details/revolt00mena
| url-access = registration
| author = Menachem Begin
| year= 1977| isbn = 9780440175988
}}</ref></blockquote>

===Underground exiles===
{{Main|Irgun and Lehi internment in Africa}}
In October 1944 the British began expelling hundreds of arrested Irgun and Lehi members to detention camps in [[Africa]]. 251 detainees from [[Latrun]] were flown on thirteen planes, on October 19 to a camp in [[Asmara]], [[Eritrea]]. Eleven additional transports were made. Throughout the period of their detention, the detainees often initiated rebellions and hunger strikes. Many escape attempts were made until July 1948 when the exiles were returned to Israel. While there were numerous successful escapes from the camp itself, only nine men actually made it back all the way. One noted success was that of [[Yaakov Meridor]], who escaped nine times before finally reaching Europe in April 1948. These tribulations were the subject of his book ''Long is the Path to Freedom: Chronicles of one of the Exiles''.

===Hunting Season===
{{Main|The Hunting Season}}
On November 6, 1944, [[Walter Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne|Lord Moyne]], British Deputy Resident Minister of State in [[Cairo]] was assassinated by Lehi members [[Eliyahu Hakim]] and [[Eliyahu Bet-Zuri]]. This act raised concerns within the Yishuv from the British regime's reaction to the underground's violent acts against them. Therefore, the Jewish Agency decided on starting a ''Hunting Season'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.etzel.org.il/english/ac07.htm |title=The 'Hunting Season' |publisher=Etzel.org.il |access-date=2013-08-12 |archive-date=2013-09-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130925234922/http://www.etzel.org.il/english/ac07.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.daat.ac.il/daat/english/history/lapidot/8.htm |title=Besiege / Yehuda Lapidut – The Hunting Season |publisher=Daat.ac.il |access-date=2013-08-12}}</ref> known as the ''saison'', (from the [[French language|French]] "la saison de chasse").

The Irgun's recuperation was noticeable when it began to renew its cooperation with the Lehi in May 1945, when it sabotaged oil pipelines, telephone lines and railroad bridges. All in all, over 1,000 members of the Irgun and Lehi were arrested and interned in British camps during the ''Saison''. Eventually the Hunting Season died out, and there was even talk of cooperation with the Haganah leading to the formation of the [[Jewish Resistance Movement]].

===Jewish Resistance Movement===
{{Main|Jewish Resistance Movement}}
[[File:King David Hotel bombing, Jerusalem 1946.jpg|thumb|The King David Hotel after the bombing, photo from [[The Jerusalem Post|''The Palestine Post'']]]]

Towards the end of July 1945 the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] in Britain was elected to power. The Yishuv leadership had high hopes that this would change the anti-Zionist policy that the British maintained at the time. However, these hopes were quickly dashed when the government limited Jewish immigration, with the intention that the population of [[Mandatory Palestine]] (the land west of the [[Jordan River]]) would not be more than one-third of the total. This, along with the stepping up of arrests and their pursuit of underground members and illegal immigration organizers led to the formation of the [[The Jewish Resistance Movement|Jewish Resistance Movement]]. This body consolidated the armed resistance to the British of the Irgun, Lehi, and Haganah. For ten months the Irgun and the Lehi cooperated and they carried out nineteen attacks and defense operations. The Haganah and Palmach carried out ten such operations. The Haganah also assisted in landing 13,000 illegal immigrants.

Tension between the underground movements and the British increased with the increase in operations. On April 23, 1946, an operation undertaken by the Irgun to gain weapons from the [[Tegart fort]] at [[Ramat Gan]] resulted in a firefight with the police in which an Arab constable and two Irgun fighters were killed, including one who jumped on an explosive device to save his comrades. A third fighter, [[Dov Gruner]], was wounded and captured. He stood trial and was sentenced to be death by hanging, refusing to sign a pardon request.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.etzel.org.il/english/ac14.htm |title=The Gallows |publisher=Etzel.org.il |access-date=2013-08-12 |archive-date=2013-09-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130925235135/http://www.etzel.org.il/english/ac14.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1946, British relations with the Yishuv worsened, building up to [[Operation Agatha]] of June 29. The authorities ignored the [[Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry]]'s recommendation to allow 100,000 Jews into Palestine at once. As a result of the discovery of documents tying the Jewish Agency to the Jewish Resistance Movement, the Irgun was asked to speed up the plans for the [[King David Hotel bombing]] of July 22.<ref>Jabotinsky Institute Archives (k-4 1/11/5)</ref> The hotel was where the documents were located, the base for the British Secretariat, the military command and a branch of the [[Criminal Investigation Department|Criminal Investigation Division]] of the police. The Irgun later claimed to have sent a warning that was ignored.<ref>Menachem Begin, ''The Revolt''. 1951, p. 221</ref> Palestinian and U.S. sources confirm that the Irgun issued numerous warnings for civilians to evacuate the hotel prior to the bombing.<ref name="Abrahms">{{cite book|last=Abrahms|first=Max|title=Rules for Rebels: The Science of Victory in Militant History|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2018|isbn=9780192539441|pages=44–45, 118–120}}</ref> 91 people were killed in the attack where a 350&nbsp;kg bomb was placed in the basement of the hotel and caused a large section of it to collapse. Only 13 were British soldiers.

===Further struggle against the British===
[[File:Menahem Begin during his "Rabbi Sassover" period with wife Aliza and son Benyamin-Zeev in Tel Aviv.jpg|thumb|[[Menachem Begin]] as "Rabbi Sassover", with wife Aliza and son Benyamin-Zeev, Tel Aviv, December 1946]]

The King David Hotel bombing and the arrest of Jewish Agency and other Yishuv leaders as part of [[Operation Agatha]] caused the Haganah to cease their armed activity against the British. Yishuv and Jewish Agency leaders were released from prison. From then until the end of the British mandate, resistance activities were led by the Irgun and Lehi. In early September 1946 the Irgun renewed its attacks against civil structures, railroads, communication lines and bridges. One operation was the attack on the train station in Jerusalem, in which [[Meir Feinstein]] was arrested and later committed suicide awaiting execution. According to the Irgun these sort of armed attacks were legitimate, since the trains primarily served the British, for redeployment of their forces. The Irgun also publicized leaflets, in three languages, not to use specific trains in danger of being attacked. For a while, the British stopped train traffic at night. The Irgun also carried out repeated attacks against military and police traffic using disguised, electronically detonated roadside mines which could be detonated by an operator hiding nearby as a vehicle passed, carried out arms raids against military bases and police stations (often disguised as British soldiers), launched bombing, shooting, and mortar attacks against military and police installations and checkpoints, and robbed banks to gain funds as a result of losing access to Haganah funding following the collapse of the Jewish Resistance Movement.<ref name=Hoffman/>

On October 31, 1946, in response to the British barring entry of Jews from Palestine, the Irgun [[1946 British Embassy bombing|blew up the British Embassy]] in [[Rome]], a center of British efforts to monitor and stop Jewish immigration. The Irgun also carried out a few other operations in Europe: a British troop train was derailed and an attempt against another troop train failed. An attack on a British officers club in [[Vienna]] took place in 1947, and an attack on another British officer's club in Vienna and a sergeant's club in [[Germany]] took place in 1948.<ref name=Bell/>

In December 1946 a sentence of 18 years and 18 beatings was handed down to a young Irgun member for robbing a bank. The Irgun made good on a threat they made<ref>{{cite news|title=Flogging Sentence |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2703695|access-date=26 May 2018|work=[[The Canberra Times]]|date=25 December 1946|quote=He was convicted following a bank hold-up In September. Irgun Zvai Leumi broadcast a threat that if the sentence were confirmed, British Army officers would be flogged in retaliation.}}</ref> and after the detainee was whipped, Irgun members kidnapped British officers and beat them in public. The operation, known as the "[[Night of the Beatings]]" brought an end to British punitive beatings. The British, taking these acts seriously, moved many British families in Palestine into the confines of military bases, and some moved home.

[[File:Bombe Irgoun 29 dec 1947.jpg|thumb|left|Arab bus after a bomb attack by the Irgun, 29 December 1947]]
On February 14, 1947, [[Ernest Bevin]] announced that the Jews and Arabs would not be able to agree on any British proposed solution for the land, and therefore the issue must be brought to the [[United Nations]] (UN) for a final decision. The Yishuv thought of the idea to transfer the issue to the UN as a British attempt to achieve delay while a UN inquiry commission would be established, and its ideas discussed, and all the while the Yishuv would weaken. [[Mossad Le'aliyah Bet|Foundation for Immigration B]] increased the number of ships bringing in Jewish refugees. The British still strictly enforced the policy of limited Jewish immigration and illegal immigrants were placed in detention camps in [[Cyprus]], which increased the anger of the Jewish community towards the mandate government.

The Irgun stepped up its activity and from February 19 until March 3 it attacked 18 British military camps, convoy routes, vehicles, and other facilities. The most notable of these attacks was the bombing of a British officer's club located in Goldsmith House in Jerusalem, which was in a heavily guarded security zone. Covered by machine-gun fire, an Irgun assault team in a truck penetrated the security zone and lobbed explosives into the building.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.etzel.org.il/english/ac12.htm |title=The Raid On The Jerusalem Officers Club |publisher=Etzel.org.il |access-date=2013-08-12 |archive-date=2013-09-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130925235031/http://www.etzel.org.il/english/ac12.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Thirteen people, including two officers, were killed.<ref name=Hoffman/> As a result, martial law was imposed over much of the country, enforced by approximately 20,000 British soldiers. Despite this, attacks continued throughout the martial law period. The most notable one was an Irgun attack against the Royal Army Pay Corps base at the [[Schneller Orphanage]], in which a British soldier was killed.<ref name=Hoffman/>

Throughout its struggle against the British, the Irgun sought to publicize its cause around the world. By humiliating the British, it attempted to focus global attention on Palestine, hoping that any British overreaction would be widely reported, and thus result in more political pressure against the British. Begin described this strategy as turning Palestine into a "glass house". The Irgun also re-established many representative offices internationally, and by 1948 operated in 23 states. In these countries, the Irgun sometimes acted against the local British representatives or led public relations campaigns against Britain. According to [[Bruce Hoffman]]: "''In an era long before the advent of 24/7 global news coverage and instantaneous satellite-transmitted broadcasts, the Irgun deliberately attempted to appeal to a worldwide audience far beyond the immediate confines of its local struggle, and beyond even the ruling regime's own homeland''."<ref name=Bell/><ref name=Hoffman/>

{| class="wikitable floatright" style="width:22em; font-size:88%"
! style="background: lavender; font-size:110%;" | [[Olei Hagardom|Executed Members of the Irgun]]
|-
|
*[[Shlomo Ben-Yosef]]
*[[Dov Gruner]]
*[[Mordechai Alkahi]]
*[[Yehiel Dresner]]
*[[Eliezer Kashani]]
*[[Yaakov Weiss]]
*[[Avshalom Haviv]]
*[[Meir Nakar]]
|}

===Acre Prison break===
{{Main|Acre Prison break}}
On April 16, 1947, Irgun members Dov Gruner, Yehiel Dresner, Eliezer Kashani, and Mordechai Alkahi were hanged in [[Acre Prison]], while singing [[Hatikvah]]. On April 21 [[Meir Feinstein]] and Lehi member [[Moshe Barazani]] blew themselves up, using a smuggled grenade, hours before their scheduled hanging. And on May 4 one of the Irgun's largest operations took place – the raid on Acre Prison. The operation was carried out by 23 men, commanded by Dov Cohen – AKA "Shimshon", along with the help of the Irgun and [[Lehi (group)|Lehi]] prisoners inside the prison. The Irgun had informed them of the plan in advance and smuggled in explosives. After a hole was blasted in the prison wall, the 41 Irgun and Lehi members who had been chosen to escape then ran to the hole, blasting through inner prison gates with the smuggled explosives. Meanwhile, Irgun teams mined roads and launched a mortar attack on a nearby British Army camp to delay the arrival of responding British forces. Although the 41 escapees managed to get out of the prison and board the escape trucks, some were rapidly recaptured and nine of the escapees and attackers were killed. Five Irgun men in the attacking party were also captured. Overall, 27 of the 41 designated escapees managed to escape. Along with the underground movement members, other criminals – including 214 Arabs<ref>Horne, Edward (1982). A Job Well Done (Being a History of The Palestine Police Force 1920–1948). The Anchor Press. {{ISBN|0-9508367-0-2}}. p. 310. States 41 Jews escaped and that nine terrorists and one Arab convict were killed, 13 arrested of whom 8 wounded.</ref> – also escaped. Of the five attackers who were caught, three of them – [[Avshalom Haviv]], [[Meir Nakar]], and [[Yaakov Weiss]], were sentenced to death.

===The Sergeants affair===
{{Main|The Sergeants affair}}
[[File:British sergeants kidnapped and hanged by the Irgun, 1947.jpg|thumb|Two British sergeants hanged by the Irgun]]

After the death sentences of the three were confirmed, the Irgun tried to save them by kidnapping [[hostage]]s{{snd}}British sergeants Clifford Martin and Mervyn Paice{{snd}}in the streets of [[Netanya]]. British forces closed off and combed the area in search of the two, but did not find them. On July 29, 1947, in the afternoon, Meir Nakar, Avshalom Haviv, and Yaakov Weiss were executed. Approximately thirteen hours later the hostages were hanged in retaliation by the Irgun and their bodies, booby-trapped with an explosive, afterwards strung up from trees in woodlands south of Netanya. This action caused an outcry in Britain and was condemned both there and by Jewish leaders in Palestine.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,887512,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070712123116/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,887512,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 12, 2007 |title=Eye for an Eye for an Eye|magazine=Time |date=1947-08-11 |access-date=2013-08-12}}</ref>

This episode has been given{{by whom?|date=May 2024}} as a major influence on the British decision to terminate the Mandate and leave Palestine. The [[United Nations Special Committee on Palestine|United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP)]] was also influenced by this and other actions. At the same time another incident was developing – the events of the ship [[Exodus (ship)|''Exodus 1947'']]. The 4,500 Holocaust survivors on board were not allowed to enter Palestine. UNSCOP also covered the events. Some of its members were even present at [[Haifa]] port when the putative immigrants were forcefully removed from their ship (later found to have been rigged with an IED by some of its passengers) onto the deportation ships, and later commented that this strong image helped them press for an immediate solution for Jewish immigration and the question of Palestine.

Two weeks later, the House of Commons convened for a special debate on events in Palestine, and concluded that their soldiers should be withdrawn as soon as possible.