Editing Irgun (section)

===Description as a terrorist organization===
References to the Irgun as a [[terrorist]] organization came from sources including the [[Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry]],<ref>W. Khalidi, 1971, 'From Haven to Conquest', 598; updated 1987 to ''From Haven to Conquest: Readings in Zionism and the Palestine Problem Until 1948,'' [[Institute for Palestine Studies]], {{ISBN|978-0-88728-155-6}}</ref> newspapers<ref>{{cite news |title=Irgun Bomb Kills 11 Arabs, 2 Britons |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1947/12/30/archives/irgun-bomb-kills-11-arabs-2-britons-missile-thrown-from-a-taxi-in.html?sq=terrorist+Irgun&scp=2&st=p |quote=A bomb thrown by the Jewish terrorist organization Irgun Zvai Leumi from a speeding taxi today killed eleven Arabs and two British policemen and wounded at least thirty-two Arabs by the Jerusalem Damascus Gate, the same place where a similar bombing took place sixteen days ago. |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=December 30, 1947 |access-date=2008-11-18 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Irgun's Hand Seen in Alps Rail Blast. Polish Jew Confesses He Was Lookout for Others Who Bombed British Train. |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0E16F93D55147B93C4A81783D85F438485F9&scp=3&sq=terrorist+Irgun&st=p |quote=United States authorities believed tonight they had circumstantial evidence linking the bombing of a British military train high in the Austrian Alps Tuesday night to the Zionist terrorist organization Irgun Zvai Leumi, according to preliminary investigation reports from Bad Gastein. |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=August 16, 1947 |access-date=2008-11-18 }}</ref><ref name=LTimes1 /><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article674803.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070217160927/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article674803.ece |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 17, 2007 |title=Menachem Begin 'backed plot to kill German Chancellor' | location=London | work=The Times | first=Roger | last=Boyes | date=June 14, 2006 | access-date=May 5, 2010}}</ref><ref name=bbcprofile/> and a number of prominent world and Jewish figures.<ref name=gilbert/><ref name=segev>{{cite book |title=The Seventh Million |author=Tom Segev, Haim Watzman |page=33}}</ref><ref name=shatz />
Leaders within the mainstream Jewish organizations, the [[Jewish Agency]], [[Haganah]] and [[Histadrut]], as well as the British authorities, routinely condemned Irgun operations as [[terrorism]] and branded it an illegal organization as a result of the group's attacks on [[List of Irgun attacks during the 1930s|civilian targets]].<ref name=bbcprofile>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7702408.stm |title=Profile:Rahm Emanuel | work=BBC News | date=November 7, 2008 |access-date=January 5, 2010}}</ref> However, privately at least the Haganah kept a dialogue with the dissident groups.<ref name=WilsonD11>{{cite book |title=With 6th Airborne Division in Palestine 1945–48 |last=Wilson |first=Dare |year=2008 |publisher=Pen& Sword Books Ltd |isbn=978-1-84415-771-6 |pages=11–12}}</ref>
Ironically, in early 1947, "the British army in Mandate Palestine banned the use of the term 'terrorist' to refer to the Irgun zvai Leumi ... because it implied that British forces had reason to be terrified."<ref>Ray C. Rist (editor), Martha Crenshaw (article author). ''The Democratic Imagination: Dialogues on the Work of Irving Louis Horowitz'' (Transaction Publishers, 1994  {{ISBN|978-1-56000-174-4}}) [https://books.google.com/books?id=81nUZ-eoYusC&pg=PA141 p. 141] &ndash; citing Wilson, Ronald D. ''Cordon and Search: With the 6th Airborne Division in Palestine''. Gale and Polden. Aldershot. 1949. p. 13.</ref>

Irgun attacks prompted a formal declaration from the [[World Zionist Congress]] in 1946, which strongly condemned "the shedding of innocent blood as a means of political warfare."<ref>{{cite news |title=Zionists Condemn Palestine Terror |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1946/12/24/archives/zionists-condemn-palestine-terror-basle-congress-bars-joining-in.html?sq=Irgun+terrorist+president&scp=13&st=p |quote=The World Zionist Congress in its final session here strongly condemned by a vote early today terrorist activities in Palestine and "the shedding of innocent blood as a means of political warfare. |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=December 24, 1946 |access-date=2008-11-18 }}</ref>

The Israeli government, in September 1948, acting in response to the assassination of Count [[Folke Bernadotte]], outlawed the Irgun and [[Lehi (group)|Lehi]] groups, declaring them terrorist organizations under the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance.<ref name=SshmidtFCPRIOT>{{cite book|last=Dr. Yvonne Schmidt|title=Foundations of Civil and Political Rights in Israel and the Occupied Territories |date=May 2008 |page=254|publisher=GRIN Verlag |isbn=978-3-638-94450-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=51gNA4Go_lUC&q=%22Prevention%20of%20Terrorism%20Ordinance%22%20%20Irgun&pg=PA254}} No 33 of 5708-1948 – 23 September 1948</ref>

In 1948, ''[[The New York Times]]'' published a letter signed by a number of prominent Jewish figures including [[Hannah Arendt]], [[Albert Einstein]], [[Sidney Hook]], and [[Rabbi]] [[Jessurun Cardozo]], which described Irgun as "a terrorist, [[right-wing]], [[chauvinist]] organization in Palestine".<ref>{{cite web |title=Wrestling With Zion: Re-thinking Jewish Tradition and the Ongoing Crisis in the Middle East|date=Spring 2004|access-date=29 September 2019|website=www.acjna.org |url=http://www.acjna.org/acjna/articles_detail.aspx?id=321}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/einstein/1948/12/02.htm |title=Letter to New York Times |publisher=Marxists.org |date=1948-12-02 |access-date=2013-08-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Einstein on Politics |author=David E. Rowe, Robert J. Schulmann |page=350}}</ref> The letter went on to state that Irgun and the Stern gang "inaugurated a reign of terror in the Palestine Jewish community. Teachers were beaten up for speaking against them, adults were shot for not letting their children join them. By gangster methods, beatings, window-smashing, and widespread robberies, the terrorists intimidated the population and exacted a heavy tribute."<ref name=shatz>{{cite book |title=Prophets Outcast |author=Adam Shatz |pages=65–67}}</ref>

Soon after World War II, Winston Churchill said "we should never have stopped immigration before the war", but that the Irgun were "the vilest [[gangster]]s" and that he would "never forgive the Irgun terrorists."<ref name=gilbert>{{cite book |title=Churchill and the Jew Quotings |author=Martin Gilbert |page=270}}</ref>

In 2006, Simon McDonald, the British ambassador in Tel Aviv, and John Jenkins, the Consul-General in Jerusalem, wrote in response to a pro-Irgun commemoration of the [[King David Hotel bombing]]: "We do not think that it is right for an act of terrorism, which led to the loss of many lives, to be commemorated." They also called for the removal of plaques at the site which presented as a fact that the deaths were due to the British ignoring warning calls. The plaques, in their original version, read:

{{Blockquote|text=Warning phone calls had been made urging the hotel's occupants to leave immediately. For reasons known only to the British the hotel was not evacuated and after 25 minutes the bombs exploded, and to the Irgun's regret and dismay 91 persons were killed.|author=|title=|source=}}

McDonald and Jenkins said that no such warning calls were made, adding that even if they had, "this does not absolve those who planted the bomb from responsibility for the deaths."<ref name=LTimes1>{{cite news |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article690085.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070208032156/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article690085.ece |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 8, 2007 |title=British anger at terror celebration | location=London | work=The Times | first1=Ned | last1=Parker | first2=Stephen | last2=Farrell | date=July 20, 2006 | access-date=May 5, 2010}}</ref>

Bruce Hoffman states: "Unlike many terrorist groups today, the Irgun's strategy was not deliberately to target or wantonly harm civilians." [[Max Abrahms]] writes that the Irgun "pioneered the practice of issuing pre-attack warnings to spare civilians", which was later emulated by the [[African National Congress]] (ANC) and other groups and proved "effective but not foolproof". In addition, Begin ordered attacks to take place at night and even during [[Shabbat]] to reduce the likelihood of civilian casualties. U.S. military intelligence found that "the Irgun Zvai Leumi is waging a general war against the government and at all times took special care not to cause damage or injury to persons". Although the King David Hotel bombing is widely considered a ''prima facie'' case of Irgun terrorism, Abrahms comments: "But this hotel wasn't a normal hotel. It served as the headquarters for the British Armed Forces in Palestine. By all accounts, the intent wasn't to harm civilians."<ref name="Abrahms"/>