Editing Irgun (section)

===Under Tehomi's command===
{{Main|1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine}}
[[File:Tehomi.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Avraham Tehomi]], the first Commander of the Irgun]]
In 1933 there were some signs of unrest, seen by the incitement of the local Arab leadership to act against the authorities. The strong British response put down the disturbances quickly. During that time the Irgun operated in a similar manner to the Haganah and was a guarding organization. The two organizations cooperated in ways such as coordination of posts and even intelligence sharing.

Within the Irgun, Tehomi was the first to serve as "Head of the Headquarters" or "Chief Commander". Alongside Tehomi served the senior commanders, or "Headquarters" of the movement. As the organization grew, it was divided into district commands.

In August 1933 a "Supervisory Committee" for the Irgun was established, which included representatives from most of the Zionist political parties. The members of this committee were [[Meir Grossman]] (of the Hebrew State Party), Rabbi [[Meir Bar-Ilan]] (of the [[Mizrachi (Religious Zionism)|Mizrachi Party]]), either [[Immanuel Neumann]] or [[Yehoshua Supersky]] (of the [[General Zionists]]) and [[Ze'ev Jabotinsky]] or [[Eliyahu Ben Horin]] (of [[Hatzohar]]).

In protest against, and with the aim of ending [[Jewish immigration to Palestine]], the [[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine|Great Arab Revolt of 1936–1939]] broke out on April 19, 1936. The riots took the form of attacks by Arab rioters ambushing main roads, bombing of roads and settlements as well as property and agriculture vandalism. In the beginning, the Irgun and the Haganah generally maintained a policy of restraint, apart from a few instances. Some expressed resentment at this policy, leading up internal unrest in the two organizations. The Irgun tended to retaliate more often, and sometimes Irgun members patrolled areas beyond their positions in order to encounter attackers ahead of time. However, there were differences of opinion regarding what to do in the Haganah, as well. Due to the joining of many [[Betar]] Youth members, Jabotinsky (founder of Betar) had a great deal of influence over Irgun policy. Nevertheless, Jabotinsky was of the opinion that for moral reasons violent retaliation was not to be undertaken.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Kessler |first=Oren |title=Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict |date=2023 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-5381-4881-5 |location=Lanham, Maryland |pages=145-151}}</ref>

In November 1936 the [[Peel Commission]] was sent to inquire regarding the breakout of the riots and propose a solution to end the Revolt. In early 1937 there were still some in the [[Yishuv]] who felt the commission would recommend a partition of [[Mandatory Palestine]] (the land west of the [[Jordan River]]), thus creating a Jewish state on part of the land. The Irgun leadership, as well as the "Supervisory Committee" held similar beliefs, as did some members of the Haganah and the [[Jewish Agency]]. This belief strengthened the policy of [[Havlagah|restraint]] and led to the position that there was no room for defense institutions in the future Jewish state. Tehomi was quoted as saying: "We stand before great events: a Jewish state and a Jewish army. There is a need for a single military force". This position intensified the differences of opinion regarding the policy of restraint, both within the Irgun and within the political camp aligned with the organization. The leadership committee of the Irgun supported a merger with the Haganah. On April 24, 1937, a referendum was held among Irgun members regarding its continued independent existence. David Raziel and Avraham (Yair) Stern came out publicly in support for the continued existence of the Irgun:

<blockquote>The Irgun has been placed ... before a decision to make, whether to submit to the authority of the government and the [[Jewish Agency]] or to prepare for a double sacrifice and endangerment. Some of our friends do not have appropriate willingness for this difficult position, and have submitted to the Jewish Agency and has left the battle ... all of the attempts ... to unite with the leftist organization have failed, because the Left entered into negotiations not on the basis of unification of forces, but the submission of one such force to the other....<ref>[[Yosef Kister]], ''The Etzel'', (Hebrew) p. 38</ref></blockquote>