Editing Irgun (section)

===Increase in operations===
14 November 1937 was a watershed in Irgun activity. From that date, the Irgun increased its reprisals. Following an increase in the number of attacks aimed at Jews, including the killing of five [[kibbutz]] members near [[Kiryat Anavim]] (today kibbutz [[Ma'ale HaHamisha]]), the Irgun undertook a series of attacks in various places in Jerusalem, killing five Arabs. Operations were also undertaken in [[Haifa]] (shooting at the Arab-populated [[Wadi Nisnas]] neighborhood) and in [[Herzliya]]. The date is known as the day the policy of restraint ([[Havlagah]]) ended, or as [[Black Sunday, 1937|Black Sunday]] when operations resulted in the murder of 10 Arabs. This is when the organization fully changed its policy, with the approval of Jabotinsky and Headquarters to the policy of "active defense" in respect of Irgun actions.<ref>"The Birth of an Underground Organization", Yehuda Lapidot, p. 62 {{in lang|he}}</ref>

The British responded with the arrest of Betar and Hatzohar members as suspected members of the Irgun. [[Military court]]s were allowed to act under "Time of Emergency Regulations" and even sentence people to death. In this manner [[Yehezkel Altman]], a guard in a Betar battalion in the [[Nahalat Yizchak]] neighborhood of Tel Aviv, shot at an Arab bus, without his commanders' knowledge. Altman was acting in response to a shooting at Jewish vehicles on the Tel Aviv–Jerusalem road the day before. He turned himself in later and was sentenced to death, a sentence which was later commuted to a life sentence.

Despite the arrests, Irgun members continued fighting. Jabotinsky lent his moral support to these activities. In a letter to Moshe Rosenberg on 18 March 1938 he wrote:
<blockquote>Tell them: from afar I collect and save, as precious treasures, news items about your lives. I know of the obstacles that have not impeded your spirit; and I know of your actions as well. I am overjoyed that I have been blessed with such students.</blockquote>

Although the Irgun continued activities such as these, following Rosenberg's orders, they were greatly curtailed. Furthermore, in fear of the British threat of the death sentence for anyone found carrying a weapon, all operations were suspended for eight months. However, opposition to this policy gradually increased. In April, 1938, responding to the killing of six Jews, Betar members from the [[Rosh Pinna|Rosh Pina]] Brigade went on a reprisal mission, without the consent of their commander, as described by historian [[Avi Shlaim]]:
<blockquote>On 21 April 1938, after several weeks of planning, he and two of his colleagues from the Irgun (Etzel) ambushed an Arab bus at a bend on a mountain road near Safad. They had a hand grenade, a gun and a pistol. Their plan was to destroy the engine so that the bus would fall off the side of the road and all the passengers would be killed. When the bus approached, they fired at it (not in the air, as Mailer has it) but the grenade lobbed by Ben Yosef did not detonate. The bus with its screaming and terrified passengers drove on.<ref>{{cite magazine
| title = Bombers not Martyrs
| author = Avi Shlaim
| date= January 6, 2005
| magazine = London Review of Books
| url = http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n01/letters.html}}</ref></blockquote>

Although the incident ended without casualties, the three were caught, and one of them – [[Shlomo Ben-Yosef]] was sentenced to death. Demonstrations around the country, as well as pressure from institutions and people such as [[Haim Weizman|Dr. Chaim Weizmann]] and the [[Chief Rabbi]] of [[Mandatory Palestine]], [[Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog]] did not reduce his sentence. In Shlomo Ben-Yosef's writings in Hebrew were later found:
<blockquote>I am going to die and I am not sorry at all. Why? Because I am going to die for our country. Shlomo Ben-Yosef.<ref name=":0" /></blockquote>

On 29 June 1938 he was executed, and was the first of the [[Olei Hagardom]]. The Irgun revered him after his death and many regarded him as an example.
In light of this, and due to the anger of the Irgun leadership over the decision to adopt a policy of restraint until that point, Jabotinsky relieved Rosenberg of his post and replaced him with David Raziel, who proved to be the most prominent Irgun commander until [[Menachem Begin]]. Jabotinsky simultaneously instructed the Irgun to end its policy of restraint, leading to armed offensive operations until the end of the Arab Revolt in 1939. In this time, the Irgun mounted about 40 operations against Arabs and Arab villages, for instance:
*After a Jewish father and son were killed in the [[Old City of Jerusalem]], on June 6, 1938, Irgun members threw explosives from the roof of a nearby house, killing two Arabs and injuring four.
*The Irgun planted [[land mine]]s in a number of Arab [[Souk|markets]], primarily in places identified by the Irgun as activity centers of armed Arab gangs.
*Explosives detonated in the Arab [[souk]] in Jerusalem on July 15, killed ten local Arabs.
*In similar circumstances, 70 Arabs were killed by a [[land mine]] planted in the Arab souk in Haifa.

This action led the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|British Parliament]] to discuss the disturbances in Palestine. On 23 February 1939 the [[Secretary of State for the Colonies]], [[Malcolm MacDonald]] revealed the British intention to cancel the mandate and establish a state that would preserve Arab rights. This caused a wave of riots and attacks by Arabs against Jews. The Irgun responded four days later with a series of attacks on Arab buses and other sites. The British used military force against the Arab rioters and in the latter stages of the revolt by the Arab community in Palestine, it deteriorated into a series of internal gang wars.

====During the same period====
[[File:Irgun poster Erez Jisrael.jpg|thumb|1931 [[propaganda]] poster of the Irgun for distribution in [[central Europe]] – the map shows Israel defined in the borders of both [[Mandatory Palestine]] and the [[Emirate of Transjordan]], which the Irgun claimed in its entirety for a future Jewish state.]]

At the same time, the Irgun also established itself in Europe. The Irgun built underground cells that participated in organizing migration to Palestine. The cells were made up almost entirely of Betar members, and their primary activity was military training in preparation for emigration to Palestine. Ties formed with the Polish authorities brought about courses in which Irgun commanders were trained by Polish officers in advanced military issues such as [[guerrilla warfare]], [[Tactic (method)|tactics]] and laying land mines. [[Avraham Stern|Avraham (Yair) Stern]] was notable among the cell organizers in Europe. In 1937 the Polish authorities began to deliver large amounts of weapons to the underground. According to Irgun activists Poland supplied the organization with 25,000 rifles, and additional material and weapons, by summer 1939 the Warsaw warehouses of Irgun held 5,000 rifles and 1,000 machine guns. The training and support by Poland would allow the organization to mobilize 30,000–40,000 men.<ref>Perspectives on the Holocaust pp. 71–91 The Irgun and the Destruction of European Jewry Yitshaq Ben-Ami pp. 75–76</ref> The transfer of handguns, rifles, explosives and ammunition stopped with the outbreak of World War II. Another field in which the Irgun operated was the training of pilots, so they could serve in the [[Air Force]] in the future war for independence, in the flight school in [[Lod]].

Towards the end of 1938 there was progress towards aligning the ideologies of the Irgun and the Haganah. Many abandoned the belief that the land would be divided and a Jewish state would soon exist. The Haganah founded פו"מ, a special operations unit, (pronounced ''poom''), which carried out reprisal attacks following Arab violence. These operations continued into 1939. Furthermore, the opposition within the [[Yishuv]] to illegal immigration significantly decreased, and the Haganah began to bring Jews to Palestine using rented ships, as the Irgun had in the past.