Zionist militant groups Bar-Giora (, from
Simon bar Giora; 1907–1909) was a
militia of primarily of
Russian Jewish immigrants founded to protect
Jewish settlements during the
second wave of Zionist migration to
Palestine. It 1909, it expanded into
HaShomer ( 'the watchman'), an armed paramilitary
cavalry that was active until the establishment of the
British Mandate for Palestine (1920–1948). During the
1920 Nebi Musa riots, the 1921
Jaffa riots and the
1929 Palestine riots, Palestinian Arabs manifested hostility against Zionist immigration, which provoked the reaction of Jewish militias. After the
1920 Nebi Musa riots, the
Haganah ( 'the defense') was founded in June and drew forces from the
Zion Mule Corps and
Jewish Legion, both of which fought for the British in
World War I. Increasing
Zionist migration to Palestine raised tensions and
intercommunal conflict in Mandatory Palestine. The
Irgun ( 'organization'; 1931–1948), associated with
Betar and
Revisionist Zionism, was founded as an offshoot of the Haganah. The Irgun were the armed expression of the nascent ideology of
Revisionist Zionism founded by
Ze'ev Jabotinsky. He expressed this
ideology as
"every Jew had the right to enter Palestine; only active retaliation would deter the Arab and the British; only Jewish armed force would ensure the Jewish state". During the
1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine, Palestinian Arabs fought for the end of the
Mandate and the creation of an Arab state based on the whole of Palestine. They attacked both British and Jews as well as some Palestinian Arabs who supported a
Pan-Arabism. Mainstream Zionists, represented by the
Vaad Leumi and the Haganah, practiced the policy of
Havlagah ( 'restraint'). The Irgun began bombing Palestinian Arab civilian targets in 1938. The squads were controlled directly by Ben Gurion, without reference to the
Haganah general command, and were used repeatedly during the last months of the Arab revolt and during the months that followed. It also sought to make alliances with
fascist Italy and the
Nazi Germany.
Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine (1944–1948) leaders arrested in
Operation Agatha amid attacks by the
Jewish Resistance Movement in the
insurgency against the British. Left to right:
David Remez,
Moshe Sharett,
Yitzhak Gruenbaum,
Dov Yosef, Shenkarsky,
David Hacohen, Halperin. by the Zionist paramilitary organization the
Irgun in 1947. After the
British Declaration of War in September 1939, the head of the
Jewish Agency for Palestine David Ben-Gurion declared: 'We will fight the White Paper as if there is no war, and fight the war as if there is no White Paper.'; the Haganah and Irgun subsequently suspended their activity against the British in support of their war against
Nazi Germany. However, the smaller
Lehi continued anti-British attacks and
direct action throughout the war. At that time, the British also supported the creation and the training of
Palmach, as a unit that could withstand a German offensive in the area, with the consent of the
Yishuv which saw an opportunity to get trained units and soldiers for the planned Jewish state and during 1944–1945, the most mainstream Jewish paramilitary organization, Haganah, cooperated with the British authorities against the Lehi and Etzel. After World War II, between 1945 and the
29 November 1947 Partition vote, British soldiers and
policemen were
targeted by Irgun and Lehi. The Haganah and Palmach at first collaborated with the British against them, particularly during
the Hunting Season, before actively joining them in the
Jewish Resistance Movement, then finally choosing an official neutral position after 1946 while the Irgun and the Lehi continued their attacks against the British. The
Jewish Agency organized the
Jewish Resistance Movement (JRM), which included the Haganah, Palmach, Lehi, and Irgun. Its first operation was October 1945, when the Palmach attacked the
Atlit internment camp and to release Jews arrested by the British for
illegal immigration into Palestine. In November, the JRM targeted railroads throughout Palestine and sank a number of British coast guard patrol
launches. The Haganah also carried out violent attacks in Palestine, such as the liberation of interned immigrants from the
Atlit detainee camp, the bombing of the country's railroad network, sabotage raids on radar installations and bases of the British Palestine police. It continued to organize
illegal immigration throughout the entire war. Irgun was described as a
terrorist organization by the United Nations, British, and
United States governments, and in media such as
The New York Times newspaper, and by the
Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. In 1946, The World Zionist Congress strongly condemned terrorist activities in Palestine and "the shedding of innocent blood as a means of political warfare". Irgun was specifically condemned.
The Nakba and the 1948 Palestine War In February 1947, the British announced that they would end the mandate and withdraw from Palestine and they asked for the arbitration of the
United Nations. After the vote of the Partition Plan for Palestine on 30 November 1947,
civil war broke out in Palestine. Jewish and Arab communities fought each other violently in campaigns of attacks, retaliations, and counter-retaliations which provoked around 800 deaths after two months. Arab volunteers entered Palestine to fight alongside the Palestinian Arabs. In April, 6 weeks before the termination of the Mandate, the Jewish militias launched wide operations to control the territory dedicated to them by the Partition Plan.
Many atrocities occurred during this time. The Arab population in the
mixed cities of
Tiberias,
Safed,
Haifa and
Jaffa, as well as
Beisan and
Acre and in the neighbouring villages, fled or were expelled during this period. During the
Battle for Jerusalem (1948) where the Jewish community of 100,000 people was besieged, most Arab villages of the
Tel Aviv – Jerusalem corridor were captured by Jewish militias and leveled. At the beginning of the civil war, the Jewish militias organized several bombing attacks against civilians and military Arab targets. On 12 December, Irgun placed a car bomb opposite the Damascus Gate, killing 20 people. On 4 January 1948, the Lehi detonated a lorry bomb against the headquarters of the paramilitary
Najjada located in
Jaffa's Town Hall, killing 15 Arabs and injuring 80. During the night between 5 and 6 January, the Haganah bombed the
Semiramis Hotel in Jerusalem that had been reported to hide Arab militiamen, killing 24 people. The next day, Irgun members in a stolen police van rolled a
barrel bomb into a large group of civilians who were waiting for a bus by the
Jaffa Gate, killing around 16. Another Irgun bomb went off in the Ramla market on February 18, killing 7 residents and injuring 45. On 28 February, the Palmah organised a bombing attack against a garage in Haifa, killing 30 people. In
Plan Dalet (1 April 1948 –14 May 1948), a military plan developed by the Haganah, Zionist forces depopulated and destroyed
Palestinian villages to deliver the of conquered territory for the
establishment of the
State of Israel. Zionist forces terrorized Palestinian communities to encourage flight. ,
Jessurun Cardozo,
Albert Einstein and others letter
Menachem Begin was called a
terrorist and a
fascist by
Albert Einstein and 27 other prominent Jewish intellectuals in a letter to the New York Times which was published on December 4, 1948. Specifically condemned was the participation of the Irgun in the
Deir Yassin massacre: terrorist bands attacked this peaceful village, which was not a military objective in the fighting, killed most of its inhabitants – 240 men, women and children – and kept a few of them alive to parade as captives through the streets of Jerusalem. The letter warns
American Jews against supporting Begin's request for funding of his political party
Herut, and ends with the warning: The discrepancies between the bold claims now being made by Begin and his party and their record of past performance in Palestine bear the imprint of no ordinary political party. This is the unmistakable stamp of a Fascist party for whom terrorism (against Jews, Arabs, and British alike), and misrepresentation are means, and a "Leader State" is the goal. by the British authorities and United Nations mediator
Ralph Bunche.
Operation Cast Thy Bread Israel employed
biological warfare against Palestinians by
poisoning village wells.
Benny Morris reported that Israeli soldiers transported typhoid germs in bottles to the southern front. British, Arab, and
Red Cross documents reveal that Zionist forces introduced poison into wells in
Acre and
Eilabun in
Galilee, leading to severe illness among dozens of local residents. Acre, which was allocated to a future Arab state by the
United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, heavily relied on its aqueduct for water. The contamination of these wells triggered a typhoid epidemic and "state of extreme distress" among the inhabitants, as noted by the mayor of Acre on 3 May. The
Carmeli Brigade of the Haganah allegedly used a biological weapon in the
battle of Acre in May 1948. In June, an Israeli intelligence report concluded that deliberately inducing the epidemic had played a significant role in Acre's rapid fall to Haganah forces. == After 1948 ==