Zionist Terrorism

The Jewish insurgency and guerilla campaign against the British administration in Palestine began in earnest due to the White Paper of 1939 and continued until the founding of Israel in May 1948. The main period of Jewish violence wsa just prior to WWII and in the post-war years of 1945-1948

There were three major militant paramilitary organizations:

  • Irgun (Etzel): (Menachem Begin) A militant Revisionist Zionist (right-wing) group that broke away from the Haganah. They carried out dozens of bombings and armed attacks against Arab markets, buses, and British administrative buildings.
  • Lehi (Stern Gang): (Yitzhak Shamir) A radical offshoot of Irgun that viewed the British as the main enemy. They actively engaged in urban guerrilla warfare, political assassinations, and sabotage.
  • Haganah: (Ben-Gurion) The Yishuv's underground paramilitary defence force. Practiced a policy of restraint (havlagah) for much of the Mandate. After WWII, its "Palmach" strike force carried out bombings of infrastructure and ships used to deport Jewish immigrants.

During November 1937, there was an escalation of guerrilla warfare, ambushes, and targeted assassinations against Jewish communities. On November 9, 1937, Arab rebels ambushed a group of Jewish National Fund worker and killed five. Breaking away from the Yishuv policy of havlagah (restraint), the Irgun launched a coordinated series of bombings on "Black Sunday", November 14. Bombs and hand grenades were deployed against Palestinian Arab civilians in crowded public spaces and marketplaces in and around Jerusalem. Ten Arab civilians were killed and dozens wounded. Irgun was now attacking the Arabs as the Arabs had been attacking the Jewish immigrants for over 50 years. Civilians were targetted in a tit for tat policy as were the British forces. The campaign of bombings and assassinations by the Irgun and the "Stern Gang" (as it was known by the British) continued until the British left in 1948.

The British White Paper of 1939, which severely restricted Jewish immigration and land purchases in Palestine, demonstrated that Palestinian violence could effect British government policy. The Jews considered this policy was a betrayal of the Balfour Declaration, an illegal breaking of the Mandate and a death sentence for European Jews facing Nazi persecution who might otherwise have escaped to Palestine. The Palestinians had shown that violence works. Naturally there were going to be some Jews who took this lesson to heart.

The end of the war in Europe triggered the reopening of the struggle against the white paper by mainstream Zionism. In June, a Jewish Agency memorandum demanded that Britain allow a hundred thousand immigrants into Palestine immediately. Ben-Gurion declared the DPs (displaced persons - survivors of the Holocaust) could not be allowed open-endedly to languish in Europe "among the graveyards of the millions of their slaughtered brethren."

5 July 1945: Churchill wanted to rid Britain of "this very difficult place." However Churchill lost the General Election of 1945. Labour's platform called for unlimited Jewish immigration into Palestine. Once in office though, Atlee and Bevin (the Labour Party leaders) continued the delusional thinking about Arab strength and British power that the former government had followed. They continued to prevent "illegal" immigration into Israel for nearly 3 years until the creation of Israel. This caused great Jewish suffering and anger and gave no benefit to Britain. The Irgun and Lehi waged war against British authorities and Palestinian Arabs. The Haganah bombed railways, oil pipelines and radar stations. Official casualty numbers for the August 1945 to August 1947 period were 141 British killed and 475 wounded. There were now 100,00 British troops in Palestine, 4 times as many as in the Palestinian revolt. They were trying to combat an urban guerilla war this time.

British Labour MP Richard Crossman served on the 1946 Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, which recommended admitting 100,000 Holocaust survivors to Palestine. Bevin fiercely resisted this, claiming the U.S. supported this polcy as they did not want "too many Jews in New York". It was common for the British to make snide anti-semitic comments and jokes. However, Crossman said that Bevin's views on Jews was close to that of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion; that Bevin thought Jews were in a conspiracy against Britain and himself; that he linked Jews to finance and communism and complained about European Jews "pushing to the front of the queue" to escape the D.P camps. Bevin appeared to become obsessive and slightly mad over this situation. The famous case of the Exodus shipload of refugees (which inspired a novel and a Hollywood movie) ended with Bevin, in an extra nasty hissy fit, sending them back to Germany rather than Cyprus where all the other immigrants were illegally imprisoned. The bombings, assassinations and sabotage impaired British administration, infuriated the soldiers and the British public and strained the finances of a nearly bankrupt nation. Eventually Bevin gave up and dumped the problem on the UNO.

The Palestinian Revolt caused changes in British policies which initiated Jewish Terrorism. The Jewish insurgency faced a different Great Britain in 1945 in a new political and economic world which was still changing. Britain no longer had any real need to protect its "Imperial" legacy. That world was over though it took a few years for the British to realise it and they continued trying to shore up that position until 1956 when it became obvious it was no longer necessary or possible.

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