Haganah aka "Jewish Underground"

Origin

Predecessor: Ha-Shomer (The Guild of Watchman)

Established: 1907

Purpose: Small group of Jewish immigrants who guarded settlements for an annual fee. At no time did the group have more than 100 members.

Haganah

Established: 1920

Purpose: To protect Jewish Palestinians farms and Kibbutzim against Arab Palestinian gangs.

1929: Following the Arab massacres of 1929, the Haganah's role changed dramatically. It became a much larger organization encompassing nearly all the youth and adults in the Jewish settlements, as well as thousands of members from the cities. It also acquired foreign arms and began to develop workshops to create hand grenades and simple military equipment, transforming from an untrained militia to a capable underground army.

1931: The most militant elements of the Haganah splintered off and formed the Irgun; led by Menachem Begin.

1936: The Haganah fielded 10,000 mobilized men along with 40,000 reservists.

1936-1939: During the Arab revolt in Palestine, the Haganah participated actively to protect British interests and to quell Arab rebellion using the FOSH, and then HISH units. Although the British administration did not officially recognize the Haganah, the British security forces cooperated with it by forming the Jewish Settlement Police, Jewish Auxiliary Forces and Special Night Squads, which were trained and led by Colonel Orde Wingate. The battle experience gained during this time was to become very useful in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

1939: Great Britain had severely restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine with the BRITISH WHITE PAPERS of 1939, and were importing Arab labor from other parts of the Middle East. In response, the Haganah built up the Palmach as the Haganah's elite strike force and organized illegal Jewish immigration to Palestine.  Approximately 100,000 Jews were brought to Palestine in over one hundred ships during the final decade of the Ha'apala. The Haganah also organized demonstrations against British immigration quotas.

May 19, 1941: The Haganah created the Palmach (an acronym for Plugot Mahatz耀trike companies), an elite military-like section which focused on providing training to youngsters. The Palmach had actually been formed with the British as a response to the threat of German invasion by Rommel's forces. It went underground after it felt betrayed by the British at the end of 1942 following Rommel's defeat.

1944: After the assassination of Lord Moyne, (the British Minister of State for the Middle East), by members of the Stern Gang, the Haganah worked with the British to kidnap, interrogate, and in some cases, deport Irgun members. This action was called The Saison, or hunting season, and was directed against the Irgun and not the Stern Gang possibly due to the perceived political threat the Irgun presented to David Ben Gurion's position of leadership. Future Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek was later revealed to be the official most responsible, under the code name Scorpion, for turning Irgun activists over to the British authorities. Many Jewish youth, who had joined the Haganah in order to defend the Jewish people, were greatly demoralized by operations against their own people. The Irgun, paralyzed by the Saison, were ordered by their commander, Menachem Begin, not to retaliate in an effort to avoid a full blown civil war. Although many Irgunists objected to these orders, they obeyed Begin and refrained from fighting back. The Saison eventually ended due to perceived British betrayal becoming more obvious to the public and Haganah youth becoming increasingly vocal in their opposition to the policy.

1945-1946: The Saison officially ended when the Haganah, Irgun and the Stern gang formed the Hebrew Resistance Movement.

1946 July 22: The King David Hotel Bombing, the Irgun led by Menachem Begin. Although the Haganah had sanctioned the operation and the Irgun phoned in two warnings to the British, the hotel was not evacuated and 91 people were killed in the explosion. Shocked by the death toll and worried about the negative image this would generate, the Haganah quickly distanced itself from both the Irgun and the Stern gang.

1948 May 28: Less than two weeks after the creation of the state of Israel (May 15 1948), the provisional government created the Israeli Defense Forces which would succeed the Haganah. It also outlawed maintenance of any other armed force.

Atlit detainee camp

A camp for Jewish illegal immigrants seeking refuge in Palestine during the period of the British Mandate for Palestine. Atlit is located on the Mediterranean coast of Israel, 20 km south of Haifa. The camp, which operated in the 1930s and 40s, was a detention center run like a concentration camp, surrounded by barbed wire and watchtowers. Many of the detainees were Jews who had escaped Nazi Europe. The British authorities, succumbing to Arab demands to limit Jewish immigration, refused to allow these Jews to enter the country.

Hebrew Resistance Movement

Within this new framework, the three groups had different functions, which served to drive the British out of Palestine and create a Jewish state. As Menachem Begin stated in a 1944 meeting: "In fact, there is a division of roles; one organization advocates individual terrorism (Lehi), the other conducts sporadic military operations (Irgun) and there is a third organization which prepares itself to throw its final weight in the decisive war." This united effort lasted for a total of nine months.

Politics

Havlagah (restraint): Imposed on the Haganah by Jewish political leaders. Fighters had been instructed to only defend communities and not initiate counter attacks against Arab gangs or their communities. This policy appeared defeatist to many who believed that the best defense is a good offense and resulting in the formation of the Irgun.

Despite the 1939 White Paper which deeply angered the Zionist leadership in Palestine, Ben-Gurion, then chairman of the Jewish Agency, set the policy for the Zionist relationship with the British: We shall fight the war against Hitler as if there were no White Paper, and we shall fight the White Paper as if there were no war. The Irgun, however took a more extreme stance starting in 1944 and began bombing British installations.