Haganah
The Haganah (Hebrew: "The Defense", ההגנה) was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948. It was the main precursor for Israel's army: the IDF (צה"ל).
Origins
The predecessor of Haganah was Ha-Shomer (The Guild of Watchman) established in 1909. It was a small group of Jewish immigrants who guarded settlements for an annual fee. At no time did the group have more than 100 members.
After the Arab riots of 1920 and 1921, the Jewish leadership in Palestine believed that the British, whom the League of Nations had given the Mandate of Palestine in 1920, had no desire to confront the Arabs about attacks on the Palestinian Jews, and created the Haganah to protect their farmers and settlements. The role of the Haganah was to guard the Jewish Kibbutzim and farms, and to warn the residents of and repel attacks by Palestinian Arabs. In the period between 1920-1929, the Haganah lacked a strong central authority or coordination. Haganah "units" were very localized and poorly armed: they consisted mainly of Jewish farmers who took turns guarding their farms or their Kibbutzim. Following the Arab Riots in Palestine of 1929 that killed 133 Jews and scores of Arabs, and led to the ethnic cleansing of all Jews from the city of Hebron, 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. It went from being an untrained militia to a capable army.
In 1936 the Haganah fielded 10,000 mobilized men along with 40,000 reservists. During the Great Uprising 1936-1939, it participated actively to protect British interests and to quell Arab rebellion. Although the British administration didn't officially recognize the Haganah, the British security forces cooperated with it by forming the Jewish Settlement Police, Jewish Auxiliary Forces and Special Night Squads. The battle experience gained in the Great Uprising was to become very useful in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
In 1931, the most right-wing elements of Haganah branched off and formed Irgun Tsva'i-Leumi (the National Military Organization), better known as "Irgun" (or by its Hebrew acronym pronounced HaEtsel). They were discontented with the policy of restraint when faced with British and Arab pressure. Irgun later split as well in 1940, and their off-shoot became known as the "Lehi" (Hebrew acronym of Lochamei Herut Israel, standing for Freedom Fighters of Israel, and also known by the British as the "Stern Gang" after its leader, Abraham Stern).
The British severely restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine by 1939. In response, the Haganah created the Palmach, or Assault Companies - the Haganah's strike force, which also 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. It also organized demonstrations against British immigration quotas.
In 1944, in response to pressure from British and the Yishuv (Palestinian Jews), the Haganah worked with the British to round up, interrogate, and, in some cases, deport Irgun members. This action was called the Saison (or hunting season), and seriously demoralized and reduced Irgun's activities.
The Saison did not, however, stop the Irgun, the Haganah, and the Stern Group from working together. The three groups had different functions, which served to move the British out of Palestine, and to make Palestine a Jewish state (versus creating a Jewish home in Palestine. As Menachem Begin, an Irgun commander, stated in a 1944 meeting: "In fact, there is a division of roles; One organisation advocates individual terrorism (the Freedom Fighters of Israel), the other conducts sporadic military operations (the Irgun) and there is a third organisation which prepares itself to throw its final weight in the decisive war." The bombing of the King David Hotel in Palestine on July 22, 1946, which killed 91 persons (mostly civilians) was an Irgun operation in which the Haganah participated.
Sources: Dr. Saul Zadka, Blood in Zion, How the Jewish Guerrillas drove the British out of Palestine. (London: Brassey's), 1995; Niv, David, The Irgun Tsva'i Leumi. (Jerusalem: World Zionist Organization (Department for Education and Culture), 1980; "Text of the British White Paper Linking Jewish Agency to Zionist Terrorism in Palestine," The New York Times, July 25, 1946, p. 8.
World War II participation
Despite the 1939 White Paper which deeply angered the Zionist leadership in Palestine, David 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.
In the first years of World War II, the British authorities asked Haganah for cooperation again, due to the fear for an Axis breakthrough in North Africa. After Rommel was defeated at El Alamein in 1942, the British stepped back from their all-out support for Haganah. In 1943, after a long series of requests and negotiations, the British Army announced the creation of the Jewish Brigade Group. While Palestinian Jews had been permitted to enlist in the British army since 1940, this was the first time an exclusively Jewish military unit served in the war under a Jewish flag. The Jewish Brigade Group consisted of 5,000 soldiers and was deployed in Italy in September 1944. The brigade was disbanded in 1946.
All in all, more than 30,000 Palestinian Jews served in the British army during the war.
On May 19, 1941 the Haganah created the Palmach (an acronym for Plugot Mahatz—strike companies), a military-like section which focused on providing training to youngsters. It was never large, by 1947 it amounted to merely five battalions (about 2,000 men), but its members had received not only physical and basic military training, but also acquired some leadership skills that, in retrospect, would allow them to take up command positions in Israel's future army.
After the war
After the war, the Haganah carried out anti-British operations in Palestine, such as the liberation of interned immigrants from the Atlit camp, the bombing of the country's railroad network, sabotage raids on radar installations and bases of the British police. It also continued to organize illegal immigration.
On May 28, 1948, less than two weeks after the creation of the state of Israel on May 15, the provisional government created the Israeli Defense Forces which would succeed the Haganah. It also outlawed maintenance of any other armed force. Irgun challenged the decision which led to a brief clash between Haganah and Irgun. Eventually Irgun laid down their weapons and Menachem Begin transformed his militia to a political party, the Herut.
Famous members of the Haganah included: Yitzhak Rabin, Ariel Sharon, Rehavam Zeevi, Dov Hoz, Moshe Dayan, and Dr. Ruth Westheimer.
External links
- Bregman, Ahron (2002). Israel's Wars: A History Since 1947. London: Routledge. ISBN 0415287162
- The Iron Wall, by Lenni Brenner
- The Haganah, from the Jewish Virtual Library
- Lexicon of Zionism: Haganah (Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
- The Haganah: History of the Israeli Underground Defense force, by the ZIIC
- What is the history of the Jewish Armed Forces in Mandate Palestine?, by Me'ir Pa'il (Galili Center for Haganah Studies)