History of the Jewish Armed Forces in Palestine

The history of the Jewish armed forces in Palestine goes back to the times of the Ottoman Empire . Long before the founding of the state of Israel , the establishment of paramilitary organizations began by representatives of the Zionist movement, who had immigrated to Palestine since the second half of the 19th century . Most of the organizations operated underground , with the exception of the Hagana , which assumed semi-official status in the course of the 1930s and whose members were taken over by the Israeli army after 1948 .

prehistory

In addition to Palestine, there are early traces of Jewish militias, especially in the Russian Empire , for example in Belarus , where Jewish militias opposed attackers for the first time on September 11, 1903, in response to the pogroms of April 19, 1903 in Kishinev , in which dozens of Jews were killed and several hundred are injured. From January 1905 to the end of October 1905 there were renewed riots against Jews as part of the “first Russian Revolution” and the October Revolution , and this time too, militias stood in the way of the attackers. Nevertheless, the Jewish community laments thousands of victims.

Ottoman Empire

Under the Ottoman rule, Israel founded Shochat (1886–1961), who immigrated to Palestine in 1904, two of the first Jewish military organizations. He lays the foundations for Bar-Giora and HaSchomer ("The Guardian").

Bar Giora

In Jaffa, more precisely in Jitzchak Ben-Zwi's room , seven young men gather on September 28, 1907, all of them immigrants from the second Aliyah . The next day, the festival of Sukkot , the first secret organization is founded in Palestine. It is named Bar-Giora after Shimon bar Giora , a leader of the Jewish uprisings against Rome. Its aim is to train Jewish security forces to protect the Jewish settlers. Its initiators are: Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, who later becomes a teacher at the grammar school in Jerusalem, as well as Israel Shochat, Israel Gil'adi, Alexander Seid, Jecheskel Nissenov and Zvi Becker. The chosen slogan reads: "In blood and fire Judah perished, in blood and fire Judah will rise", a verse from Ya'akov Cohen's poem The Canaanites . As early as October, members of the Bar-Giora founded the “collective” in Sedschera (Ilaniya) in cooperation with members of the Poalei Zion . This collective is founded by the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA) and is the first manufacturing workers' community. "Bar-Giora" takes over the guard, the top guard is Zvi Becker, who replaces the Circassian guard of the farm in January 1908 . This moment is widely considered to be a milestone in the history of Jewish self-defense in Palestine. Sedschera is said to be the nucleus of the later founded “Schomer”. From August 15, 1908, the organization also took over the guard in Kfar Tavor , the birthplace of Jigal Allon .

The Shomer

Main article : HaSchomer

In the spring of 1909, on April 17th, the members of the "Bar-Giora" decide to expand their ranks in Kfar Tavor . With the approval of the Turkish authorities, they decide to set up a security company. This is how the "Shomer" is created. The name means something like "guardian". Israel Shochat becomes the first head of the organization. When it was founded, the organization was inadequately armed with knives, revolvers and rifles, but was strictly disciplined.

On January 25, 1909, there was a clash between Jews and Arabs in the fields of Merchawia , the first settlement in the Jezreel plain . The incident, after which twelve settlers were imprisoned in Akko , prompted a session in the Turkish parliament in which the Palestinian problem was heatedly debated.

In November 1911, the Shomer took over the guard in the Rehovot settlement . In October 1912, Rishon leTzion was guarded . On December 5, 1912, the Shomer carried out the first Jewish military action in 2000 years. The goal is Hadera, where there were repeated clashes with the Bedouin tribe of the Dema'eira. Hadera will not be evacuated until March 15th. On July 23, 1913, the residents of the Arab village of Samuga attacked the Rehovot settlement, which was cleared from the Shomer in October. The organization is withdrawing to Tel Adesh, the second settlement in the area.

On September 30, 1914, Turkey entered the First World War as an ally of Germany and Austria-Hungary , making Palestine part of the Ottoman Empire at war. The lifting of the rules of surrender by Turkey on September 8th gives Jews from states at war with the Ottomans the choice of emigrating or becoming Ottoman citizens. Most choose the second option. From November 10th, Turkish troops search Jewish villages for weapons and confiscate them. Israel Shochat as well as David Ben-Gurion and Jitzchak Ben-Zwi from the Zionist Workers' Party are founding a militia to fight on the side of the Turks.

On February 9, 1915, the Turks arrested David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi on suspicion of "Zionist activities". The charges lead to his deportation to Egypt on March 17th. From there they go to the United States.

After the end of the First World War, the Schomer organization is seen as too small. On May 18, 1920, the Shomer Council decided to dissolve the organization at a meeting in Tel Adaschim on the Jezreel plain.

The First World War

The point in time from which one can speak of real Jewish armed forces in modern times is to be settled in the time of the First World War .

The First World War marked the birth of Jewish units in Great Britain and the USA , where four brigades were formed from Jewish volunteers . At the same time, the first underground movements arise . Thousands of Jews serve in the armies of Turkey, the German Reich, in Austria and in almost all armies of the other countries involved.

Jewish brigades

Main article : Jewish Legion

In December 1914, Zeev Jabotinsky and Joseph Trumpeldor spoke out in favor of the formation of a Jewish unit to aid the British army in its struggle to liberate the Holy Land from Turkish rule. By the end of March 1915, 500 voluntary Jews from Egypt, who had been deported there by the Turkish government , began their military training. In the following April 562 men under the leadership of John Henry Patterson were sent to the Battle of Gallipoli , because Great Britain initially for political reasons did not allow the participation of Jewish volunteers on the front in Palestine; but in August 1917 the formation of a Jewish regiment was officially announced. The 38th and 39th Battalions consisted almost entirely of Jews from Great Britain, Russia , the United States, and Canada .

In June 1918, the 40th Battalion, which consisted of Jews from the Ottoman province of Palestine and other areas, was deployed under the command of New Zealand Major General Edward Chaytor in the Jordan Valley and in a battle about 30 km north of Jerusalem . Over 20 legionaries were killed, wounded or taken prisoner. The rest became ill with malaria , and 30 out of that group later died. The Legion's task was to cross the Jordan, led by Jabotinsky . He later received an award for it, which he returned immediately afterwards.

February 15 and 16, 1918 saw masses of volunteers registering in Tel-Aviv for service in the British Jewish brigade. However, there are not enough vacancies in the 38th Brigade. On June 18, the British authorize the creation of a second Jewish brigade. The 40th Brigade was launched. The mobilization committee is chaired by Major James de Rothschild , son of Baron de Rothschild. On August 3, the volunteers of the 40th Brigade set out for Egypt, where training will begin on August 11. However, they are no longer used.

Nili

Under Aaron Aaronson and Avshalom Feinberg , the underground movement NILI was formed on April 1, 1915 . The name derives from the first letter of a verse from the 1st book of Samuel : "He does not lie who is Israel's glory." She made contact with the British in Egypt. NILI is set to make a name for itself as a spy ring over the next few months and years .

In September 1917 the organization was blown up because a carrier pigeon settled in Caesarea in the police courtyard and was caught. The Turks capture Ne'eman Belkind, a Jewish soldier in the Turkish army and at the same time a member of the "Nili", and trick him into disclosing details about the spy ring. The hunt begins on October 1st. The Turkish army surrounds Sichron Ya'akov and arrests dozens of members of the organization. Sarah Aaronsohn is tortured, but does not reveal anything; she takes her own life a few days later. Joseph Lischansky escapes and tries to get through to the British but is caught at Navi Rubin on October 20th . On December 16, Lischansky and Belkind were executed in Damascus . Many other members suffered the same fate. Aaron Aaronson manages to flee from Palestine to Egypt, from where he continues the remnants of Nili. He died in a plane crash on May 15, 1919, at the age of 43.

End of the Ottoman Empire - riots in 1920

On April 19, 1916, the Turkish administration began to enlist Jewish high school graduates for military service in the army. On May 18, all eighteen-year-old Jews, even those without a school leaving certificate, are drafted into military service. However, the interest of the Jews in serving in the Turkish army is low. From June there will be mass desertions . On June 10, two Jews were executed as deserters at the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem. From August 27th, the Turks will also be moving in the seventeen year olds.

On October 1, 1918, the Damascus garrison surrendered to the British General Allenby . This ends the 400-year Turkish rule in Palestine. The British are now taking command. Turkey surrenders on October 31st. This also ends the chapter on Jewish associations in the First World War.

In 1920, events began to roll over. On January 1st, Hamara is attacked by Arabs and abandoned by its inhabitants. Two days later, the French army and the Arabs fight for three days on the border with Galilee . More than 100 residents leave Metulla and go to Sidon . On February 6th, Aaron Sar was killed in an attack by Arab militias on Tel Hai . The Tel Hai area had repeatedly been the subject of border adjustments between the British and French after the end of Ottoman rule in Palestine. In 1919 Great Britain ceded the northern part of the Upper Galilee with Tel Hai, Metullah, Hamrah and Kfar Giladi to the French administration. A year later, the Arabs in Palestine rebelled against the British and Jews for the first time. The exact circumstances of the battle for Tel Hai are unclear. When Arabs searched the place for French soldiers, one of the Jewish settlers shot in the air and the shot called in reinforcements from nearby Kfar Giladi. For unexplained reasons, both sides began shooting wildly, in the end Trumpeldor, a doctor looking after him, and five other Jews were killed. Five Arabs also lost their lives.

Serious unrest in Jerusalem between April 4 and 6 left several dead and more than 200 injured. The British then arrest Jabotinsky and 19 of his comrades-in-arms. Jabotinsky was sentenced to 15 years of forced labor on February 19, and his companions to three years. However, they were all pardoned on July 7th by Herbert Samuel , the new civilian high commissioner appointed on July 1st, 1920. The weeks from April to mid-May are still marked by heavy fighting in Galilee and the Jordan Valley.

On May 18th, the Shomer Council decided to dissolve the organization.

British mandate

Main article : League of Nations mandate for Palestine

On April 24, 1920, the Supreme Council of the Allies decided to hand over the League of Nations mandate for Palestine to Great Britain. The British government offers Herbert Samuel the office of first civilian high commissioner. On June 30th, Samuel arrives in Palestine and takes over government responsibility the following day. However, the proclamation did not take place until September 11, 1921, after the League of Nations confirmed the British mandate on July 24 and a constitution for the mandate came into force on September 1 .

On April 4, 1921, the civil administration established the first Palestinian armed force. It consists of the members of the Jewish brigades still in British service and an Arab legion. On May 6th, however, the Jewish section of the association was disbanded because they were involved in the fighting of the 1st – 6th centuries without orders from their commanders. May 1921 intervened. During this time there were bloody clashes between Arabs and Jews throughout the British Mandate. After the massive operations of the British armed forces during the riots of November 2, 1921, a period of seven years fell in Palestine. On February 14th, the security forces will be restructured. The police are dissolved and replaced by the border troops, the newly created "Border Corps of Transjordan". There are no longer any Jews on duty in this border corps.

On July 31, 1931, the Arab Congress issued a call to stop the distribution of weapons to Jewish settlements. An Arab general strike on August 23 renders the protest stronger.

The Arab uprising from April 1936 to 1939 cost hundreds of dead and thousands of injured on all sides. In January 1939 the British founded the Notrim , a protective police force made up of Jewish citizens.

The Hagana

Main article : Hagana

Since the immigrants no longer wanted to rely on the British colonial troops to defend the settlements and Ha-Shomer was no longer sufficient, this organization was dissolved in June 1920 and re-established in a centralized form under the name Hagana .

During the relatively quiet first nine years, the Hagana was nevertheless a rather loose organization of local defense groups in larger towns and in a few settlements. The organization, led by Yisrael Galili , came under the civil leadership of the newly formed union Histadrut .

As a result of the unrest of 1929, which resulted in 133 deaths on the Jewish side, the role of the Hagana changed dramatically. It became a much larger organization, encompassing almost all youth and adults in the rural settlements and having thousands of members in the cities. She began to get foreign weapons and manufacture simple military equipment and hand grenades (see: Israel Military Industries ). At the same time, it transformed from an untrained militia into a serious paramilitary group .

In 1936 the Hagana consisted of around 10,000 active and around 40,000 ready-to-go fighters. During the Arab Uprising of 1936-1939, members of the Hagana were tolerated as part of the newly established Jewish Settlement Police , a division of the Palestine Police . Initially, this unit had a purely defensive character aimed at securing Jewish settlements. Only towards the end of the uprising did this unit take a more offensive position. The experience of these years later proved useful for the Jewish side in the Palestine War of 1947–1949. To protect the Jewish settlements, tower and palisade settlements are established under the supervision of the Hagana .

Out of dissatisfaction with the overall rather moderate attitude of the Hagana, most members of the right wing split off in 1937 and formed the Irgun ( see below ). The underground organization Irgun and its split-off Lechi became known for their secret, mostly terrorist missions.

To calm the situation, Jewish immigration to Palestine was restricted by the British in the 1939 White Paper , after which the Hagana organized illegal immigration and demonstrations against the British. She also founded Alija Bet , the illegal immigration organization that operated from bases in Switzerland and Turkey .

The MS PATRIA was blown up by the Hagana in 1940 in Haifa Bay in order to sabotage the transfer of Jewish passengers to Mauritius , resulting in over 250 deaths.

In occupied West Germany, the Hagana maintained two illegal military schools after 1945, including in the "Hochland" camp near Königsdorf (Bavaria) , where the Hitler Youth had received military training a few months earlier , and in Wildbad (Middle Franconia).

"Special Night Squads"

Main article : Special Night Squads

In June 1938, Orde Charles Wingate , a British officer who sympathized with the Zionists , founded another underground organization. In this organization people serve the Hagana and the British Army alike. The troops are supposed to fight the Arab gangs that repeatedly commit acts of terrorism and damage the oil pipeline from Iraq to Haifa . The squads consist of men from the "Hagana Field Companies", the auxiliary police and the guards in the settlements. There are also British volunteers, mostly members of the armed forces. The squads prove to be extremely powerful and are trained by Wingate in hand-to-hand combat , the evaluation of enemy messages, the importance of the surprise attack and other basic tactics. Wingate's unreserved sympathy for the Zionist cause, combined with his eccentric demeanor, prompted his superiors to move him out of the country in 1939. The squads then disband. Most members of the departments join the Hagana, others join the underground or the terrorist organizations.

Etzel

Main article : Irgun Tzwai Le'umi

The Irgun split off from the Hagana in 1931 under the leadership of Avraham Tehomi , existed until 1948 and carried out its struggle primarily against the mandate power, and increasingly also against the Arabs in the Israeli war of independence (e.g. in Deir Jassin , where 100– 110 people were murdered). Ideologically, the underground activities were strongly influenced by Jabotinsky's revisionist Betar youth.

Tehomi returned to the Hagana in 1936 along with other moderate commanders. This split led to a further radicalization of the Irgun, which especially in the period from 1937 to 1939 under the military leadership of Moshe Rosenberg (1937-1938) and Vladimir Jabotinsky (1938) reinforced by bomb attacks on cafes, marketplaces and British police stations of made himself talk.

In 1940 Lechi split from Irgun.

From 1943 onwards, the Irgun was commanded by Menachem Begin and, under his leadership, carried out the assassination attempt on the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on July 22, 1946 , which until then had mainly been occupied by officers of the British Mandate and their families. In 1948 the partly violent dissolution and subordination to the Israeli army followed (see also Altalena ).

The political wing of the Irgun gathered in the Cherut party founded by Menachem Begin , which only gained influence after it formed the core of the Likud bloc in a center-right alliance in 1973.

Until 1948

The Second World War breaks out on September 1, 1939 . This also changes the situation in Palestine. David Ben Gurion formulated this in a speech on September 12, 1939: "We must help the English in the war as if there were no White Paper , and we must defend ourselves against the White Paper as if there were no war." Institutions of the Yishuv and the Hagana to recruit volunteers. 86,000 men and 50,000 women spontaneously volunteer to protect the yishuv and go to war for the English. The first volunteers were drafted into the British army on the same day . See also Jewish Brigade . The Hagana worked with British intelligence and sent its members on various missions, including the attempted sabotage of the Syrian oil refineries in which 23 men lost their lives in 1941. Another example of this collaboration was the dropping of around 30 Jewish paratroopers behind enemy lines in Europe. In response to the restrictive provisions of the White Paper, which permitted a maximum of 75,000 Jews to immigrate to Palestine for a period of five years, illegal immigration increased during World War II ; however, the provisions remained authoritative for British policy in Palestine until 1947. After the end of the war, branches of the Hagana were set up in camps with Jewish displaced persons , and the Beriha was organized.

In the spring of 1948 the Hagana switched from defensive to offensive warfare with the Plan Dalet and occupied various areas during the Palestine War . In the Operation Nachshon the road was the siege of Jerusalem opened while other operations Tiberias , Haifa , Safed , Jaffa arrived and other areas under Jewish control. On May 26th, almost two weeks after the establishment of the State of Israel , the Provisional Government of Israel decided to convert the Hagana into the regular army, known by its acronym Zahal .

swell

• Encyclopedia Judaica , Volume 9, pp. 681-689

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jim G. Tobias: Soldiers for Erez Israel. February 13, 2018, accessed on December 29, 2018 (link reconstructed on December 29, 2018).