Zionist political violence

Aftermath of the King David Hotel bombing, 1946

Zionist political violence refers to acts of violence committed by Zionists.

Actions have been carried out by individuals and Jewish paramilitary groups such as the Irgun, the Lehi, the Haganah and the Palmach as part of a conflict between Jews, British authorities, and Palestinian Arabs, regarding land, immigration, and control over Palestine.[1]

British soldiers and officials, United Nations personnel, Palestinian Arab fighters and civilians, and Jewish fighters and civilians have been targets or victims of these actions. Domestic, commercial, and government property, infrastructure, and material have also been attacked.

Main occurrences

During World War I, Zionist volunteers fought in the Jewish Legion of the British Army against the Ottoman Turks

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.[2] In 1935, the Irgun, a Zionist underground military organization, split off from the Haganah.[3] 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".[4]

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), while Irgun militants did not follow this policy and called themselves "Havlagah breakers."[5] The Irgun began bombing Palestinian Arab civilian targets in 1938.[3] While the Palestinian Arabs were "carefully disarmed" by the British Mandatory authorities by 1939, the Zionists were not.[3]

After the beginning of World War II, the Haganah and Irgun suspended their activity against the British in support of their war against Nazi Germany.[6] 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 Yishuv which saw an opportunity to get trained units and soldiers for the planned Jewish state[7] and during 1944–1945, the most mainstream Jewish paramilitary organization, Haganah, cooperated with the British authorities against the Lehi and Etzel.[8]

After World War II, between 1945 and the 29 November 1947 Partition vote, British soldiers and policemen were targeted by Irgun and Lehi. Haganah and Palmah 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 went on their attacks against the British.[9]

The Haganah carried out violent attacks 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 Palestine police. It also continued to organize illegal immigration.[10]

In February 1947, the British announced that they would end the mandate and withdraw from Palestine and they asked 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.[11] Many atrocities occurred during this time. The Arab population in the mixed cities of Tiberias, Safed, Haifa, Jaffa, 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.[12]

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.[13] 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.[13][14] 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.[15] The next day, Irgun members in a stolen police van rolled a barrel bomb[16] into a large group of civilians who were waiting for a bus by the Jaffa Gate, killing around 16.[17] Another Irgun bomb went off in the Ramla market on February 18, killing 7 residents and injuring 45.[18] On 28 February, the Palmah organised a bombing attack against a garage at Haifa, killing 30 people.[19]

Condemnation as terrorism

Hannah Arendt, Jessurun Cardozo, Albert Einstein and others letter

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,[20][21] and by the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry.[22] 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.[23]

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:[24]

The letter warns American Jews against supporting Begin's request for funding of his political party Herut, and ends with the warning:

Lehi was described as a terrorist organization[25] by the British authorities and United Nations mediator Ralph Bunche.[26]

Jewish public opinion

During the conflict between Arabs and Jews in Palestine before the war, the criterion of "Purity of arms" was used to distinguish between the respective attitudes of the Irgun and Haganah towards Arabs, with the latter priding itself on its adherence to principle.[27] The Jewish society in the British Mandate Palestine generally disapproved and denounced violent attacks both on grounds moral rejection and political disagreement, stressing that terrorism is counter-productive in the Zionist quest for Jewish self-determination.[8] Generally speaking, this precept requires that "weapons remain pure [and that] they are employed only in self-defence and [never] against innocent civilians and defenceless people".[28] But if it "remained a central value in education" it was "rather vague and intentionally blurred" at the practical level.[27]

In 1946, at a meeting held between the heads of the Haganah, David Ben-Gurion predicted a confrontation between the Arabs of Palestine and the Arab states. Concerning the "principle of purity of arms", he stressed that: "The end does not justify all means. Our war is based on moral grounds"[29] and during the 1948 War, the Mapam, the political party affiliated to Palmach, asked "a strict observance of the Jewish Purity of arms to secure the moral character of [the] war".[30] When he was later criticized by Mapam members for his attitude concerning the Arab refugee problem, Ben-Gurion reminded them the Palestinian exodus from Lydda and Ramle and the fact Palmah officers had been responsible for the "outrage that had encouraged the Arabs' flight made the party uncomfortable."[30]

According to Avi Shlaim, this condemnation of the use of violence is one of the key features of 'the conventional Zionist account or old history' whose 'popular-heroic-moralistic version' is 'taught in Israeli schools and used extensively in the quest for legitimacy abroad'.[28] Benny Morris adds that '[t]he Israelis' collective memory of fighters characterized by "purity of arms" is also undermined by the evidence of [the dozen case] of rapes committed in conquered towns and villages.' According to him, 'after the 1948 war, the Israelis tended to hail the "purity of arms" of its militiamen and soldiers to contrast this with Arab barbarism, which on occasion expressed itself in the mutilation of captured Jewish corpses.' According to him, 'this reinforced the Israelis' positive self-image and helped them "sell" the new state abroad and (...) demonized the enemy'.[31]

Some Israelis justify acts of political violence. Sixty years after participating in the assassination of Count Bernadotte, Geula Cohen had no regrets. As a broadcaster on Lehi's radio, she recalled the threats against Bernadotte in advance of the assassination. "I told him if you are not going to leave Jerusalem and go to your Stockholm, you won't be any more." Asked if it was right to assassinate Bernadotte, she replied, "There is no question about it. We would not have Jerusalem any more."[32] In July 2006, the Menachem Begin Heritage Center organized a conference to mark the 60th anniversary of the King David Hotel bombing. The conference was attended by past and future Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former members of Irgun.[33] The British Ambassador in Tel Aviv and the Consul-General in Jerusalem protested that a plaque commemorating the bombing stated "For reasons known only to the British, the hotel was not evacuated."[33] Netanyahu, then chairman of Likud and Leader of the Opposition in the Knesset, opined that the bombing was a legitimate act with a military target, distinguishing it from an act of terror intended to harm civilians, since Irgun sent warnings to evacuate the building.[34] He said, "Imagine that Hamas or Hizbullah would call the military headquarters in Tel Aviv and say, 'We have placed a bomb and we are asking you to evacuate the area.' They don't do that. That is the difference."[35] The British Ambassador in Tel Aviv and the Consul-General in Jerusalem protested, saying "We do not think that it is right for an act of terrorism, which led to the loss of many lives, to be commemorated", and wrote to the Mayor of Jerusalem that such an "act of terror" could not be honored. The British government also demanded the removal of the plaque, pointing out that the statement on it accusing the British of failing to evacuate the hotel was untrue and "did not absolve those who planted the bomb."[36] To prevent a diplomatic incident, changes were made in the plaque's text. The final English version says, "Warning phone calls have been made to the hotel, The Palestine Post and the French Consulate, urging the hotel's occupants to leave immediately. The hotel was not evacuated and after 25 minutes the bombs exploded. To the Irgun's regret, 92 persons were killed."[35]

Selected Irgun, Haganah and Lehi attacks

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Beleaguered Christians of the Palestinian-Controlled Areas, by David Raab". Jcpa.org. Retrieved 2010-02-21.
  2. ↑ http://www.ameu.org/getattachment/65e15600-d2b0-472e-923e-be4ed7ed1514/Zionist-Violence-Against-Palestinians.aspx
  3. 1 2 3 Welty, Gordon (1995). Palestinian Nationalism and the Struggle for National Self-Determination. Philadelphia: Temple University. p. 21. ISBN 1-56639-342-6.
  4. ↑ Howard Sachar: ''A History of the State of Israel, pps 265–266
  5. ↑ Tucker, Spencer C.; Roberts, Priscilla (2008). The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. ABC-CLIO. p. 433. ISBN 9781851098415.
  6. ↑ "Avraham Stern". Retrieved 2007-11-19.
  7. ↑ Gal, Reuven (1986). A Portrait of the Israeli Soldier. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 6. ISBN 0313243158.
  8. 1 2 Gal-or, Noemi. Tolerating Terrorism in the West: An International Survey. Routledge, 2004. p.74
  9. ↑ Horne, Edward (1982). A Job Well Done (Being a History of The Palestine Police Force 1920–1948). The Anchor Press. ISBN 0-9508367-0-2. Pages 272, 299. States that Haganah withdrew on 1 July 1946. But remained permanently uncooperative.
  10. ↑ "Atlit Immigration Camp | Jewish Virtual Library". jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2015-06-13.
  11. ↑ Morris, Benny (2003). Histoire revisitée du conflit arabo-sioniste. Editions complexe. pp. 16–17. ISBN 978-2-87027-938-0.
  12. ↑ Lapierre, Dominique; Collins, Larry (1971). O Jérusalem. Simon & Schuster. pp. 131–153. ISBN 978-2-266-10698-6.
  13. 1 2 Karsh (2002), p.32
  14. ↑ Yoav Gelber, 'Palestine 1948', p.20; The Scotsman newspaper, 6th January 1948; Walid Khalidi states that 25 civilians were killed, in addition to the military targets. 'Before Their Diaspora', 1984. p. 316, picture p. 325; Benny Morris, 'The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947–1949', Cambridge University Press, p.46.
  15. ↑ Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, p. 123.
  16. ↑ Larry Collins/Dominique Lapierre, 'O Jerusalem'. History Book Club/ Weidenfeld and Nicolson. London. 1972. p.135: 'two fifty-gallon oil drums packed tight with old nails, bits of scrap iron, hinges, rusty metal filings. At their center was a core of TNT...'
  17. ↑ Collins/Lapierre. Page 138: 17 killed. Dov Joseph, 'The Faithful City - The Siege of Jerusalem, 1948'. Simon and Schuster, New York, 1960. Library of Congree Number: 60-10976. page 56: 14 killed and 40 wounded. The Scotsman, 8 January 1948: 16 killed, 41 injured.
  18. ↑ Embassy of Israel, London, website. 2002. Quoting Zeev Vilnai - 'Ramla past and present'.
  19. ↑ Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem revisited, p.221.
  20. ↑ Pope Brewer, Sam. Irgun Bomb Kills 11 Arabs, 2 Britons. New York Times. December 30, 1947.
  21. ↑ Irgun's Hand Seen in Alps Rail Blast. New York Times. August 16, 1947.
  22. ↑ W. Khalidi, 1971, 'From Haven to Conquest', p. 598
  23. ↑ Zionists Condemn Palestine Terror New York Times. December 24, 1946.
  24. 1 2 "New Palestine Party" (Letter to The New York Times). 4 December 1948. Retrieved 2015-06-03.
  25. ↑ "Stern Gang" A Dictionary of World History. Oxford University Press, 2000. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press .
  26. ↑ Ralph Bunche report on assassination of UN mediator 27th Sept 1948, "notorious terrorists long known as the Stern group"
  27. 1 2 Anita Shapira (1992), p. 252
  28. 1 2 Avi Shlaim, The Debate About 1948, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 27:3, 1995, pp. 287–304
  29. ↑ Anita Shapira (1992), p. 295
  30. 1 2 Yoav Gelber (2006), p. 291
  31. ↑ Morris 2008, pp. 404-406.
  32. ↑ Israel's forgotten hero: The assassination of Count Bernadotte - and the death of peace The Independent, 18 Jan 2008
  33. 1 2 Tom Segev, "The spirit of the King David Hotel", Haaretz, July 23, 2006
  34. ↑ Bethell, Nicholas (1979). The Palestine Triangle. Andre Deutsch.
  35. 1 2 Prince-Gibson, Eetta (July 27, 2006). "Reflective truth". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2009-05-10.
  36. ↑ Ned Parker and Stephen Farrell, "British anger at terror celebration", The Times, July 20, 2006
  37. ↑ Shlomo Nakdimon; Shaul Mayzlish (1985). Deh Han : ha-retsah ha-politi ha-rishon be-Erets Yisraʼel / De Haan: The first political assassination in Palestine (in Hebrew) (1st ed.). Tel Aviv: Modan Press. OCLC 21528172.
  38. ↑ Marijke T.C.Stapert-Eggen. "The Rosenthaliana's Jacob Israel de Haan Archive". University of Amsterdam Library.
  39. ↑ Perliger and Weinberg, 101.
  40. ↑ J. Bowyer Bell, Terror out of Zion: the fight for Israeli independence (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1977). pp.181
  41. ↑ The TimesSaturday July 17, 1938
  42. ↑ The Times Tuesday July 26, 1938
  43. ↑ http://www.etzel.org.il/english/ac07.htm The 'Hunting Season'.
  44. ↑ Rapoport, D.C., The Four Waves of Modern Terrorism, in Cronin, A. K. & Ludes, J. M. (eds.), Attacking Terrorism: Elements of a Grand Strategy, Georgetown University Press, 2004, Washington, DC., pp. 50-51
  45. ↑ "Jewish Terrorists Admit Bombing Embassy in Rome". St Petersburg Times. 1946-11-05. Retrieved 2010-04-08.
  46. ↑ "Time Bomb Found in London after British hang Gruner as Terrorist in Holy Land". Google News. St. Petersburg Times. Apr 17, 1947. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
  47. ↑ Britain Since 1945, David Childs P.34 para 1
  48. ↑ Kana'ana, Sharif and Zeitawi, Nihad (1987), "The Village of Deir Yassin," Bir Zeit, Bir Zeit University Press
  49. ↑ Morris, Benny (2003). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-81120-1.: Chapter 4: The second wave: the mass exodus, April–June 1948, Section: Operation Nahshon, page 238
  50. ↑ Milstein, Uri (1998) [1987]. Alan Sacks, ed. History of the War of Independence IV: Out of Crisis Came Decision (in Hebrew and English). Translated by Alan Sacks. Lanhan, Maryland: University Press of America, Inc. ISBN 0-7618-1489-2.: Chapter 16: Deir Yassin, Section 12: The Massacre, page 377
  51. ↑ Macintyre, Donald (2008-09-18). "Israel's forgotten hero: The assassination of Count Bernadotte – and the death of peace". The Independent. Retrieved 2008-12-11.
  52. ↑ Sune Persson, Folke Bernadotte and the White Buses, Journal of Holocaust Education, Vol 9, Iss 2–3, 2000, 237–268. Also published in David Cesarani and Paul A. Levine (eds.), Bystanders to the Holocaust: A Re-evaluation (Routledge, 2002). The precise number is nowhere officially recorded. A count of the first 21,000 included 8,000 Danes and Norwegians, 5,911 Poles, 2,629 French, 1,615 stateless Jews and 1,124 Germans. The total number of Jews was 6,500 to 11,000 depending on definitions. Also see A. Ilan, Bernadotte in Palestine, 1948 (Macmillan, 1989), p37.

Sources

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