The Zionist Underground and the End of British Rule in Palestine.
Researching this actually blew my mind a little as it took a minute to get my brain around what i was reading, I'm not going to lie.
So let's take it back - way back.
Before the creation of Israel in 1948, Britain governed the territory known as Mandatory Palestine under a League of Nations mandate following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I.
During the final years of British rule, several Zionist underground organisations launched an armed campaign aimed at forcing Britain to withdraw and allowing the establishment of a Jewish state.
The main militant organisations involved were:
Irgun
A nationalist paramilitary organisation that carried out bombings, assassinations and attacks on British military and administrative targets.
Lehi (also known as the Stern Group)
A smaller and more radical group responsible for assassinations and attacks against British officials and infrastructure.
Haganah
The largest Jewish paramilitary organisation in Palestine. While it generally operated differently from Irgun and Lehi, it sometimes cooperated with them during coordinated operations against British infrastructure.
British authorities at the time officially described these organisations as terrorist groups, while some supporters viewed them as fighters in an anti-colonial struggle against British rule.
The period of violence between 1944 and 1948 is commonly referred to by historians as the Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine (1944–1948).
Timeline of Major Attacks on British Rule
1944
Assassination of Lord Moyne
In November 1944, British minister Walter Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne, the UK Minister of State in the Middle East, was assassinated in Cairo by members of Lehi.
He was the highest-ranking British official killed by the Zionist underground.
1945
Toward the end of 1945 militant groups began intensifying their campaign against British rule.
Targets included:
railways
bridges
police stations
government buildings
immigration control facilities
Several groups briefly cooperated in a coordinated campaign known as the Jewish Resistance Movement.
1946
Night of the Bridges
A coordinated sabotage operation destroyed bridges connecting Palestine to neighbouring territories, disrupting British military and transport infrastructure.
King David Hotel Bombing
Event: King David Hotel bombing
In July 1946, militants from Irgun planted explosives in the basement of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which housed the British administrative headquarters.
The explosion caused massive destruction.
Casualties:
91 people killed
28 British
41 Arabs
17 Jews
It remains one of the deadliest attacks against British authority during the mandate.
1947
Violence escalated sharply.
Acre Prison Break
Irgun fighters attacked Acre prison and freed dozens of imprisoned militants.
Kidnapping and Execution of British Sergeants
Two British soldiers, Clifford Martin and Mervyn Paice, were kidnapped by Irgun and later hanged after Britain executed imprisoned militants.
The killings provoked widespread outrage in Britain.
1947–1948
By this point the situation had become increasingly difficult for Britain to control.
Britain announced it would end its mandate and refer the issue of Palestine to the United Nations.
On 14 May 1948, the state of Israel was declared.
What Happened to Members of the Underground
Following independence, members of these militant organisations moved into mainstream Israeli politics and state institutions.
Former Irgun Leadership
Menachem Begin
Leader of Irgun during the insurgency against British rule.
He later founded the Herut political party and eventually became Prime Minister of Israel (1977–1983).
Former Lehi Leadership
Yitzhak Shamir
A senior member of Lehi during the insurgency.
He later entered Israeli intelligence and politics and became Prime Minister of Israel twice in the 1980s and early 1990s.
From Haganah to State Leadership
The largest Zionist organisation, Haganah, became the foundation of Israel’s armed forces.
Its leadership included:
David Ben-Gurion
Head of the Jewish Agency and political leader associated with Haganah.
He became Israel’s first Prime Minister in 1948.
In Summation
All of these events took place in the closing phase of World War II, while Britain was still fighting Nazi Germany across Europe.
So lets understand it right, before the war had even fully ended — before Britain had finished fighting the regime responsible for the persecution and murder of millions of Jews — militant Zionist underground groups had already begun attacking British officials and infrastructure in Mandatory Palestine.
By 1944 British ministers were being assassinated.
By 1946 British administrative headquarters were being bombed.
By 1947 British soldiers were being kidnapped and executed.
This happened at a moment when Britain was exhausted by war — a conflict that had cost millions of lives and devastated the British economy.
At the same time Britain was enforcing immigration limits in Palestine, attempting to manage tensions between the existing Arab population and large numbers of Jewish refugees arriving from Europe.
The events themselves are not widely discussed in Britain today and give context to who was originally labelled the terrorist.
And that is significant when today the people in Palestine fighting for their land and their freedom are often labelled terrorists, while the earlier history that led to the creation of the state is rarely discussed.
Understanding that history does not settle the argument, but it does raise a question many people still ask when looking at this period:
Who gets to decide who is called a terrorist — and when?
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