Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine information
1944–1948 paramilitary terror campaign
Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine
Part of the intercommunal conflict in Mandatory Palestine and the decolonisation of Asia
Palestine Railway K class 2-8-4T steam locomotive and freight train derailed from the Jaffa and Jerusalem line after being sabotaged by Jewish insurgents in 1946
Date
1 February 1944 – 14 May 1948 (4 years, 3 months, 1 week and 6 days)
Location
Mandatory Palestine
Result
Zionist victory[1]
British forces unable to suppress insurgency[2]
Insurgency turned British public opinion against the deployment in Palestine, leading to Britain's withdrawal[2]
Start of the Palestinian Civil War in response to the UN Partition Plan
Belligerents
United Kingdom
British Army
Royal Navy
Royal Air Force
Royal Marines
Palestine Police Force
Jewish National Council
Irgun (1944–1948)
Lehi (1944–1948)
Haganah (1945–1946)
Palmach
Hish
Him
Commanders and leaders
Sir Evelyn Barker Sir Alan Cunningham Harold MacMichael Sir Gordon MacMillan John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort John Rymer-Jones William Nicol Gray
A successful paramilitary campaign, sometimes referred to as the Palestine Emergency, was carried out by Zionist underground groups against British rule in Mandatory Palestine from 1944 to 1948. The tensions between the Zionist underground and the British mandatory authorities rose from 1938 and intensified with the publication of the White Paper of 1939. The Paper outlined new government policies to place further restrictions on Jewish immigration and land purchases, and declared the intention of giving independence to Palestine, with an Arab majority, within ten years. Though World War II brought relative calm, tensions again escalated into an armed struggle towards the end of the war, when it became clear that the Axis powers were close to defeat.
The Haganah, the largest of the Jewish underground militias, which was under the control of the officially recognised Jewish leadership of Palestine, remained cooperative with the British. But in 1944 the Irgun, an offshoot of the Haganah, launched a rebellion against British rule, thus joining Lehi, which had been active against the authorities throughout the war. Both were small, dissident militias of the right-wing Revisionist movement. They attacked police and government targets in response to British immigration restrictions.
The armed conflict escalated during the final phase of World War II, when the Irgun declared a revolt in February 1944, ending the hiatus in operations it had begun in 1940.[5] Starting from the assassination of Baron Moyne by Lehi in 1944, the Haganah actively opposed the Irgun and Lehi, in a period of inter-Jewish fighting known as the Hunting Season, effectively halting the insurrection. However, in autumn 1945, following the end of World War II in both Europe (April–May 1945) and Asia (September 1945), when it became clear that the British would not permit significant Jewish immigration and had no intention of immediately establishing a Jewish state, the Haganah began a period of co-operation with the other two underground organisations. They jointly formed the Jewish Resistance Movement.[6] The Haganah refrained from direct confrontation with British forces, and concentrated its efforts on attacking British immigration control, while Irgun and Lehi attacked military and police targets.[6] The Resistance Movement dissolved amidst recriminations in July 1946, following the King David Hotel bombing. The Irgun and Lehi started acting independently, while the main underground militia, Haganah, continued acting mainly in supporting Jewish immigration.[6] The Haganah again briefly worked to suppress Irgun and Lehi operations, due to the presence of a United Nations investigative committee in Palestine. After the UN Partition Plan resolution was passed on 29 November 1947, the civil war between Palestinian Jews and Arabs eclipsed the previous tensions of both with the British. However, British and Zionist forces continued to clash throughout the period of the civil war up to the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the Israeli Declaration of Independence on 14 May 1948.
Within the United Kingdom there were deep divisions over Palestine policy. Dozens of British soldiers, Jewish militants, and civilians died during the campaigns of insurgency. The conflict led to heightened antisemitism in the United Kingdom. In August 1947, after the hanging of two abducted British sergeants, there was widespread anti-Jewish rioting across the United Kingdom.[7] The conflict caused tensions in the United Kingdom–United States relations.
^Charters, David A. The British Army and Jewish Insurgency in Palestine, 1945–47. Springer, 1989, p. X
^ abHoffman, Bruce. Inside Terrorism. Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 49–51
^ abPaul, Christopher, et al. Paths to Victory: Detailed Insurgency Case Studies, pp. 1–14. Rand National Defense Research Inst Santa Monica CA, 2013.
^ abHoffman, Bruce (2015-03-02). "Why Terrorism Works". The Chronicle of Higher Education. ISSN 0009-5982. Archived from the original on 5 March 2015. Retrieved 2020-03-12. The butcher's bill was remarkably modest compared with the horrific standards of terrorism today. Between August 1945 and August 1947, a total of 141 British soldiers and police officers and 40 terrorists died, including those executed or who committed suicide while awaiting execution. Civilian fatalities during the same period were also remarkably low. Fewer than 100 Arab and Jewish noncombatants perished as a result of terrorism between August 1945 and August 1947, and just over 400 were injured.
^Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon. Imperial Endgame: Britain's Dirty Wars and the End of Empire. p. 12. [1][permanent dead link]
^ abcFrench, David (2011). The British Way in Counter-Insurgency, 1945–1967. Oxford University Press. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-19-161859-8. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
^Jewish Chronicle 8/8/47 and 22/8/47, both p. 1. See also Bagon, Paul (2003). "The Impact of the Jewish Underground upon Anglo Jewry: 1945–1947". St Antony's College, University of Oxford M-Phil thesis (mainly the conclusion) Retrieved on 2008-10-25.
and 28 Related for: Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine information
Eventually, Jewishinsurgency against the British was overshadowed by the Jewish-Arab fighting of the 1947–48 Civil War inMandatoryPalestine, which started...
1936–1939 Arab revolt inPalestine and the 1944–1948 JewishinsurgencyinMandatoryPalestine. The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine to divide the territory...
administrative headquarters for MandatoryPalestine, housed in the southern wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, were bombed in a terrorist attack on July...
to control all British forces inMandatoryPalestine. In 1930, following an outbreak in hostilities between the Jewish and Arab populations, 2nd Battalion...
The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled MandatoryPalestine. During the war, the British...
an incident that took place in Mandate Palestinein July 1947 during JewishinsurgencyinPalestine, in which the Jewish underground group Irgun kidnapped...
the situation inPalestine had grown increasingly unstable. In response to an increase ininsurgent activity, the MandatoryPalestine garrison and police...
Binyamina). When the Irgun proclaimed the JewishinsurgencyinMandatoryPalestinein February 1944, he was put in charge of the Irgun activities, and was...
The MandatoryPalestine national football team, also known as the Eretz Israel national football team (Hebrew: נבחרת ארץ ישראל בכדורגל, romanized: Nivheret...
Charters, David A.: The British Army and JewishInsurgencyinPalestine, 1945–47 (1989), p. 63 Tom Segev, One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the...
Israel Flag of Jordan Flag of PalestineJewish flag Public Seal of MandatoryPalestine "The Avalon Project : The Palestine Mandate". avalon.law.yale.edu...
Hametz) was a Zionist operation towards the end of MandatoryPalestine, as part of the 1948 Palestine war. It was launched at the end of April 1948 with...
Jewish insurgencyinMandatoryPalestine. Statutory martial law was imposed on 2 March 1947 and enforced for 15 days inJewish sectors of Mandatory Palestine...
Charters, David (1989). The British Army and JewishinsurgencyinPalestine, 1945–47. London: Macmillan Press in association with King's College, London....
sparked the Civil War. On 11 November 1947, in the final stages of the JewishinsurgencyinMandatoryPalestine, British intelligence were made aware that...
April 21, 1947) was an Irgun member in pre-state MandatoryPalestine, during the JewishinsurgencyinMandatoryPalestine. Feinstein, who was sentenced to...
in the British Mandate of Palestine, as part of the JewishinsurgencyinPalestine (1944–7). Its aim was to destroy eleven bridges linking Mandatory Palestine...
During the British rule inMandatoryPalestine, there was civil, political and armed struggle between Palestinian Arabs and the Jewish Yishuv, beginning from...
The Palestine Police Force was a British colonial police service established inMandatoryPalestine on 1 July 1920, when High Commissioner Sir Herbert...
limiting Jewish immigration to MandatoryPalestine led to conflict between the British Empire and Zionist organizations inMandatoryPalestine, some of...
Global Information
