Irgun Zvai Leumi

The main Jewish underground militant group during Israel's formation, the Irgun Zvai Leumi (aka Etzel; IZL) is famous for blowing up the British administration headquarters in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 91 people.

Formed in 1931, the Irgun revolted against British rule over Palestine, demanding that the British leave the country and calling for the establishment of a Jewish state. The Irgun and other militant Zionist factions began a fierce armed struggle against Britain in British-ruled Palestine as it became clear that the Balfour Declaration of 1916, which promised the Jewish people a national home in Palestine, was being ignored. In 1939 the British signed what is known as the “White Paper,” which limited total Jewish immigration into the territory to 75,000 through 1944.

In 1943, Menachem Begin, a former Polish soldier and Zionist youth movement leader, became leader of the Irgun. Begin would later become prime minister of Israel, and he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978 for his work toward peace in the Middle East.

During World War II, the Irgun believed Germany to be a greater enemy of the Jewish people and ceased attacks on British military installations. Some Irgun supporters even joined the British army. However, not all Irgun members were in agreement about this temporary peace with the British. Avraham Stern declared the British to be the ultimate enemy and led a more extreme splinter group called Lehi, or the Stern Gang, to carry out attacks on British targets even as the fight against the Nazis raged.

After World War II, British troops blocked the arrival of Jewish Holocaust survivors seeking a refuge in Palestine. The Irgun resumed its attacks on the British and carried out what is now perhaps the best-known Jewish strike against the British administration in Jerusalem. On July 22, 1946, Irgun operatives set out disguised as hotel workers to place bombs hidden in milk churns inside the King David Hotel, where much of the British administration in Palestine was based. According to Begin and other Irgun commanders, the group made three phone calls to people inside the hotel before the blast in hopes of minimizing casualties. The British denied that they were warned. In any case, the staff of the government secretariat and military command remained in their rooms; the blast killed 91 people: 41 Arabs, 28 Britons, 17 Jews, and 5 others.

After the King David bombing, Irgun continued to fight against British forces, often brutally retaliating for attacks on Irgun operatives. In response to the executions of its men by the British, the Irgun captured and executed two British sergeants in 1947, leaving their bodies hanging on a tree. The British instituted a manhunt, and offered a £10,000 reward for Begin, dead or alive. A 1947 Irgun raid on a British prison in the fortress of Acre led to a spectacular escape, as more than 200 people broke free, including 41 Irgun and Stern Gang members. In a controversial attack in 1948, more than 200 Palestinians were killed by Irgun forces at the village of Deir Yassin.

...