Hebrew “National Military Organization”

armed organization founded in Jerusalem in the spring of

1931 by a group of *Haganah commanders, headed by Avraham

Tehomi, who had left the Haganah in protest against its

defensive character. Joining forces with a clandestine armed

group of *Betar members from Tel Aviv, they formed a parallel,

more activist defense organization.

In April 1937, during the Arab riots, the organization split

over the question of how to react against Arab terrorism, and

about half its three thousand members returned to the Haganah,

which was controlled by the *Jewish Agency. The rest

linked with the Revisionist movement and accepted the authority

of its leader, Vladimir *Jabotinsky. Rejecting the “restraint”

Haganah, the organization carried out armed reprisals against

Arabs, which were condemned by the Jewish Agency as “blemishing

the political struggle, and undermining security.” Many

members and sympathizers were arrested and one of them,

Shelomo *Ben-Yosef, was hanged for shooting at an Arab bus,

movement in *“illegal” immigration, succeeding in

smuggling many thousands of Jews into Palestine.

After the publication of the *White Paper in May 1939,

sabotaging government property and attacking security

officers. The British retaliated with widespread arrests,

and at the outbreak of World War II, when hundreds of Revisionists

declared a truce, which led to a second split (June 1940) and

to the war effort against the Nazis by joining the British

Army’s Palestinian units and later the Jewish Brigade. During

British Intelligence, against the pro-Nazi regime of Rashid

Ali in Iraq, David Raziel fell at Habbaniya, near Baghdad, on

May 20, 1941. Ya’akov Meridor took command, and was succeeded

in December 1943 by Menahem *Begin. By this time,

the full extent of the Holocaust in the Nazi-occupied territories

war against the British administration, which continued to

implement the White Paper. It attacked and blew up governirgun

ment offices, several CID headquarters, and four police stations,

also capturing weapons and ammunition.

The British authorities made many arrests, and 251 prisoners

Oct. 20, 1944. No organized reaction to the deportation was

possible because of the repercussions following the assassination

campaign nicknamed by the underground the “saison” (“hunting

several leaders) were kidnapped and handed over to the

but did not halt them; after the war it began attacking

military installations, bridges, and the vital Kirkuk-Haifa oil

pipeline (May 25, 1945).

When the British Labour government’s anti-Zionist policy

formed a united front, sabotaging bridges, railways, and patrol

as seven army camps, gaining control of their ammunition

attacks culminated in blowing up a wing of the King David

Hotel in Jerusalem, headquarters of the Palestine government

and the military command, on July 22, 1946.

The united fighting front disintegrated in August 1946,

objectives. The British increased their military strength to a

hundred thousand men and reacted with increased ferocity:

reacted by flogging British officers and kidnapping hostages.

It also extended its activities abroad, the most striking act being

the bombing of the British embassy in Rome on Oct. 31,

prison on April 16, 1947, and another two – Meir Feinstein

hanged in Jerusalem, blew themselves up in the condemned

continual attacks, the British retreated to security zones where

sergeants and hanged them in July, when the three were executed.

States, where the Hebrew Committee for National Liberation,

led by Peter Bergson (Hillel Kook), was established. In Palestine

publicity was conducted through a clandestine radio

including Transjordan.

After the United Nations resolution of November 29,

hiding, helped to repulse the Arab attacks, and continued to

attack British army camps in order to capture weapons. On

April 25, 1948, it began a large-scale attack on Arab Jaffa; the

capture of the town was completed by the Haganah. After the

to disband the organization and integrate its members

into the army of the new Jewish state, but, until integration

was achieved, it acted independently in various sectors, particularly

in Jerusalem, where its activities were loosely coordinated

with the Haganah. Its attack on the Arab village of

Deir Yasin near Jerusalem, which caused many civilian casualties

and led to panic among the Arabs, was denounced by

the Jewish Agency. On June 20, during the first Arab-Israel

shores of Israel, carrying a huge quantity of weapons and

ammunition and about eight hundred young people, some

of whom had received military training. During negotiations

with the newly established provisional government of Israel,

over the ship, and when it appeared off the shore of Tel Aviv

fought in most sectors of the city and joined the national

army on Sept. 21, 1948, on the orders of the provisional government.

[David Niv]