The Haganah (Hebrew: "Defense", הגנה) was a Zionist para-military organization in Palestine during the British mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948. The Haganah later became the Israel Defense Forces—Israel's army. This article is about Zionism as a movement, not the History of Israel. ... A 2003 satellite image of the region. ... Flag The approximate borders of the British Mandate circa 1922. ... Year 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display 1920) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Emblem of the IDF The Israel Defense Forces are part of the Israeli Security Forces. ...

Origins

The predecessor of Haganah was the Ha-Shomer (Guild of Watchman) established in 1909. It was a small group of Jewish immigrants who guarded settlements for an annual fee. At no time did the group have more than 100 members. HaShomer (השומר) was a self-defense organization established by the Jews of Palestine during Ottoman rule. ... Year 1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ...

The Arab riots of 1920 and 1921 made it clear to the Jewish leadership that Jewish farmers and settlements need protection from the Arabs. It was clear that the British had no desire to confront the Arabs over the Arab attacks on the Jews in Palestine. The Jewish leadership decided that the Jews need to rely on themselves for protection, and so the Haganah came into existence. The role of the Haganah was to guard the Jewish Kibbutzim and farms, to warn the residents of the Arab attacks, and to repel the attackers. In the period between 1920-1929 the Haganah lacked a strong central authority or coordination, Haganah "units" were very localized and poorly armed, they consisted mainly of Jewish farmers who took turns guarding their farms or their Kibbutzim. Following the Arab riots of 1929, that left 133 Jews dead and led to the ethnic cleansing of all Jews from the city of Hebron, the Haganah's role changed dramatically. It became a much larger organization encompassing nearly all the youths and adults in the settlements, as well as thousands of members from the cities. It also acquired foreign arms and began to develop workshops to create hand grenades and simple military equipment. It went from being an untrained militia to a capable army. For other uses, see Arab (disambiguation). ... Year 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display 1920) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... Year 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Grenade redirects here. ...

In 1936 the Haganah fielded 10,000 mobilized men along with 40,000 reservists. During the Great Uprising 1936-1939, it participated actively to protect British interests and to quell Arab insurgence. Although the British administration didn't officially recognize the Haganah the British Security Forces cooperated with it by forming the Jewish Settlement Police, Jewish Auxiliary Forces and Special Night Squads which were trained and led by Colonel Orde Wingate. The battle experience gained in the Great Uprising was to become very useful in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war 1947-1949. 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Great Uprising, Great Revolt, or Great Arab Revolt was an uprising by Palestinian Arabs in the British Mandate of Palestine which lasted from 1936 to 1939. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Year 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Jewish Settlement Police were a division of the Notrim established in Palestine in 1936. ... The Special Night Squads (SNS) were a joint British-Jewish force consisting of British soldiers and Jewish Settlement Police, established by Charles Orde Wingate in the British Mandate of Palestine in 1936, during the Great Arab Revolt. ... Orde Charles Wingate Major General Orde Charles Wingate, DSO (February 26, 1903 – March 24, 1944), was a British major general and creator of two special military units during World War II. // Orde Wingate was born 23 February 1903 in Naini Tal, India to a military family. ... Combatants  Israel Haganah Irgun Lehi Palmach Foreign Volunteers Egypt, Syria, Transjordan,  Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Holy War Army, Arab Liberation Army Commanders Yaakov Dori, Yigael Yadin John Bagot Glubb, Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, Hasan Salama, Fawzi Al-Qawuqji, Ahmed Ali al-Mwawi Strength  Israel: 29,677 initially rising... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 1937, the most right-wing elements of Haganah branched off for the second time and formed Irgun Zvai-Leumi, more known as just "Irgun". They were discontented with the policy of restraint when faced with British and Arab pressure. Irgun and their off-shoot, the Stern gang terrorist group, became well-known for their clandestine combat methods. Year 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Irgun emblem. ... Avraham Stern Lehi (Hebrew acronym for Lohamei Herut Israel, Fighters for the Freedom of Israel) was a radical underground Jewish paramilitary group, a terrorist group according to both its own description and that of its opponents. ...

To appease the Arabs, the British severely restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine in 1939. In response, Haganah started to organize illegal immigration and demonstrations against Britain. It set up the "Organization for Illegal Immigration", Aliyah Bet, which worked through bases in Switzerland and Turkey. For the effort initiated by Polish Zionists from Lublin to bring European Jews to Palestine (1944-48), see Berihah. ...

World War II participation

Despite the 1939 White Paper which deeply angered the Zionist leadership in Palestine, David Ben-Gurion, then chairman of the Jewish Agency, set the policy for the Zionist relationship with the British: We shall fight the war against Hitler as if there were no White Paper, and we shall fight the White Paper as if there were no war. The Irgun, however took a more extreme stance and began bombing British installations.The Irgun also set up secret rescue operation called Af Al Pi which smuggled Jews escaping the Holocaust into pe-state Israel after Hitler came to power.In fact the Hagana and Ben Gurion were copmletly agaisnt smuggling illegal Jewish immigrant into Israel agaisnt British wishes. Jabotinsky and the Irgun backed this life saving operation. The White Paper of 1939, also known as the MacDonald White Paper after Malcolm MacDonald, the British Colonial Secretary who presided over it, was a policy paper issued by the British government in which the idea of partitioning the British Mandate of Palestine was abandoned in favour of Jews and... Ben Gurion redirects here. ... The Jewish Agency for Israel also known as The Jewish Agency (or sochnut in Hebrew), was previously called the Jewish Agency for Palestine (during the British Mandate of Palestine) is an Israeli organisation that advocates for Israel and is composed mainly, but not entirely, of Jewish people. ...

In the first years of World War II,the Irgun temporarily called off attacks on the British. Jabotinsky said "until we dispose of the Nazi rattlesnake no armed attacks on the British authorities". In fact Jabotinsky from 1939-40 called for the creation of a new Jewish fighting force to join with the British to fight againstthe Nazis while rescuing Jews from Hitler. He refererred to it as a World Jewish Ar,y, and as always the Zionist left opposed, and harshly condemned Jabotinsky's going to the USA especially New York to raise such an army from Jews living there.Eevntually the Haganah after condemning this idea eventually and way to late made a unit like that. Hagana made cooperation again with Britain, due to the fear for an Axis breakthrough in North Africa. After Rommel was defeated at El Alamein in 1942, the British stepped back from their all-out support for Haganah. In 1943, after a long series of requests and denials ,eventually the British Army under mass Jewish protest announced the creation of the Jewish Brigade Group. While Palestinian Jews had been permitted to enlist in the British army since 1940, this was the first time an exclusively Jewish military unit served in the war. The Jewish Brigade Group consisted of 5,000 soldiers and was deployed in Italy in September 1944.In fact it had a large group of Irgun fighters as well.The brigade was disbanded in 1946. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... The word axis has several meanings: In mathematics, axis can mean: A straight line around which a geometric figure can be rotated. ... Rommel is the family name of Eddie Rommel baseball pitcher; Erwin Rommel (German Field Marshal), and his son Manfred Rommel (former Mayor of Stuttgart). ... El Alamein is a town in northern Egypt on the Mediterranean Sea coast. ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see September (disambiguation). ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

All in all, more than 30,000 Palestinian Jews served in the British army during the war.

On May 19, 1941 the Haganah created the Palmach (an acronym for Plugot Mahatz—strike companies), a military-like section which focused on giving out training to youngsters. It was never big, by 1947 it amounted to only five battalions (about 2,000 men), but its members had received not only physical and basic military training, but also acquired some leadership skills that allowed them to take up command positions as part of Israel's army. The Palmach (Hebrew: פלמח, an acronym for Plugot Mahatz (Hebrew: פלוגות מחץ), Strike Companies) was the regular fighting force of the Haganah, the unofficial army of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the British Mandate of Palestine. ...

After the war

Toward the end of the war the the freedom fighters of the Irgun launched armed attacks on British military targets to drive them out from our G-D given land Israel. At first the Hagana and Jewish Agency condemned the Irgun and Stern Group, but after time they seeing how angry the Jewish masses living in Israel were by acts of British treachery changed course.Actions like Britsh destroyers to chase Holocaust survivors coming to home to Israel, into the open sea to drown en masse. Soon after the war, the Haganah carried out anti-British operations in Palestine. 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 police. It also continued its organizing of illegal immigration. In the 1930s and 1940s, Atlit detainee camp was used by the British authorities to detain illegal immigrants to Palestine. ...

On May 28, 1948, less than two weeks after the creation of the state of Israel on May 15, the provisional government created the Israeli Defense Forces which would succeed the Haganah. It also outlawed maintenance of any other armed force. The Irgun was ambushed by the Hagana for no reason and murdered their fellow Jews. This unprovoked clash was orderd by power hungry Ben Gurion who hated both the Irgun and its inspiration Zev Jabotinsky. Eventually Irgun laid down their weapons and Menachem Begin transformed his militia to a political party, the Herut. is the 148th day of the year (149th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 135th day of the year (136th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) (Hebrew: צבא ההגנה לישראל Tsva Ha-Haganah Le-Yisrael ([Army] Force [for] the Defense of Israel), often abbreviated צהל Tsahal, alternative English spelling Tzahal, is the name of Israels armed forces...   (‎, August 16, 1913 – March 9, 1992) was a Jewish-Polish head of the Zionist underground group the Irgun, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the first Likud Prime Minister of Israel. ... Herut (Hebrew: חרות Freedom) was the political party of the Revisionist Zionist movement in Israel. ...

Famous members of the Haganah included: Yitzhak Rabin, Ariel Sharon, Rehavam Zeevi, Dov Hoz, Moshe Dayan, Dr. Ruth Westheimer For other persons named Rabin, see Rabin (disambiguation). ...   (Hebrew: , also known by his diminutive Arik אָרִיק) (born February 27, 1928) is a former Israeli politician and general. ... Rehavam Zeevi (רחבעם זאבי-גנדי) (June 20, 1926 - October 17, 2001) was an Israeli general, politician and historian who founded the right-wing nationalist Moledet party. ... Dov Hoz Dov Hoz (1894-1940) was a leader of the Israeli labor movement, founder of the Hagana organization and a pioneer of Israeli aviation. ... Moshe Dayan (‎, born 20 May 1915, died 16 October 1981) was an Israeli military leader and politician. ... Dr. Ruth Karola Westheimer (born Karola rith Siegel June 4, 1928), or just Dr. Ruth, is a popular American sex therapist. ...