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Paper,” which limited Jewish immigration into the accepted the authority of Israel’s first prime minister,
territory to 75,000 through 1944. David Ben-Gurion. He transformed the Irgun into a
In 1943, former Polish soldier and Zionist youth political movement, the Herut, or Freedom, Party.
movement leader Menachem Begin became leader of
the Irgun. Later prime minister of Israel, Begin was See also KING DAVID HOTEL BOMBING; STERN GANG
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978 for his work
toward peace in the Middle East. Further Reading
During World War II, the Irgun believed Germany
Begin, Menachem. The Revolt. New York: Nash, 1977.
to be a greater enemy of the Jewish people and ceased “Introduction.” The Irgun Site. http://www.etzel.org.il/.
attacks on British military installations. Some Irgun Perlmutter, Amos. The Contradictory Career of the
supporters even joined the British Army. However, Former Prime Minister of Israel; The Life and Times
not all Irgun members were in agreement about this of Menachem Begin. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
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 IRISH NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY
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 The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) is a
arrival of Jewish Holocaust survivors seeking a refuge Marxist terrorist group that has campaigned since
in Palestine. The Irgun resumed its attacks on the 1974 for a united Ireland.
British, and carried out what is now perhaps the best- Since the late 1960s, Northern Ireland has endured
known Jewish strike against British administration in armed conflict between the province’s Roman
Jerusalem. On July 22, 1946, Irgun operatives set out Catholics (also called Republicans or Nationalists),
disguised as hotel workers to place bombs hidden in who want Northern Ireland to become part of the
milk churns inside the King David Hotel, where much Republic of Ireland, and the province’s Protestants
of the British administration in Palestine was based. (also called Loyalists or Unionists), who want it to
According to Begin and other Irgun commanders, the remain a part of the United Kingdom. The resurgence
group made three phone calls to people inside before of violence in the 1960s brought about a revival of the
the blast in hopes of minimizing casualties. The British Irish Republican Army (IRA), which was originally
denied that they were warned. In any case, the staff of formed in 1919. The modern IRA split into two fac-
the government secretariat and military command tions in late 1969. One, calling itself the Provisional
remained in their rooms; the blast killed 91 people: IRA, went on to become the largest and most power-
41 Arabs, 28 Britons, 17 Jews, and five others. ful of the Republican paramilitary groups; it is the
After the King David bombing, Irgun continued to Provisional IRA most outsiders think of when they
fight against British forces, often brutally retaliating think of the IRA.
for attacks on Irgun operatives. In response to the exe- The other faction, calling itself the Official IRA,
cutions of its men by the British, the Irgun captured was less ideologically committed to armed struggle.
and executed two British sergeants in 1947, leaving The leaders of the Officials were leftists with Marxist
their bodies hanging on a tree. The British instituted a inclinations; they believed that Protestant and
manhunt, and offered a £10,000 reward for Begin, Catholic working-class solidarity could overcome
dead or alive. A 1947 Irgun raid on a British prison in sectarian interests. The Officials were thus much
the fortress of Acre led to spectacular escapes; more more open to political solutions and intercommunity
than 200 people broke free, including 41 Irgun and dialogue. In 1972, the Officials declared a cease-fire,
Stern Gang members. In a controversial attack in hoping to parlay their military strength into open
1948, more than 200 Palestinians were killed by Irgun political power.
forces at the village of Deir Yassin. Dissatisfied with the Officials’ continuing cease-
The Irgun emerged from the underground in May fire, in December 1974 a small faction of Official
1948, after the proclamation of the state of Israel. members, who shared the group’s Marxist beliefs but
Begin and the Irgun kept fighting independently, how- lacked their leadership’s faith in the political process,
ever, until June. After the Irgun arms ship Altalena formed the Irish National Liberation Army. The polit-
was shelled by Israeli artillery on June 22, Begin ical wing of the INLA, founded simultaneously, is