Zionists committed a number of acts of political violence in support of establishing and maintaining a Jewish state in Palestine. These actions have been carried out by individuals, paramilitary groups, and the State of Israel and its military forces since the early 20th century against British rule and as part of the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
In the pre-state period (1920s–1940s), Zionist paramilitaries such as the Irgun, Lehi, Haganah and Palmach engaged in violent campaigns against British authorities, Palestinian Arabs, and more moderate Jews to advance their political goals. Targets included security personnel, government figures, civilians, and infrastructure. After Israel's establishment in 1948, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and other state security forces continued to employ violence against Palestinian and neighboring Arab populations during the 1948 war (known by Palestinians as the Nakba, catastrophe), subsequent Arab-Israeli wars, and the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Later acts of Zionist violence have ranged from the government's use of force to suppress Palestinian unrest (such as during the intifadas from 1987 to 1993 and 2000 to 2005), to attacks perpetrated by Israeli settlers and right-wing extremists against Palestinian civilians, property and holy sites. In an act of intra-Jewish political violence, former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995 by Yigal Amir who opposed Rabin's peace initiatives and territorial concessions to the Palestinians. The Israeli military has also conducted large-scale assaults in the occupied territories and neighbouring states including Lebanon, resulting in widespread destruction and civilian casualties.
Human and Palestinian rights organisations have accused Israel of state terrorism, war crimes, and disproportionate use of force against Palestinians. Israel defends its actions as necessary to preserve the security of the Jewish state and its citizens in the face of Palestinian political violence and regional threats.
Before 1948
Zionist militant groups Bar-Giora (, from Simon bar Giora; 1907–1909) was a militia of primarily of Russian Jewish immigrants founded to protect Jewish settlements during the second wave of Zionist migration to Palestine. In 1909, it expanded into HaShomer ( 'the watchman'), an armed paramilitary cavalry that was active until the establishment of the British Mandate for Palestine (1920–1948).
During the 1920 Nebi Musa riots, the 1921 Jaffa riots and the 1929 Palestine riots, Palestinian Arabs manifested hostility against Zionist immigration, which provoked the reaction of Jewish militias.
After the 1920 Nebi Musa riots, the Haganah ( 'the defense') was founded in June and drew forces from the Zion Mule Corps and Jewish Legion, both of which fought for the British in World War I. Increasing Zionist migration to Palestine raised tensions and intercommunal conflict in Mandatory Palestine.
The Irgun ( 'organization'; 1931–1948), associated with Betar and Revisionist Zionism, was founded as an offshoot of the Haganah. The Irgun were the armed expression of the nascent ideology of Revisionist Zionism founded by Ze'ev Jabotinsky. He expressed this ideology as "every Jew had the right to enter Palestine; only active retaliation would deter the Arab and the British; only Jewish armed force would ensure the Jewish state".Howard Sachar: A History of the State of Israel, pp. 265–266
During the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine, Palestinian Arabs fought for the end of the Mandate and the creation of an Arab state based on the whole of Palestine.Mazin B. Qumsiyeh, Popular Resistance in Palestine: A History of Hope and Empowerment (New York, 2011), p. 85. They attacked both British and Jews as well as some Palestinian Arabs who supported Pan-Arabism. Mainstream Zionists, represented by the Vaad Leumi and the Haganah, practiced the policy of Havlagah ( 'restraint'). Irgun militants did not follow this policy and called themselves "Havlagah breakers." The Irgun began bombing Palestinian Arab civilian targets in 1938.
The Peulot Meyuhadot () were three highly secret special-operations squads set up in Palestine by Yitzhak Sadeh on David Ben-Gurion's orders early in 1939, towards the end of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. The squads were created for retaliatory strikes against Arab resistants and villages, attacks on British installations, and the elimination of Jewish informers and traitors.Morris, 1999, p. 148.Segev, 2000, p. 386–387. The squads were controlled directly by Ben-Gurion, without reference to the Haganah general command, and were used repeatedly during the last months of the Arab revolt and during the months that followed.
While the Palestinian Arabs were "carefully disarmed" by the British Mandatory authorities by 1939, the Zionists were not.
Lehi (; 1940–1948), also known as the Stern Gang for its founder Avraham Stern, broke off from the Irgun in 1940 to keep fighting against the British. It also sought to make alliances with fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. The Palmach (; 1941–1948) was established by the High Command of the Haganah in 1941 and served as the main paramilitary organization of the Yishuv, or the Jewish community in Palestine before 1948.
Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine (1944–1948)
After the British Declaration of War in September 1939, the head of the Jewish Agency for Palestine David Ben-Gurion declared: 'We will fight the White Paper as if there is no war, and fight the war as if there is no White Paper.'The Brigade by Howard Blum, p. 5. Subsequently, the Haganah and Irgun suspended their activity against the British in support of their war against Nazi Germany. However, the smaller Lehi continued anti-British attacks and direct action throughout the war. At that time, the British also supported the creation and the training of Palmach as a unit that could withstand a German offensive in the area, with the consent of the Yishuv, which saw an opportunity to get trained units and soldiers for the planned Jewish state. During 1944–1945, the most mainstream Jewish paramilitary organization, Haganah, cooperated with the British authorities against the Lehi and Etzel.Gal-or, Noemi. Tolerating Terrorism in the West: An International Survey. Routledge, 2004. p. 74
After World War II, between 1945 and the 29 November 1947 Partition vote, British soldiers and policemen were targeted by Irgun and Lehi. The Haganah and Palmach at first collaborated with the British against them, particularly during the Hunting Season, before actively joining them in the Jewish Resistance Movement, then finally choosing an official neutral position after 1946 while the Irgun and the Lehi continued their attacks against the British.Horne, Edward (1982). A Job Well Done (Being a History of The Palestine Police Force 1920–1948). The Anchor Press. . pp. 272, 299. States that Haganah withdrew on 1 July 1946. But remained permanently uncooperative.
The Jewish Agency organized the Jewish Resistance Movement (JRM), which included the Haganah, Palmach, Lehi, and Irgun. Its first operation was October 1945, when the Palmach attacked the Atlit internment camp to release Jews arrested by the British for illegal immigration into Palestine. In November, the JRM targeted railroads throughout Palestine and sank a number of British coast guard patrol launches. It then attacked British police stations, aerodromes, coast guard stations, and radar infrastructure, and in June 1946, it blew up bridges connecting Palestine with neighboring countries. In Operation Agatha, the British responded with arrests and searches of the bureaus of the Jewish Agency, the Histadrut, and 27 Jewish settlements. The Jewish Agency called for a halt to armed attacks on the British and their infrastructure, but Lehi and Irgun refused and bombed the King David Hotel, site of the central British administrative offices, in July 1946.
The Haganah, Irgun and Lehi also executed dozens of Jews for alleged treason or collaboration with Britain or Arabs, often after irregular drumhead courts-martial.
The Haganah also carried out violent attacks in Palestine, such as the liberation of interned immigrants from the Atlit detainee camp, the bombing of the country's railroad network, sabotage raids on radar installations and bases of the British Palestine police. It continued to organize illegal immigration throughout the entire war.
Irgun was described as a terrorist organization by the United Nations, British, and United States governments, and in media such as The New York Times newspaper,Pope Brewer, Sam. Irgun Bomb Kills 11 Arabs, 2 Britons . New York Times. December 30, 1947.Irgun's Hand Seen in Alps Rail Blast . New York Times. August 16, 1947. and by the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry.W. Khalidi, 1971, 'From Haven to Conquest', p. 598 In 1946, The World Zionist Congress strongly condemned terrorist activities in Palestine and "the shedding of innocent blood as a means of political warfare". Irgun was specifically condemned.Zionists Condemn Palestine Terror New York Times. December 24, 1946.
The Nakba and the 1948 Palestine War
In February 1947, the British announced that they would end the mandate and withdraw from Palestine and they asked for the arbitration of the United Nations. After the vote on the Partition Plan for Palestine on 30 November 1947, civil war broke out in Palestine. Jewish and Arab communities fought each other violently in campaigns of attacks, retaliations, and counter-retaliations which provoked around 800 deaths after two months. Arab volunteers entered Palestine to fight alongside the Palestinian Arabs. In April, 6 weeks before the termination of the Mandate, the Jewish militias launched wide operations to control the territory dedicated to them by the Partition Plan. Many atrocities occurred during this time. The Arab population in the mixed cities of Tiberias, Safed, Haifa and Jaffa, as well as Beisan and Acre and in the neighbouring villages, fled or were expelled during this period. During the Battle for Jerusalem (1948) where the Jewish community of 100,000 people was besieged, most Arab villages of the Tel Aviv – Jerusalem corridor were captured by Jewish militias and leveled.