Build Up of Tension in Palestine, 1917-46 » Arab and Jewish Terrorism and the King David Hotel

Terrorism in Palestine

'The role of terrorism' is one of the themes that runs through the breadth study 'The Middle East: Conflict, Crisis and Change, 1917-2012'.

By the 1930s Britain ruled Palestine under a Mandate, and Arabs and Jews were bitterly divided over who should control the land. Some people turned to violence against civilians and against the British. Many Arabs and Jews at the time condemned these attacks, and most people in both communities did not take part in them.

Key terms:

• Terrorism: using violence and fear, often against civilians, to force a political change.
• Armed band: a small group of fighters, not part of a regular army.
• Haganah: the main Jewish defence force in Palestine, which mostly worked with the British until 1945.
• Irgun: a Jewish armed group, formed in the 1930s, that rejected the Haganah's cautious approach.
• Lehi: an even smaller and more extreme Jewish armed group, formed in 1940 after a split from the Irgun. The British called it the Stern Gang.

The Arab armed bands

In the Arab Revolt of 1936-39, armed bands formed in the hills and villages, usually led by local commanders. In 1936 some volunteers also came from outside Palestine. Their aims were:

• to end British rule and the Mandate
• to stop Jewish immigration and land sales
• to win an independent Arab state with an Arab majority government

The Irgun and Lehi

Jewish armed groups grew up because Jews felt under attack, first from Arab violence and then from Britain's 1939 White Paper, which limited Jewish immigration just as Jews in Europe were trying to escape Nazi persecution. During the Second World War the Haganah and Irgun mostly stopped fighting Britain, because both were against Germany. Lehi did not.

• Irgun: in the late 1930s it had bombed Arab markets and buses in revenge for Arab attacks. In February 1944, under its leader Menachem Begin, it declared a revolt against British rule. It attacked British government offices, tax offices and police stations.
• Lehi: its aims were to drive the British out and open Palestine to unlimited Jewish immigration. In November 1944 it assassinated Lord Moyne, the senior British minister in the Middle East, in Cairo.

After the war ended in 1945, Britain still kept immigration limits. Irgun and Lehi attacks went on, and for a time the Haganah joined in with attacks on railways and bridges. Most Jewish leaders, including David Ben-Gurion, wanted to pressure Britain without killing civilians, and they condemned the Irgun and Lehi attacks that did.

The King David Hotel, 1946

The King David Hotel in Jerusalem housed the headquarters of the British government and army in Palestine. In June 1946 Britain arrested about 2,700 Jews in a large operation, and documents that were seized were stored in the hotel.

• Why they did it: to hit the centre of British power and to put pressure on Britain to leave.
• Reaction: Britain was horrified and angry. The Jewish Agency, the main Jewish political body, and the Haganah condemned the attack, and the Haganah ended its joint action with the Irgun.
• Significance: it was the deadliest attack on the British in Palestine. British opinion at home turned against the cost of staying, and Britain soon decided to hand the problem to the United Nations (see the lesson Britain Hands Over to the UN: The Partition Plan).

Change and continuity: Palestine in 1917 and 1946

Compare the two years. In 1917 Palestine was still part of the Ottoman Empire (the Turkish empire that had ruled the region for centuries), though British forces captured Jerusalem in December. Britain had just promised a national home for the Jews in the Balfour Declaration. Jews were a small minority and there was no organised armed struggle. By 1946 Britain ruled under a Mandate, about 600,000 Jews lived there (roughly a third of the people), and Britain faced armed groups from both communities.

What stayed the same was the central dispute over who should control the land, and an outside power struggling to settle it. What changed was that violence had grown from riots into organised campaigns, and Britain had gone from backing a Jewish national home to being attacked by Jewish groups.

Exam-style question

Explain TWO ways in which Palestine in 1946 was different from Palestine in 1917. [6 marks]

Remember: one way on its own cannot score more than half marks, and each way must say something about both years.