British Policies Towards Jewish Resistance in Palestine 1944-1948
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Zionist Terrorism and Imperial Response British Policies towards Jewish Resistance in Palestine 1944-1948 Diplomarbeit zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Magisters der Philosophie an der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz vorgelegt von Robert LACKNER am Institut für Geschichte Begutachter: Ao.Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr.phil. Siegfried Beer Graz, 2009 Ich möchte meinem Betreuer Prof. Siegfried Beer danken, der mich bei der Ent- stehung dieser Diplomarbeit tatkräftig unterstützt und mir geholfen hat, meinen Forschungsaufenthalt an den britischen National Archives in London zu reali- sieren. Weiters bedanke ich mich bei Prof. Grete Walter-Klingenstein für die zahlreichen anregenden Gespräche und die wertvollen Ratschläge. Besonderer Dank gilt abschließend meinen Eltern Anna und Peter, die mir stets zur Seite gestanden und meine Studien in Graz und im Ausland ermöglicht haben. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 PROLOGUE .................................................................................................... 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1 1.2 COMMENTS ON SOURCES.................................................................... 3 2 THE EMPIRE AND PALESTINE .................................................................... 5 2.1 THE ARAB-JEWISH CONFLICT .............................................................. 6 2.2 PALESTINE IN BRITISH IMPERIAL STRATEGY .................................. 11 2.3 BRITISH POLICY-MAKING FOR PALESTINE....................................... 14 3 THE EMERGENCE OF THE JEWISH UNDERGROUND............................. 18 3.1 THE HAGANA ........................................................................................ 19 3.2 THE IRGUN............................................................................................ 23 3.3 THE STERN GANG................................................................................ 27 4 THE DAWN OF JEWISH INSURGENCY ..................................................... 31 4.1 THE ATTEMPT ON HAROLD MACMICHAEL........................................ 33 4.2 THE ASSASSINATION OF LORD MOYNE............................................ 36 4.3 HUNTING SEASON ............................................................................... 43 5 THE REVIVAL OF TERRORISM .................................................................. 48 5.1 THE INTERNAL SECURITY SITUATION............................................... 49 5.2 THE UNITED RESISTANCE MOVEMENT............................................. 52 5.3 THE BEGINNING OF IMPERIAL COUNTER-TERRORISM .................. 57 5.4 THE KING DAVID HOTEL BOMBING.................................................... 63 6 THE CLIMAX OF OUTRAGE ....................................................................... 68 6.1 INTERNATIONAL JEWISH TERRORISM.............................................. 69 6.2 BRITISH MILITARY AND POLITICAL REACTIONS .............................. 74 6.3 THE END OF THE MANDATE ............................................................... 80 7 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................. 91 8 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................... 96 8.1 PRIMARY SOURCES............................................................................. 96 8.2 SECONDARY SOURCES ...................................................................... 99 1 PROLOGUE 1.1 INTRODUCTION As a result of the First World War, Great Britain became the mandatory power for Palestine and governed the territory de facto as a part of her Empire. However, she did not only enjoy the country’s amenities but was also confronted with the internal conflicts of the population. Due to the emergence of Zionism and National Socialism, Jewish immigration to the Holy Land increased exponentially. Whereas the Jews longed for their own state, the Arabs feared becoming the minority in Palestine. Therefore, Arabs as well as Jews tried to vie for the support of both the British as well as that of the international community. The Empire, on the other hand, chose to act as a mediator and engaged in the finding of a peaceful solution acceptable for both sides. Apart from the political aspect, Jewish and Arab extremists used violent methods and rebelled against the mandatory power with differing outcomes. Whereas the Great Arab Revolt was resolutely quelled by the Empire in the 1930’s, the Jewish efforts were more successful and not as easily put down. From 1944 onwards, several Jewish underground organisations launched a terrorist campaign which in fact lasted until the British announcement to withdraw from Palestine in 1948. Until its very last days in Palestine, the Empire found no appropriate policy either to break up the underground or at least to stop the attacks on military and civilian targets. My thesis concentrates on these violent events during the last years of British rule in the Holy Land. In this context, there are various fundamental questions: Why did parts of the Jewish community engage in an underground movement? Why did Jewish settlers become terrorists? How did the terrorist organisations attack the Empire? However, these issues are only the basis for the further analysis since the focus of this paper is on the British perspective. I therefore sought to uncover the British reaction to the Jewish challenge for autonomy: What was Britain’s policy with regards to the restoration of law and order? Did she use rhetorical, political, military, or economic measures? Did terrorism play a role in terms of the British decision to withdraw from Palestine? - 1 - Finally, the main question of the thesis refers to the obvious inefficiency of British postwar counter-terrorism in Palestine: While Great Britain was able to rather easily subdue the Arabs, why did she eventually succumb to the Jewish insurgency? As a starting point, the first two sections give a historic overview of the Mandate from the very beginning until the Second World War. The first chapter concentrates on informing the reader about the structures of the Arab and Jewish communities and the roots of the Arab-Jewish conflict. Further, the country’s strategic importance is examined in order to show the Empire’s desire to maintain the Mandate. Finally, it is explained how Palestine was actually ruled and which departments were the decisive factors within the British administrative system. The second chapter deals with the emergence of the Jewish underground. It focuses on the development of the three underground organisations Hagana, Irgun and Lehi, and highlights the differences in terms of their structures, goals and ideology. After the introduction, the main part of the thesis follows, dealing with the Jewish terrorist struggle against the Empire. In fact, these activities can be divided into three phases. The first offensive started when the Irgun declared war on the Empire in early 1944, and ended with the Hagana’s attempt to stop terrorism in cooperation with the British authorities in the fall of the same year. After a short break, a program of terrorism was again reinitiated by the Jewish underground in the summer of 1945, this time with the support of the Hagana. The second phase lasted until the King David Hotel bombing in July 1946. After that incident, the Hagana ceased its attacks on the British, and the Irgun and the Lehi continued the fight on their own until the Empire decided to leave the country. The fourth, fifth and sixth chapters thus describe these three phases which can be considered as the dawn, the revival, and the climax of Jewish terrorism. Moreover, the sections actually analyse the course and the development of British policies. They try to interpret the various approaches made by the Foreign Office, the Colonial Office and the War Office, and reflect the disagreement between the different departments. In the very last chapter, I conclude my work ultimately with the British withdrawal and the subsequent creation of the state of Israel. - 2 - 1.2 COMMENTS ON SOURCES To a large extent, my research is based on documents obtained from the British National Archives in London. Especially the Cabinet Papers on Palestine (CAB) were a rich source of information. They do not only contain the minutes of the meetings which enables an analysis of the discussions but also various military and intelligence reports by the General Staff, the Joint Planning Staff or the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC). Another valuable series were the correspondences of the Prime Minister (PREM) and the Colonial Office (CO). Especially the telegrams between the High Commissioner for Palestine and the Secretary of State for the Colonies were of particular significance. In addition, the correspondence of the Foreign Office (FO) and especially its Middle East section offers interesting insights concerning the department’s attitude. The files of the War Office (WO) and the Special Operations Executive (HS), on the other hand, were useful for the analysis of the large military operations and contained several intelligence papers which give a detailed estimation of the respective security situation in the Holy Land. Since they originated from the 1930’s and 1940’s, the vast majority of these documents have been available since the 1970’s due to the normal period of closure of 30 years. For that reason, many of them have already been analysed in literature. In this context, I wanted to highlight