Irgun museum, Tel Aviv
Before the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, there were a few different military units that were active for a number of years. The largest was known as the Haganah, the forerunner of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), whose members came mostly from the kibbutzim. Another group became known as the Irgun, the militarized form of a right-wing Zionist movement known as “Revisionism” (though its founder, Vladmir “Zeev” Jabotinsky, did not fully support its actions; indeed, he didn’t even want to know what they were doing).
Having studied these groups in my “History of Israel” class in college, it was interesting to see the way in which the museums’ creators (the Israeli government) chose to describe their purpose and actions.
Replica of a bomb used at the King David Hotel
Just as I would never expect the American or Armenian governments to ever accept substantial blame or criticize their wars and military operations, the museums are extremely uncritical of everything done by these groups. For example, while the Hagana certainly participated in unjust military operations, the Irgun was widely recognized as basically a Jewish terrorist organization, its most notorious crimes being that of the Deir Yassin massacre and the King David Hotel bombing. The section of the museum devoted to these events clearly paints a picture in which those acts were justified and necessary, even going so far as to produce a replica of the bomb used to kill 91 people in the King David hotel.
The idea that these groups, let alone their biggest atrocities, could somehow be described as “defense” is a strange one indeed. It is rather like European colonists coming to steal land from the Native American population and creating “defense” forces to deal with the resistance they encounter. Refusing to submit to territorial displacement, especially from land that has been inhabited for countless generations by the same people, is anything but an aggressive act; it could even be called natural.
Filed under: Israel/Palestine, Israel/Palestine, Travel
Thank you for pointing out an historic fact about the Irgun that is consistently covered up. They were absolutely willing to resort to terrorist means when it suited them. I support Israel’s right to thrive. But they are unlikely to do so running an apartheid state. US policy towards Israel resembles assisted suicide. I particularly resent sending the Israelis 5 billion dollars per year un US taxpayer support for a country of 7 million people!! AIPAC recently sent 80 US Congresspeople to Israel for an all expenses “look and see”. No other country has bought our congress like that. And se seem to let them get away with it!!