Haganah Opposes Terrorism in Holy Land

On August 8th, the "Voice of Israel," underground radio of Haganah, the Jewish. Resistance Movement, broadcast these words to the British: "We say to you that we will regard any attack made on the refugees as an attack on ourselves. An injury to their lives and safety will be regarded as an injury to our lives and safety. Our fight is for them and with them. Everything we have built in this country is for them."

To the Haganah and the Jews of Palestine, the entrance of European refugees is no longer a question of the wisdom or foolishness of policy, but simply something that must be accomplished. When Haganah men gather, the toast is always, "To the ships on the way."

Reports Misleading

There has been so much irresponsible and incorrect reporting of terrorism and terrorists in Palestine, I feel it necessary to clarify the differences between Haganah and the two so-called "terrorist" gangs, the Stern Group, responsible for the murder of Lord Moyne in Cairo some years ago, and the Irgun Zeval Leumi, National Military Organization, responsible for the recent bombing of British headquarters at the King David Hotel.

Both the Stern Group and the Irgun Zevai Leumi, whose single aim to rid Palestine of the British is almost pathological, are offshoots of the Revisionist Party, a non-Zionist organization that split from the world movement in the 1920's. They are responsible to no one. The Irgun, larger of the two, "specializes" in sabotage. The Stern Group, an outfit of only a few hundred, are masters at assassination.

Groups Are Fanatical

Both groups are tremendously well-disciplined and imbued with a fierce fanaticism. However misguided their activities, they must be viewed as a group who had to "sit on their hands" in Palestine while their families were being slaughtered in Europe. They look upon England as the one power that could have done something in opening the gates of Palestine, and did nothing.

Haganah, which means "defense," is the peoples' army of Palestinian Jewry. Its history goes back to Czarist Russia, where small groups organized to protect themselves against pogroms. The idea was brought to Palestine before World War I, and an organization called Hashomer, "The Watchman," was formed. At first they were merely armed guards for the new agricultural settlements, but with the end of the war, the idea of an all-inclusive defense organization took root. With returned veterans of the Jewish Legion of Allenby's Middle Eastern British Army, a nucleus of Haganah was formed.

Haganah first paid off in 1929, when, after the British had withdrawn all licenses for the possession of weapons in Jewish settlements, two hundred Jews were massacred by Arab raiders. Arab onslaughts continued. Where the Jews had "illegal" arms, they protected themselves. Where they had none, it was slaughter. The communities were convinced they could not depend on British protection and steps were taken to train and arm a large-scale defense organization.

Today, Haganah regards defense in a different light. Where once defense meant merely protection against Bedouin raiders, it is now the defense of the lives and the futures of hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees whose only hope is Palestine.