Haganah: Difference between revisions

The Jewish paramilitary organizations in the [[Yishuv|New Yishuv]] (the Zionist enterprise in Palestine) started with the [[Second Aliyah]] (1904 to 1914).<ref>{{cite web|author=Speedy |url=http://thespeedymedia.blogspot.com/2011/09/idfs-history.html#.U4ei6F4ZffM |title=The Speedy Media: IDF's History |publisher=Thespeedymedia.blogspot.com |date=2011-09-12 |access-date=2014-08-03}}</ref> The first such organization was [[Bar-Giora (organization)|Bar-Giora]], founded in September 1907. It consisted of a small group of Jewish immigrants who guarded settlements for an annual fee. It was converted to Hashomer ({{lang-he|השומר}}; "The Watchman") in April 1909, which operated until the British Mandate of Palestine came into being in 1920. Hashomer was an elitist organization which never had more than 100 members.<ref>[[Tom Segev|Segev, Tom]] (2018 - 2019 translation [[Haim Watzman]]) ''A State at Any Cost. The Life of David Ben-Gurion.'' Apollo. {{ISBN|9-781789-544633}} p.96</ref> During [[World War I]], the forerunners of the Haganah/IDF were the [[Zion Mule Corps]] and the [[Jewish Legion]], both of which were part of the British Army. After the [[1920 Palestine riots|Arab riots]] against Jews in April 1920, the Yishuv's leadership saw the need to create a nationwide underground defense organization, and the Haganah was founded in June of the same year. The Haganah became a full-scale defense force after the [[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine]] with an organized structure, consisting of three main units—the [[Hish (Haganah corps)|Field Corps]], [[Guard Corps (Haganah)|Guard Corps]], and the [[Palmach]] strike force. During World War II the successor to the Jewish Legion of World War I was the [[Jewish Brigade]], which was joined by many Haganah fighters. During the 1947–48 civil war between the Arab and Jewish communities in what was still Mandatory Palestine, a reorganized Haganah managed to defend or wrestle most of the territory it was ordered to hold or capture. At the beginning of the ensuing 1948–49 full-scale conventional war against regular Arab armies, the Haganah was reorganized to become the core of the new Israel Defense Forces.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

 

 

In addition to guarding Jewish communities, the role of the Haganah was to warn the residents of and repel attacks by Palestinians. In the period between 1920 and 1929, the Haganah lacked a strong central authority or coordination. Haganah "units" were very localized and poorly armed: they consisted mainly of Jewish farmers who took turns guarding their farms or their kibbutzim.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}