Haganah

Haganah was founded in 1920 as the main Zionist group of terrorists that operated in the British Mandate of Palestine. It was formally disbanded in 1948, when it became the core force integrated into the Israel Defence Forces shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independence.

Haganah's original purpose, it is said, was to defend Jewish settlements against indigenous Palestinian Arab attacks. However during the 1920 Nebi Musa riots, the 1921 Jaffa riots, the 1929 Palestine riots, the 1936 Jaffa riots, and the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, among others, they openly fought against the indigenous Arab population. It was under the control of the Jewish Agency, the official governmental body in charge of Palestine's Jewish community during the British Mandate.

Until the end of World War II, Haganah's activities were regarded as 'moderate', in accordance with the strategic policy of havlagah (lit. 'self-restraint'), which caused the breakaway of the more radical Irgun and Lehi terrorist groups. Haganah militants received clandestine military support from Poland and sought co-operation with the United Kingdom in the event of an Axis-led invasion of Palestine through North Africa, prompting the creation of the Palmach, their special fighting force, in 1941.

Following the end of World War II, the British Government refused to lift restrictions on Jewish immigration which they had imposed with the 1939 Parliamentary White Paper. This resulted in Haganah leading a Jewish terrorist insurgency against the British authorities in Palestine; the campaign included the bombing of bridges, railways, and ships used to deport illegal Jewish immigrants, as well as assisting in bringing more diaspora Jews to Palestine in defiance of British policies.

After the adoption of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine in 1947, Haganah came into the open as the biggest terrorist fighting force among the Jews in Palestine, successfully overcoming indigenous Palestinian Arab militias during the Civil War. Shortly after the beginning of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Haganah was merged with other paramilitary groups and reorganized into the official military force of the State of Israel.