Haganah Organization

King David Hotel bombing, 1946

Haganah, or ” The Defense,” was the main Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded by Ze’ev Jabotinsky in 1920 to defend the Yishuv’s presence in the region. It was formally disbanded in 1948, when it became the core force integrated into the “Israel Defense Forces” shortly after the “Israeli Declaration of Independence.”

In the pre-state period (1920s–1940s), Zionist paramilitaries such as the Irgun, Lehi, Haganah, and Palmach engaged in violent campaigns against British authorities, Palestinian Arabs, and more moderate Jews to advance their political goals. Targets included security personnel, government figures, civilians, and infrastructure. After Israel’s establishment in 1948, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and other state security forces continued to employ violence against Palestinian and neighboring Arab populations during the 1948 war (known by Palestinians as the Nakba, catastrophe), subsequent Arab-Israeli wars, and the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.