Thank you, Hagana
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that without the Hagana, today we would not be living in our own land – Israel – celebrating the fact that Jews the world over know that in times of need, their homeland is here for them.
On Monday night, April 10, 1948, the Hagana firmly held the entire 24 km. mountain highway from Bab el-Wad (today’s Sha’ar Hagai) eastward to Jerusalem. It brought to a climax two days of fighting, in which the Hagana captured the land overlooking the eight-km. ravine. Their forces operated fan-wise around the ravine in pursuit of the Arabs who fought them.
Hagana means “defense” in Hebrew. It was the main Zionist paramilitary organization, founded in 1920, that operated for the Yishuv during the British Mandate. Its original purpose was to defend Jewish settlements against Arab attacks.
Until the end of World War II, the Hagana’s activities were moderate. At that point, the more radical forces – Irgun and the Stern Group – broke away from it. The Hagana received clandestine military support from Poland.
When World War II ended, the British refused to lift the restrictions on Jewish immigration that they had imposed under the 1939 White Paper. As a result, the Hagana led a Jewish insurgency against the British in Palestine. They bombed bridges, railways, as well as the ships used to deport illegal Jewish immigrants.
When the UN Partition Plan for Palestine was adopted in 1947, the Hagana came into the open as the biggest fighting force for the Jews, successfully overcoming Arab militias during the 1948 Palestine Civil War.
Shortly after the beginning of the 1948 War of Independence, the Hagana merged with other paramilitary groups and reorganized into the official military force of the State of Israel. The evolution went from Hashomer (The Watchman) to Hagana, and finally today’s IDF.
The first head of the Hagana was 28-year-old Josef Hecht – a veteran of the Jewish Legion. Poland supported a Jewish state in Palestine to facilitate mass Jewish emigration from its territory. They even provided military training to the Hagana, and sent many shipments of military supplies. Britain, of course, exerted heavy pressure on Poland to stop the deliveries.
We owe an enormous debt to the brave members of the Hagana. So, on Independence Day, let us sing their praises with gusto.
The writer is the author of 14 books. dwaysman@gmail.com