Before Israel declared itself a state in 1948, three Zionist terrorist groups operated across the British Mandate. The Haganah, the Irgun and the Lehi were armed underground organizations that carried out bombings, assassinations and organized violence against both Palestinian civilians and British officials. Their actions were not accidental or chaotic. They were deliberate campaigns designed to break British control and terrorise Palestinian communities into fleeing their homes.
The Haganah was the largest and most structured of the three. It presented itself as a “defense force,” but by the 1940s it was running military offensives, intelligence operations and coordinated attacks on Palestinian villages. Its units took part in expulsions, home burnings and killings that emptied entire communities. These were not defensive actions. They were operations meant to seize land and remove the people living on it.
The Irgun split from the Haganah because it wanted even more aggressive violence. It bombed British offices, police stations, markets and hotels. It also carried out attacks in Palestinian cities, killing civilians to spread fear. Its most infamous attack was the bombing of the King David Hotel in 1946, which killed 92 people and destroyed the British administrative headquarters in Jerusalem. The Irgun openly embraced terror as a political tool.
The Lehi, or Stern Gang, was the most extreme. It treated the British as occupiers to be hunted and killed. Lehi members assassinated British officials, bombed diplomatic sites in Europe and carried out killings inside Palestine. In 1948, Lehi assassinated UN mediator Count Folke Bernadotte because he proposed a peace plan they opposed. The British government officially classified Lehi as a terrorist organization, and its actions fit that label without question.
These groups did not only target the British. They stormed Palestinian towns, executed civilians, burned homes, massacred families and forced people to flee under threat of death. Entire villages were emptied through violence, not through “displacement” or “pressure.” The goal was to seize land and remove the people living on it. Their operations reshaped the population of the land long before Israel declared statehood.
When Israel was announced in 1948, these three terrorist groups were absorbed into the new Israel Defense Forces. The Haganah became the core of the army. The Irgun and Lehi were folded in after internal clashes and political deals. Despite their histories of bombings and killings, many of their commanders went on to lead the country. Menachem Begin, the former Irgun leader, became Prime Minister. Yitzhak Shamir, a senior Lehi figure, also became Prime Minister.
The foundations of the Israeli state were built by these militias. Their violence, their ideology and their leaders shaped the military and political structures that followed. Their actions helped drive out the British, terrorised Palestinian communities and created the conditions for the state that emerged. Their legacy is not hidden. It is written into the origins of the country itself.
