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Lehi (, Hebrew acronym for ''Lohamei Herut Israel'', "Fighters for the Freedom of Israel", לח"י - לוחמי חירות ישראל) was an armed underground Zionist faction in the Palestine Mandate that had as its goal the eviction of the British from Palestine to allow unrestricted Immigration of Jew s and the formation of a Jewish State . Although the name of the group only became "Lehi" after founder, Avraham Stern's death, this article follows the common practice of calling it that throughout its history. Lehi was described as a as the Stern Group or '''Stern Gang''', a denunciatory label originated by the British authorities. Lehi was responsible for the Assassination Of Lord Moyne and focused their actions primarily against the British presence. Israel has honored the group by instituting the military decoration of the Lehi Ribbon , which may be worn by the organization's former members. FOUNDATIONS AND FOUNDING Avraham ("Yair") Stern was originally an adherent of the Revisionist Zionist movement founded by Ze'ev Jabotinsky in the early 1920s and a member of ''Irgun Zevai Leummi'' or simply Irgun . In June 1940, when Irgun decided to put on hold its underground military activities against the British during the World War II , he separated from Irgun to form his own group, which he called ''Irgun Zevai Leummi be-Israel'' (National Military Organization in Israel). Specifically, Stern believed that the Jewish population should focus its efforts on fighting the British rather than supporting them in World War II ; and that forceful methods were an effective means to achieve those goals. His strongest objection was to the White Paper Of 1939 which effectively set its goal to end Jewish immigration and land purchasing in Eretz Israel . He believed that the "gates" of the country should be opened to the Jewish refugees fleeing from Europe, and that this was the utmost importance at the time. It was over this issue where Yair and his long-time friend David Raziel split. Raziel believed that the Irgun should assist Britain in their fight against Germany. Raziel was killed in Iraq during a mission for the British forces. Yair believed that dying for the "foreign occupier" who was obstructing the creation of the Jewish State was useless. He differentiated between "enemies of the Jewish people" (e.g., the British) and "Jew haters", (e.g. the Nazis ), believing that the former needed to be defeated, and the latter neutralized. To this end, he initiated contact with Nazi authorities, a decision which also proved useless in retrospect. GOALS AND METHODS Lehi had three main goals:
The group believed in its early years that its goals would be achieved by finding a strong international ally that would expel the British from Palestine in return for help from the Jewish military; this would in turn require the creation of a broad and organised military force "demonstrating its desire for freedom through military operations."Perliger and Weinberg, 2003, p. 107. An article titled "Terror" in ''He Khazit'' (The Front, a Lehi underground newspaper) argued as follows: "Neither Jewish morality nor Jewish tradition can negate the use of terror as a means of battle... We are particularly far from this sort of hesitation in regard to an enemy whose moral perversion is admitted by all."''He Khazit'' (underground publication of Lehi), Issue 2, August 1943. No author is stated, as was usual for this publication. Translated from original. For a discussion of this article, see Heller, p. 115 The article described the goals of terror:
PRINCIPLES OF REBIRTH Avraham Stern crystallized the ideology of his organization in what was called the "18 Principles of Rebirth": Amichal, page 316, a copy on the web exists here 1. THE NATION The Jewish people is a covenanted people, the originator of monotheismIt is worth noting that this assertion would widely be considered erroneous, Zoroastrianism was actually the first Monotheistic religion., formulator of the prophetic teachings, standard bearer of human culture, guardian of glorious patrimony. The Jewish people is schooled in self-sacrifice and suffering; its vision, survivability and faith in redemption are indestructible. 2. THE HOMELAND The homeland in the Land of Israel within the borders delineated in the Bible ("To your descendants, I shall give this land, from the River of Egypt to the great Euphrates River." Genesis 15:18) This is the land of the living, where the entire nation shall live in safety. 3. THE NATION AND ITS LAND Israel conquered the land with the sword. There it became a great nation and only there it will be reborn. Hence Israel alone has a right to that land. This is an absolute right. It has never expired and never will. 4. THE GOALS 1. Redemption of the land. 2. Establishment of sovereignty. 3. Revival of the nation. There is no sovereignty without the redemption of the land, and there is no national revival without sovereignty. These are the goals of the organization during the period of war and conquest: 5. EDUCATION Educate the nation to love freedom and zealously guard Israel's eternal patrimony. Inculcate the idea that the nation is master to its own fate. Revive the doctrine that "The sword and the book came bound together from heaven" (Midrash Vayikra Rabba 35:8) 6. UNITY The unification of the entire nation around the banner of the Hebrew freedom movement. The use of the genius, status and resources of individuals and the channeling of the energy, devotion and revolutionary fervour of the masses for the war of liberation. 7. PACTS Make pacts with all those who are willing to help the struggle of the organization and provide direct support. 8. FORCE Consolidate and increase the fighting force in the homeland and in the Diaspora, in the underground and in the barracks, to become the Hebrew army of liberation with its flag, arms, and commanders. 9. WAR Constant war against those who stand in the way of fulfilling the goals. 10. CONQUEST The conquest of the homeland from foreign rule and its eternal possession. These are the tasks of the movement during the period of sovereignty and redemption: 11. SOVEREIGNTY Renewal of Hebrew sovereignty over the redeemed land. 12. RULE OF JUSTICE The establishment of a social order in the spirit of Jewish morality and prophetic justice. Under such an order no one will go hungry or unemployed. All will live in harmony, mutual respect and friendship as an example to the world. 13. REVIVING THE WILDERNESS Build the ruins and revive the wilderness for mass immigration and population increase. 14. ALIENS Solve the problem of alien population the Arab inhabitants of Palestine by exchange of population. 15. INGATHERING OF THE EXILES Total in-gathering of the exiles to their sovereign state. 16. POWER The Hebrew nation shall become a first-rate military, political, cultural and economical entity in the Middle East and around the Mediterranean Sea. 17. REVIVAL The revival of the Hebrew Language as a spoken language by the entire nation, the renewal of the historical and spiritual might of Israel. The purification of the national character in the fire of revival. 18. THE TEMPLE The building of the Third Temple as a symbol of the new era of total redemption. EVOLUTION AND TACTICS OF THE ORGANIZATION The group was initially unsuccessful. Early attempts to raise funds through criminal activities, including a bank robbery in Tel Aviv in 1940 and another robbery on 9 January 1942 in which Jewish passers-by were killed, brought about the temporary collapse of the group, and an attempt to assassinate the head of the British secret police in Lod in which three police personnel were killed, two Jewish and one British, elicited a severe response from the British and Jewish establishments who collaborated in an effort to eliminate the underground organisation.Perliger and Weinberg, 2003, p. 109. Stern's group was seen as a major threat by the British authorities, who regarded it as a terrorist organisation and instructed the Defence Security Office (the colonial branch of MI5 ) to track down its leaders. In 1942, Stern, after he was arrested, was killed by Inspector Geoffrey Morton of the CID. Boyer Bell, 1996, p. 71. Several of the group members were arrested, and the group went into eclipse, but was revived after the September 1942 escape of two of its leaders Yitzhak Shamir and Eliyahu Giladi (later killed by the group under circumstances that remain mysterious) aided by two other escapees Natan Yellin-Mor (Friedman) and Israel Eldad (Sheib).Perliger and Weinberg, 2003, p. 109. Shamir (who would later become Prime Minister of Israel ), was known by the codename "Michael" which was a reference to one of Shamir's heroes, Michael Collins . Lehi was guided by spiritual and philosophical leaders such as Uri Zvi Greenberg and Israel Eldad . The smallest by far of any of the Jewish armed groups during the mandatory era, it never attracted more than a few hundred followers, and was reviled by most of its contemporaries. After the killing of Giladi, the organization was led by a triumvirate of Eldad, Shamir, and Yellin-Mor. Lehi adopted a non- Socialist platform of Anti- Imperialist ideology. It viewed the continued British rule of Palestine as a violation of the mandate's provision generally, and its restrictions on Jewish immigration to be an intolerable breach of International Law . Lehi's focus, both in rhetoric and in action, was against the British administration in Palestine. However they also targeted Jews whom they regarded as traitors, and towards the end of the British Mandate they joined in operations with the Haganah and Irgun against Arab targets, for example Deir Yassin . According to a compilation by Nachman Ben-Yehuda, ''Lehi'' was responsible for 42 assassinations altogether, more than twice as many as those of the Irgun and Haganah combined during the same period. Of those Lehi assassinations that Ben-Yehuda classified as political, more than half the victims were Jews.N. Ben-Yehuda, ''Political Assassinations by Jews'' (State University of New York, 1993), p397. Lehi also rejected the authority of the Jewish Agency and related organizations, operating entirely on its own throughout nearly all of its existence. Lehi prisoners captured by the British generally refused to present a defence when brought to trial in British courts. They would only read out statements in which they declared that the court, representing an occupying force, had no jurisdiction over them and is illegal. For the same reason, Lehi prisoners refused to plea for Amnesty , even when it was clear that this would have them spared from the Death Penalty . In one case Moshe Barazani , a Lehi man, and Meir Feinstein , an Irgun member, committed Suicide in prison in order to deprive the British of the ability to hang them. CONTACT WITH NAZI AUTHORITIES In 1940 , Lehi proposed intervening in World War II on the side of Nazi Germany . It offered assistance in "evacuating" the Jews of Europe, in return for Germany's help in expelling Britain from Mandate Palestine. Late in 1940, Lehi representative Naftali Lubenchik was sent to Beirut where he met the German official Werner Otto Von Hentig . Lubenchik told von Hentig that Lehi had not yet revealed its full power and that they were capable of organizing a whole range of anti-British operations. On the assumption that the destruction of Britain was the Germans' top objective, the organization offered cooperation in the following terms: From the NMO side: full cooperation in sabotage, espionage and intelligence and up to wide military operations in the Middle East and in eastern Europe anywhere where the Irgun had Jewish cells, active and trained and in some places with weapons. From the German side, the following declarations and actions were demanded: (1) Full recognition in an independent Jewish state in Palestine/ Eretz Israel (2) On the same level of importance and in practice, to allow all the Jews wishing so, or about to leave anyway from their place in Europe, by their own will or because of government injunctions, with no restrictions on their numbers, the ability to migrate to Palestine. For this purpose there was expressed a need to cancel any transfer plans of Jews to distant countries like Madagascar . On in Lebanon in 1938-1939 and was also the one who took him in his car through Syria to the Iraqi border in 1939. In any case, Der Marvitz delivered the offer, classified as secret, to the German Ambassador in Turkey and on January 21 , 1941 it was sent to Berlin . There was never any response. von Hentig would later say that he believed it was important to help the Jews establish a country. A Meeting in Beirut, Habib Canaan, ''Haaretz'' (musaf), 27 March 1970 Full details depicted in Ada Amichal Yevin, "In Purple", The Life of Yair - Abraham Stern", Hadar Publishing House Tel Aviv, 1986, pp. 225-230 German plans such as the Madagascar Plan eventually failed and ultimately led the Nazis to initiate the Holocaust , the " Final Solution To The Jewish Question " in 1942 , but this was still in the future at the time of the Lehi proposal. LATER HISTORY As a group that never had over a few hundred members, Lehi relied on audacious but small-scale operations to bring their message home, as such they adopted the tactics of groups such as the s, Railroad s, and Oil refineries. Lehi financed their operations from private Donations , Extortion , and Bank Robbery . Lehi was one of groups said to be involved in massacres according to Israeli historian Benny Morris , see List Of Massacres Committed During The 1948 Arab-Israeli War . Assassination of Lord Moyne On 6 November 1944 Lehi assassinated Lord Moyne in Cairo . Moyne was the highest ranking British government representative in the region. Yitzhak Shamir claimed later that Moyne was assassinated because of his support for a Middle Eastern Arab Federation and anti-Semitic lectures in which Arabs were held to be racially superior to Jews.Yitzhak Shamir, 'Why the Lehi Assassinated Lord Moyne', ''Nation'', 32/119 (1995) pp. 333-7 (Hebrew) cited in Perliger and Weinberg, 2003, p. 111. The assassination act rocked the British government, and outraged Winston Churchill , the British Prime Minister . The two assassins, Eliahu Bet-Zouri and Eliahu Hakim were captured and used their trial as a platform to make public their political philosophy. In 1975 their bodies were returned to Israel and given a state funeral.Israel honours British minister's assassins, ''The TImes'', June 26, 1975, p1. In 1982, postage stamps were issued for 20 Olei Hagardom , including Bet-Zouri and Hakim, in a souvenir sheet called "Martyrs of the struggle for Israel's independence". http://www.israelphilately.org.il/stamps/stamp.asp?id=1382 http://www.israelphilately.org.il/catalog/series.asp?id=416 (detailed) British police station in Haifa January 12, 1947, members drove a truckload of explosives into a British police station in Haifa, Palestine, killing four and injuring 140. Cairo-Haifa train bombings See Also: Cairo-Haifa train bombings 1948 During the lead-up to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War the Cairo-Haifa train was mined several times. On February 29 1948, Lehi mined the train north of Rehovot , killing 28 soldiers and wounding 35. On March 31, the train was mined near Binyamina killing 40 civilians and wounding 60. The second attack was also attributed to Lehi but Lehi never took credit for this event. Deir Yassin massacre See Also: Deir Yassin massacre Lehi (and Irgun) took part in the killing of about 107 to 120 Palestinian Arabs at the village of Deir Yassin, an incident referred to as the Deir Yassin massacre. Kana'ana, Sharif and Zeitawi, Nihad (1987), "The Village of Deir Yassin," Bir Zeit, Bir Zeit University Press, 1987) Palestinian Arabs at the village of from Palestine. The circumstances, nature, evaluation, and scope of the Deir Yassin incident remain a source of controversy and debate decades later as the incident has been described as either harsh fighting in a fortified village which resulted in the need for the use of grenades or that the village did not allow for a military force to take position and that a massacre of innocent civilians had occurred.[http://www.nakbainhebrew.org/index.php?id=115 . Dissolution The conflict between Lehi and mainstream Jewish and subsequently Israeli organizations came to an end when Lehi was formally dissolved and integrated into the Israeli Defense Forces on May 31 , 1948 , its leaders getting amnesty from prosecution or reprisals as part of the integration. Assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte mediator Count Folke Bernadotte was assassinated by ''Lehi'' in Jerusalem in 1948.]] Although Lehi had stopped operating nationally after May 1948, the group continued to function in Jerusalem. On 17 September 1948 , Lehi assassinated the UN Mediator, Count Folke Bernadotte , who had been sent to broker a settlement in the dispute. The assassination was directed by Yehoshua Zetler and carried out by a four-man team led by Meshulam Makover . The fatal shots were fired by Yehoshua Cohen . Lehi leaders Nathan Yellin-Mor and Matitiahu Schmulevitz were arrested two months later, with Yellin-Mor being sentenced to eight years in prison, though most of the other suspects involved were released immediately. The group was then forcefully broken up for good. Into politics Some Left-wing members of the Lehi founded a political party called the Fighters' List with the jailed Yellin-Mor as its head. The party took part in the Elections In January 1949 and won one seat. Thanks to a general amnesty for Lehi members granted on 14 February, 1949, Yellin-Mor was released from prison to take up his place in the Knesset . However, the party disbanded after failing to win a seat in the 1951 Elections . LEHI REMEMBERED In 1980 Israel instituted the Lehi Ribbon , red, black, grey, pale blue and white which is awarded to former members of the Lehi underground who wished to carry it. CRITICISM Some writers have claimed that Lehi's true goals were the creation of a totalitarian state.Heller, 1995, p. 70. Others have asserted that the organisation's ideology placed "its world view in the quasi-fascist radical Right, which is characterised by xenophobia, a national egotism that completely subordinates the individual to the needs of the nation, anti-liberalism, total denial of democracy and a highly centralised government."Perliger and Weinberg, 2003, p. 108. Its leader, Avraham Stern, lost much support after seeking a '' Modus Vivendi '' with Nazi Germany ."Stern Gang" ''The Oxford Companion to World War II''. Ed. I. C. B. Dear and M. R. D. Foot. Oxford University Press, 2001. Perliger and Weinberg claim that most Lehi members were admirers of the Italian Fascist movement.Perliger and Weinberg, 2003, p. 107. However, Authoritarianist principles do not appear in the Principles Of Rebirth which is the organization's Charter. The founder of the group, "Yair" commented on the Principles saying that "We... want to establish the Kingdom of Israel and to rebuild it on the eternal foundations of Fraternity, Respect and Friendship to all the nation's sons whoever they are".Lochamei Herut Yisrael (Lehi) , writings, chapter 1, pages 70-71 While Avraham Stern ("Yair") studied in Italy he refused to join the Fascist student association called " Gruppo Universitario Fascista " that foreign students were invited to, in spite of the fact that those joined were given serious reductions in tuition. Amichal, 77 Moreover, during the time he spent in Russia , Stern was actually a member of the Pioneer Movement which was the young pre- Komsomol layer of the Communist Party in the USSR . Amichal, 14 He also created the Histadrut of the Hebrew Tzofim Hashomer Hatzair in Suwałki which derived its ideology from youth organizations Hatzofim and Socialist movements like Hashomer Hatzair and Hehalutz . Amichal, page 16 THE LEHI ANTHEM "UNKNOWN SOLDIERS" The lyrics of "Unknown Soldiers" were written by Avraham 'Yair' Stern, the founder of Lehi. This was one of the first songs written by 'Yair'. Yair composed the song together with his wife Roni. The song became the anthem of Etzel and remained so until 1940 when Lehi broke into a separate group. The song expresses an unlimited willingness to sacrifice. The anthem is used by veteran members of the group in gatherings as well as by some political groups from time to time, from both ends of the political map. Full text of the song : Lyrics and data about the song on the Betar site PROMINENT MEMBERS OF LEHI
Nathan Yellin Mor [future member of Knesset, leader of Israeli peace movement NOTES REFERENCES
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