Word: irgun
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Haganah has denounced extremists of the Stern gang and the Irgun Zvai Leumi, which the British have long fought. Last week 31 young Jews (ages 19 to 28), members of the Irgun, were convicted of carrying firearms and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment. (One, 19-year-old Benjamin Kaplan, was sentenced to life imprisonment for "discharging a firearm at His Majesty's forces.") In a turbulent three-day trial they shouted anti-British slogans from the dock, quoted Scripture (Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered . . .), chanted in unison "In blood and fire Judah fell; in blood...
...gesture was meant to warn the British that, if it came to real war, the Jews had a well organized army. The extremist Irgun Zvai Leumi went further: they kidnaped six British officers, held them as hostages for two Irgun gunmen who had been sentenced to death. Gangs raided central railway shops in Haifa; nine Jews were killed. The Haviva Reik, carrying 450 illegal immigrants (see cut), was nabbed by British patrol ships and brought into Haifa. She flew a banner proclaiming: "Keep the gate open; we are not the last...
...Jewish Labor Government, Colonial Secretary George Hall denounced "the dastardly series of outrages" in Palestine, carefully planned by a "very considerable organization among the Jewish community." Hall did not identify the organization. But two groups, both disavowed by the Jewish Agency, were almost certainly involved: the strongly militant underground Irgun Zvai Leumi (National Military Organization) and its still more aggressive offshoot, a gang of gunmen who called themselves "Israel's Freedom Fighters." Both were wellarmed, experienced guerrillas whose credo was: the time for talk is past...