Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

ITzL
ETZL
אצ"ל
Irgun
ארגון
ארגון צבאי לאומי
הארגון הצבאי הלאומי בארץ ישראל
National Military Organization in the Land of Israel
haMaamad
המעמד‎.

ITzL אצ"ל was an offshoot of the Haganah ההגנה.
When the group originally broke from the Haganah ההגנה, it became known as the Haganah Bet הגנה ב, or Haganah haLeumit ההגנה הלאומית.

Howard Morley Sachar cites "The policy of the new organization was based squarely on Jabotinsky's teachings: every Jew had the right to enter Palestine; only active retaliation would deter the Arabs; only Jewish armed force would ensure the Jewish state."

In March, 1939, senior ITzL אצ"ל commanders from Palestine attended a course in the Beskidy mountains, instructed by Polish army officers, under great secrecy, such that the trainees wore civilian clothing, were not permitted to make contact with local Jews, and their letters home were sent via Switzerland, inserted in new envelopes, re-addressed to France, and finally posted to Palestine.
The trainees received military training and were taught tactics of guerilla warfare.
When the course ended, the trainees returned to Palestine, except for three who remained in Poland: Yaakov Meridor, who was responsible for dispatching the weapons received from the Polish army; Shlomo Ben Shlomo, who organized a commanders course for selected members of ITzl אצ"ל cells in Poland, and Zvi Meltzer, who organized a similar course in Lithuania.

Eric Salerno cites the Neofascist Movimento Sociale Italiano supplying ITzL אצ"ל with explosives from old cartridges used by the fascists in World War II.

On December 24, 1946 the World Zionist Congress in its final session in Basel, condemned terrorist activities in Palestine, and "the shedding of innocent blood as a means of political warfare" , condemning ITzL אצ"ל and related Jewish nationalist groups.

On October 1, 1946, ITzL אצ"ל exploded a bomb that badly damages the British Embassy in Rome.

The London Sunday Times, of Sept. 24, 1972, page 8, cited a postal bomb addressed to the War Office exploded in the post office sorting room in London, on September 3, 1947, injuring two persons, and attributed the attack to ITzL אצ"ל or the Stern Gang.

On August 16, 1945, the British Army and secret services raided an ITzL אצ"ל training camp in abandoned buildings of Shuny, next to Binyamina, and captured large quantities of machines guns, rifles and guns, hand grenades and explosives, as well as 27 fighters, among them three women and a several senior ITzL אצ"ל activists who had been on the wanted lists of the British secret services.
On August 18, 1945, a coded telegram was sent from MI5 British intelligence service in Jerusalem, to supreme headquarters in London, describing a meeting with the informant, Teddy Kollek, who delivered highly valuable information which had resulted in the raid which "yielded positive results of a highly unusual standard".
This information was offered by the British Foreign Ministry , who contacted the Israeli embassy in London and spoke of the imminent release of file number 66968 which dealt with the connections between Teddy Kollek and Her Majesty's Secret Service.
At that time, Teddy Kollek was still alive, and so the Israeli embassy delivered a special request on behalf of the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem to not open the file for public viewing.

In April 1948, ITtzL אצ"ל prepared to take over Yafo יפו, with 600 ITtzL אצ"ל fighters, under the leadership of Menahem Begin.
They attacked Yafo יפו, and after days of push-backs and hard-fought battles with Arab fighters and British units, still in the area, and tried to hold back the attack, they succeeded in taking over Yafo יפו.
The takeover of Yafo יפו was crucial in the creation a sustainable Jewish state; with a hostile Yafo יפו in the middle of Tel Aviv תל אביב, there could be no territorial continuity.