The Irgun (Etzel) Organization

The Irgun (Etzel) was founded by Ze’ev Vladimir Jabotinsky and others. Its name means “The National Military Organization” in Arabic and Irgun Tsvai Leumi in Hebrew, abbreviated as Etzel.

It was a Jewish-Zionist paramilitary organization that broke away from the Haganah and was established by the Zionist Revisionist movement in 1931. Its emblem featured a map of Palestine and Jordan with a rifle superimposed on it, surrounded by the words “Rak Kach” (“Only Thus”).

The organization carried out bombing attacks against Palestinian civilians in the late 1930s and in 1948. It also launched attacks against the British between 1944 and 1948.

Menachem Begin assumed leadership of the organization in 1943 and later became Prime Minister of Israel in the late 1970s.

“Delek”: The Irgun’s Fuel That Burned Jaffa