(Hebrew for "organization") Also known as Etzel, which is the Hebrew acronym for "Irgun Tzvai-Leum" or "National Military Organization." The Irgun was an underground Zionist paramilitary group active during the British mandate of
Palestine. Considered a terrorist entity by the British administration and a radical rival by the dominant Labor Zionist movement, the Irgun undertook armed operations against both Arab communities and the British. In 1946, Irgun members bombed the King David Hotel, which served as a British command post. On April 9, 1948, members of the Irgun were identified as participating in the attack on the
Palestinian village of
Deir Yassin. By September 1948, the Irgun was completely dismantled and subsumed into the nascent
Israeli army. One of the Irgun's main commanders was
Menachem Begin, who later became Prime Minister of
Israel. See
One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate, Tom Segev, Henry Holt and Company, 2000; and
Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001, Benny Morris, Vintage Books, 2001. See also "
Irgun Zvai Leumi," Encyclopedia Britannica.