The Haganah by Arab and Palestinian Historiography and Media

Interpreting the past is one aspect of the Arab-Israeli conflict and will certainly continue to engage scholars and readers for many years to come—even when and if the two sides reach a political accord. Historiography of the Mandate period, on both sides, deals with, among other things, issues like whose side the British were on, who was the first to set up military organizations, which side began the violence, what are the limits of legitimate struggle for a national liberation movement, who sold and who purchased land, and many other topics that have yet to be fully aired in the scholarly literature.

A study of how Arab sources relate to the Haganah runs up against the fact that, in general, the Jewish camp is treated in cursory fashion and is perceived as monolithic. This makes it difficult to isolate specific references to the Haganah as a separate organization. According to Arab and Palestinian history books and textbooks about the Mandate era, it was the Jews, led by the Haganah, who first acquired weapons and trained their young people for a war over the country, whereas the Palestinian side merely reacted to the threat. Similarly, the Palestinians interpret British behavior as supporting Zionism and the Jews' aspirations to set up their own state; they also accuse the British of supplying arms, setting up military units, and training Haganah members.

In some of the literature, the Haganah is described as a regular army in every respect; in other sources, as a terrorist organization. In general there is an emphasis on its close links with the British authorities. In the Arab perception, the British Mandatory authorities supported, assisted, and encouraged the Jews to establish their own armed force and helped them with training and weapons. One recent history book by Emile Shofani describes the establishment of the Haganah as follows:

At its convention in June 1920, the Ahdut Ha'avodah party resolved to set up a countrywide self-defense organization—the Haganah. It was intended to replace the Hashomer organization, in the framework of the Histadrut, and took on itself responsibility for setting up an underground military organization that would act to guarantee the achievements of the Zionist program and the conversion of Palestine into a "Jewish national homeland." Over time, this terrorist organization turned into a Zionist army, which imposed the situation on the Palestinians in 1948. ¹

The author alleges that, in order to achieve its objective of Judaizing Palestine, the Histadrut adopted the Haganah with the intention of exploiting "armed fascist violence" against the original owners of the country. ² Another aspect of the Haganah that is emphasized in Arab historiography is its close connection with the lives of civilian settlements and the fact that its members were rank-and-file civilians, leading normal lives alongside their military training and Haganah activities. According to the Palestinian politician and historian Muhammad 'Izzat Darwaza, for example, "the [Jewish] insurrectionists were well-trained and well-armed. They carried out their missions and returned to their daily lives, unlike the Arab insurrectionists." ³

As for the disagreements within the Jewish Yishuv about the methods to be employed in the conflict, Palestinian historiography does not excel in distinguishing among the various ideological camps and organizations. Shofani describes two camps among the Jews—one that advocated the establishment of a legal army, with British consent, which was headed by Ze'ev Jabotinsky; while the other, led by Chaim Weizmann, which called for strengthening the Haganah as an underground military organization that would operate under the guise of self-defense, leaving general security matters to the British. Shofani's conclusion is that these disagreements prevented the establishment of a single military organization subject to a unified leadership. ⁴

A comparison of how Arab historiography views the Haganah with
how it treats the other Jewish underground organizations—the Etzel (Irgun) and Lehi (Stern group)—is interesting. Those sources...