"Everyone with one of his hands wrought in the work and with the other hand held a weapon" from Nehemiah IV:11, the Haganah motto

THE HAGANAH, the illegal Defense Organization of pre-State Israel — Palestine — was founded in 1920. Its Central Headquarters were at 23 Rothschild Boulevard, in Tel Aviv, amongst the first houses to go up on what had then been barren wasteland adjacent to the Mediterranean. Eliyahu Golomb—the owner of that house — was the founder of the Haganah, and its chief from 1920 until his death in 1945. After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the house was bought by a public committee, set up by former members of the Haganah, and presented to the State as a gift; another building was put up alongside to serve as the Haganah Museum.

It is a museum not only for visitors, but for Israelis themselves, particularly young people who are brought from all over the country, as part of their school activities, to view their heritage. More than most places, the establishment of Israel, and its continued existence, has been, and is, dependent upon the gun.

The fathers — and mothers — of some of these young people had been members of the Haganah, but many arrived in Israel after the founding of the State. This is particularly true of the approximately one million Jews who had lived in Arab countries and whom the Arabs had made into refugees. They had to be absorbed into a State that was just born, and lacked virtually every facility required for that absorption, other than the overwhelming desire to do so. In Yemen, for example, Yemeni Jews had been gun makers, but were never allowed to own the guns they made, which were for the exclusive use of their Moslem neighbors.

Persecution in the Arab lands — Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco — was a way of life. But those who came to Israel as refugees soon had ample opportunity to take up arms in their own defense, against those who had been their op-pressors, and who would now drive them into the sea and destroy the land that had provided sanctuary. Now they were joined by their Israeli-born children — "Sabras" — both sons and daughters, as the Arabs had made the mistake of attacking still another time.

At eighteen, Israelis, men and women, go into the army. Though women are not now used in combat, they are nevertheless given weapon training. At age sixteen, Israeli youth generally volunteers for Gadna, which goes back to Haganah days, when even the very young had a place in which to serve, and which today provides pre-military training and an opportunity to become familiar with some of the weapons they will later use, during their military service.

At the Haganah Museum, the young Israelis will see Turkish-made flint locks, used for guard duty on the Jewish settlements well into the 1900s. Palestine - the name given to the area occupied by the Philistines, a martial people whom it is believed came from Crete in Biblical times - was under Turkish rule. Early settlers came from Russia and Rumania, starting in the early 1880s, to work on the land. Here they encountered ground that would not produce, the result of two thousand years of neglect and erosion; Arabs that were hostile; and a Turkish administration that did not wish to see anything changed, and hence, opposed to immigration in any significant numbers. Turkish law prohibited the possession of firearms, so for personal protection, settlers carried clubs and even spears.

At the time of the First World War, Palestine was promised by the British as a National Jewish Homeland, but the ink on the Balfour Declaration was hardly dry when the British proceeded to go back on their promises and agreements. It had been their objective to gain Jewish support at the time of the war but afterwards it was felt to be more expedient to have Arab support. About three thousand men, many from the U S and Canada, recruited by David Ben Gurion, who later became Israel's first Prime Minister, had volunteered for service in the Royal Fusiliers, and saw action against the Turks, under the British General Allenby. At the same time, Moshe Sharett, who became Israel's second Prime Minister, was an officer in the Turkish Army.

The League of Nations ceded Palestine to Great Britain, as a mandate, not as a possession or colony. It imposed upon her the responsibility of developing Palestine to the point of maturity whereby it could become independent - an independent Jewish State. There were probably those who actually believed that Britain would fulfil this responsibility. But it soon became apparent that Britain had no intention of doing so. It reverted—"continued" might be a better word—to its policy of dividing, in order to conquer, and encouraged the Arab ruling classes to stir up the Arab masses against the Jewish settlers whose whole philosophy was to live in peace with their Arab neighbors.

In 1920, the Arabs attacked Jewish settlements in Upper Galilee, in the northern part of the country. There were attacks in ihe Old City of Jerusalem, and in Jaffa the following year. It was apparent that if Jewish habitation of Palestine was to be a reality, the strongest possible action needed to be taken. But action was difficult in view of the opposition imposed by the Mandatory Regime, whose policy was dictated by the Foreign Office, then as now. Jews were not permitted to possess firearms for their own protection, except under permit from the British, who did not grant many of them, or often. On one occasion, the single revolver in the possession of a settlement, which had kept the hostile Arabs at bay, and which had been held legally, was removed by the British authorities in broad daylight, under the watchful eyes of the neighboring Arabs. That night the Arabs attacked. At the same time, the British made no serious effort to remove weapons held by the Arabs, who had virtually free access to whatever they required. Britain then tried to create the fiction that her presence was necessary in order to maintain order between the two com-munities.

The acquisition of arms by the Haganah became imperative. Austria provided a good source - Roth-Steyer 8mm pistols, Rast-Gasser 8mm revolvers, straight pull rifles, Schwartz-Lose machine guns. Haganah agents fanned out, buying whatever they could lay hands on, and creating the problem of lack of standardisation in ammunition. Arms were smuggled in, and kept hidden, and training on remote settlements, was carried out in secret. The Haganah assumed responsibility for security of the entire country. Small factories, operating illegally, usually on the remote settlements where they would be less well scrutinized, began to produce their own ammunition, and to a degree reduced the problem of multiplicity of ammunition which needed to be smuggled in.