Zeev Jabotinsky: Encyclopedia II - Zeev Jabotinsky - Exiled by the British

Zeev Jabotinsky - Exiled by the British

In 1929, Jabotinsky left Palestine to attend the Sixteenth Zionist Congress. The British authorities did not allow him to return due to Arab pressure. The movement he established was not a monolithic entity, but contained three separate factions, of which Jabotinsky was the most moderate. Jabotinsky favored cooperation with the British, while more irredentistically-minded individuals like David Raziel, Abba Ahimeir, and Uri Zvi Greenberg focused on independent action in Mandate Palestine, fighting politically against Labor, the British Authorities, and retaliating against Arab attacks. David Raziel was commander of the Irgun, while Abba Ahimeir and Uri Zvi Greenberg acted as visionaries for Lehi. It is the Irgun wing of the Revisionist Party that years later formed Herut and then Likud by absorbing the centrist General Zionist Party. One of his greatest disciples was Menachem Begin, past leader of the Irgun and Betar faction and future prime minister of Israel.

During the 1930s, Jabotinsky was highly concerned with the situation of the Jewish community in Poland. In 1936, Jabotinsky prepared the so-called “evacuation plan”, which called for the evacuation of the entire Jewish population of Poland to the Palestine Mandate. The “evacuation plan” caused much controversy within Polish Jewry with some applauding it while others felt that the plan played into the hands of Polish anti-Semitics. In particular, the fact that the “evacuation plan” had the approval of the Polish government was taken by many Polish Jews as indicating Jabotinsky had gained the endorsement of what they considered to be the wrong people. Two years later, in 1938, Jabotinsky stated in a speech that Polish Jews “…were living on the edge of the volcano” and warned that a wave of bloody super-pogroms would be happening in Poland sometime in the near future. Jabotinsky went to warn Jews in Europe that they should immigrate to the Palestine Mandate/Land of Israel as soon as possible.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Exiled by the British", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki