Brit HaBirionim (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: ברית הבריונים, variously translated as ''The Strongmen Alliance'', ''Alliance of the Hoodlums'', and ''The Covenant of the Outlaws'') was a clandestine, self-declared

fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...

faction of the Revisionist Zionist Movement (ZRM) in

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

, active between 1930 and 1933.Kaplan, The Jewish Radical Right. University of Wisconsin Press, 2005. p15Shindler, Colin. ''The Triumph of Military Zionism: Nationalism and the Origins of the Israeli Right''. I.B.Tauris, 2006. p13. It was founded by Abba Ahimeir,

Uri Zvi Greenberg Uri Zvi Greenberg (; September 22, 1896 – May 8, 1981; also spelled Uri Zvi Grinberg) was an Israeli poet, journalist and politician who wrote in Yiddish and Hebrew. Widely regarded among the greatest poets in the country's history, he was a ...

and Yehoshua Yeivin.

History

The 1929 Palestine riots and the

Haganah Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...

's inability to successfully prevent the 1929

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

and

Safed Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. Safed has been identified with (), a fortif ...

massacres led to the creation of the first militant organization characterized by its complete disassociation from the existing Zionist establishment. Brit HaBirionim was founded in October 1930 and was right-wing and nationalist in its orientation in contrast to the Labor Zionism majority.

Ideology

The organization's ideology was Revisionist Maximalism, which was modelled upon

Italian Fascism Italian fascism (), also called classical fascism and Fascism, is the original fascist ideology, which Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini developed in Italy. The ideology of Italian fascism is associated with a series of political parties le ...

;Ofira Seliktar. New Zionism and the foreign policy system of Israel. Beckenham, England, UK: Croom Helm, Ltd., 1986. p. 84 Ahimeir suggested that

Ze'ev Jabotinsky Ze'ev Jabotinsky (born Vladimir Yevgenyevich Zhabotinsky; 17 October 1880 – 3 August 1940) was a Russian-born author, poet, orator, soldier, and founder of the Revisionist Zionist movement and the Jewish Self-Defense Organization in O ...

be referred to as '''duce. The group also was influenced by the ancient Jewish Sicarii insurgents. Brit HaBirionim was part of the Zionist Revisionist Movement (ZRM). Its formerly socialist members primarily targeted the British and other Zionists rather than Arabs. It sought to create an integralist nationalism among Jews. It looked unfavorably upon liberal Zionists for only being for middle-class Jews rather than all Jews, including the poor. In 1932, Ahimeir also called for *the creation of an independent Zionist federation; *a "war on funds" to end corruption in the Zionist movement; *a war on

anti-Semitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

. The movement's motto was "conquer or die".

Operations

Members of ''Brit HaBirionim'' carried out several "minor operations", including demonstrations against the British, interfering with British census takers, removing the Nazi flag from two German consulates, and other activities that would now be considered religious freedom but at the time were forbidden for Jews, e.g. blowing the Shofar at the

Western Wall The Western Wall (; ; Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: ''HaKosel HaMa'arovi'') is an ancient retaining wall of the built-up hill known to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount of Jerusalem. Its most famous section, known by the same name ...

in celebration of Rosh Hashanah. In 1933, the British Mandatory Authority arrested Ahimeir, and charged him with the murder of Chaim Arlosoroff. He was fully acquitted of the charges in 1934, by which time the group had dissolved. Some of the group became members of

Irgun The Irgun (), officially the National Military Organization in the Land of Israel, often abbreviated as Etzel or IZL (), was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of th ...

and Lehi. Gershon Schatz, for instance, joined Lehi.

History

Ideology

Operations

References

See also