Operation Agatha

June 16, 1946, saw the "Night of the Bridges" when the Palmach blew up eight road and rail bridges linking Palestine to neighbouring countries. On June 17, the Lehi attacked railway workshops in Haifa. Shortly afterwards, the Irgun kidnapped six British officers. One officer subsequently escaped, and two were released. The Irgun announced that the remaining officers would be released only in exchange for the commutation of death sentences for two Irgun members.[3]

The British Army had, for months, wanted to take military action against the Zionist underground organizations, but had been blocked by High Commissioner Alan Cunningham, who was also particularly opposed to military action being taken against the Jewish Agency. Cunningham changed his mind after the "Night of the Bridges" and flew to London to meet the British Cabinet and army chief Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery in London. Montgomery formulated the plan for Operation Agatha. With reluctance, Cunningham accepted it, hoping that, with the more militant Zionists restrained, the way would be opened to reaching a political settlement with the more moderate (and pro-British) leaders such as Chaim Weizmann. During the operation, in a radio broadcast, Cunningham said: "[The arrests] are not directed against the Jewish community as a whole but solely against those few who are taking an active part in the present campaign of violence and those who are responsible for instigating and directing it ... ."[2]

Chief of the Secretariat, Sir John Shaw, outlined the official objective of the operation at a press conference in Jerusalem: "Large-scale operations have been authorized to end the state of anarchy existing in Palestine and to enable law-abiding citizens to pursue their normal occupations without fear of kidnapping, murder, or being blown-up." Shaw believed that the British should end the existing situation by either partitioning Palestine into Jewish and Arab states and then leaving or dismantling the Jewish Agency, which claimed administrative authority yet secretly supported acts by the underground Zionist military organizations, and governing without it, approved of the operation.[2]

Underlying the official objective were several others. One was to obtain documentary proof of the Jewish Agency's approval of sabotage operations by the Palmach and an alliance between the Haganah and the more violent Lehi (Stern Gang) and Irgun in carrying out violent acts. Another was to forestall a coup d'etat. In June, members of the Jewish Agency's Executive and the Haganah High Command had met with delegates of the Irgun and Lehi at which the latter, according to intelligence, had stated their intention of asking the Yishuv to participate in a coup "for the proclamation of a future Jewish State and the interruption of all relations with the existing Palestine Administration." In the wake of the "Night of the Bridges," another was to break the military power of the Haganah. As the Haganah had appeared to be acting in cooperation with the Lehi and Irgun, the British authorities believed, mistakenly, that this was also necessary because the Haganah might co-operate with the prospective Irgun and Lehi coup. Lastly, Montgomery had stated that the operation was required to boost army morale.[2]

A room in Kibbutz Yagur after a weapon search conducted during Operation Agatha. From the collections of the National Library of Israel.

On June 29, Operation Agatha began, lasting until July 1. Curfews were imposed throughout Palestine, low-flying planes circled Jerusalem, roadblocks were put up, trains were flagged down, and passengers were evacuated and escorted home. Special licenses were required for the operations of emergency vehicles. British troops and police raided the Jewish Agency headquarters in Jerusalem, the Jewish Agency office in Tel Aviv, and other Jewish institutions such as the Women's International Zionist Organization and the Histadrut. A total of 27 Jewish settlements in Palestine were searched, and the residents of these settlements sometimes put up fierce resistance. Four Jews were killed resisting British searches. Mass arrests of Jewish leaders and Haganah members were carried out. A total of 2,718 people were arrested, including four members of the Jewish Agency Executive, seven Haganah officers, and nearly half of the Palmach's fighting force. However, due to a Haganah intelligence warning, most Haganah commanders were able to evade arrest, including David Ben-Gurion as he was in Paris at the time.[4]

Searches of Jewish settlements uncovered 15 arms caches, including one of the Haganah's three central arsenals at Kibbutz Yagur, where more than 300 rifles, some 100 2-inch mortars, more than 400,000 bullets, some 5,000 grenades and 78 revolvers were confiscated. The arms were displayed at a press conference, and all the men of Yagur were arrested.[5]

Agatha triggered echoes of the Holocaust in the minds of many people. Women ripped their clothing to expose concentration camp tattoos. There were incidents of people in the settlements herded into cages while screaming that this was what the Nazis did. A minority among the British troops exacerbated the situation by shouting "Heil Hitler," scrawling swastikas on walls, and referring to gas chambers while conducting searches.[6]

British Government Statement of Information regarding recent attacks, including a summary of information gained from Operation Agatha.[7]

After Agatha ended, the kidnapped British officers were released, and High Commissioner Alan Cunningham commuted the Irgun members' death sentences to life imprisonment.

The Haganah and Palmach were dissuaded from continued anti-British operations.[8] However, the more extreme groups, the Lehi (Stern Gang) and the Irgun Tzvai Leumi, headed by future Prime Minister Menachem Begin, continued and even intensified their attacks.[9]

Specifically, the Irgun retaliated for Operation Agatha by bombing the south wing of the King David Hotel, which was the headquarters of the British government in Palestine. One reason for bombing the South wing was because that was the location where it was presumed that the British had taken the documents from the Jewish Agency.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Operation Agatha.

• Operation Agatha
• Official British H.Q. Report on the Operation, ParaData website, Trustees of the Airborne Forces Museum, Duxford
• Jewish Agency for Israel