title: RuPay

text: All POS terminals in UK under payment solution provider PayXpert will enable RuPay in partnership with NIPL.


title: RuPay

text: India and Russia expressed interest in continuing dialogue on accepting RuPay and Mir within their respective national payment infrastructures. The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, removal of Russian banks from SWIFT and exit of Visa, Mastercard cleared path for mutual acceptance of each others’ electronic payment system. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval visited Moscow on August 17 and 18 to discuss mutual acceptance of Mir and RuPay cards in both nations.


title: RuPay

text: India proposed use and acceptance of RuPay in Oman during an India-Oman Joint Commission Meeting hosted at New Delhi on 11 May 2022. The Omani delegation led by trade minister Qais bin Mohammed al Yousef responded positively on the proposal. NPCI signed MoU with Central Bank of Oman on 4 October 2022 to connect RuPay with similar system in Oman on a reciprocal basis.


title: RuPay

text: As per MoU signed on 11 October 2022, Worldline SA will enable European merchants POS terminal to accept RuPay. The initial market expansion will happen in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Switzerland.


title: RuPay

text: On Indian Prime Minister's virtual meet with Australian Prime Minister on 4 June 2020, both the countries are exploring the possibility to launch Indian RuPay Card in Australia.


title: RuPay

text: Under the aegis of the Government of India, NPCI started discussion on infrastructure development for digital payment, financial inclusion and Direct Benefit Transfer. NPCI also proposed RuPay as an alternative to Mastercard and Visa in Philippines to improve cross border bilateral trade and tourism.


title: RuPay

text: RuPay's parent organisation, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), has been backed by 10 leading banks. Of these are 6 public-sector banks: State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, and Bank of India; 2 private-sector banks: ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank; and 2 foreign banks: Citibank and HSBC. Banks in India are authorised to issue RuPay debit cards to their customers for use at ATMs, PoS terminals, and e-commerce websites. RuPay's market share rose from 0.6% in 2013 to 50% by November 2018. A total of 628.41 million RuPay cards had been issued across all categories including prepaid, debit, credit, and commercial cards as of February 2021.


title: RuPay

text: RuPay initially charged transaction processing fees that are approximately 23% lower than those charged by Visa and Mastercard. The NPCI charged a flat-fee per transaction of 60 paise from acquiring bank and 30 paise from the card issuing bank. For example, if a customer made a transaction with their RuPay card at a POS terminal operated by another bank, then the customer's bank (the bank that issued the card) would pay 30 paise to the NPCI while the bank that operates the POS terminal (the acquiring bank) would pay 60 paise to the NPCI. All merchant discount rate (MDR) charges were eliminated for RuPay transactions from 1 January 2020.


title: RuPay

text: RuPay surpassed Visa as the largest payment card network in India by number of transactions in June 2017, recording 375 million (37.5 Crores) transactions. According to NPCI data released in May 2019, 112.7 Crore transactions (1.127 billion) valued at ₹1.174 Lakh Crores (US$17 billion) were made on RuPay cards during the 2018–19 fiscal year. RuPay held 58% of the market share by number of cards issued, 30% by number of point of sale transactions, and 25% by number of online transactions from around 11% two years ago.


title: RuPay

text: RuPay reported 100 Crore (1 billion) transactions through both online and offline merchant payment modes in financial year 2019, a nearly 70% jump compared to the 667 million (66.7 Crore) transactions in financial year 2018, according to data sourced from the NPCI and the Reserve Bank of India. In terms of value, RuPay cards noted a rise of 80% in FY ’19, beating overall debit card payments which grew 30% compared to the previous fiscal year. NPCI issued 59.1 Crore (591 million) RuPay cards till December 2019 of which 22.9 Crore (229 million) cards were used for ATM transactions and 10 Crore (100 million) on PoS terminals. RuPay card usage for both ATM and PoS transaction is topped by Maharashtra for the year 2019. During COVID-19 pandemic, consumer usage of RuPay platform in India was hovering at 87% to 98% by spending volume above its foreign competitors Mastercard and Visa, which were at 70% to 86% due to reduction in discretionary spending as of March 2020. As of November 2020, more than 60 crore (600 million) RuPay cards were issued by the banks in India.


title: RuPay

text: RuPay was appointed as an official partner of the Indian Premier League by the Board of Control for Cricket in India in a multi-year partnership beginning from the 2022 season.


title: RuPay

text: RuPay cards got a major boost through the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana through which they were issued to Jan Dhan account holders. By June 2018, 24.2 crore (242 million) RuPay debit cards were issued under the Jan Dhan Yojana compared with the 925 million debit cards issued by the banking industry during the same period. By January 2020, 76% of all Jan Dhan account holders held RuPay debit cards. As of 10 March 2021, a total of 308.5 million RuPay debit cards had been issued to Jan Dhan account holders.


title: RuPay

text: Due to Digital India initiative and JAM trinity, the number of RuPay card in 2016 was less than half at 23 crore (230 million) which later surged to 56 Crores (560 million) as of November 2018. In 2013 ATM transactions constituted 90% of the total number and 95% of the total value. In 2018, PoS transactions have expanded to cover 30% of the total number and 10% of the total value of debit card transactions.


title: RuPay

text: RuPay also provides a unified "Kisan card", issued by banks across the country as the Kisan Credit Card, enabling farmers to transact business on ATMs and PoS terminals.


title: RuPay

text: PUNGRAIN (Punjab Grains Procurement Corporation Ltd) pays commission agents through the RuPay Debit Card and developed a commission agent network called the Kisan Arhtia Information and Remittance Online Network (KAIRON) with the help of the National Payments Corporation of India.


title: RuPay

text: Kotak Mahindra Bank, in partnership with RuPay, rolled out an initiative for financial inclusion, where the dairy farmers across 75 cooperative societies of Amul in regions of Burdwan and Hooghly of West Bengal will be able to get their payments directly into their accounts on the same day as the sale of their milk.


title: RuPay

text: The same model is planned to be adopted in the state of Gujarat where 1,200 cooperative societies comprising over 3 lakh dairy farmers will be the part of the programme.


title: RuPay

text: In 2017 post demonetisation, the government decided that NABARD will co-ordinate the conversion of operative/live Kisaan Credit Cards into RuPay ATM cum Debit Kisaan Credit Cards by Cooperative Banks and Regional Rural Banks on priority.


title: Per Gessle

text: Per Håkan Gessle (; born 12 January 1959) is a Swedish singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the male half and primary songwriter of the Swedish pop rock duo Roxette, which he formed with Marie Fredriksson in 1986 and which was disbanded after her death in 2019. The duo achieved international success in the late 1980s and early 1990s with their albums "Look Sharp!" (1988) and "Joyride" (1991), and topped the charts in the US four times, most notably with "It Must Have Been Love" which was featured in the film "Pretty Woman". Prior to the formation of Roxette, he had a successful career in his native Sweden as the frontman for Gyllene Tider. The band released three number-one albums during the early 1980s but disbanded shortly after their fourth album, "The Heartland Café" (1984).


title: Per Gessle

text: In-between periods in Roxette and Gyllene Tider reunions, Gessle recorded numerous solo albums, both in Swedish and English. After Fredriksson's illness in 2002 he released "Mazarin" (2003). The album was a critical and commercial success for Gessle and started the beginning of a long term collaboration with the backing vocalist Helena Josefsson. With Fredriksson's continued treatment and recuperation he made three more albums, "Son of a Plumber" (2005), "En händig man" ("A handy man", 2007) and "Party Crasher" (2008). After Roxette's Neverending World Tour finished in 2015 he produced another set of solo efforts, "En vacker natt" (2017), "En vacker dag" (2017) and "Small Town Talk" (2018). In 2016 he started using the pseudonym Mono Mind, first releasing a few singles before delivering a full album, "Mind Control", in 2019. Gessle was the main songwriter for both Roxette and Gyllene Tider.


title: Per Gessle

text: Per Gessle was a founding member of Gyllene Tider, in 1976. They quickly became a popular group in Sweden, but after their fourth album, "The Heartland Café" (1984), sold poorly compared to their previous albums, the group disbanded. Gessle wrote. "We decided to put Gyllene Tider to rest... until further notice." In 1982, Gessle released his first solo album, "Per Gessle" and after Gyllene Tider split-up his second album, "Scener", quickly appeared in 1985.


title: Per Gessle

text: Gessle and Marie Fredriksson had been friends for a few years before they came together as Roxette in 1986. After the success of their first hit "Neverending Love", which was written by Gessle, they quickly recorded "Pearls of Passion" using material which was originally intended for Per's third solo album. Roxette went on to achieve four U.S. #1's and two #2's, with their albums "Look Sharp!" and "Joyride" attaining platinum status in a number of countries. After Roxette's early nineties success, Per released a demo compilation album in 1992, "På väg, 1982–86". After the release of "Crash! Boom! Bang!" and subsequent world tour, Roxette took a break.


title: Per Gessle

text: In 1996, after a reunion and subsequent tour of Gyllene Tider, Gessle recorded his first English solo album, using Brainpool and Gyllene Tider as backing musicians. Christoffer Lundquist from Brainpool would also come to collaborate with Gessle on later releases. "The World According to Gessle", released in 1997, produced three singles, "Do You Wanna Be My Baby?", "Kix" and "I Want You to Know". The videos to all three songs were directed by Jonas Åkerlund. The album was re-released in 2008, with extra bonus material and demos. In 1997 "Hjärtats trakt – en samling" was released as a best-of album.


title: Per Gessle

text: After Roxette released "Have a Nice Day" (1999) and "Room Service" (2001) to moderate success, Fredriksson collapsed and was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2002. While Fredriksson received treatment for her illness, Gessle continued with his solo work. The subsequent album "Mazarin" (2003), was a critical and commercial success in Sweden and started the beginning of a long term collaboration with the backing vocalist Helena Josefsson. Lundquist, now Gessle's producer was looking for a female singer and picked Josefsson. She first came to the attention of Lundquist after she and her band Sandy Mouche wanted to record at Lundquist's Aerosol Grey Machine (AGM) studio. "I remember driving a car between Lund and Lomma when Christoffer called and wondered if I was interested in starting singing with Per who wanted a girl for his solo projects.", recalled Josefsson. "Mazarin" topped the charts in June that year, going five times platinum in 2004. The lead single from the album "Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång)" ("Here comes all the emotions (at the same time)"), is Gessle's most successful song in his home country, spending two months at No. 1 and was certified platinum.


title: Per Gessle

text: Following the success of the album, Gessle won numerous awards; four Grammis awards: Best Artist, Best Male Pop Performer, Best Composer and Best Song, three Rockbjörnen awards: Best Swedish Male Artist, Best Swedish Album and Best Swedish Song, and a Guldälgen (The Golden Moose) Award for Best Song.


title: Per Gessle

text: Also in 2004, saw Gessle and Gyllene Tider reunite for a 25th-anniversary celebration that included the band's first album in 20 years, "Finn 5 fel!", and another very successful tour in Sweden. They beat the Ullevi stadium attendance record, which was later broken by fellow Swede Håkan Hellström in 2016 (70,144), and the band played to almost half a million fans. As a result, the group was honoured with four awards in Sweden.


title: Per Gessle

text: With "Son of a Plumber", he continued his association with other Swedish artists. Jens Jansson along with previous collaborators Josefsson and Lundquist, helped Gessle create his second English album. Released in November 2005, the album contains a song dedicated to Gessle's father who was a plumber, "Kurt – The Fastest Plumber in the West". The album which was certified platinum, was also released in several other European countries in April 2006. In June 2007, he released another solo album in Swedish with the name "En händig man", which shipped three times platinum. A single of the same name was released; "En händig man". Later on October a book of "Att vara Per Gessle" was published, telling some of the unknown facts about Gessle and his 30-year career.


title: Per Gessle

text: "Party Crasher" his seventh solo album and third in English was released in late 2008. The first single "Silly Really" gave him his fourth No. 1 hit. After that, Gessle started his "Party Crasher Tour", where Fredriksson joined him on stage twice, in Amsterdam and Stockholm. This was eight years after their last live performance together during Roxette's "Room Service Tour" in 2001. Following Fredriksson's guest appearance in Amsterdam, Roxette started to perform live again. Initially this was during the Night of the Proms concert series in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany in 2009, later followed by extensive concert tours in 2010, 2011 and 2012, performing over 100 shows on all 6 continents. In the summer of 2013, Gessle reunited with Gyllene Tider once more, performing some 20 shows in Sweden.


title: Per Gessle

text: After Roxette's Neverending World Tour finished in 2015 he produced another set of solo efforts, "En vacker natt" (2017), "En vacker dag" (2017) and "Small Town Talk" (2018). All three albums were recorded in Nashville after Gessle felt the need to do sessions abroad. The albums featured the use of local musicians, Dan Dugmore, Stuart Duncan and Mickey Raphael.


title: Per Gessle

text: In 2016 he started using the pseudonym Mono Mind, first releasing a few singles before delivering a full album, "Mind Control", in 2019. In June 2022, Gessle released a single called "The Loneliest Girl In The World" under the name PG Roxette. The single previews an album Gessle has recorded with members of Roxette's live touring band called "Pop-up Dynamo".


title: Per Gessle

text: In 1990 Gessle wrote a single, "The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye", for Thomas Anders (of Modern Talking fame); Roxette would release their version as the B-side of their single "Spending My Time". The song was also used by Laura Branigan featuring on her "Over My Heart" album. He has also participated with the Swedish singer Nisse Hellberg in the project The Lonely Boys. In 1996 he worked with Belinda Carlisle and wrote two songs for her album, "A Woman and a Man"; "Always Breaking My Heart" and "Love Doesn't Live Here". The former was released as a single, becoming a UK top 10 hit.


title: Per Gessle

text: Gessle is one of three people (also including Björn Ulvaeus) who own NoteHeads, a Swedish company which publishes the music notation program Igor Engraver. Along with Björn Nordstrand he also owns a hotel in Tylösand.


title: Per Gessle

text: Gessle is the youngest son of plumber Kurt Gessle (1917-1978) and Elisabeth Gessle (1925-2013). He had an older brother, Bengt (1950-2014) and older sister Gunilla (1944-2016). Gessle married his long-time girlfriend Åsa Nordin (born 1961) in 1993 at Västra Strö Church, Eslöv, Sweden. The wedding reception was held in nearby Trollenäs Castle. They have a son, Gabriel Titus, born on 5 August 1997.


title: The Void (2016 film)

text: The Void is a 2016 Canadian Lovecraftian horror film written and directed by Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie, and produced by Jonathan Bronfman and Casey Walker. It stars Aaron Poole, Kenneth Welsh, Daniel Fathers, Kathleen Munroe, and Ellen Wong. The plot follows a small group of people who become trapped in a hospital by a gathering of hooded cultists, and by grotesque creatures.


title: The Void (2016 film)

text: The creature effects were crowdfunded on Indiegogo and raised $82,510, while the film's funding was done through traditional channels by the production company. It premiered at the 2016 Fantastic Fest and later at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival. The film was given a limited theatrical release on May 21, 2017 in the United Kingdom and the United States, and on April 17 in Canada, initially opening in 31 theaters before expanding to 50. It earned approximately $55,000 on its opening weekend, and grossed $149,365 during its release. "The Void" received positive reviews from critics, with many citing comparison to horror films from the 1980s.


title: The Void (2016 film)

text: James flees from a farmhouse and escapes into the woods. A screaming woman tries to follow, but is wounded by a gunshot. Lying on the ground, she is doused with gasoline and set on fire by Vincent and Simon. Deputy Sheriff Daniel Carter is on duty, sitting in his patrol car when he finds James crawling along the road and rushes him to the local hospital, which has been largely abandoned following a fire, where his estranged wife Allison Fraser works as a nurse. At the hospital are Dr. Richard Powell, nurse Beverly, intern Kim, pregnant patient Maggie, her grandfather Ben, and patient Cliff; with the staff at the hospital working as a skeleton crew. Daniel discovers an entranced Beverly murdering Cliff, her face flayed of skin. Beverly moves toward Daniel who shoots her dead. Daniel collapses due to a seizure and experiences a strange vision.


title: The Void (2016 film)

text: State trooper Mitchell enters the hospital to collect James after discovering the bloody scene at the farmhouse. Daniel goes outside to call in Beverly's death from his patrol car but is tackled and stabbed by a robed cultist. He manages to return to the hospital as cultists surround the building. James, Daniel, and Mitchell find that Beverly's corpse has transformed into a tentacled creature. Vincent and Simon enter the lobby and hold the group at gunpoint, demanding to get to James. James takes Maggie hostage to protect himself and stabs Powell, who falls to the floor. The Beverly-Creature appears and takes Mitchell, its tentacles penetrating his body. Vincent and Simon kill the Beverly-Creature and regroup with the others in the lobby, setting Mitchell's body on fire. Vincent and Simon accompany Daniel to retrieve a shotgun from a patrol car, while Allison ventures into the basement to collect medical supplies for delivering Maggie's baby. Powell manages to capture Allison. Daniel and Vincent go to search for her and find photographs and files indicating Powell was the cult's leader. Powell phones Daniel, taunting him and mentioning the vision Daniel experienced while unconscious.


title: The Void (2016 film)

text: Kim and Ben stay with Maggie while Daniel, Vincent, and Simon interrogate James. James explains that Powell has the power to transform people. The three men force James to come with them downstairs. Allison regains consciousness on an operating table where Powell explains he has found a way to defy death after the loss of his daughter Sarah. Having flayed off his face, Powell shows Allison that something now grows inside her. Daniel, Vincent, Simon, and James find a hidden area in the basement and end up surrounded by deformed corpses brought back to life. One of the creatures kills James as the other three men get separated.


title: The Void (2016 film)

text: As Maggie enters labor, Kim hesitates to perform a C-section. As Ben pleads with Kim, Maggie stands and slits his throat, revealing she is carrying Dr. Powell's child. Kim hides as cultists enter the building and Maggie leaves. Daniel finds Allison in the operating room pregnant. He sees a tentacled creature extending from her body. Powell's voice speaks to Daniel, who attacks his wife's mutated remains with an axe. Daniel is transported to a morgue room with a glowing triangle on the wall. Powell's voice tells Daniel that he found the ability to conquer life and death. Powell promises that Daniel can have his child back if he is willing to die first.


title: The Void (2016 film)

text: Maggie appears and stabs Daniel. Powell appears skinless and partly mutated in front of the triangle as Maggie kneels before him. Powell recites an incantation before the triangle as a now frightened Maggie's torso explodes, birthing the Sarah-Creature. Vincent and Simon arrive and battle it. The Sarah-Creature overcomes Vincent, but he covers it in isopropyl alcohol, allowing Simon to set them both on fire with a flare. Powell tells Daniel he can be with Allison if he stops resisting and "lets go". Daniel refuses and tackles him, leading both men to tumble into the void. Meanwhile, the Sarah-Creature pursues Simon, who escapes and is teleported back to the hospital to reunite safely with Kim. Daniel and Allison are shown holding hands in another world beneath a black pyramid.


title: The Void (2016 film)

text: Since 2000, the Canadian film groups referring to themselves as Astron-6 began creating comedic horror films. Their films included "Manborg", "Father's Day" and "The Editor". "The Void" differed from the previous films being serious in tone, which led the group to not present it under the Astron-6 name.


title: The Void (2016 film)

text: Jeremy Gillespie was initially working at Pinewood on a floor below where Guillermo del Toro was working on the unfinished film "At the Mountains of Madness", recalling hearing him state that he wanted to do a HP Lovecraft film in a way that hadn't been done before. After hearing this, Gillespie felt that this "sort of got the wheels in my mind working, trying to think of what that might be. So that was sort of where the imagery was birthed. All of this stuff relating to pyramids and triangles is left ambiguous, for the audience to interpret as they would, intentionally."


title: The Void (2016 film)

text: Gillespie and Kostanski managed to crowdfund the money they needed to build the practical creatures that appear onscreen effects. Other assistance came from the team working on David Ayer's "Suicide Squad" which was shooting in Toronto. Gillespie served as assistant art director and Kostanski as a special makeup effects artist on the film, which led to members of the special effects team on "Suicide Squad" to work on "The Void". Gillespie later declared "The Void" as a difficult production, noting that "Every single thing was the biggest challenge. It was a soul-crushing nightmare. Everybody was pushed to the limit on this movie. The one ray of hope we got was the cast, which came together at the last second. They were easy to deal with." "The Void" was set to shoot in Canada on November 17, 2015.


title: The Void (2016 film)

text: Filmed in Sault Ste. Marie at the former location of Sir James Dunn Collegiate and Vocational School. The school was demolished in 2016.


title: The Void (2016 film)

text: "The Void" had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest on September 22, 2016. The film received its Canadian premiere at Toronto After Dark Film Festival on October 17. Screen Media Films negotiated the deal with XYZ Films and CAA for both theatrical and video on demand day-and-date release of "The Void" in the United States on April 7, 2017. "The Void" opened in Winnipeg on March 31, Toronto on April 1, Ottawa and Calgary on April 7 and Vancouver on April 8 where it was distributed by D Films.


title: The Void (2016 film)

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 78% approval rating based on 73 reviews, and an average rating of 6.11/10. The site's critical consensus reads, ""The Void" offers a nostalgic rush for fans of low-budget 1980s horror — and legitimate thrills for hardcore genre enthusiasts of all ages." On Metacritic, "The Void" received a rating of 62 out of 100 based on 14 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: The Void (2016 film)

text: "Fangoria" gave the film a positive review, specifically praising that "practical effects are not obscured, not glimpsed partially through a flashing light or a shaky handicam. They’re showcased front and center, with the confidence of a team that knows their monsters have more weight and impact than the myriad CGI scares that have become the standard in modern horror." and that it was a film that "demands multiple viewings."


title: The Void (2016 film)

text: Kim Newman of "Screen Daily" compared the film to previous works "Bio-Cop" from "ABCs of Death 2" and "Manborg", stating that the directors "remain in pastiche mode, but tone down the humour to try for serious suspense and Lovecraftian horror - with a pleasing reliance on memorably gruesome physical effects rather than CGI." Newman concluded that the film "offers good shock/uck moments and a nicely unpredictable plot, even if a few crucial relationships are sketchily established, slightly undermining audience investment in the horrors."


title: The Void (2016 film)

text: "Empire" gave the film a 3 stars out of 5, stating that the "central story hinges on a series of outlandish coincidences, too many of the cast of characters struggle to make an impact, and the pacing is a tad too ponderous to really grip." The review found that as the film became more close to a creature feature, "the directors’ love of old-school, honest-to-goodness, practical FX is a huge boon" and the directors are "worth keeping an eye on", as they "know their way around an arresting image, whether it’s a group of masked figures eerily lit by the cold, flashing light of a cop car, or a killer nonchalantly sliding a scalpel into someone’s eye".


title: The Void (2016 film)

text: "The Globe and Mail" gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4, calling the plot "hard to follow" and that the creatures in the film "are low-lit, which probably has more to do with budget realities than aesthetic choice" and that the film was "unsettling and not jokey at all, the hell of The Void will be heaven to some." "Now" found that the directors were still "operating in their referential comfort zone" with the film being "a savvy mashup of at least four John Carpenter pictures." and that it was still "its own entity: an effective, resourceful nightmare that convinces you the apocalypse is clawing just out of sight, beyond the edge of the screen."


title: The Void (2016 film)

text: Giving the film 1.5 stars out of 5, Simon Abrams was disappointed with a film he thought he should like. Calling the plot "wafer-thin", and the style "patchy and flimsy", and "a work by a group of young, unformed voices."


title: Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa

text: Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa is an Indian Hindi-language reality television show and the Indian version of BBC's "Strictly Come Dancing" and "Dancing with the Stars". The show pairs celebrities with professional dancers. Each couple performs predetermined dances and competes against the others for judges' points and audience votes. The couple receiving the lowest combined total of judges' points and audience votes is eliminated each week until only the champion dance pair remains.


title: Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa

text: In "Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa", celebrities perform various dances together with professional dance partners. The first four seasons of "Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa" were aired on Sony TV. From its fifth season it has been airing on Colors TV. The show's format is taken from the "Strictly Come Dancing" show on BBC One in the UK. and "Dancing With The Stars". The show is also pre-recorded, unlike "Strictly Come Dancing" and other spin-offs. Of the spin offs, the "Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa" is the only one that uses recorded tracks rather than live music with an in-house band. The title derives from ""Jhalak Dikhlaja"" (Let Me Have a Glimpse of You), a popular song from the film "Aksar" (2006).


title: Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa

text: Although the show features mixed-sex couples, but the tenth season saw, for the first time, the participation of same-sex couple Dutee Chand and Raveena Choudhary (considering that Gaurav Gera in ninth season performed as fictional character-"Chutki").


title: Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa

text: The show airs its elimination on a Sunday in every season. Contestants who are in the danger zone go into the face-off round.


title: Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa

text: For each season, the celebrities are paired with a professional partner who instructs them in the various dances each week and competes alongside them in the televised competition. A total of professional partners have appeared alongside celebrities, some for only one season (mostly in the earliest seasons). Shampa Gopikrishna has most wins of any choreographer, with 2.


title: Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa

text: Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 1 is the first season of the dance reality show, "Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa". It premiered on 7 September 2006 until 4 November 2006.


title: Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa

text: The season was judged by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Shilpa Shetty and Farah Khan. The season was hosted by Parmeet Sethi and Archana Puran Singh. The winner was Mona Singh. The contestants were:


title: Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa

text: Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 2 is the second season of the dance reality show, "Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa". It premiered on 28 September 2007 until 15 December 2007.


title: Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa

text: Shiamak Davar, Urmila Matondkar and Jeetendra were the judges. Rohit Roy and Mona Singh were the hosts. Prachi Desai and Deepak were the winners. The contestants were:


title: Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa

text: The tenth season of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa premiered on September 3, 2022 making its comeback after a hiatus of five years.


title: LessWrong

text: LessWrong (also written Less Wrong) is a community blog and forum focused on discussion of cognitive biases, philosophy, psychology, economics, rationality, and artificial intelligence, among other topics.


title: LessWrong

text: "LessWrong" promotes lifestyle changes believed by its community to lead to increased rationality and self-improvement. Posts often focus on avoiding biases related to decision-making and the evaluation of evidence. One suggestion is the use of Bayes' theorem as a decision-making tool. There is also a focus on psychological barriers that prevent good decision-making, including fear conditioning and cognitive biases that have been studied by the psychologist Daniel Kahneman.


title: LessWrong

text: "LessWrong" is also concerned with transhumanism, existential threats and the singularity. "The New York Observer" noted that "Despite describing itself as a forum on 'the art of human rationality,' the New York Less Wrong group... is fixated on a branch of futurism that would seem more at home in a 3D multiplex than a graduate seminar: the dire existential threat—or, with any luck, utopian promise—known as the technological Singularity... Branding themselves as 'rationalists,' as the Less Wrong crew has done, makes it a lot harder to dismiss them as a 'doomsday cult'."


title: LessWrong

text: "LessWrong" developed from "Overcoming Bias", an earlier group blog focused on human rationality, which began in November 2006, with artificial intelligence theorist Eliezer Yudkowsky and economist Robin Hanson as the principal contributors. In February 2009, Yudkowsky's posts were used as the seed material to create the community blog "LessWrong", and "Overcoming Bias" became Hanson's personal blog. In 2013, a significant portion of the rationalist community shifted focus to Scott Alexander's Slate Star Codex.


title: LessWrong

text: "LessWrong" and its surrounding movement are the subjects of the 2019 book "The AI Does Not Hate You", written by former BuzzFeed science correspondent Tom Chivers.


title: LessWrong

text: In July 2010, "LessWrong" contributor Roko posted a thought experiment to the site in which an otherwise benevolent future AI system tortures people who heard of the AI before it came into existence and failed to work tirelessly to bring it into existence, in order to incentivise said work. Using Yudkowsky's "timeless decision" theory, the post claimed doing so would be beneficial for the AI even though it cannot causally affect people in the present. This idea came to be known as "Roko's basilisk", based on Roko's idea that merely hearing about the idea would give the hypothetical AI system stronger incentives to employ blackmail. Yudkowsky deleted Roko's posts on the topic, saying that posting it was "stupid" as the dissemination of information that can be harmful to even be aware of is itself a harmful act, and that the idea, while critically flawed, represented a space of thinking that could contain "a genuinely dangerous thought", something considered an information hazard. Discussion of Roko's basilisk was banned on "LessWrong" for several years because Yudkowsky had stated that it caused some readers to have nervous breakdowns. The ban was lifted in October 2015.


title: LessWrong

text: David Auerbach wrote in "Slate" "the combination of messianic ambitions, being convinced of your own infallibility, and a lot of cash never works out well, regardless of ideology, and I don't expect Yudkowsky and his cohorts to be an exception. I worry less about Roko's Basilisk than about people who believe themselves to have transcended conventional morality."


title: LessWrong

text: Roko's basilisk was referenced in Canadian musician Grimes's music video for her 2015 song "Flesh Without Blood" through a character named "Rococo Basilisk" who was described by Grimes as "doomed to be eternally tortured by an artificial intelligence, but she's also kind of like Marie Antoinette". After thinking of this pun and finding that Grimes had already made it, Elon Musk contacted Grimes, which led to them dating. The concept was also referenced in an episode of "Silicon Valley" titled "Facial Recognition".


title: LessWrong

text: The neoreactionary movement first grew on "LessWrong", attracted by discussions on the site of eugenics and evolutionary psychology. Yudkowsky has strongly rejected neoreaction. In a survey among "LessWrong" users in 2016, 28 out of 3060 respondents, or 0.92%, identified as "neoreactionary".


title: LessWrong

text: "LessWrong" played a significant role in the development of the effective altruism (EA) movement, and the two communities are closely intertwined. In a survey of "LessWrong" users in 2016, 664 out of 3060 respondents, or 21.7%, identified as "effective altruists". A separate survey of effective altruists in 2014 revealed that 31% of respondents had first heard of EA through "LessWrong", though that number had fallen to 8.2% by 2020. Two early proponents of effective altruism, Toby Ord and William MacAskill, met transhumanist philosopher Nick Bostrom at Oxford University. Bostrom's research influenced many effective altruists to work on existential risk reduction.


title: Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024

text: A total solar eclipse will take place at the Moon's ascending node on Monday, April 8, 2024, visible across North America and dubbed the Great North American Eclipse (also Great American Total Solar Eclipse and Great American Eclipse) by some of the media. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide.


title: Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024

text: Occurring only one day after perigee (perigee on April 7, 2024), the Moon's apparent diameter will be larger than usual. With a magnitude of 1.0566, its longest duration of totality will be of four minutes and 28.13 seconds near the town of Nazas, Durango, Mexico (~6 km north), and the nearby city of Torreón, Coahuila.


title: Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024

text: This eclipse will be the first total solar eclipse to be visible in Canada since February 26, 1979, the first in Mexico since July 11, 1991, and the first in the U.S. since August 21, 2017. It will be the only total solar eclipse in the 21st century where totality will be visible in the three-state set of Mexico, the United States, and Canada.


title: Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024

text: Totality will be visible in a narrow strip in North America, beginning at the Pacific coast, then ascending in a northeasterly direction through Mexico, the United States, and Canada, before ending in the Atlantic Ocean.


title: Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024

text: In Mexico, totality will pass through the states of Sinaloa (including Mazatlán), Durango (including Durango and Gómez Palacio) and Coahuila (including Torreón, Matamoros, Monclova, Sabinas, Ciudad Acuña and Piedras Negras).


title: Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024

text: In the United States, totality will be visible through the states of Texas (including parts of San Antonio, Austin, and Fort Worth and all of Arlington, Dallas, Killeen, Temple, Texarkana, Tyler and Waco), Oklahoma, Arkansas (including Hot Springs, Searcy, Jonesboro, and Little Rock), Missouri, Illinois (including Carbondale, where it intersects the path of the 2017 eclipse), Kentucky, Indiana (including Bloomington, Evansville, Indianapolis, Muncie, Terre Haute, and Vincennes), Ohio (including Akron, Dayton, Lima, Roundhead, Toledo, Oak Harbor, Cleveland, Warren, Newton Falls and Austintown), Michigan (extreme southeastern corner of Monroe County), Pennsylvania (including Erie), Upstate New York (including Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Rochester, Syracuse, the Adirondacks, Potsdam, and Plattsburgh), and northern Vermont (including Burlington), New Hampshire, and Maine, with the line of totality going almost directly over the state's highest point Mount Katahdin. The largest city entirely in the path will be Dallas, Texas. It will be the second total eclipse visible from the central United States in just 7 years, after the eclipse of August 21, 2017 (see "Related Eclipses", below). Totality will pass through the town of Wapakoneta, Ohio, home of Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot upon the Moon. This will be the last total solar eclipse visible in the contiguous United States until August 23, 2044.


title: Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024

text: In Canada, the path of totality will pass over parts of Southern Ontario (including Leamington, Hamilton, Niagara Falls, Kingston, Prince Edward County, and Cornwall), parts of southern Quebec (including Montreal, Sherbrooke, Saint-Georges and Lac-Mégantic), central New Brunswick (including Fredericton and Miramichi), western Prince Edward Island (including Tignish and Summerside), the northern tip of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, and central Newfoundland (including Gander and Grand Falls-Windsor). Then, it will vanish on the eastern Atlantic coast of Newfoundland. (Some of the Canadian cities listed, such as Hamilton and Montreal, are on an edge of the path of totality. Windsor, London, Toronto and Ottawa lie just north of the path of totality, and Moncton lies just south of it.)


title: Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024

text: The eclipse will be partially seen in Svalbard (Norway), in Iceland, Ireland, west parts of Great Britain, north-west parts of Spain and Portugal, the Azores and Canary Islands.


title: Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024

text: The eclipse will be partially seen in all Central America countries, from Belize to Panama, and in all Greater Antilles (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico and Jamaica).


title: Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024

text: The path of this eclipse will cross the path of the prior total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, with the intersection of the two paths being in southern Illinois, in Makanda, just south of Carbondale. The cities of Benton, Carbondale, Chester, Harrisburg, Marion, and Metropolis in Illinois; Cape Girardeau, Farmington, and Perryville in Missouri, as well as Paducah, Kentucky, will be within a roughly intersection of the paths of totality of both the 2017 and 2024 eclipses, therefore earning the distinction of being witness to two total solar eclipses within a span of seven years.


title: Irgun

text: The Irgun (; full title: ', lit. "The National Military Organization in the Land of Israel") was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandate Palestine between 1931 and 1948. The organization is also referred to as Etzel"' (), an acronym of the Hebrew initials, or by the abbreviation IZL. It was an offshoot of the older and larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah (Hebrew: , Defence). When the group broke from the Haganah it became known as the "Haganah Bet" (Hebrew: literally "Defense 'B' " or "Second Defense", ), or alternatively as haHaganah haLeumit () or Hama'amad (). Irgun members were absorbed into the Israel Defense Forces at the start of the 1948 Arab–Israeli war.


title: Irgun

text: The Irgun policy was based on what was then called Revisionist Zionism founded by Ze'ev Jabotinsky. According to Howard Sachar, "The policy of the new organization was based squarely on Jabotinsky's teachings: every Jew had the right to enter Palestine; only active retaliation would deter the Arabs; only Jewish armed force would ensure the Jewish state".


title: Irgun

text: Two of the operations for which the Irgun is best known are the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on 22 July 1946 and the Deir Yassin massacre, carried out together with Lehi on 9 April 1948.


title: Irgun

text: The Irgun has been viewed as a terrorist organization or organization which carried out terrorist acts. Specifically the organization "committed acts of terrorism and assassination against the British, whom it regarded as illegal occupiers, and it was also violently anti-Arab" according to the Encyclopædia Britannica. In particular the Irgun was described as a terrorist organization by the United Nations, British, and United States governments; in media such as "The New York Times" newspaper; as well as by the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, the 1946 Zionist Congress and the Jewish Agency. However, academics such as Bruce Hoffman and Max Abrahms have written that the Irgun went to considerable lengths to avoid harming civilians, such as issuing pre-attack warnings; according to Hoffman, Irgun leadership urged "targeting the physical manifestations of British rule while avoiding the deliberate infliction of bloodshed." Albert Einstein, in a letter to the New York Times in 1948, compared Irgun and its successor Herut party to "Nazi and Fascist parties" and described it as a "terrorist, right wing, chauvinist organization". Irgun's tactics appealed to many Jews who believed that any action taken in the cause of the creation of a Jewish state was justified, including terrorism.


title: Irgun

text: The Irgun was a political predecessor to Israel's right-wing "Herut" (or "Freedom") party, which led to today's Likud party. Likud has led or been part of most Israeli governments since 1977.


title: Irgun

text: Members of the Irgun came mostly from Betar and from the Revisionist Party both in Palestine and abroad. The Revisionist Movement made up a popular backing for the underground organization. Ze'ev Jabotinsky, founder of Revisionist Zionism, commanded the organization until he died in 1940. He formulated the general realm of operation, regarding "Restraint" and the end thereof, and was the inspiration for the organization overall. An additional major source of ideological inspiration was the poetry of Uri Zvi Greenberg. The symbol of the organization, with the motto רק כך (only thus), underneath a hand holding a rifle in the foreground of a map showing both Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan (at the time, both were administered under the terms of the British Mandate for Palestine), implied that force was the only way to "liberate the homeland."


title: Irgun

text: The number of members of the Irgun varied from a few hundred to a few thousand. Most of its members were people who joined the organization's command, under which they carried out various operations and filled positions, largely in opposition to British law. Most of them were "ordinary" people, who held regular jobs, and only a few dozen worked full-time in the Irgun.


title: Irgun

text: The Irgun disagreed with the policy of the Yishuv and with the World Zionist Organization, both with regard to strategy and basic ideology and with regard to PR and military tactics, such as use of armed force to accomplish the Zionist ends, operations against the Arabs during the riots, and relations with the British mandatory government. Therefore, the Irgun tended to ignore the decisions made by the Zionist leadership and the Yishuv's institutions. This fact caused the elected bodies not to recognize the independent organization, and during most of the time of its existence the organization was seen as irresponsible, and its actions thus worthy of thwarting. Accordingly, the Irgun accompanied its armed operations with public-relations campaigns aiming to convince the public of the Irgun's way and the problems with the official political leadership of the Yishuv. The Irgun put out numerous advertisements, an underground newspaper and even ran the first independent Hebrew radio station – Kol Zion HaLochemet.


title: Irgun

text: As members of an underground armed organization, Irgun personnel did not normally call Irgun by its name but rather used other names. In the first years of its existence it was known primarily as "Ha-Haganah Leumit"' (The National Defense), and also by names such as "Haganah Bet" ("Second Defense"), "Irgun Bet" ("Second Irgun"), the "Parallel Organization" and the "Rightwing Organization". Later on it became most widely known as המעמד (the Stand). The anthem adopted by the Irgun was "Anonymous Soldiers", written by Avraham (Yair) Stern who was at the time a commander in the Irgun. Later on Stern defected from the Irgun and founded Lehi, and the song became the anthem of the Lehi. The Irgun's new anthem then became the third verse of the "Betar Song", by Ze'ev Jabotinsky.


title: Irgun

text: The Irgun gradually evolved from its humble origins into a serious and well-organized paramilitary organization. The movement developed a hierarchy of ranks and a sophisticated command-structure, and came to demand serious military training and strict discipline from its members. It developed clandestine networks of hidden arms-caches and weapons-production workshops, safe-houses, and training camps, along with a secret printing facility for propaganda posters.


title: Irgun

text: The Irgun was led by a High Command, which set policy and gave orders. Directly underneath it was a General Staff, which oversaw the activities of the Irgun. The General Staff was divided into a military and a support staff. The military staff was divided into operational units that oversaw operations and support units in charge of planning, instruction, weapons caches and manufacture, and first aid. The military and support staff never met jointly; they communicated through the High Command. Beneath the General Staff were six district commands: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa-Galilee, Southern, Sharon, and Shomron, each led by a district commander. A local Irgun district unit was called a "Branch". A "brigade" in the Irgun was made up of three sections. A section was made up of two groups, at the head of each was a "Group Head", and a deputy. Eventually, various units were established, which answered to a "Center" or "Staff".


title: Irgun

text: The head of the Irgun High Command was the overall commander of the organization, but the designation of his rank varied. During the revolt against the British, Irgun commander Menachem Begin and the entire High Command held the rank of "Gundar Rishon". His predecessors, however, had held their own ranks. A rank of Military Commander (Seren) was awarded to the Irgun commander Yaakov Meridor and a rank of High Commander (Aluf) to David Raziel. Until his death in 1940, Jabotinsky was known as the "Military Commander of the Etzel" or the "Ha-Matzbi Ha-Elyon" ("Supreme Commander").


title: Irgun

text: The Irgun's commanders planned for it to have a regular combat force, a reserve, and shock units, but in practice there were not enough personnel for a reserve or for a shock force.


title: Irgun

text: The Irgun emphasized that its fighters be highly disciplined. Strict drill exercises were carried out at ceremonies at different times, and strict attention was given to discipline, formal ceremonies and military relationships between the various ranks. The Irgun put out professional publications on combat doctrine, weaponry, leadership, drill exercises, etc. Among these publications were three books written by David Raziel, who had studied military history, techniques, and strategy:


title: Irgun

text: The Irgun operated a sophisticated recruitment and military-training regime. Those wishing to join had to find and make contact with a member, meaning only those who personally knew a member or were persistent could find their way in. Once contact had been established, a meeting was set up with the three-member selection committee at a safe-house, where the recruit was interviewed in a darkened room, with the committee either positioned behind a screen, or with a flashlight shone into the recruit's eyes. The interviewers asked basic biographical questions, and then asked a series of questions designed to weed out romantics and adventurers and those who had not seriously contemplated the potential sacrifices. Those selected attended a four-month series of indoctrination seminars in groups of five to ten, where they were taught the Irgun's ideology and the code of conduct it expected of its members. These seminars also had another purpose - to weed out the impatient and those of flawed purpose who had gotten past the selection interview. Then, members were introduced to other members, were taught the locations of safe-houses, and given military training. Irgun recruits trained with firearms, hand grenades, and were taught how to conduct combined attacks on targets. Arms handling and tactics courses were given in clandestine training camps, while practice shooting took place in the desert or by the sea. Eventually, separate training camps were established for heavy-weapons training. The most rigorous course was the explosives course for bomb-makers, which lasted a year. The British authorities believed that some Irgun members enlisted in the Jewish section of the Palestine Police Force for a year as part of their training, during which they also passed intelligence. In addition to the Irgun's sophisticated training program, many Irgun members were veterans of the Haganah (including the Palmach), the British Armed Forces, and Jewish partisan groups that had waged guerrilla warfare in Nazi-occupied Europe, thus bringing significant military training and combat experience into the organization. The Irgun also operated a course for its intelligence operatives, in which recruits were taught espionage, cryptography, and analysis techniques.


title: Irgun

text: Of the Irgun's members, almost all were part-time members. They were expected to maintain their civilian lives and jobs, dividing their time between their civilian lives and underground activities. There were never more than 40 full-time members, who were given a small expense stipend on which to live on. Upon joining, every member received an underground name. The Irgun's members were divided into cells, and worked with the members of their own cells. The identities of Irgun members in other cells were withheld. This ensured that an Irgun member taken prisoner could betray no more than a few comrades.


title: Irgun

text: In addition to the Irgun's members in Palestine, underground Irgun cells composed of local Jews were established in Europe following World War II. An Irgun cell was also established in Shanghai, home to many European-Jewish refugees. The Irgun also set up a Swiss bank account. Eli Tavin, the former head of Irgun intelligence, was appointed commander of the Irgun abroad.


title: Irgun

text: In November 1947, the Jewish insurgency came to an end as the UN approved of the partition of Palestine, and the British had announced their intention to withdraw the previous month. As the British left and the 1947-48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine got underway, the Irgun came out of the underground and began to function more as a standing army rather an underground organization. It began openly recruiting, training, and raising funds, and established bases, including training facilities. It also introduced field communications and created a medical unit and supply service.


title: Irgun

text: Until World War II the group armed itself with weapons purchased in Europe, primarily Italy and Poland, and smuggled to Palestine. The Irgun also established workshops that manufactured spare parts and attachments for the weapons. Also manufactured were land mines and simple hand grenades. Another way in which the Irgun armed itself was theft of weapons from the British Police and military.


title: Irgun

text: The Irgun's first steps were in the aftermath of the Riots of 1929. In the Jerusalem branch of the Haganah there were feelings of disappointment and internal unrest towards the leadership of the movements and the Histadrut (at that time the organization running the Haganah). These feelings were a result of the view that the Haganah was not adequately defending Jewish interests in the region. Likewise, critics of the leadership spoke out against alleged failures in the number of weapons, readiness of the movement and its policy of restraint and not fighting back. On April 10, 1931, commanders and equipment managers announced that they refused to return weapons to the Haganah that had been issued to them earlier, prior to the Nebi Musa holiday. These weapons were later returned by the commander of the Jerusalem branch, Avraham Tehomi, a.k.a. "Gideon". However, the commanders who decided to rebel against the leadership of the Haganah relayed a message regarding their resignations to the Vaad Leumi, and thus this schism created a new independent movement.


title: Irgun

text: The leader of the new underground movement was Avraham Tehomi, alongside other founding members who were all senior commanders in the Haganah, members of Hapoel Hatzair and of the Histadrut. Also among them was Eliyahu Ben Horin, an activist in the Revisionist Party. This group was known as the "Odessan Gang", because they previously had been members of the "Haganah Ha'Atzmit" of Jewish Odessa. The new movement was named "Irgun Tsvai Leumi", ("National Military Organization") in order to emphasize its active nature in contrast to the Haganah. Moreover, the organization was founded with the desire to become a true military organization and not just a militia as the Haganah was at the time.


title: Irgun

text: In the autumn of that year the Jerusalem group merged with other armed groups affiliated with Betar. The Betar groups' center of activity was in Tel Aviv, and they began their activity in 1928 with the establishment of "Officers and Instructors School of Betar". Students at this institution had broken away from the Haganah earlier, for political reasons, and the new group called itself the "National Defense", הגנה הלאומית. During the riots of 1929 Betar youth participated in the defense of Tel Aviv neighborhoods under the command of Yermiyahu Halperin, at the behest of the Tel Aviv city hall. After the riots the Tel Avivian group expanded, and was known as "The Right Wing Organization".


title: Irgun

text: After the Tel Aviv expansion another branch was established in Haifa. Towards the end of 1932 the Haganah branch of Safed also defected and joined the Irgun, as well as many members of the Maccabi sports association. At that time the movement's underground newsletter, "Ha'Metsudah" (the Fortress) also began publication, expressing the active trend of the movement. The Irgun also increased its numbers by expanding draft regiments of Betar – groups of volunteers, committed to two years of security and pioneer activities. These regiments were based in places that from which stemmed new Irgun strongholds in the many places, including the settlements of Yesod HaMa'ala, Mishmar HaYarden, Rosh Pina, Metula and Nahariya in the north; in the center – Hadera, Binyamina, Herzliya, Netanya and Kfar Saba, and south of there – Rishon LeZion, Rehovot and Ness Ziona. Later on regiments were also active in the Old City of Jerusalem ("the Kotel Brigades") among others. Primary training centers were based in Ramat Gan, Qastina (by Kiryat Mal'akhi of today) and other places.


title: Irgun

text: In 1933 there were some signs of unrest, seen by the incitement of the local Arab leadership to act against the authorities. The strong British response put down the disturbances quickly. During that time the Irgun operated in a similar manner to the Haganah and was a guarding organization. The two organizations cooperated in ways such as coordination of posts and even intelligence sharing.


title: Irgun

text: Within the Irgun, Tehomi was the first to serve as "Head of the Headquarters" or "Chief Commander". Alongside Tehomi served the senior commanders, or "Headquarters" of the movement. As the organization grew, it was divided into district commands.


title: Irgun

text: In August 1933 a "Supervisory Committee" for the Irgun was established, which included representatives from most of the Zionist political parties. The members of this committee were Meir Grossman (of the Hebrew State Party), Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan (of the Mizrachi Party), either Immanuel Neumann or Yehoshua Supersky (of the General Zionists) and Ze'ev Jabotinsky or Eliyahu Ben Horin (of Hatzohar).


title: Irgun

text: In protest against, and with the aim of ending Jewish immigration to Palestine, the Great Arab Revolt of 1936–1939 broke out on April 19, 1936. The riots took the form of attacks by Arab rioters ambushing main roads, bombing of roads and settlements as well as property and agriculture vandalism. In the beginning, the Irgun and the Haganah generally maintained a policy of restraint, apart from a few instances. Some expressed resentment at this policy, leading up internal unrest in the two organizations. The Irgun tended to retaliate more often, and sometimes Irgun members patrolled areas beyond their positions in order to encounter attackers ahead of time. However, there were differences of opinion regarding what to do in the Haganah, as well. Due to the joining of many Betar Youth members, Jabotinsky (founder of Betar) had a great deal of influence over Irgun policy. Nevertheless, Jabotinsky was of the opinion that for moral reasons violent retaliation was not to be undertaken.


title: Irgun

text: In November 1936 the Peel Commission was sent to inquire regarding the breakout of the riots and propose a solution to end the Revolt. In early 1937 there were still some in the Yishuv who felt the commission would recommend a partition of Mandatory Palestine (the land west of the Jordan River), thus creating a Jewish state on part of the land. The Irgun leadership, as well as the "Supervisory Committee" held similar beliefs, as did some members of the Haganah and the Jewish Agency. This belief strengthened the policy of restraint and led to the position that there was no room for defense institutions in the future Jewish state. Tehomi was quoted as saying: "We stand before great events: a Jewish state and a Jewish army. There is a need for a single military force". This position intensified the differences of opinion regarding the policy of restraint, both within the Irgun and within the political camp aligned with the organization. The leadership committee of the Irgun supported a merger with the Haganah. On April 24, 1937, a referendum was held among Irgun members regarding its continued independent existence. David Raziel and Avraham (Yair) Stern came out publicly in support for the continued existence of the Irgun:


title: Irgun

text: In April 1937 the Irgun split after the referendum. Approximately 1,500–2,000 people, about half of the Irgun's membership, including the senior command staff, regional committee members, along with most of the Irgun's weapons, returned to the Haganah, which at that time was under the Jewish Agency's leadership. The Supervisory Committee's control over the Irgun ended, and Jabotinsky assumed command. In their opinion, the removal of the Haganah from the Jewish Agency's leadership to the national institutions necessitated their return. Furthermore, they no longer saw significant ideological differences between the movements. Those who remained in the Irgun were primarily young activists, mostly laypeople, who sided with the independent existence of the Irgun. In fact, most of those who remained were originally Betar people. Moshe Rosenberg estimated that approximately 1,800 members remained. In theory, the Irgun remained an organization not aligned with a political party, but in reality the supervisory committee was disbanded and the Irgun's continued ideological path was outlined according to Ze'ev Jabotinsky's school of thought and his decisions, until the movement eventually became Revisionist Zionism's military arm. One of the major changes in policy by Jabotinsky was the end of the policy of restraint.


title: Irgun

text: On April 27, 1937, the Irgun founded a new headquarters, staffed by Moshe Rosenberg at the head, Avraham (Yair) Stern as secretary, David Raziel as head of the Jerusalem branch, Hanoch Kalai as commander of Haifa and Aharon Haichman as commander of Tel Aviv. On 20 Tammuz, (June 29) the day of Theodor Herzl's death, a ceremony was held in honor of the reorganization of the underground movement. For security purposes this ceremony was held at a construction site in Tel Aviv.


title: Irgun

text: Ze'ev Jabotinsky placed Col. Robert Bitker at the head of the Irgun. Bitker had previously served as Betar commissioner in China and had military experience. A few months later, probably due to total incompatibility with the position, Jabotinsky replaced Bitker with Moshe Rosenberg. When the Peel Commission report was published a few months later, the Revisionist camp decided not to accept the commission's recommendations. Moreover, the organizations of Betar, Hatzohar and the Irgun began to increase their efforts to bring Jews to the land of Israel, illegally. This Aliyah was known as the עליית אף על פי "Af Al Pi (Nevertheless) Aliyah". As opposed to this position, the Jewish Agency began acting on behalf of the Zionist interest on the political front, and continued the policy of restraint. From this point onwards the differences between the Haganah and the Irgun were much more obvious.


title: Irgun

text: According to Jabotinsky's "Evacuation Plan", which called for millions of European Jews to be brought to Palestine at once, the Irgun helped the illegal immigration of European Jews to the land of Israel. This was named by Jabotinsky the "National Sport". The most significant part of this immigration prior to World War II was carried out by the Revisionist camp, largely because the Yishuv institutions and the Jewish Agency shied away from such actions on grounds of cost and their belief that Britain would in the future allow widespread Jewish immigration.


title: Irgun

text: The Irgun joined forces with Hatzohar and Betar in September 1937, when it assisted with the landing of a convoy of 54 Betar members at Tantura Beach (near Haifa.) The Irgun was responsible for discreetly bringing the Olim, or Jewish immigrants, to the beaches, and dispersing them among the various Jewish settlements. The Irgun also began participating in the organisation of the immigration enterprise and undertook the process of accompanying the ships. This began with the ship "Draga" which arrived at the coast of British Palestine in September 1938. In August of the same year, an agreement was made between Ari Jabotinsky (the son of Ze'ev Jabotinsky), the Betar representative and Hillel Kook, the Irgun representative, to coordinate the immigration (also known as Ha'apala). This agreement was also made in the "Paris Convention" in February 1939, at which Ze'ev Jabotinsky and David Raziel were present. Afterwards, the "Aliyah Center" was founded, made up of representatives of Hatzohar, Betar, and the Irgun, thereby making the Irgun a full participant in the process.


title: Irgun

text: The difficult conditions on the ships demanded a high level of discipline. The people on board the ships were often split into units, led by commanders. In addition to having a daily roll call and the distribution of food and water (usually very little of either), organized talks were held to provide information regarding the actual arrival in Palestine. One of the largest ships was the "Sakaria", with 2,300 passengers, which equalled about 0.5% of the Jewish population in Palestine. The first vessel arrived on April 13, 1937, and the last on February 13, 1940. All told, about 18,000 Jews immigrated to Palestine with the help of the Revisionist organizations and private initiatives by other Revisionists. Most were not caught by the British.


title: Irgun

text: While continuing to defend settlements, Irgun members began attacks on Arab villages around April 1936, thus ending the policy of restraint. These attacks were intended to instill fear in the Arab side, in order to cause the Arabs to wish for peace and quiet. In March 1938, David Raziel wrote in the underground newspaper "By the Sword" a constitutive article for the Irgun overall, in which he coined the term "Active Defense":


title: Irgun

text: At that time, however, these acts were not yet a part of a formulated policy of the Irgun. Not all of the aforementioned operations received a commander's approval, and Jabotinsky was not in favor of such actions at the time. Jabotinsky still hoped to establish a Jewish force out in the open that would not have to operate underground. However, the failure, in its eyes, of the Peel Commission and the renewal of violence on the part of the Arabs caused the Irgun to rethink its official policy.


title: Irgun

text: 14 November 1937 was a watershed in Irgun activity. From that date, the Irgun increased its reprisals. Following an increase in the number of attacks aimed at Jews, including the killing of five kibbutz members near Kiryat Anavim (today kibbutz Ma'ale HaHamisha), the Irgun undertook a series of attacks in various places in Jerusalem, killing five Arabs. Operations were also undertaken in Haifa (shooting at the Arab-populated Wadi Nisnas neighborhood) and in Herzliya. The date is known as the day the policy of restraint (Havlagah) ended, or as Black Sunday when operations resulted in the murder of 10 Arabs. This is when the organization fully changed its policy, with the approval of Jabotinsky and Headquarters to the policy of "active defense" in respect of Irgun actions.


title: Irgun

text: The British responded with the arrest of Betar and Hatzohar members as suspected members of the Irgun. Military courts were allowed to act under "Time of Emergency Regulations" and even sentence people to death. In this manner Yehezkel Altman, a guard in a Betar battalion in the Nahalat Yizchak neighborhood of Tel Aviv, shot at an Arab bus, without his commanders' knowledge. Altman was acting in response to a shooting at Jewish vehicles on the Tel Aviv–Jerusalem road the day before. He turned himself in later and was sentenced to death, a sentence which was later commuted to a life sentence.


title: Irgun

text: Despite the arrests, Irgun members continued fighting. Jabotinsky lent his moral support to these activities. In a letter to Moshe Rosenberg on 18 March 1938 he wrote:


title: Irgun

text: Although the Irgun continued activities such as these, following Rosenberg's orders, they were greatly curtailed. Furthermore, in fear of the British threat of the death sentence for anyone found carrying a weapon, all operations were suspended for eight months. However, opposition to this policy gradually increased. In April, 1938, responding to the killing of six Jews, Betar members from the Rosh Pina Brigade went on a reprisal mission, without the consent of their commander, as described by historian Avi Shlaim:


title: Irgun

text: Although the incident ended without casualties, the three were caught, and one of them – Shlomo Ben-Yosef was sentenced to death. Demonstrations around the country, as well as pressure from institutions and people such as Dr. Chaim Weizmann and the Chief Rabbi of Mandatory Palestine, Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog did not reduce his sentence. In Shlomo Ben-Yosef's writings in Hebrew were later found:


title: Irgun

text: On 29 June 1938 he was executed, and was the first of the Olei Hagardom. The Irgun revered him after his death and many regarded him as an example.


title: Irgun

text: In light of this, and due to the anger of the Irgun leadership over the decision to adopt a policy of restraint until that point, Jabotinsky relieved Rosenberg of his post and replaced him with David Raziel, who proved to be the most prominent Irgun commander until Menachem Begin. Jabotinsky simultaneously instructed the Irgun to end its policy of restraint, leading to armed offensive operations until the end of the Arab Revolt in 1939. In this time, the Irgun mounted about 40 operations against Arabs and Arab villages, for instance:


title: Irgun

text: This action led the British Parliament to discuss the disturbances in Palestine. On 23 February 1939 the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Malcolm MacDonald revealed the British intention to cancel the mandate and establish a state that would preserve Arab rights. This caused a wave of riots and attacks by Arabs against Jews. The Irgun responded four days later with a series of attacks on Arab buses and other sites. The British used military force against the Arab rioters and in the latter stages of the revolt by the Arab community in Palestine, it deteriorated into a series of internal gang wars.


title: Irgun

text: At the same time, the Irgun also established itself in Europe. The Irgun built underground cells that participated in organizing migration to Palestine. The cells were made up almost entirely of Betar members, and their primary activity was military training in preparation for emigration to Palestine. Ties formed with the Polish authorities brought about courses in which Irgun commanders were trained by Polish officers in advanced military issues such as guerrilla warfare, tactics and laying land mines. Avraham (Yair) Stern was notable among the cell organizers in Europe. In 1937 the Polish authorities began to deliver large amounts of weapons to the underground. According to Irgun activists Poland supplied the organization with 25,000 rifles, and additional material and weapons, by summer 1939 the Warsaw warehouses of Irgun held 5,000 rifles and 1,000 machine guns. The training and support by Poland would allow the organization to mobilize 30,000-40,000 men The transfer of handguns, rifles, explosives and ammunition stopped with the outbreak of World War II. Another field in which the Irgun operated was the training of pilots, so they could serve in the Air Force in the future war for independence, in the flight school in Lod.


title: Irgun

text: Towards the end of 1938 there was progress towards aligning the ideologies of the Irgun and the Haganah. Many abandoned the belief that the land would be divided and a Jewish state would soon exist. The Haganah founded פו"מ, a special operations unit, (pronounced "poom"), which carried out reprisal attacks following Arab violence. These operations continued into 1939. Furthermore, the opposition within the Yishuv to illegal immigration significantly decreased, and the Haganah began to bring Jews to Palestine using rented ships, as the Irgun had in the past.


title: Irgun

text: The publishing of the MacDonald White Paper of 1939 brought with it new edicts that were intended to lead to a more equitable settlement between Jews and Arabs. However, it was considered by some Jews to have an adverse effect on the continued development of the Jewish community in Palestine. Chief among these was the prohibition on selling land to Jews, and the smaller quotas for Jewish immigration. The entire Yishuv was furious at the contents of the White Paper. There were demonstrations against the "Treacherous Paper", as it was considered that it would preclude the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.


title: Irgun

text: Under the temporary command of Hanoch Kalai, the Irgun began sabotaging strategic infrastructure such as electricity facilities, radio and telephone lines. It also started publicizing its activity and its goals. This was done in street announcements, newspapers, as well as the underground radio station Kol Zion HaLochemet. On August 26, 1939, the Irgun killed Ralph Cairns, a British police officer who, as head of the Jewish Department in the Palestine Police, had been closing the net on Avraham Stern. Irgun had accused him of the torture of a number of its members. Cairns and Ronald Barker, another British police officer, were killed by a remotely detonated Irgun landmine.


title: Irgun

text: The British increased their efforts against the Irgun. As a result, on August 31 the British police arrested members meeting in the Irgun headquarters. On the next day, September 1, 1939, World War II broke out.


title: Irgun

text: Following the outbreak of war, Ze'ev Jabotinsky and the New Zionist Organization voiced their support for Britain and France. In mid-September 1939 Raziel was moved from his place of detention in Tzrifin. This, among other events, encouraged the Irgun to announce a cessation of its activities against the British so as not to hinder Britain's effort to fight "the Hebrew's greatest enemy in the world – German Nazism". This announcement ended with the hope that after the war a Hebrew state would be founded "within the historical borders of the liberated homeland". After this announcement Irgun, Betar and Hatzohar members, including Raziel and the Irgun leadership, were gradually released from detention. The Irgun did not rule out joining the British army and the Jewish Brigade. Irgun members did enlist in various British units. Irgun members also assisted British forces with intelligence in Romania, Bulgaria, Morocco and Tunisia. An Irgun unit also operated in Syria and Lebanon. David Raziel later died during one of these operations.


title: Irgun

text: During the Holocaust, Betar members revolted numerous times against the Nazis in occupied Europe. The largest of these revolts was the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, in which an armed underground organization fought, formed by Betar and Hatzoar and known as the "Żydowski Związek Wojskowy (ŻZW)" (Jewish Military Union). Despite its political origins, the ŻZW accepted members without regard to political affiliation, and had contacts established before the war with elements of the Polish military. Because of differences over objectives and strategy, the ŻZW was unable to form a common front with the mainstream ghetto fighters of the Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa, and fought independently under the military leadership of Paweł Frenkiel and the political leadership of Dawid Wdowiński.


title: Irgun

text: There were instances of Betar members enlisted in the British military smuggling British weapons to the Irgun.


title: Irgun

text: From 1939 onwards, an Irgun delegation in the United States worked for the creation of a Jewish army made up of Jewish refugees and Jews from Palestine, to fight alongside the Allied Forces. In July 1943 the "Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People in Europe" was formed, and worked until the end of the war to rescue the Jews of Europe from the Nazis and to garner public support for a Jewish state. However, it was not until January 1944 that US President Franklin Roosevelt established the War Refugee Board, which achieved some success in saving European Jews.


title: Irgun

text: Throughout this entire period, the British continued enforcing the White Paper's provisions, which included a ban on the sale of land, restrictions on Jewish immigration and increased vigilance against illegal immigration. Part of the reason why the British banned land sales (to anyone) was the confused state of the post Ottoman land registry; it was difficult to determine who actually owned the land that was for sale.


title: Irgun

text: Within the ranks of the Irgun this created much disappointment and unrest, at the center of which was disagreement with the leadership of the New Zionist Organization, David Raziel and the Irgun Headquarters. On June 18, 1939, Avraham (Yair) Stern and others of the leadership were released from prison and a rift opened between them the Irgun and Hatzohar leadership. The controversy centred on the issues of the underground movement submitting to public political leadership and fighting the British. On his release from prison Raziel resigned from Headquarters. To his chagrin, independent operations of senior members of the Irgun were carried out and some commanders even doubted Raziel's loyalty.


title: Irgun

text: In his place, Stern was elected to the leadership. In the past, Stern had founded secret Irgun cells in Poland without Jabotinsky's knowledge, in opposition to his wishes. Furthermore, Stern was in favor of removing the Irgun from the authority of the New Zionist Organization, whose leadership urged Raziel to return to the command of the Irgun. He finally consented. Jabotinsky wrote to Raziel and to Stern, and these letters were distributed to the branches of the Irgun:


title: Irgun

text: Stern was sent a telegram with an order to obey Raziel, who was reappointed. However, these events did not prevent the splitting of the organization. Suspicion and distrust were rampant among the members. Out of the Irgun a new organization was created on July 17, 1940, which was first named "The National Military Organization in Israel" (as opposed to the "National Military Organization in the Land of Israel") and later on changed its name to Lehi, an acronym for Lohamei Herut Israel, "Fighters for the Freedom of Israel", (לח"י – לוחמי חירות ישראל). Jabotinsky died in New York on August 4, 1940, yet this did not prevent the Lehi split. Following Jabotinsky's death, ties were formed between the Irgun and the New Zionist Organization. These ties would last until 1944, when the Irgun declared a revolt against the British.


title: Irgun

text: The primary difference between the Irgun and the newly formed organization was its intention to fight the British in Palestine, regardless of their war against Germany. Later, additional operational and ideological differences developed that contradicted some of the Irgun's guiding principles. For example, the Lehi, unlike the Irgun, supported a population exchange with local Arabs.


title: Irgun

text: The split damaged the Irgun both organizationally and from a morale point of view. As their spiritual leader, Jabotinsky's death also added to this feeling. Together, these factors brought about a mass abandonment by members. The British took advantage of this weakness to gather intelligence and arrest Irgun activists. The new Irgun leadership, which included Meridor, Yerachmiel Ha'Levi, Rabbi Moshe Zvi Segal and others used the forced hiatus in activity to rebuild the injured organization. This period was also marked by more cooperation between the Irgun and the Jewish Agency, however David Ben-Gurion's uncompromising demand that Irgun accept the Agency's command foiled any further cooperation.


title: Irgun

text: In both the Irgun and the Haganah more voices were being heard opposing any cooperation with the British. Nevertheless, an Irgun operation carried out in the service of Britain was aimed at sabotaging pro-Nazi forces in Iraq, including the assassination of Haj Amin al-Husayni. Among others, Raziel and Yaakov Meridor participated. On April 20, 1941, during a Luftwaffe air raid on RAF Habbaniya near Baghdad, David Raziel, commander of the Irgun, was killed during the operation.


title: Irgun

text: In late 1943 a joint Haganah – Irgun initiative was developed, to form a single fighting body, unaligned with any political party, by the name of עם לוחם ("Fighting Nation"). The new body's first plan was to kidnap the British High Commissioner of Palestine, Sir Harold MacMichael and take him to Cyprus. However, the Haganah leaked the planned operation and it was thwarted before it got off the ground. Nevertheless, at this stage the Irgun ceased its cooperation with the British. As Eliyahu Lankin tells in his book:


title: Irgun

text: In 1943 the Polish II Corps, commanded by Władysław Anders, arrived in Palestine from Iraq. The British insisted that no Jewish units of the army be created. Eventually, many of the soldiers of Jewish origin that arrived with the army were released and allowed to stay in Palestine. One of them was Menachem Begin, whose arrival in Palestine created new-found expectations within the Irgun and Betar. Begin had served as head of the Betar movement in Poland, and was a respected leader. Yaakov Meridor, then the commander of the Irgun, raised the idea of appointing Begin to the post. In late 1943, when Begin accepted the position, a new leadership was formed. Meridor became Begin's deputy, and other members of the board were Aryeh Ben Eliezer, Eliyahu Lankin, and Shlomo Lev Ami.


title: Irgun

text: On February 1, 1944, the Irgun put up posters all around the country, proclaiming a revolt against the British mandatory government. The posters began by saying that all of the Zionist movements stood by the Allied Forces and over 25,000 Jews had enlisted in the British military. The hope to establish a Jewish army had died. European Jewry was trapped and was being destroyed, yet Britain, for its part, did not allow any rescue missions. This part of the document ends with the following words:


title: Irgun

text: The Irgun then declared that, for its part, the ceasefire was over and they were now at war with the British. It demanded the transfer of rule to a Jewish government, to implement ten policies. Among these were the mass evacuation of Jews from Europe, the signing of treaties with any state that recognized the Jewish state's sovereignty, including Britain, granting social justice to the state's residents, and full equality to the Arab population. The proclamation ended with:


title: Irgun

text: The Irgun began this campaign rather weakly. At the time of the start of the revolt, it was only about 1,000 strong, including some 200 fighters. It possessed about 4 submachine guns, 40 rifles, 60 pistols, 150 hand grenades, and 2,000 kilograms of explosive material, and its funds were about £800.


title: Irgun

text: The Irgun began a militant operation against the symbols of government, in an attempt to harm the regime's operation as well as its reputation. The first attack was on February 12, 1944, at the government immigration offices, a symbol of the immigration laws. The attacks went smoothly and ended with no casualties—as they took place on a Saturday night, when the buildings were empty—in the three largest cities: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa. On February 27 the income tax offices were bombed. Parts of the same cities were blown up, also on a Saturday night; prior warnings were put up near the buildings. On March 23 the national headquarters building of the British police in the Russian Compound in Jerusalem was attacked, and part of it was blown up. These attacks in the first few months were sharply condemned by the organized leadership of the Yishuv and by the Jewish Agency, who saw them as dangerous provocations.


title: Irgun

text: At the same time the Lehi also renewed its attacks against the British. The Irgun continued to attack police stations and headquarters, and Tegart Fort, a fortified police station (today the location of Latrun). One relatively complex operation was the takeover of the radio station in Ramallah, on May 17, 1944.


title: Irgun

text: One symbolic act by the Irgun happened before Yom Kippur of 1944. They plastered notices around town, warning that no British officers should come to the Western Wall on Yom Kippur, and for the first time since the mandate began no British police officers were there to prevent the Jews from the traditional Shofar blowing at the end of the fast. After the fast that year the Irgun attacked four police stations in Arab settlements. In order to obtain weapons, the Irgun carried out "confiscation" operations – they robbed British armouries and smuggled stolen weapons to their own hiding places. During this phase of activity the Irgun also cut all of its official ties with the New Zionist Organization, so as not to tie their fate in the underground organization.


title: Irgun

text: In October 1944 the British began expelling hundreds of arrested Irgun and Lehi members to detention camps in Africa. 251 detainees from Latrun were flown on thirteen planes, on October 19 to a camp in Asmara, Eritrea. Eleven additional transports were made. Throughout the period of their detention, the detainees often initiated rebellions and hunger strikes. Many escape attempts were made until July 1948 when the exiles were returned to Israel. While there were numerous successful escapes from the camp itself, only nine men actually made it back all the way. One noted success was that of Yaakov Meridor, who escaped nine times before finally reaching Europe in April 1948. These tribulations were the subject of his book "Long is the Path to Freedom: Chronicles of one of the Exiles".


title: Irgun

text: On November 6, 1944, Lord Moyne, British Deputy Resident Minister of State in Cairo was assassinated by Lehi members Eliyahu Hakim and Eliyahu Bet-Zuri. This act raised concerns within the Yishuv from the British regime's reaction to the underground's violent acts against them. Therefore, the Jewish Agency decided on starting a "Hunting Season", known as the "saison", (from the French "la saison de chasse").


title: Irgun

text: The Irgun's recuperation was noticeable when it began to renew its cooperation with the Lehi in May 1945, when it sabotaged oil pipelines, telephone lines and railroad bridges. All in all, over 1,000 members of the Irgun and Lehi were arrested and interned in British camps during the "Saison". Eventually the Hunting Season died out, and there was even talk of cooperation with the Haganah leading to the formation of the Jewish Resistance Movement.


title: Irgun

text: Towards the end of July 1945 the Labour party in Britain was elected to power. The Yishuv leadership had high hopes that this would change the anti-Zionist policy that the British maintained at the time. However, these hopes were quickly dashed when the government limited Jewish immigration, with the intention that the population of Mandatory Palestine (the land west of the Jordan River) would not be more than one-third of the total. This, along with the stepping up of arrests and their pursuit of underground members and illegal immigration organizers led to the formation of the Jewish Resistance Movement. This body consolidated the armed resistance to the British of the Irgun, Lehi, and Haganah. For ten months the Irgun and the Lehi cooperated and they carried out nineteen attacks and defense operations. The Haganah and Palmach carried out ten such operations. The Haganah also assisted in landing 13,000 illegal immigrants.


title: Irgun

text: Tension between the underground movements and the British increased with the increase in operations. On April 23, 1946, an operation undertaken by the Irgun to gain weapons from the Tegart fort at Ramat Gan resulted in a firefight with the police in which an Arab constable and two Irgun fighters were killed, including one who jumped on an explosive device to save his comrades. A third fighter, Dov Gruner, was wounded and captured. He stood trial and was sentenced to be death by hanging, refusing to sign a pardon request.


title: Irgun

text: In 1946, British relations with the Yishuv worsened, building up to Operation Agatha of June 29. The authorities ignored the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry's recommendation to allow 100,000 Jews into Palestine at once. As a result of the discovery of documents tying the Jewish Agency to the Jewish Resistance Movement, the Irgun was asked to speed up the plans for the King David Hotel bombing of July 22. The hotel was where the documents were located, the base for the British Secretariat, the military command and a branch of the Criminal Investigation Division of the police. The Irgun later claimed to have sent a warning that was ignored. Palestinian and U.S. sources confirm that the Irgun issued numerous warnings for civilians to evacuate the hotel prior to the bombing. 91 people were killed in the attack where a 350 kg bomb was placed in the basement of the hotel and caused a large section of it to collapse. Only 13 were British soldiers.


title: Irgun

text: The King David Hotel bombing and the arrest of Jewish Agency and other Yishuv leaders as part of Operation Agatha caused the Haganah to cease their armed activity against the British. Yishuv and Jewish Agency leaders were released from prison. From then until the end of the British mandate, resistance activities were led by the Irgun and Lehi. In early September 1946 the Irgun renewed its attacks against civil structures, railroads, communication lines and bridges. One operation was the attack on the train station in Jerusalem, in which Meir Feinstein was arrested and later committed suicide awaiting execution. According to the Irgun these sort of armed attacks were legitimate, since the trains primarily served the British, for redeployment of their forces. The Irgun also publicized leaflets, in three languages, not to use specific trains in danger of being attacked. For a while, the British stopped train traffic at night. The Irgun also carried out repeated attacks against military and police traffic using disguised, electronically detonated roadside mines which could be detonated by an operator hiding nearby as a vehicle passed, carried out arms raids against military bases and police stations (often disguised as British soldiers), launched bombing, shooting, and mortar attacks against military and police installations and checkpoints, and robbed banks to gain funds as a result of losing access to Haganah funding following the collapse of the Jewish Resistance Movement.


title: Irgun

text: On October 31, 1946, in response to the British barring entry of Jews from Palestine, the Irgun blew up the British Embassy in Rome, a center of British efforts to monitor and stop Jewish immigration. The Irgun also carried out a few other operations in Europe: a British troop train was derailed and an attempt against another troop train failed. An attack on a British officers club in Vienna took place in 1947, and an attack on another British officer's club in Vienna and a sergeant's club in Germany took place in 1948.


title: Irgun

text: In December 1946 a sentence of 18 years and 18 beatings was handed down to a young Irgun member for robbing a bank. The Irgun made good on a threat they made and after the detainee was whipped, Irgun members kidnapped British officers and beat them in public. The operation, known as the "Night of the Beatings" brought an end to British punitive beatings. The British, taking these acts seriously, moved many British families in Palestine into the confines of military bases, and some moved home.


title: Irgun

text: On February 14, 1947, Ernest Bevin announced that the Jews and Arabs would not be able to agree on any British proposed solution for the land, and therefore the issue must be brought to the United Nations (UN) for a final decision. The Yishuv thought of the idea to transfer the issue to the UN as a British attempt to achieve delay while a UN inquiry commission would be established, and its ideas discussed, and all the while the Yishuv would weaken. Foundation for Immigration B increased the number of ships bringing in Jewish refugees. The British still strictly enforced the policy of limited Jewish immigration and illegal immigrants were placed in detention camps in Cyprus, which increased the anger of the Jewish community towards the mandate government.


title: Irgun

text: The Irgun stepped up its activity and from February 19 until March 3 it attacked 18 British military camps, convoy routes, vehicles, and other facilities. The most notable of these attacks was the bombing of a British officer's club located in Goldsmith House in Jerusalem, which was in a heavily guarded security zone. Covered by machine-gun fire, an Irgun assault team in a truck penetrated the security zone and lobbed explosives into the building. Thirteen people, including two officers, were killed. As a result, martial law was imposed over much of the country, enforced by approximately 20,000 British soldiers. Despite this, attacks continued throughout the martial law period. The most notable one was an Irgun attack against the Royal Army Pay Corps base at the Schneller Orphanage, in which a British soldier was killed.


title: Irgun

text: Throughout its struggle against the British, the Irgun sought to publicize its cause around the world. By humiliating the British, it attempted to focus global attention on Palestine, hoping that any British overreaction would be widely reported, and thus result in more political pressure against the British. Begin described this strategy as turning Palestine into a "glass house". The Irgun also re-established many representative offices internationally, and by 1948 operated in 23 states. In these countries, the Irgun sometimes acted against the local British representatives or led public relations campaigns against Britain. According to Bruce Hoffman: ""In an era long before the advent of 24/7 global news coverage and instantaneous satellite-transmitted broadcasts, the Irgun deliberately attempted to appeal to a worldwide audience far beyond the immediate confines of its local struggle, and beyond even the ruling regime's own homeland"."


title: Irgun

text: On April 16, 1947, Irgun members Dov Gruner, Yehiel Dresner, Eliezer Kashani, and Mordechai Alkahi were hanged in Acre Prison, while singing Hatikvah. On April 21 Meir Feinstein and Lehi member Moshe Barazani blew themselves up, using a smuggled grenade, hours before their scheduled hanging. And on May 4 one of the Irgun's largest operations took place – the raid on Acre Prison. The operation was carried out by 23 men, commanded by Dov Cohen – AKA "Shimshon", along with the help of the Irgun and Lehi prisoners inside the prison. The Irgun had informed them of the plan in advance and smuggled in explosives. After a hole was blasted in the prison wall, the 41 Irgun and Lehi members who had been chosen to escape then ran to the hole, blasting through inner prison gates with the smuggled explosives. Meanwhile, Irgun teams mined roads and launched a mortar attack on a nearby British Army camp to delay the arrival of responding British forces. Although the 41 escapees managed to get out of the prison and board the escape trucks, some were rapidly recaptured and nine of the escapees and attackers were killed. Five Irgun men in the attacking party were also captured. Overall, 27 of the 41 designated escapees managed to escape. Along with the underground movement members, other criminals – including 214 Arabs – also escaped. Of the five attackers who were caught, three of them – Avshalom Haviv, Meir Nakar, and Yaakov Weiss, were sentenced to death.


title: Irgun

text: After the death sentences of the three were confirmed, the Irgun tried to save them by kidnapping hostages — British sergeants Clifford Martin and Mervyn Paice — in the streets of Netanya. British forces closed off and combed the area in search of the two, but did not find them. On July 29, 1947, in the afternoon, Meir Nakar, Avshalom Haviv, and Yaakov Weiss were executed. Approximately thirteen hours later the hostages were hanged in retaliation by the Irgun and their bodies, booby-trapped with an explosive, afterwards strung up from trees in woodlands south of Netanya. This action caused an outcry in Britain and was condemned both there and by Jewish leaders in Palestine.


title: Irgun

text: This episode has been given as a major influence on the British decision to terminate the Mandate and leave Palestine. The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) was also influenced by this and other actions. At the same time another incident was developing – the events of the ship "Exodus 1947". The 4,500 Holocaust survivors on board were not allowed to enter Palestine. UNSCOP also covered the events. Some of its members were even present at Haifa port when the putative immigrants were forcefully removed from their ship (later found to have been rigged with an IED by some of its passengers) onto the deportation ships, and later commented that this strong image helped them press for an immediate solution for Jewish immigration and the question of Palestine.


title: Irgun

text: Two weeks later, the House of Commons convened for a special debate on events in Palestine, and concluded that their soldiers should be withdrawn as soon as possible.