Operation Agatha (Saturday, June 29, 1946), sometimes called Black Sabbath () or Black Saturday because it began on the Jewish sabbath, was a police and military operation conducted by the British authorities in Mandatory Palestine during the Jewish insurgency. Soldiers and police searched for arms and made arrests in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and several dozen settlements; the Jewish Agency was raided. The total number of British security forces personnel involved is variously reported as 10,000, 17,000, and 25,000. About 2,700 individuals were arrested, among them future Israeli Prime Minister Moshe Sharett. The officially given purpose of the operation was to end "the state of anarchy" then existing in Palestine. Other objectives included obtaining documentary proof of Jewish Agency approval of sabotage operations by the Palmach and of an alliance between the Haganah and the more violent Lehi (Stern Gang) and Irgun, destroying the Haganah's military power, boosting army morale and preventing a coup d'état being mounted by the Lehi and Irgun.

Background

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

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

Searches of Jewish settlements uncovered 15 arms caches, including one of the Haganah's three central arsenals at Kibbutz Yagur, where 325 rifles, 425,000 bullets, 96 2-inch mortars, 5,200 mortar shells, 5,000 grenades and 78 revolvers were confiscated. The arms were displayed at a press conference, and all of the men of Yagur were arrested.

The searches were resisted by large swathes of the Jewish population, many of whom were Holocaust survivors. Roadblocks were constructed and British troops were attacked while conducting searches. Some Jews conducted lie-ins to prevent the movement of military trucks, and others publicly displayed their concentration camp tattoos to the British in order to try to elicit their sympathy. A few British soldiers exacerbated the tense atmosphere by shouting "Heil Hitler" and scrawling swastikas on walls while they conducted searches.

Aftermath

thumb|British Government [[Statement of Information Relating to Acts of Violence, including a summary of information gained from Operation Agatha.]]

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

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

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

References

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