Menachem Begin, Israeli politician, founder of
Likud and the
sixth Prime Minister of Israel. Before the creation of the
state of Israel, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group
Irgun, the
Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization
Haganah. He proclaimed a
revolt, on 1 February 1944, against the
British mandatory government, which was opposed by the
Jewish Agency. As head of the Irgun, he
targeted the British in Palestine.
[2] Later, the Irgun fought the Arabs during the
1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine and its chief Begin was also noted as "leader of the notorious
terrorist organisation" by the British government and banned from entering the
United Kingdom.
[3]