Bidspirit auction | ”The British Oppressor Does Not

”The British Oppressor Does Not Cease for a Single Moment in His War Against Us” – Militant Irgun (Etzel) Broadside Calling for Active Warfare Against British Rule - ”The Rank-and-File Citizen!” – Militant protest broadside issued by the Irgun Zvai Leumi (Etzel) in the Land of Israel, distributed in Nisan 5707 (April 1947), calling upon the ”rank-and-file citizen” to take part in active resistance against British rule rather than being satisfied with a mere ”protest meeting” in response to the deportation of immigrant ships bound for the Land of Israel. The broadside opens with the striking headline ”The Rank-and-File Citizen!”, employing a deliberate psychological appeal intended to encourage the inhabitants of the country to challenge the official political leadership of the Jewish Agency and the Histadrut. It was published against the backdrop of the repeated interception of Aliyah Bet immigrant ships by the British Royal Navy and the forcible deportation of Holocaust survivors and other Jewish immigrants to the detention camps in Cyprus during those turbulent months. In this broadside, the Irgun sharply attacks the leaders of the official national institutions, derisively referring to them as ”the shouters who swore that they would defend immigration under all circumstances.” It accuses them of passivity and of betraying their previous pledges by limiting their response to the organization of a toothless ”protest meeting, ” which the authors characterize as a pattern of helpless Diaspora politics rather than the conduct of a nation fighting for its freedom in its own homeland. The underground movement calls upon the younger generation of the Yishuv to remain silent no longer in the face of the humiliation of the deportation of Holocaust survivors, to cease obeying leaders who advocate restraint, and to join the active armed struggle against British rule. 35 × 15 cm. Very good condition.