The Irgun’s Great Textile Robbery: Government Control, Black Economy, and National Struggle

Abstract

On October 6th, 1944, in broad daylight, dozens of Irgun fighters broke into the British Controller of Light Industries offices in the heart of Tel Aviv, seized large amounts of valuable textiles, and temporarily occupied colonial territory. This article analyzes the incident and its aftermath that currently lie at the margins of historical memory. I argue that from a social-economic perspective, the robbery offers a glimpse into the complex nature of government and civil society relations in Palestine. Against the background of wartime economic controls - and the inevitable rise of a black market – the robbery reveals overlapping areas of contact between the locals and the colonial government that the Irgun exploited for its purposes. The article also draws attention to the importance of the underground’s economy in shaping its public image: namely, the robbery and similar acts of confiscation were denounced by the Yishuv’s political mainstream as criminal behavior that reflected the Irgun’s transgressive nature.