​As the first elections approached, several members of the Lehi underground movement formed a party called the Fighters' List. The elections were about to determine the character of the State of Israel, following the passing of the UN Partition Plan of November 29, 1947 and the subsequent Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948. The UN Partition Plan was a painful compromise, which the right-wing vehemently opposed. The notion of a Jewish state that would occupy only part of the historical land of Israel – and involved giving up Judea, Samaria, most of the Galilee and the east bank of the Jordan -- was anathema to the right, especially the Lehi. Moreover, the Partition Plan proposed that Jerusalem be an international city, not under Israeli sovereignty. The Lehi actively opposed the Partition Plan and its implications, even resorting to violence, such as the assassination of UN emissary, Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte in September 1948.

The election propaganda of the Fighters' List focused on voters in Jerusalem, calling on them for support in achieving the following: Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a free, whole and prosperous homeland, and also "death to the foreign opponents of independence" and "the determination of political realities by arms."