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On July 22, 1946, members of the Jewish underground militant organization Irgun Tsvai-Leumi in the British Mandate of Palestine detonated a bomb in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. The hotel was the base for the British Secretariat, the military command and a branch of the Criminal Investigation Division (police). 91 people were killed, most of them civilians: 28 British, 41 Arab, 17 Jewish, and 5 other. Around 45 people were injured.
The attack was initially ordered by David Ben Gurion, who was in the United States, but he later changed his mind and ordered the bombing to be cancelled. But Menachem Begin, the head of Irgun, went ahead anyway. Both Ben Gurion and Begin would later become Israeli Prime Ministers. The attack was commanded by Yosef Avni and Yisrael Levi.
The attack on the hotel was the largest attack against the British in the history of the Mandate. Some claim this act should be considered in light of the escalating violence in the region, and the continuing conflict between the three main forces in the region: British, Israeli, and Palestinian. In particular, the attack was made in retaliation for the British Operation Agatha.
The Attack
Moshe Sneh, the chief of the Haganah General Headquarters, sent a letter to Menachem Begin, the leader of the Irgun, with instructions. Text in (bracketed italics) has been inserted to clarify some of the references. The original letter can be found in the Jabotinsky Institute Archives (k-4 1/11/5).
- At the earliest possible opportunity, you are to carry out the operation at the "chick" (code for the King David Hotel) and at the house of "your servant and messiah" (code for the David Brothers building). Inform me of the date. Preferably at the same time. Do not reveal the identity of the implementing body - either by announcing it explicitly or by hinting.
- We too are preparing something - will inform you of details in good time.
- Exclude TA (Tel Aviv) from any plan of action. We are all interested in preserving TA - as the center of Yishuv life and the center of our own activities. If, as the result of any action, TA is immobilized (i.e., curfew, arrests), this will paralyse us and our plans as well. And the important objects of the other side are not focused here. Hence, TA is 'out of bounds' for the forces of Israel. 1.7.46. M. (Moshe Sneh)."
Despite its initial approval, repeated delays of the operation were requested by the Haganah in response to the changing political situation. Finally, the Irgun went ahead on its own without approval.
The Irgun later claimed that the following message was delivered to the telephone operator of the King David Hotel before the attack: "I am speaking on behalf of the Hebrew underground. We have placed an explosive device in the hotel. Evacuate it at once - you have been warned." This warning was supposedly ignored by the British authorities. Actually the explosives were not placed in the hotel but delivered to the hotel's service entrance by members of the Jewish terrorist unit pretending be an Arab working party. Jews unloaded from a truck several milk cans loaded with 225 kilograms of explosives. A British officer standing nearby, Major Mackintosh, became suspicious of the group of 'Arabs' and began to ask questions, but was suddenly gunned down by a member of the Jewish gang and subsequently died. A policeman stationed at the service entrance suffered a similar fate when he challenged the Jewish terrorists. Both victims were unarmed. A gun battle soon began between the terrorist and guards during which time the Jews ignited the fuse and fled from the building as the alarm was given. As they ran several were shot and wounded by guards, but most managed to escape. There was no time to evacuate the building and the charge exploded with devastating effect. Many were killed instantly as the whole wing of the building collapsed about them, others were trapped and many more injured.
Rescue work started immediately, as soldiers and police began to pull away the rubble in the hope of finding survivors. Members of the Royal Engineers were hurried to the scene with cranes and other heavy equipment, but they had difficulty reaching the King David Hotel because of Jewish road blocks. The Royal Engineers were stoned and booed by Jews as they tried to make their way to the scene of the bombing. Day and night rescue operations by the Royal Engineers continued for three days. They managed to pull six survivors out of the rubble. Owing to the danger of falling masonry and further subsidence the use of heavy equipment was very limited, until it was considered that no one remained alive beneath the debris. 91 bodies were recovered in the following week and 2000 truck loads of rubble were removed.
Responses to the attack
The British House of Commons responded:
- "On July 22 1946, one of the most dastardly and cowardly crimes in recorded history took place. We refer to the blowing up of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Ninety-two persons lost their lives in that stealthy attack, 45 were injured, among whom there were many high officials, junior officers and office personnel, both men and women. The King David Hotel was used as an office housing the Secretariat of the Palestine Government and British Army Headquarters. The attack was made on 22 July at about 12 o'clock noon when offices are usually in full swing. The attackers, disguised as milkmen, carried the explosives in milk containers, placed them in the basement of the Hotel and ran away.
The Chief Secretary for the Government of Palestine, Sir John Shaw, declared in a broadcast:
- "As head of the Secretariat, the majority of the dead and wounded were my own staff, many of whom I have known personally for eleven years. They are more than official colleagues. British, Arabs, Jews, Greeks, Armenians; senior officers, police, my orderly, my chauffeur, messengers, guards, men and women - young and old - they were my friends."
The Jewish leadership publicly condemned these attacks. The Jewish agency expressed "their feelings of horror at the base and unparalleled act perpetrated today by a gang of criminals". In fact, the Irgun were acting in response to direct instructions from the United Resistance, as described in the letter from Moshe Sneh cited above.
The Irgun issued an initial statement accepting responsibility for the attack, blaming the British for the deaths due to failure to respond to the warning, and mourning the Jewish victims. A year later, on July 22 1947, they issued a new statement saying that they were acting on instructions from "a letter from the headquarters of the United Resistance, demanding that we carry out an attack on the center of government at the King David Hotel as soon as possible".
The British army commander in Palestine, General Sir Evelyn Barker, in an order written only a few minutes after the bombing, commanded that Jewish property be "out of bounds for all British officers and soldiers". He stated that: "The aim of these orders are to punish the Jews in a way the race dislikes as much as any, namely by striking at their pockets." The order was rescinded two weeks later after much outrage at its anti-semitic nature.
see also: Israeli terrorism, Terrorism against Israelis, Terrorism
Today's King David Hotel
The King David Hotel, built with locally quarried pink sandstone, was opened in 1931. It once hosted three monarchs who fled their countries: King Alfonso XIII of Spain (1931), Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia (1936) and King George II of Greece (1942).
After the bombing, this hotel became a British fortress until May 4, 1948, when the Union Jack flag was lowered. It then became an Israeli fortress. At the end of the War of Independence, the hotel found itself on the border that separated Israel and Jordan. This hotel was reopened in 1967, after the Six-Day War, when Israel regained Jerusalem. Today it is a well-known 5-star hotel.
External links
Further reading
- T. Clarke, By Blood and Fire, (see review (http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v03/v03p-88_Clarke.html))
- Bethel, The Palestine Triangle.
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