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39 KILLED IN JERUSALEM HEADQUARTERS
SEARCH FOR BURIED VICTIMS AFTER BOMB OUTRAGE
PART OF KING DAVID HOTEL WRECKED
JERUSALEM, PALESTINE (London Times) July 22, 1946 — Thirty-nine persons were last night unofficially stated to have been killed and 53 missing after the attack by Jewish terrorists on the British headquarters in Jerusalem at midnight yesterday.
Throughout the day the search was continued for persons buried under the debris of the corner of the King David Hotel which was destroyed by bombs. Several senior Government officials are missing.
Photo -- Israeli Government
National Photo Collection
The official report states:
At 12:10 p.m. to-day a civilian truck drove up to the basement of the King David Hotel with a number of Jews dressed as Arabs, who held up the civilian doorkeeper at the service entrance. The Jews entered the hotel and held up the kitchen staff before unloading several milk churns through the servants’ door. Pushing the churns along the corridor past the British military telephone exchange manned by the Royal Corps of Signals, they planted them directly below the offices of the Palestine Government Secretariat.
A Royal Signals officer working at the exchange heard the noise and came out to investigate. He was held up by a man armed with a revolver, who shot him twice in the stomach, wounding him severely. Ten minutes later four or five men dressed as Arabs were seen escaping from the hotel basement. British troops opened fire, and one raider was wounded. A diversionary explosion occurred in the road outside the King David Hotel. At 12.37 p.m. a tremendous explosion ripped off a whole corner of the hotel building, destroying 25 rooms occupied by the Secretariat of the Palestine Government and the Defence Security Office of British Military Headquarters.
Sarah Agassi, 80, remembers spying in the King David Hotel. She and a fellow agent posed as a couple. They danced tangos and waltzes, sipped whisky and wine while they cased out the hotel.
On the day her brother and his fellow fighters posed as Arabs delivering milk and brought seven milk churns, each containing 50kg of explosives, into the building. Ms Agassi waited across the street until her brother rushed out. She said that she then made the warning call to the British command in the hotel.
Sitting in the luxurious hotel lobby, she expressed no regret. “We fought for our independence. We thought it was the right way . . . If I had to fight for Israel, I swear even now I would do anything.”
The commemoration of Israeli bombings that killing 92 people has caused offence.
AS ISRAEL wages war against Hezbollah “terrorists” in Lebanon, Britain has protested about the celebration by right-wing Israelis of a Jewish “act of terrorism” against British rule 60 years ago this week.
The rightwingers, including Binyamin Netanyahu, the former Prime Minister, are commemorating the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the headquarters of British rule, that killed 92 people and helped to drive the British from Palestine.
They have erected a plaque outside the restored building, and are holding a two-day seminar with speeches and a tour of the hotel by one of the Jewish resistance fighters involved in the attack.
Simon McDonald, the British Ambassador in Tel Aviv, and John Jenkins, the Consul-General in Jerusalem, have written to the municipality, stating: “We do not think that it is right for an act of terrorism, which led to the loss of many lives, to be commemorated.”
In particular they demanded the removal of the plaque that pays tribute to the Irgun, the Jewish resistance branch headed by Menachem Begin, the future Prime Minister, which carried out the attack on July 22, 1946.
… The controversy over the plaque and the two-day celebration of the bombing, sponsored by Irgun veterans and the right-wing Menachem Begin Heritage Centre, goes to the heart of the debate over the use of political violence in the Middle East. Yesterday Mr Netanyahu argued in a speech celebrating the attack that the Irgun were governed by morals, unlike fighters from groups such as Hamas.
“It’s very important to make the distinction between terror groups and freedom fighters, and between terror action and legitimate military action,” he said. “Imagine that Hamas or Hezbollah would call the military headquarters in Tel Aviv and say, `We have placed a bomb and we are asking you to evacuate the area’.”
But the view of the attack was very different in 1946 when The Times branded the Irgun “terrorists in disguise”.
Sitting in the luxurious hotel lobby, Ms. Agassi expressed no regret. “We fought for our independence. We thought it was the right way . . . If I had to fight for Israel, I swear even now I would do anything.”
A two-day seminar will be held to mark the 60th anniversary of the bombing of the King David Hotel, Jerusalem, by members of the United Resistance Movement (Haganah and Irgun). The King David Hotel was at the time the military headquarters of the British Mandatory Authority. The seminar, which will be held by the Begin Heritage Center in conjunction with the University of Haifa and the Irgun Veterans Association, will be addressed by: MK Binyamin Netanyahu, Shraga Ellis, David Ohana, Ya’acov Makovitzki, Prof. Arieh Naor, Shaul Avishai, Herzl Makov, Eldar Harovi of the Palmach Archives, Yossi Kister of the Irgun Museum, Udi Laval of the Ben-Gurion Institute, Michal Dohen of Bar Ilan University, Moti Golani of the University of Haifa and others.
In recent times, it is not unusual that military regimes establish headquarters in popular hotels or other civilian institutions, but in 1946 it was an exceptional instance. Among the seminar participants will be persons who had a role one way or another in the operation, which was one of the decisive events compelling the British to give up the Mandate over Palestine and leave the country. The seminar will be held at the Menachem begin Heritage Center, 6 Nahon Street, Jerusalem. For details and registration call (02) 565-2020 or e-mail offices@begincenter.org.il.
JERUSALEM (Haaretz) July 19 — The Israeli speakers tried to reassure the jittery audience. El Al chairman Izzy Borovich said he is optimistic and predicted that Israel’s economy won’t be affected. He noted that it’s weathered many a crisis before. Borovich also quipped that the Lebanese national aviation company has been grounded (because Israel bombed the runways), reducing competition for El Al. But when Borovich expanded on his vision of Tel Aviv as a hub for global aviation, for instance between the east coast of the U.S. to Asia, one was forced to think his vision will have to wait for a while.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
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