July 22, 1946 – Terrorist Hotel Bombing in Jerusalem by Irgun, Right-wing Zionist Organization

On this day in history the militant right-wing Zionist organization Irgun set off a bomb in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.

The Jewish Virtual Library explains the reason for the attack:

The King David Hotel was the site of the British military command and the British Criminal Investigation Division (CID). The Irgun chose it as a target after British troops invaded the Jewish Agency June 29, 1946, and confiscated large quantities of documents. At about the same time, more than 2,500 Jews from all over Palestine were placed under arrest. The information about Jewish Agency operations, including intelligence activities in Arab countries, was taken to the King David Hotel.”

Irgun leader Menachem Begin (later the sixth Prime Minister of Israel) tried to avoid civilian casualties, warning of the coming attack in calls earlier in the day to the hotel, the French Consulate, and the Palestine Post.

Begin quoted one British official who supposedly refused to evacuate the building, saying: “We don’t take orders from the Jews.” [Menachem Begin, The Revolt, (NY: Nash Publishing, 1977), p. 224.] In any event, when the bombs exploded, the casualty toll was high: a total of 91 killed and 45 injured. Among the casualties were 15 Jews. Few people in the hotel proper were injured by the blast.

The King David Hotel after the bombing

Even more damning, the Israel State Archives pointed out that the CID had intelligence from December 1945 indicating the hotel would be targeted:

The CID asked to raise security in the hotel, including putting armed soldiers at the ‘Regence’ restaurant at the entrance of the hotel. The Chief Secretary [Sir John Shaw] refused to consider these suggestions, with the justification that there were not many places for recreation and fun in Palestine, and he did not want to foreclose another. He continued to refuse to take action (or even to pass on the information to the High Commissioner of Palestine) when the CID approached him again with newer information on the attack plan (the CID had the plan of attack, but did not know exactly when it would be carried out).”

The Jewish Virtual Library recounts:

For decades the British denied they had been warned. In 1979, however, a member of the British Parliament introduced evidence that the Irgun had indeed issued the warning. He offered the testimony of a British officer who heard other officers in the King David Hotel bar joking about a Zionist threat to the headquarters. The officer who overheard the conversation immediately left the hotel and survived.”