King David Hotel The “Hebrew Resistance Movement” laid plans to blow up the chief British military headquarters in Jerusalem, situated in the King David Hotel. The Irgun suggested and plotted the action. Commander Sneh approved the plans and their execution. The King David Hotel looked as impregnable as the Rock of Gibraltar. British tanks and crack troops guarded it behind high barricades. It was considered the “safest” place in Jerusalem. In addition to housing the British military staff and the highest British officials, it also had in safekeeping in the government offices the British dossiers on the Palmach, the striking force of the Haganah. It was these records that the Resistance Movement plotted to destroy. One of the first warning calls was received by an aide of Chief Colonial Secretary for Palestine, Sir John Shaw. Informed of the warning, the Colonial Chief said, “I am here to give orders to the Jews, not to receive orders from them.” With this in mind, Mr. Shaw hurried to the front door of the hotel, placed guards on it and issued orders that nobody was to leave the British headquarters. A fine voice of Empire, Mr. Shaw’s, but sounding off at a wrong time. A good number of military and government officials evaded the guards and slipped out of the building. But many did not. Ninety people were killed. Many were injured. The British records were destroyed. At one o’clock, a Haganah spokesman for the Hebrew Resistance Movement announced a bit bombastically over the secret radio that the Underground had destroyed the British military and government Headquarters in Jerusalem, together with all its dossiers and documents. Two hours later the fact that ninety had been killed and scores injured by the explosion first became known. On hearing the full details of the victory, the Hebrew Resistance Movement collapsed in a twinkling. Jewish Agency and Haganah officials announced over the radio that they had had nothing to do with the explosion; repudiated it as a vile deed and declared their ally of two hours ago – the Irgun – an outfit that shamed the Jewry of Palestine. The honeymoon was over. During these hours of violence and danger, the voice of Ben-Gurion was heard from afar. It was, alas, Leader Ben-Gurion’s misfortune to be in Paris while all this planning, bombing and arresting was going on in Jerusalem. Leader Ben-Gurion spoke like a caged lion from his Champs Elysees suite: “I am a prisoner of Paris.” Finally, shaking off his Paris bell boys and room clerks, Ben-Gurion returned to Palestine to repair the damage to the Jewish cause. He assured the outraged British that the Jewish Agency had had no hand in the “inhuman” King David Hotel blasting. That wretched deed had been the work of the Irgun terrorists whom he and his fellow honorable Jews had vowed to “vomit out of their midst.” The British knew the truth, but they also knew the value of repentance. They accepted the protestations of loyalty. As proof of this loyalty, Ben-Gurion, Sharett, Reuven Shiloach and other VIP’s of Jewry resumed their basic work for the Crown – betraying the Irgunists and turning them over to the British for punishment. The Irgun and LECHI fought on. The weeks immediately following the 29th of June, however, there was no change in the relations between the three resistance groups. The United Resistance leadership contrived to function, and concentrated on planning a massive reply to the British onslaught. Chosen as the appropriate measure was the destruction of British Government and Military Headquarters - the very centre of British rule – quartered in the south wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. It was an operation which, when previously proposed by the Irgun, had not received the approval of the Resistance Movement leadership. *Now the Irgun was asked to work out the plan in detail, to submit it an to carry it out. The plan was prepared, discussed between the Irgun Operations Chief “giddy” (Amihai Paglin) and the Palmach leader Yitshak Sadeh. On 22nd July the south wing of the King David Hotel was blown up and completely destroyed. *It was an operation brilliantly conceived, elaborately planned and executed with skill and courage. *It was accompanied by unplanned and unexpected tragedy: eighty lives were lost, among them senior members of the British establishment, Jewish officials, and casual callers at the Administration offices. The reason for this loss of life has never been conclusively cleared up. *ONE OF THE BASIC RULES OF THE CONDUCT OF THE IRGUN’S OPERATIONS WAS TO AVOID BLOODSHED WHEREVER POSSIBLE. This rule was an element basic to the timing and tactic of every operation. The military operations of the Irgun were directed at Government or Army objectives. A variety of stratagem was employed to avoid contact with British personnel or, through surprise, to prevent their resistance. Wherever possible, they were disarmed, immobilized and left unharmed. Clashes were nevertheless inevitable, especially as the British authorities had no such self-denying regulations, and casualties resulted. *British personnel as such were not, except in a few specific instances, the target of Irgun attack. This was not a manifestation of superior virtue or of half-heartedness, but the rational tactical imperative of resistance movement facing a power infinitely superior in numbers and fire-power. It is thus not surprising that in the four fierce years of Irgun resistance the number of casualties inflicted on British personnel was amazingly small. Involved in Palestine at the height of the campaign were some eighty to one hundred thousand British troops. Throughout this period the total number of British personnel killed was little over two hundred … This included moreover, casualties inflicted by the Lehi and, in the seven months of its assistance, by the Haganah. As for civilians, the rule was inevitably much stricter. Plans for operations were in fact cancelled when it appeared that they could not be carried out without involving civilians. This indeed determined the timing of the attack on the King David Hotel – decided on between Giddy and Sadeh. *The time chosen was before the lunch hour when the café on the ground floor of the wing to be destroyed was empty. *Specific precautions were then taken to ensure that the whole wing, and indeed the whole area, should be evacuated. *A small preliminary explosive charge was set off in the street opposite the hotel to frighten off passers-by – and the street was cleared. *The Arab workers in the kitchen were told by the attackers to run for their lives, and they did. *A warning of the impending explosion was telephoned to the Government secretariat twenty-five minutes before the charge exploded. ***The warning went unheeded. The British – avidly exploiting the horror the carnage aroused – at first denied that it had even been received. *Adina, the Irgun soldier who telephoned to the hotel, also telephoned the nearby French Consulate to open their window against the effects of possible blast. They Did. *At the same time she telephoned the Palestine Post editorial offices – whose switchboard operator telephoned the police. The news indeed spread. *When the explosion occurred several newspapermen had arrived in the neighbourhood and were in fact eye-witnesses of the event. Why did the warning to the British go unheeded? They may be acquitted of deliberately bringing about the death of scores of people in the building. *The Haganah radio later broadcast a report that on receiving the warning Sir John Shaw, the Chief Secretary of the British Administration, had said: “I give orders here. I don’t take orders from Jews.” *And that he had insisted that nobody leave the building. This may be dismissed. It probably arose from the fact that while some of Shaw’s close colleagues and subordinates were killed, he himself was unscathed; and gained colour from the haste with which he was transferred from Palestine a month later. What is more likely is that the British did not take the warning seriously. They did not believe that the Irgun could possibly penetrate their well-guarded Military Headquarters or that, if they did, they would not be repelled. *An alert was in fact conveyed to the guards on the ground floor of the building. The Irgun unit disguised as Arabs delivering the hotel’s supply of milk, came into the hotel unhindered, but were fired on (making) their way out. They suffered two casualties, one fatal. I had been called to a meeting with Begin on the day after the attack on the King David Hotel. He was saddened and volubly angry at the British for bringing about the loss of life. He told me then that among the Jews killed were sympathizers of the Irgun – one of them Julius Jacob, an assistant to the Chief Secretary. THE SHOCK OF THE TRAGIC COUNTERPOINT OF THE OPERATION CLOUDED THE NATURAL ELATION AT THE MAGNITUDE OF ITS POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS. This was certainly the case with the public. Angered as they had been by the sharp British blow at the Jewish Agency and the Haganah, depressed by the apparent inability of the Resistance Movement to mount a counter-attack, bewildered by the growing volume of defeatist propaganda, the damaging blow now delivered at the British was overshadowed in their minds by the tragedy, embellished by the reckless propaganda of the British. This was understandable. Equally understandable, though not excusable, was the immediate race for cover by the Haganah leaders. CONTRARY TO THE TERMS OF THE INTER-GROUP AGREEMENT, UNDER WHICH ALL AGREED OPERATIONS WERE TO BE CREDITED TO THE RESISTANCE MOVEMENT AS A WHOLE, THE IRGUN WAS ASKED TO ANNOUNCE ITS EXCLUSIVE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ATTACK IN THE KING DAVID HOTEL. The Irgun, which by its nature and objectives, was steeled to the hazards of war, did so without equivocation. The Haganah however also joined at first in the anathemas pronounced by the Agency and its Press; and only after protests from the Irgun did it give its own publicity to the fact that the British had had ample warning. After the first shock the Haganah leaders may have recalled an even greater tragedy they themselves had unwittingly brought down on the people. (see ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION theme – ss PATRIA) Whether or not they now remembered that tragedy the Haganah leaders, after helping to poison the atmosphere against the Irgun, recovered their balance and continued to discuss further operations to be carried out by the Resistance Movement. Its commander, Moshe Sneh, left Palestine quietly to take part in the meetings of the Jewish Agency Executive in Paris, there to press for the continuance of resistance. |
