July 22, 2004

•  

  
  

  58 YEARS AGO TODAY

  
  
  

  After Black Sabbath, Menahem Begin received a letter from Moshe Sneh (chief of the Haganah General Headquarters) with instructions to blow up the King David. Irgun fighters gathered at 7 am. on Monday, July 22, 1946.
  

  

  
  

  Prime Minister Menahem Begin, President Jimmy Carter and President Anwar Sadat at Camp David, 9/07/1978. 

  
  

  After the weapons had been distributed, the first unit - the group of "porters"-set out. All six "porters" were disguised as Arabs so as to avoid arousing suspicion. The strike force left next in a van loaded with seven milk-churns, each containing 50 kilograms of explosives and special detonators. 
  

   The van drove through the streets of Jerusalem, its tarpaulin cover concealing the milk-churns and the passengers, and halted at the side entrance of the hotel, through which foodstuffs were brought into the basement 'La Regence' restaurant. The fighters easily overcame the guards by the gate and hastened to the basement, where they searched all the rooms, and assembled the workers in the restaurant kitchen. They then returned to the van, brought the milk-churns into the restaurant, and placed them beside the supporting pillars . The commander set the time fuses for 30 minutes and ordered his men to leave.
  

  During the withdrawal from the basement, heavy gunfire was levelled at the group and two fighters were injured.
  

  Two women fighters who were waiting nearby ran over to a nearby telephone booth and delivered the following message to the hotel telephone operator and to the editorial office of the Palestine Post:
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  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.

  
  

  
  

  Some 25 minutes after the telephone calls, a shattering explosion shook Jerusalem, and reverberated at a great distance. The entire southern wing of the King David Hotel - all seven storeys - was totally destroyed.
  

  
  

  
  King David Hotel after the explosion
  

  For ten days, the British Engineering Corps cleared the wreckage, and on July 31 it was officially announced that 91 people had been killed in the explosion: 28 Britons, 41 Arabs, 17 Jews and 5 others. Some of them were unaware of events, and others were not permitted to leave the building, thus accounting for the large number of victims trapped in the debris.

  
  

   At first, the Mandatory government denied having received a telephone warning, but testimony submitted to the interrogating judge made it clear beyond a doubt that such a warning had in fact been given. Moreover, the Palestine Post telephone operator attested on oath to the police that, immediately after receiving the telephone message, she had telephoned the duty officer at the police station.
  

  
  King David Hotel after the explosion
  

  
  

  All the evidence suggests that there were numerous flaws in the security arrangements in the King David, and that a series of omissions occurred. The telephone warning was disregarded, and although the warning signal was given, an all-clear was sounded shortly before the explosion.

  
  

  http://www.etzel.org.il/english/index.html

  
  

   

  • 10:17 am
  • 4 Comments