King David Hotel Bombing, Jerusalem, 1946

King David Hotel Bombing, Jerusalem, 1946

King David Hotel Bombing: 91 dead and 45 injured
The King David is the most famous hotel in Jerusalem. Opened not far from the Jaffa Gate in 1931, its pink sandstone has always been a conspicuous landmark of opulence; and with a clientele of political, military and wealthy international elites, it has been a de facto government building for whoever is in power. In 1946 the hotel was home to the British Secretariat.

The south wing was the British Mandate’s military, civil, judicial, police and communications headquarters.

It was a red rag to Irgun, the Stem Gang and Haganah, three underground Jewish groups with a track record of ruthless political violence. Whether you call them terrorists or freedom fighters depends on your point of view. Irgun’s leader, the future Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, paid lip service to avoiding ‘individual terror’ but was happy to kill indiscriminately to fight his ‘war’. Briefly united as the ‘Jewish Resistance Movement’, the gangs feared British betrayal of the promise of an exclusive Jewish homeland. They were also unscrupulous about taking what they wanted at gunpoint. Their protest was to bomb the King David. Dressed as Arabs, they smuggled 225 kg (500 lb) of explosives in milk chums into the hotel basement. The blast brought down all seven stories of the south wing, crushing more staff and fellow Jews than British administrators.

The international response was universal disgust. The Jewish Agency, attempting to achieve some sort of parity at the negotiating table, called the gangs ‘criminals’, and Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion denounced Irgun as ‘enemies of the people’. Ben-Gurion understood how the global confusion following World War II had delayed the peaceful resolution of legitimate Jewish aspirations.