King David Hotel bombing

King David Hotel bombing
King David Hotel bombing
Part of the Jewish insurgency in Palestine
	The hotel after the bombing
Location	Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine
Date	July 22, 1946 ; 12:37 pm (UTC+2)
Target	King David Hotel
Attack type	Zionist terrorism, bombing, mass murder
Deaths	91
Injured	46
Perpetrators	Irgun
Motive	Destruction of evidence, Jewish extremism

The British administrative headquarters for Mandatory Palestine, housed in the southern wing^[1] of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, were bombed in a terrorist attack^[2]^[3] on July 22, 1946, by the militant right-wing^[4] Zionist underground organization Irgun during the Jewish insurgency.^[5]^[6]^[7] 91 people of various nationalities were killed, including Arabs, Britons and Jews, and 46 were injured.^[8]

The hotel was the site of the central offices of the British Mandatory authorities of Palestine, principally the Secretariat of the Government of Palestine and the Headquarters of the British Armed Forces in Palestine and Transjordan.^[8]^[9] When planned, the attack had the approval of the Haganah, the principal Jewish paramilitary group in Palestine, though, unbeknownst to the Irgun, this had been cancelled by the time the operation was carried out. The main motive of the bombing was to destroy documents incriminating the Jewish Agency in attacks against the British, which were obtained during Operation Agatha, a series of raids by mandate authorities. It was the deadliest attack directed at the British during the Mandate era (1920–1948).^[8]^[9]

Disguised as Arab workmen and as hotel waiters, members of the Irgun planted a bomb in the basement of the main building of the hotel, whose southern wing housed the Mandate Secretariat and a few offices of the British military headquarters. The resulting explosion caused the collapse of the western half of the southern wing of the hotel.^[9] Some of the deaths and injuries occurred in the road outside the hotel and in adjacent buildings.^[9]

Controversy has arisen over the timing and adequacy of any warnings.^[9] The Irgun stated subsequently that warnings were delivered by telephone; Thurston Clarke states that the first warning was delivered by a 16-year-old recruit to the hotel switchboard 15 minutes before the explosion. The British Government said after the inquest that no warning had been received by anyone at the Secretariat "in an official position with any power to take action."^[10]

^ The Terrorism Ahead: Confronting Transnational Violence in the Twenty-First, Paul J. Smith, M.E. Sharpe, 2007, p. 27 ^{[ISBN missing]}
^ Chalk, Peter (1996). Encyclopedia of World Terrorism. Routledge. p. 394. ISBN 978-1-56324-806-1.
^ Crenshaw, Martha; Pimlott, John (1998). International Encyclopedia of Terrorism. Routledge. p. 287. ISBN 978-1-57958-022-3.
^ Hardy, Roger (2017). The Poisoned Well, Empire and its Legacy in the Middle East. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-19-062322-7.
^ Encyclopedia of Terrorism, Harvey W. Kushner, Sage, 2003 p. 181 ^{[ISBN missing]}
^ Encyclopædia Britannica article on the Irgun Zvai Leumi
^ The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945–1951: Arab Nationalism, the United States, and Postwar Imperialism, William Roger Louis, Oxford University Press, 1986, p. 430 ^{[ISBN missing]}
^ ^a ^b ^c Clarke, Thurston. By Blood and Fire, G. P. Puttnam's Sons, New York, 1981 ^{[page needed]} ^{[ISBN missing]}
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Cite error: The named reference bethell was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Koestler, Arthur (1949). Promise and Fulfilment, Palestine 1917–1949. London: Macmillan.

[1] The Terrorism Ahead: Confronting Transnational Violence in the Twenty-First, Paul J. Smith, M.E. Sharpe, 2007, p. 27 ^{[ISBN missing]}

[Encyclopedia_of_World_Terrorism-2] Chalk, Peter (1996). Encyclopedia of World Terrorism. Routledge. p. 394. ISBN 978-1-56324-806-1.

[International_Encyclopedia_of_Terrorism-3] Crenshaw, Martha; Pimlott, John (1998). International Encyclopedia of Terrorism. Routledge. p. 287. ISBN 978-1-57958-022-3.

[4] Hardy, Roger (2017). The Poisoned Well, Empire and its Legacy in the Middle East. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-19-062322-7.

[5] Encyclopedia of Terrorism, Harvey W. Kushner, Sage, 2003 p. 181 ^{[ISBN missing]}

[brtca_irgun-6] Encyclopædia Britannica article on the Irgun Zvai Leumi

[7] The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945–1951: Arab Nationalism, the United States, and Postwar Imperialism, William Roger Louis, Oxford University Press, 1986, p. 430 ^{[ISBN missing]}

[tclarke81-8] Clarke, Thurston. By Blood and Fire, G. P. Puttnam's Sons, New York, 1981 ^{[page needed]} ^{[ISBN missing]}

[bethell-9] Cite error: The named reference bethell was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[koest49-10] Koestler, Arthur (1949). Promise and Fulfilment, Palestine 1917–1949. London: Macmillan.

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