ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base
"The King David Hotel"
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The explosion of King David Hotel was an attack carried out by the Irgun, against British rule in Israel on July 22, 1946. The Irgun blew up the southern wing of King David Hotel, in which the military commander of the British Mandate regime prepared a manager of the Mandate government. In the explosion, about 90 people were killed, most of them Arabs and British, as well as 15 Jews. About 45 people were injured.
background to action
In 1938, the Mandatory Administration transferred his seat to the south wing of King David Hotel. In the hotel that accompanied the prime ministers and chief headquarters of the army, many military and civilian officials of the Mandate regime, and in many eyes it was a symbol of this rule. The events of Black Saturday, June 29, 1946, resulted in a desire for retaliation. The hotel was selected by the Defence Command headed by Moshe Sana as a target for the Irgun, also because of the desire to destroy the large amounts of documents seized by the British at the Jewish Agency on June 29 in the Black Sabbath events and at the hotel in the South. These documents have breached the defense and tied it to the Hebrew conversion movement. This took place at the same time as the operation of the Palmach in the British camp of Waves and the fighting operation in the building of the David Brothers.
On 1 July 1946, Moses Sana wrote to Menachem Begin:
"The Chik" means "Melanchoik" - King David Hotel. “The house of your servant from your Messiah” means the building of the “David Brothers” (a office building near the hotel that was also used by the Mandate authorities), which is intended as a target for the Bible (that is, inspired by the last verse in the prayer of every living soul: “For all the words of service and praise of an old cousin, your servant from your Messiah.”
Chaim Weizmann, president of the Zionist Histadrut, sent Meir Wesgel as a messenger to Sana, urged him to stop the armed struggle in the British. He threatened that if he did not answer, he would resign from his position and publish the cause of resignation. Sana informed the staff that he could not decide on the matter alone, and he would make the decision to “The X Committee” (a political-public committee whose job was to approve military operations of the Jewish Marty movement). The committee had a debate about Weizmann’s powers, but it was decided to be resolved at its request. As a result, Sana resigned from the role of the national commander of the defense.
Sana decided to travel to Paris himself and participate in the Jewish Agency’s management meeting, in which the struggle was discussed in the British Mandate. Before leaving the country, on July 19, he sent Lajin a request for the postponement of the action, and it was set on July 22. The IDF plan to blow up the "David Brothers" building was cancelled due to the difficulty of coordination.
Carrying the action
On Monday, July 22, 1946, a squad of IDF fighters headed by Israel Levy (Gadaron) transferred the ropes using a truck to develop the hotel. At the entrance of the hotel, the members of the first link, under the command of Joseph Stones, were waiting for Arabs, and together they broke the ropes from the truck. After taking over the service gatekeepers in the hotel, they were dining in the kitchen of the Regents on the bottom floor of the hotel’s southern wing. The IDF fighters concentrated the workers in the kitchen, putting seven to large milk, each of which contained 50 kg of explosives, along with the building’s support. Then they retreated. When leaving the hotel, two British officers met and raised their suspicion. The IDF fighters killed one of the officers and wounded the other. The soldiers of the Arab Legion who saw them opened fire on them, and in the midst of the fires that developed two of the Irgun fighters were damaged. One of the fighters died later than his wounds.
The issue of the telephony announcement of the hotel’s explosion is controversial. One argument is that Heinrich Reinhold, a British agent who acted in the ranks of the Irgun and was a partner for the operation not enough to send a warning to his operatives about the expected attack on the hotel, and Helm preferred not to act as long as there was no explicit deterrent. According to G