Today in Labor History July 22, 1946: In a terrorist attack, the right-wing Zionist group, Irgun, bombed the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 91 people. The hotel was the site of the civil administration and military headquarters for Mandatory Palestine, a League of Nations political entity set up from 1920-1948. During World War I, the UK promised independence to the Arabs in Palestine if they rose up against the Ottomans, who controlled the Levant at that time. The Palestinian Arabs did rise up, helping to force out the Turks. However, the British betrayed them, dividing up the land with the French under the Sykes-Picot Agreement. During that same time, Jewish militias were organizing to create an independent Jewish state in Palestine. The attack on the King David was part of the “Jewish Insurgency” (AKA “Palestine Emergency”), a paramilitary campaign carried out by underground Jewish terrorist organizations against the British in order to create a Jewish state. Disguised as Arab workmen and waiters, Irgun operatives gained access to the hotel basement, where they placed a bomb. They did it in retaliation for Operation Agatha, when the British authorities raided Jewish Insurgency members’ homes and offices and arrested many of their members. Much of the British intelligence on the Jewish militias was stored in the King David Hotel.
Mechachem Begin, Israeli Prime Minister from 1977-1983, had been a leader of the terrorist organization Irgun. He specifically targeted the British and supported the King David bombing. The British declared him a terrorist and refused to let him enter the UK from 1952-55. Other Israeli prime ministers also had backgrounds in Irgun, Haganah, and/or the Jewish Resistance Movement. Irgun was an offshoot of another terrorist organization, Haganah, which would ultimately evolve into the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Irgun was based on Revisionist Zionism, which promoted maximum expansion of Jewish territory on both sides of the Jordan River. In addition to attacks on the British, Irgun routinely attacked Arab villages, slaughtering men, women and children. Hannah Arendt and Albert Einstein, both Jewish, wrote a letter to the New York Times in 1948 comparing Irgun to the Nazis.
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