Aftermath of Irgun Terror Attack on the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, Palestine | July 1946

Footage of the aftermath of the bomb attack on Jerusalem's King David Hotel by the Irgun, a Jewish terror group committed to driving the British out of Palestine.

The outrage occurred on Monday, July 22nd 1946.

The Irgun was led by Menachem Begin, a Polish-Jewish emigre who would later found the Herut Party (later Likud) and become the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel.

The scenes depict the rescue operation after the attack which claimed the lives of 92 people. The hotel was the central administrative building for the governing British authorities in Palestine. It also served as the headquaters of the British Armed Forces.

Source of footage: Reuters News Archive.

Note:

1. The King David Hotel bombing was the deadliest attack directed at the British during the Mandate era from 1920 to 1948.

2. In January 1974, Begin, then an opposition politician, was interviewed for television by Russell Warren Howe, a British-born journalist and author. He stared straight into Begin's eyes and asked the following question:

”How does it feel, in the light of all that’s going on, to be the father of terrorism in the Middle East?”

Begin, Howe recalled, responded as follows:

“In the Middle East?” he bellowed, in his thick, cartoon accent. ”In all the world!”