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Early Israeli Terrorism starts by looking at the events of 22 July 1946, when a massive explosion ripped through the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, headquarters of the British administration in Palestine. It killed 91 people in the latest and most shocking attack to be mounted by a deadly group of Jewish terrorists as they fought to drive the British out of Palestine and establish a homeland of their own – Israel. Although the King David Hotel was one of the worst Israeli terrorist attacks, it was still just one of many. Other targets included bridges, military bases, public buildings and railways as well as politicians and soldiers marked for assassination. Ironically, several leading Israeli terrorists would eventually emerge as internationally respected leaders of their countries.
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00:00July the 22nd 1946 Jerusalem early afternoon a massive explosion has
00:12destroyed a large part of the King David at home
00:1791 people die in the blast it's the deadliest attack so far on the British
00:24administration in Palestine it's the world's first major terrorist
00:29attack since World War two but who are the people behind the outrage
00:59July the 22nd 1946 Jerusalem the King David hotel has just been devastated by
01:15a huge bomb killing a great number of people and wrecking a large part of the
01:20building
01:20the hotel is the headquarters of the British administration in Palestine but
01:28the Jews want to get the British out and establish a homeland of their own Israel
01:33and some of them are prepared to go to any length to achieve their aim even if it
01:39involves the slaughter of innocent people as it did in the attack on the King
01:43David at out most of the 91 people killed in the blast are civilians and
01:50ironically 17 of them are Jews two days later a shadowy group known as the eargun
01:58claim responsibility for the outrage
02:02in their defense they say they'd issued a warning 22 minutes before the blast but
02:07the British didn't respond and failed to evacuate the building so alleges the
02:13eargun the loss of life rests squarely with the British but the British furiously
02:19deny receiving a warning branding the eargun as a gang of lying murderous
02:24terrorists the outrage is condemned by a great many Jews themselves the eargun
02:32sprang into life in the early 1930s as a hard-line extremist offshoot of the
02:37Haganah a paramilitary organization founded to protect Palestinian Jews from
02:42Arab attacks on outlying settlements and farms at the time Palestine is
02:48administered by Britain under a League of Nations mandate the British had ruled
02:54Palestine since 1917 when their troops marched into Jerusalem and throughout the
02:59Turks who had taken Germany's side during World War One this marks the
03:05beginning of the end of the Ottoman Empire which has held sway in the Middle
03:08East for hundreds of years it also heralds a great push for the restoration of
03:15the ancient Kingdom of Israel not just by Jews already living in Palestine but by
03:20thousands of other Jews scattered throughout the world
03:25and when the League of Nations mandate comes into effect six years later Jews
03:30start flooding back to the place they regard as their rightful home the Holy
03:34Land this is greatly resented by Palestinian Arabs and it's not long
03:41before Jewish settlers particularly those living outside the urban areas are
03:45subject to random attacks
03:50but the violence does nothing to hold the flow of immigrants and by the start of
03:54World War Two in 1939 the British alarmed at the number of Jews arriving in
04:00Palestine have already started turning many of the refugee ships back this
04:06infuriates the Haganah but they agree to suspend their opposition to the British
04:10until Nazi Germany has been defeated the Irgun also takes the same line since
04:18Adolf Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 Jews living in Germany had been persecuted
04:23relentlessly and although it would not be until the end of the war in Europe in
04:28May 1945 that the true horror of the Holocaust is revealed Jews resisting
04:34British rule in Palestine knew that Hitler represented a threat to their very
04:38survival so he has to be defeated at all costs even if this means siding with
04:45Britain the long-standing occupying power however not all Jews felt the same for instance Avraham Stern
04:56founder of what became known as the Stern gang and Irgun splinter group favored joining forces with
05:02the axis powers first he courted Italian dictator Benito Mussolini hoping that if Italy overran the Middle East Mussolini would be happy to see a Jewish state set up in Palestine
05:12but when Mussolini lost out to the British in North Africa Stern now turned his
05:22attention to Hitler he thought that if he collaborated with Germany and Germany won
05:28the war Hitler would expel the British from Palestine thus enabling Stern to
05:32establish a Nazi style totalitarian Jewish state meanwhile Stern and his gang tried to raise funds by
05:42carrying out a series of violent bank robbers in Tel Aviv the British who regard the Stern gang as no
05:50more than a bunch of terrorist criminals especially when they kill three policemen now go after their
05:56leaders with a vengeance Stern himself is eventually cornered in February 1942 and shot dead the authorities now mop up many of his
06:08fellow terrorists one of whom is Yichak Shamir who will later become Prime Minister of Israel
06:14but the Stern gang now known as the Leahy are still determined to get the British out of Israel
06:22on November the 4th 1944 they carry out their most audacious act to date when Lord Moyne a prominent
06:31British politician is assassinated during an attack on his car in Cairo Egypt Moyne the member of the
06:39famous Irish Guinness family had just been appointed minister resident the highest ranking British politician
06:45in the region Prime Minister Winston Churchill who had long supported the idea of a Jewish
06:52British state was outraged leading Jews are also shocked Dr. Hayin Weitzman head of the Zionist Congress and later the first
07:03president of Israel called upon the Jews in Palestine to cast out the terrorists and refuse them any assistance after
07:11they'd shot Lord Moyne his assassins two Palestinian Jews were seized by an angry mob and handed over to the police
07:18on January the 11th 1945 they're sentenced to death and hanged two months later but the Leahy are undeterred and begin
07:29to step up their campaign to oust the British however a great many Jews are sick of the violence they know it's not
07:37getting them anywhere encouraged by David Ben-Gurion the leading member of the Jewish agency informers now hand
07:47over the names of around 700 suspected terrorists to the British authorities these include not only members of
07:54the Leahy or stern gang but also those in the ear gun since December 1943 the ear gun has been led by
08:02Menachem big he will later become Prime Minister of Israel in May 1977 but now he has a two thousand
08:11pound price on his head meanwhile another leading Zionist go to my ear also condemns a terrorist
08:18organizations describing them as fascists both she and Ben-Gurion are determined to help the British stamp
08:25out the ear gun and the lady they know the British government will never agree to the formation of a
08:31separate Jewish state while the violent extremists hold sway following Hitler's suicide a week earlier
08:40Germany surrenders unconditionally on May the 7th 1945 now the Jews many of whom had fought bravely on
08:49the side of the Allies hope that it won't be long before the victors agree to the formation of a
08:54Jewish state within Palestine but it's not high on the British agenda especially as the country is
09:01now led by a new Labour government headed by Clement Attlee the end of the war sees hundreds of thousands
09:10of Jews in Europe desperate to make their way to Palestine but the British are still reluctant to
09:16relax a strict immigration rules now they not only prevent refugee ships docking but they send their
09:22occupants back across the Mediterranean to the displaced persons camps in Germany from which
09:27many of them had fled in the first place the ear gun and the lehi respond by stepping up their campaign
09:34calling for Palestinian Jews to take up arms against the British they carry out random acts of
09:44sabotage including blowing up a number of public buildings
09:52but the British government will not be swayed with Foreign Secretary Ernest Devin as their main spokesman they
10:00refuse to lift the restrictions on Jewish immigrants which had been in place since before the war now the
10:07British are not just turning back ships in the Mediterranean they also close off the land routes
10:12particularly at the start of the main one from Germany and Austria through Italy this alarms the United States led by
10:21President Harry S Truman having been pressing the British since the end of the war to accept more
10:27immigrants Truman is growing increasingly uneasy at their continuing intransigence but they refuse to listen
10:34even previous supporters like Golda Meir now turn against the British and when in April 1946 it's announced that the
10:44British had leaned on the Italians to prevent two refugee ships setting sail from the port of La Spezia in
10:49northwest Italy mayor suggests that she and 14 other leading Zionists go on hunger strike until the ships which contain more than a thousand refugees from Poland and Central Europe are allowed to leave
11:01surprisingly her ploy works and on May the 8th the ships are given permission to set sail
11:08but the terrorists are still not satisfied they are determined to keep up the pressure until the exasperated British agree to leave Palestine
11:16the Irgun now led by Menachem Begin plan an outrage which will shock the world
11:22July the 22nd 1946 Jerusalem 11 45 a.m. six men dressed as Arabs arrive at a side entrance to the King David Hotel the British administration's headquarters in Palestine
11:41a few minutes later a truck draws up it's loaded with milk churns
11:48the men who are in fact members of the Irgun carry the churns into the hotel and down into the basement
11:59after herding out various hotel workers they place the churns each of which contains 50 kilos of high explosive and detonators
12:08around pillars supporting the floors above but within a few minutes they're discovered by an unarmed British Army officer
12:15as he walks towards them he shot in the stomach the terrorists then finish setting the charges and leave the hotel by the same side entrance
12:23there they shoot a police officer who's standing just outside as they start running away they're shot at by other soldiers
12:29and police officers who've arrived on the scene an explosion suddenly erupts on the pavement opposite it's a diversionary tactic enabling the terrorists to escape in the ensuing confusion
12:48then at around 12 36 p.m. the sound of a massive explosion fills the air
12:55part of the seven-story right wing of the hotel collapses in a heap of rubble
13:0091 people die in the blast 28 british 41 arabs 17 jews and five others
13:11john colton the army officer in charge of the rescue operation recalled the scene
13:17we had to propose silence from time to time so that we could hear and listen for people who were not being killed
13:26uh screaming so that we could locate them and with any luck dig them out in which we were not very successful
13:33we dug out six people altogether alive the sixth person was three days after we'd started
13:40and we pulled out 91 dead so that was the scale of the operation was huge
13:46it's the worst attack on the british since they assumed full control of palestine in 1923
13:52it's also the first major terrorist attack since the end of world war ii
13:59in a statement to the house of commons prime minister clement atlee describes it as an insane act of terrorism
14:07two days later the irgun admit responsibility claiming they telephoned the british giving them 22 minutes warning before the bombs went off
14:15this is vehemently denied by the british and most people tend to believe them rather than the irgun
14:22much later manachem begin insisted a proper warning had been given
14:27none would have been hurt at all but the evacuation of the hotel was prevented by the man on the spot
14:34and this was a tragedy we never wanted to cause any casualties during that historic operation
14:41edward horn of the palestinian police disagreed
14:45cid had all kinds of joke warnings malicious warnings of all kinds of events
14:52what was there about this one that made it uh draw the attention for to evacuate the building
15:01the so-called 20-minute warning was not enough and it wasn't a very good warning
15:07although the u.s administration is as shocked as everyone else by the outrage
15:12it doesn't lessen its pressure on the british to ease up on their immigration policy
15:16president truman still wants to see a hundred thousand jewish refugees allowed into palestine from europe
15:23during the next few weeks
15:25the british realize that if they want to keep the u.s on side they will have to start making some concessions
15:31but for the time being they want to concentrate on bringing the king david bombers to justice
15:38they set up operation shark the largest search for terrorists ever carried out in palestine
15:45launched in tel aviv on july the 25th operation shark will involve more than fifteen thousand troops
15:52nearly eight hundred suspects are arrested as the british seal off tel aviv from the outside world
15:59they include yitzhak shamir the stern gang commander but not the irgun leader menachem begin
16:06he manages to evade the authorities he was allegedly saddened by the deaths of so many people in the hotel
16:14begins remarks are greeted with cynical disbelief by the british
16:21the bombing of the king david hotel resulted in a schism between the irgun and the hagana whose leaders were horrified by the outrage
16:29they now sought to distance themselves from the irgun and the lehi knowing that such violence would only harden british resolve
16:36instead the hagana concentrate on smuggling in illegal immigrants and the occasional act of sabotage such as damaging royal navy ships used to keep the refugees at bay
16:48however the irgun is determined to continue hitting the british as hard as they can until they give up and withdraw from palestine
16:55they carry on harassing the security forces blowing up buildings mining roads and bridges attacking police stations and military bases and derailing trains
17:03but it won't be long before the irgun stage what has been described as the most spectacular operation carried out against the british during the entire mandate period
17:18may the fourth 1947 acre 410 p.m.
17:29a group of irgun terrorists launch a daring attack on the british-run fortress prison at acre
17:35previously thought to be impregnable the prison is breached through a hole blown in the wall
17:42the attackers force their way inside and after a series of running gun battles with the guards released 230 inmates
17:56however much to their chagrin only 41 of them were jews the rest were arabs
18:03several irgun fighters were killed during the breakout and a number also taken prisoner
18:10three would be hanged later resulting in a shocking reprisal
18:15at the time the irgun held two british army sergeants kidnapped at the coastal resort of netania to the north of tel aviv a month earlier
18:24the irgun hoped to trade their lives for those of the condemned men
18:29they were wrong so just 13 hours after the prisoners were executed the two sergeants were put to death in the basement room
18:38they were then strung up in a nearby forest and set with booby traps
18:44one of which badly wounded an army captain as the bodies were cut down
18:48the murder of the two men caused widespread revulsion
18:51the murder of the two men caused widespread revulsion
18:55prominent jewish leaders including golda meir expressed their deep regret and shame
19:00and the hagena now completely removed from the irgun describe the incident as a most revolting crime
19:07in fact the hagena leadership is so appalled that they now join forces with the british in maintaining security around netania
19:16they're convinced it's now only a matter of time before the british quit palestine
19:21and they want to step into the vacuum created by the eventual departure of the troops
19:26meanwhile the british is still determined to prevent more jews arriving
19:31in mid-july 1947 four and a half thousand refugees are forcibly removed from a ship called the exodus
19:38escorted into the port of haifa and then sent back on three ships bound for france
19:43but the jews refuse to leave when they arrive
19:46so now the ships sail for germany where the jews are put in displaced persons camps
19:52it will be a year before they reach palestine again this time to stay
20:02back in london the house of commons is recalled from its summer recess
20:05for an emergency debate on the worsening situation in palestine
20:09the british are beginning to tire of maintaining order
20:12and the security forces which now number more than a hundred thousand
20:16seem unable to stem the flow of violence
20:19then in november the united nations general assembly
20:23who could see no end to the conflict
20:25recommend that the mandate should be terminated
20:27and that palestine should be divided into two separate states
20:31palestine for the arabs and israel for the jews
20:35however the holy city of jerusalem
20:38to which both arabs and jews laid claim
20:40would be administered separately by the u.n.
20:43the u.n.
20:45the u.n. proposes that the british remain in palestine until the transfer of power
20:49but that this should take place no later than august the first 1948
20:55the british government agrees
20:57but then surprises everyone by setting the date even earlier
21:00may the fifteenth
21:03meanwhile the arabs in palestine are far from happy with the prospect of partition
21:07they're convinced that when the jews establish their own state
21:11it will be very much to their detriment
21:13in december 1947 the arab league meets in cairo
21:18they reject the u.n. plan out of hand
21:20preferring a military solution to the never-ending conflict between arabs and jews
21:25rather than a political settlement
21:27so now with the creation of israel just six months away
21:32violence between the jews and arabs in palestine erupts almost immediately
21:37there are a number of bloody clashes
21:40but the hagana plays no part in the random violence
21:44one of its leading members at the time is yitchak rabin
21:48as someone who will later become prime minister of israel twice
21:51he knows that at some point arabs and jews will have to reach an accord with each other
21:56but this is a long way ahead
22:03on may the fourteenth nineteen forty eight
22:06the state of israel came into being
22:08david ben gurion
22:10the country's first prime minister
22:12brought the ceremony a day forward
22:14because may the fifteenth
22:15the date nominated by the british
22:17was a saturday
22:18the jewish sabbath
22:20and in accordance with their ancient traditions
22:22none of the jews signing the declaration of independence
22:25would have been permitted to use a pen on the sabbath
22:29it would have been regarded as work
22:32the british start leaving on may the fifteenth as agreed
22:37israel is recognized immediately by a great many countries
22:40including the u.s. and the soviet union
22:43at the same time ben gurion invites the hagana to come in from the cold
22:47and form the basis of the country's new army
22:50the israel defense force or idf
22:54the irgun and the remnants of the lehi or stern gang
22:58are also invited to join
23:00a few do
23:01but most prefer to go it alone
23:03the timing could not have been more propitious
23:07because within a few days troops from syria jordan egypt
23:11the lebanon and iraq invade the newly independent nation
23:15it would not be until january the following year
23:18that a peace of sorts was declared
23:25meanwhile sporadic acts of terrorism continue to impede israel's progress
23:32the most notable of these occurred in jerusalem on september the 17th 1948
23:37when count folk bernadotte a swedish diplomat was ambushed in his car and shot to death
23:44his assassins were members of the stern gang
23:47bernadotte was murdered because the stern gang leadership including yitzhak shamir
23:53were furious that in his role as a u.n mediator bernadotte favored an arab administration in jerusalem
23:59the israeli government was quick to condemn the assassination
24:06bernadotte decides that he would no longer tolerate any underground movements
24:10and orders the immediate arrest of all known stern gang members
24:14he also clamps down on the irgun
24:17giving them 24 hours to hand over their weapons and disband
24:21now he gives them a stark choice
24:24join the idf or be hunted down and destroyed
24:30in may 2003 55 years after israel became an independent state
24:35the british national archives released a previously top secret mi5 document
24:40headed present trends in palestine
24:44written in august 1946
24:46it revealed that the stern gang planned to set up a cell in london
24:49and assassinate ernest bevin britain's foreign secretary at the time
24:54it's believed that people had already been selected and trained for the mission
24:58but it was called off at the last moment
25:01as the stern gang leadership decided to concentrate their activities in palestine
25:08by may 1948 the terrorists had been absorbed into mainstream israeli politics
25:15by embracing democracy previous terrorist leaders have instead become leaders who now speak for their country
25:22which even today is still fighting for its existence
25:27a very well-d towards the scene
25:30but it's very powerful for the ensure that the potential of the distress
25:35is Goodbye
25:39and see you next time
25:40for one day
25:41a great moment
25:42for the ship
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