An attack was carried out by the Jewish paramilitary group

Haganah Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...

on the Christian-owned Semiramis Hotel in the Katamon neighborhood of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine. After suspecting that the Semiramis hotel was one of two Arab headquarters in Katamon, the Haganah planted a bomb there on the night of 5–6 January 1948. The mission was carried out by a team consisting of four men supported by ten riflemen.Lapierre and Collins, 1972, pp. 128–133. The explosion killed 24 or 26 civilians including at least one child. Among the dead were seven members of the Aboussouan family and Hubert Lorenzo, the 23-year-old son of the proprietor. The Spanish vice-consul, Manuel Allende Salazar, was also killed in the attack. According to

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

reported at the time that a Haganah spokesman said the Jerusalem hotel was attacked because "the building was an important meeting place of Arab gangs, where arms were distributed to villages in the Jerusalem area." He continued, "Unfortunately, we cannot hit at the Arab band's (main) headquarters as it is secreted in a mosque." The attack was harshly condemned by the British authorities,Benny Morris (2003) ''The Birth Of The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited'', Cambridge University Press, p. 103 and

David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion ( ; ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary List of national founders, national founder and first Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister of the State of Israel. As head of the Jewish Agency ...

sacked Mishael Shaham, the Haganah officer responsible for the Jerusalem sector, replacing him with David Shaltiel. The British authorities denounced the attack as the "wholesale murder of innocent people."Quigley, 2005, p. 43. According to John B. Quigley, the

Jewish Agency The Jewish Agency for Israel (), formerly known as the Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. It was established in 1929 as the operative branch of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). As an ...

complained that the British government had not criticized deadly attacks by Arabs. British government officials responded by stating that Arabs had not carried out organized attacks on buildings containing women and children. Haganah said that they had inaccurate information that the hotel was being used by Arab irregulars. Prior to the bombing, the distinctive white jeep of Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, commander of Jerusalem's Arab forces, had been seen in the hotel driveway. In

O Jerusalem! ''O Jerusalem!'' is a history book published in 1971 by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins that seeks to capture the events surrounding the creation of Israel, and the subsequent expulsion and flight of Palestinians. Introduction The book ...

, Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins write that Mishael Shaham, the Haganah leader who organised the bombing, had been sent to Jerusalem to stop the flow of beleaguered Jews retreating from mixed areas of Jerusalem to the Jewish areas. It was thought that 'a major blow in Arab Katamon ... might force the Arabs out of the quarter and change the psychological climate in the city'. Shaham asked "Where is the main Arab headquarters?"

References

Bibliography

* * * * * {{coord, 31.7625, N, 35.2081, E, source:wikidata, display=title 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine 1948 massacres of Palestinians Explosions in 1948 Haganah attacks Building bombings in Jerusalem Jerusalem in the 1948 Palestine war 1948 in Mandatory Palestine 20th-century mass murder in Jerusalem Hotel bombings in Asia January 1948 in Asia Katamon Attacks on hotels in Jerusalem Attacks on buildings and structures in the 1940s Terrorist incidents in Asia in 1948 Terrorism in Mandatory Palestine