Settlers assault more Palestinian civilians

A group of West Bank settlers on Saturday beat a 31-year-old Palestinian man in the southern Hebron Hills, after having tied him to a telephone pole.

Left-wing activists later videoed a settler kicking Madahat Abu-Kirash, the victim, as he remained tied up and was surrounded by Israeli security forces. The soldiers subsequently removed the settler from the scene.

Hebron police opened an investigation into the incident after Abu-Kirash submitted a complaint, claiming that he had been beaten all over his body.

According to the left-wing organization Ta’ayush, whose members were close to the scene of the assault and witnessed part of it, the incident began when residents of the settlement of Asael accused Abu-Kirash of setting a field alight a few hundred meters away from their homes.

Abu-Kirash, a teacher, told the settlers in response that he had come to perform agricultural work on land he owns. He denied any connection to the fire.

Ta’ayush members said that the Palestinian’s explanation was of no avail, and the settlers proceeded to forcibly take him to the bounds of the settlement, where they tied him up and beat him.

IDF troops who were called to the area gave him medical treatment on the spot, after which a Red Crescent ambulance took him to a hospital. Abu-Kirash later returned to his home from the hospital.

“When we arrived at the scene there were already lots of the army’s troops. I saw a settler approach him and kick him, as he was tied to the pole… [Abu-Kirash's] whole body was bound up, I saw they bandaged a head wound and he was half unconscious,” said a Ta’ayush activist who was present during the incident.

The chairperson of the South Hebron hills regional council, Zviki Bar-Hai told Haaretz that those responsible for starting the fire and setting the nearby fields ablaze were not from the area, rather they were either Palestinians or extreme left-wing activists.

Bar-Hai claims he demanded that the police and army investigate what happened. “But what is clear,” he said “is that occasionally on Shabbat these provocateurs instigate commotion, just last week they called IDF soldiers Nazis.”

haaretz

Collective Punishment is a WAR CRIME

4th Geneva Convention - Article 33. No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited. Pillage is prohibited. Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.

Under the 1949 Geneva Conventions collective punishments are a war crime, this doesn’t stop Israel!

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday reiterated his call to demolish the home of the East Jerusalem resident who plowed deliberately down a major Jerusalem thoroughfare a day earlier, killing three people and wounding dozens.

“This is an attack which came from within Israel, into Israel. It creates a string of scenarios we never thought we would have to deal with in the past. We have invested thousands in the construction of a security fence. While it has been very effective, it turns out that a fence cannot give us the answer to the problem of terror which comes from our side,” he said.

Speaking from the Ceasaria business forum in the southern port city of Eilat, Olmert also said the social benefits of the terrorist’s family should be taken away in light of the attack

“I think we need to be tougher in some of the means we use against perpetrators of terror,” Olmert told the conference. “If we have to destroy houses, then we must do so, and if we have to stop their social benefits, then we must do so. There cannot be a case where they massacre us and at the same time they get all the privileges that our society provides,” he said.

Haaretz

Olmert must have forgotten to take his medicine. The society provided no privileges. The Arab’s who live in the Area are not considered Israeli’s the only freedom they have is the freedom to travel inside of Israel. If there were ever to go Gaza or the West Bank they would be stuck. They get no social services, no citizenship and are used as cheap labor  (hence the bulldozer).

In addition to the rampant bloodlust running through Israeli politics after this event there are talks of expelling these villages from Israel. The one instance of Israel wanting to give something back

Settlers in the West Bank don’t honor truces

Israeli security officials said Friday that students from a far-right Jewish theological seminary at a West Bank settlement recently built a crude rocket and fired it at a nearby Palestinian village, although it failed to reach its target.

The officials said troops in the area heard a loud explosion and initially thought Palestinians were attacking the settlement of Yitzhar, where the seminary is situated. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident, which occurred about two weeks ago, is still being investigated by police and agents of the Shin Bet security agency.

Police spokesman Danny Poleg said detectives searched the settlement Thursday and questioned residents but made no arrests and found no explosives. He would not comment further.

The Israeli daily Maariv, which reported the incident Friday, said police believe the perpetrator probably found rocket-making instructions on the Intern

Yitzhar is a known hotbed of ultranationalist Israelis who believe that the West Bank is part of the biblical land of Israel promised to the Jewish people by God. They oppose any concessions to the Palestinians.

An instructor at the seminary was arrested in 2006 on suspicion of inciting violence against Arabs.

Yitzhar residents have repeatedly fought farmers from the Palestinian villages that surround their hilltop settlement and have clashed with police sent to supervise demolition of unlicensed buildings in the area.

In 2006, the Israeli army withdrew troops stationed at Yitzhar for its protection, citing repeated settler attacks on soldiers and destruction of military equipment.

In other news from Yitzhar

LIVELIHOOD GOES UP IN SMOKE

Palestinian olive trees burn after being set ablaze by Israeli settlers from the Yitzhar settlement on Thursday June 19 , in the West Bank village of Burin (AFP/Getty Images)

The Neo-Nazi Israeli Thugs(settlers)

Israeli settlers from the Yitzhar settlement watch after a Palestinian olive tree field was set ablaze by a group of Jewish settlers on June 19, 2008 in the West Bank village of Burin.(AFP)

A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli settlers (unseen) from the nearby Yitzhar Jewish settlement try to set ablaze her olive tree field on June 19, 2008 in the West Bank village of Burin.(AFP)

Locals celebrate genocide

This is a photo from the Ithaca Festival. Mind you this is a celebration of Ithaca, a time for people to get together and have fun, not a time to celebrate genocide.

I love free speech, I enjoy my freedoms. People though, need to exhibit some form of social responsibility. The Turkish members of our community do not celebrate the anniversary of the Armenian genocide. Im quite sure we don’t have any German nationals celebrating the holocaust. So why is it acceptable to celebrate somethings that has caused more heartache and death than it has good?

Perhaps a better questions is such: Do Americans celebrate their foundation when they become expatriats? How often do we see American flags and “I love America” parades in Japan? Brazil? Spain? Nigeria? (i hit the main continents) India? Do we celebrate our creation on Indian (Native American) reservations? Would be it socially acceptable for me to walk over to the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) land and start setting off fireworks and grilling hotdogs?

The blind patriotism of some parts of society is sickening. The inability to see the faults in ones government is irresponsible and ignorant. The Canadians have apologized to their native population for its transgressions, the Australians have apologized for the stolen generations. Would it not be fitting and in the spirit of democracy and human rights for America and Israel to admit their genocidal and racist pasts? Be honest with yourselves, do you really think that the Native American population accounts for 1.2% out of some fault of their own?

60 years ago “Israel was over 80% Arab, now its 20%. Explain how this occurs without:

“any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

The simple answer is: It doesn’t. Natives were massacred, they were forcefully moved from their homes and children were taken away to become “more civilized” in America, Canada and Australia. Only two have acknowledged this only they have apologized. In Israel 700,000 people were forced from their homes, countless others killed so the “civilized” could make it the newest colonial wing.

According to the United Nations denial is the seventh stage of completing a genocide.

Israeli Kills Arabs, Arabs put on trial.

Eden Natan-Zada, 19, a Jewish extremist who was AWOL from the Israel Defense Forces, opened fire on Israeli Arabs in a bus in the Galilee town of Shfaram in August 2005, killing four. He was subsequently lynched by an Arab Israeli mob.The incident occured several days prior to Israel’s pullout from the Gaza Strip. 

12 survivors were instructed yesterday to appear before the Haifa District Court on July 13, where they will be indicted for attempted murder. Israeli’s believe that the court and prosecutor are going easy and should be trying the 12 Israeli Arabs for murder.  Most of those suspected of involvement in the attack against Natan-Zada will be charged with aggravated assault

A senior source in the State Prosecutor’s Office said yesterday that the case involves 600 testimonies from eye witnesses, and that some 60 suspects were questioned under caution. Moreover, the source said that that 12 suspects were very carefully identified as a result of the evidence.

Natan-Zada, a resident of the West Bank settlement of Tapuah and affiliated with members of the extreme right and outlawed Kach movement, had been disarmed by civilians and held on the bus.

The source at the State Prosecutor’s Office said that notwithstanding the gravity of Natan-Zada’s actions, the prosecution believes the killing was a serious violation of the rule of law.

Man kills civilians, civilians stop larger massacre, civilians become criminals. Does this logic only apply if the civilians are Arab Israelis? Let us be serious for a moment. If a man were to break into your home and kill your children and you kill this criminal before he gets to your wife are you guilty? Should you be put on trial?

A scathing condemnation of the prosecution’s decision was issued by Faiza Turki, whose daughters Dina and Hazar were killed in the shooting attack. She said that the Israeli government and the IDF should be the ones to stand trial for allowing Natan-Zada to move around freely

Hadash chairman MK Mohammed Barakeh, slammed the court’s decision to charge the suspects with any sort of crime. “The whole world knows that the citizens of Shfaram were the victims and targets of an abominable massacre,” Barakeh said. “I emphasize the need to indict those same military officials that knew of the danger of the terrorist as well those who allowed him a warm home as a army deserter.”

Balad MK Jamal Zekhelaka accused the government of blaming Israeli Arabs for their own tragedy.” Again they are blaming the victim… the police did not invest the effort to investigate what help that criminal Natan-Zada received, and is harassing those who protected themselves and prevented mass murder. If they do try these people, we won’t let it happen quietly. There will be a huge protest.”

And now a word from the Israeli public:

Eden Natan-Zada reacted to understandable frustration with the continuing Arab occupation of the Jewish homeland

What we need is to train our terrorists to have better aim

These pigs would never get convicted for murder, so the best that can be done is to put them on trial

Imprison these Arab murderers!!!

Of course the arabs would never think of a trial…to civil for them…they head right for the knife and if that is not available a rope will do. Savages behave like that….the murders were terrible and he should have been tried….the response was that of people acting like animals in the jungle…but then what can you expect.That is the difference between civility and barbarism

Those Arab lynchers are murderers plain and simple and deserve the death penalty. Shame on *newspaper name* for calling this poor Israeli a terrorist when he was a hero

 

 I guess its time for this savage to get back to his barbaric work. How uncivilized of me.

Kidnapping Couples : Israels attempt at forced segregation

The Israeli army invaded the village of Hussan located near Bethlehem city in the southern part of the West Bank. During the invasion on Thursday morning the soldiers kidnapped a Palestinian man and his wife that is from Jewish origins.

Mohamed Hamamerh, 25, met his wife Melissa, 23, several months ago when he used to work at the settlement of Bitar Illit, an Israeli settlement built illegally on the land of Hussan village.

When the young couple decided to get married, they came to Bethlehem city were Melissa converted to Islam. They were married last month during a large wedding at Hussan village, Hamamerh’s family reported.

The settlers of Bitar Illit attacked the village of Hussan, demanding that Melissa was kidnapped and forced to get married, which the family of Hamamerh denies.

The village told media sources in Bethlehem that the settlers threatened to send the Israeli army to get Melissa out using force, which was done today. Witnesses said that the army surrounded the couple’s home and then kidnapped the two, and took them to an unknown location.

The Hamamerh family said that the settlers are using the army forces as a tool to force their son to divorce his wife.

Translated by: Ghassan Bannoura – IMEMC News

BBC obtains video of settlers beating shepherds

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7451691.stm

Footage from a video camera handed out by an Israeli human rights group appears to show Jewish settlers beating up Palestinians in the West Bank.

An elderly shepherd, his wife and a nephew said they were attacked by four masked men for allowing their animals to graze near the settlement of Susia.

The rights group, B’Tselem, said the cameras were provided to enable Palestinians to get proof of attacks.

A spokesman for the Israeli police said that an investigation was under way.

So far, no-one has been arrested.

Baseball bats

For the past year, B’Tselem has handed out video cameras to Palestinians as part of its “Shooting Back” project.

The Palestinians said they were attacked after refusing to move

The BBC has been given exclusive access to the footage of this particular attack, which happened earlier this week. The date and time on the camera footage shows that it is Sunday afternoon.

Over the brow of the hill walk four masked men holding baseball bats. To the right of the screen, in the foreground, stands a 58-year-old Palestinian woman.

Thamam al-Nawaja has been herding her goats close to the Jewish settlement of Susia, near Hebron in the southern West Bank.

Within a few seconds, she, along with her 70-year-old husband and one of her nephews, will be beaten up.

As the first blows land, the woman filming - the daughter-in-law of the elderly couple - drops the camera and runs for help.

‘Ten-minute warning’

Mrs Nawaja spent three days in hospital after the attack.

Returning to the small Palestinian encampment close to the red-roofed houses of Susia, she stepped slowly and unsteadily out of the minibus.

They don’t want us to stay on our land, but we won’t leave - we’ll die here Thamam al-Nawaja

A dark stain showed through the white gauze covering her broken right arm. Her veil was lifted gingerly away from her lined face. A bloodshot eye and intersection of scars revealed a fractured left cheek.

“The settlers gave us a 10-minute warning to clear off from the land,” she told me, her voice a tired, cracked whisper.

She and her husband had stood their ground. It is at this point that her voice grows louder.

“They don’t want us to stay on our land. But we won’t leave. We’ll die here. It’s ours,” she added.

Indeed, the rest of the world regards Jewish settlements in the West Bank such as Susia, as illegal, built on occupied territory.

Those settlements have been a large part of the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis for the last 41 years. The daily confrontation is not often caught on camera. That, now, is beginning to change.

Video proof

The attack near Susia was filmed with one of 100 video cameras that B’Tselem has handed out to Palestinians in the region.

When they have the camera, they have proof that something happened - they now have something they can work with, to use as a weapon Oren Yakobovich B’Tselem

The thinking behind the project is that when trouble flares, rather than just giving a statement to the Israeli police or army, video carries much more weight.

“The difference is amazing,” says Oren Yakobovich, who leads the Shooting Back project.

“When they have the camera, they have proof that something happened. They now have something they can work with, to use as a weapon.”

We asked a spokesman from the Susia settlement for a comment on Sunday’s incident. He declined.

Inside one of the tents belonging to the Palestinians living near Susia, we watched the footage of the aftermath of the attack - the victims slumped by the roadside, bloodied, waiting for an ambulance.

The bright, wide eyes of the children shone with the light of the small television screen.

Violence against Jews as well as Palestinians has long scarred this place. Video may now may be giving us a new and raw view.

But for most people here, the only answer - a political deal - remains out of sight.

Edward Said is rolling in his grave

As is their wont, hard-line supporters of Israel have been pushing Barack Obama quite hard. He is, to them, an unknown commodity with questionable ties. Progressive Jewish opinion, on the other hand (and Arab Americans, as well), finds Obama appealing both because of his messages of hope and change and, specifically, because of comments he has made that indicate openness to a more nuanced discussion of Arab-Israeli peace-making. They latched on to, for example, comments he made to Jewish leaders in Cleveland on February 24th, where he appeared to reject identifying being pro-Israel with “adopting an unwaveringly pro-Likud view of Israel,” and his statement to a Jewish reporter that “in order to make progress in Arab-Israeli talks…both sides should be held accountable to previous agreements.”

There was, therefore, keen interest in how Barack Obama would address these concerns in his remarks before AIPAC’s policy conference today. For the most part, his speech pushed all the “right” buttons. It included a personal narrative that connected his story with that of the Jewish people, including his uncle’s role in the World War II liberation of a concentration camp at Buchenwald, and the larger narrative of the historic bonds between the African American and American Jewish communities based on a shared commitment to liberal values and forged in the American civil rights movement.

In addressing matters of foreign policy, the nub of the matter for AIPAC, Obama did his fair share of genuflecting and oath-taking, most of which is expected before an AIPAC audience that insists upon such displays. But, on the whole, Obama’s speech was less troubling than many others delivered before AIPAC, and contrasted favorably with the AIPAC “talking point” litany delivered one hour later by Senator Clinton.

He was properly tough on Iran, but correctly took on John McCain’s refusal to criticize the central role that the debacle in Iraq has played in destabilizing the Middle East while emboldening Iran and extremism. He repeatedly emphasized the need for principled diplomacy as the way to move forward. He smartly contrasted his commitment to peace-making with the neglect of the Bush administration by pledging active involvement in the search for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and Israel and Syria, and noting the responsibilities of all parties in the Middle East to contribute to that process. He specifically called on Israel to “take appropriate steps — consistent with its security — to ease the freedom of movement for Palestinians, improve economic conditions in the West Bank, and to refrain from building new settlements.” He urged support for Palestinian President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad, and emphasized that “Palestinians need a state that is contiguous and cohesive, and that allows them to prosper.”

“Most Israelis and Palestinians want peace,” Obama noted, “we must strengthen their hand. The United States must be a strong and consistent partner in this process — not to force concession, but to help partners avoid stalemate and the kind of vacuums that are filled by violence.”

If he had stopped there, it might have been an acceptable speech to all sides, but he went further, including a deeply troubling reference to Jerusalem which he said “will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.” Left unexplained, this was both unnecessarily provocative and contradictory. If the U.S. is not to “force concessions,” then why predetermine the status of Jerusalem, one of the more sensitive and complicated issues in the negotiations, in a speech to AIPAC? And if Palestinians need a state that is “contiguous,” “cohesive” and “prosperous,” how does that occur when one has cut the heart out of the center of the West Bank? (Note: it has been a Palestinian position that Jerusalem can “remain the capital of Israel” and can “remain undivided” as long as that does not preclude the Palestinians from also having their capital in a “shared” city.)

The AIPAC audience may have cheered, but Arabs, who called me from East Jerusalem, where they were watching the speech on TV, were deeply disheartened, as were Israeli peace activists with whom I spoke.

Better than McCain? Of course. More thoughtful than his predecessors? Clearly. But for those who have embraced Obama’s “change we can believe in” slogan, a few doubts have now crept in.
-James Zogby

Haaretz promotes hate?

“Our land is not Arab land”: An advertisement on the front page of Haaretz.com leads to a website advocating genocide and terrorism.

Haaretz.com, the website of the Israeli newspaper often cited as an example of Israel’s liberal, critical media carries paid advertisements from a website openly advocating the total destruction of the Palestinian people, the murder of large numbers of Muslim civilians, the assassination of the family members of Arab rulers, and the use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons against dozens of countries.

The website, Samson Blinded, claims that Google banned its advertisements from its adwords program. If that is true, it would be consistent with Google’s policy that prohibits advertising promoting violence or advocating against any group based on race, ethnic or national origin or religion. Yet the Samson Blinded advertisements appear prominently on the main page and article pages of Haaretz’s website. For example the ad appeared on the front page of Haaretz.com on 1 June, and also prominently on an article page headlined “Who didn’t attend New York’s pro-Israel march? Israelis” on the same date.

Samson Blinded, whose publishers keep their identities secret, calls on Israel to eliminate all Palestinians from the territory it controls and to annihilate their culture. The site demands that Israel “destroy the Palestinian settlements [sic] and exile them far away — not to refugee camps in neighboring Arab countries, or the conflict would be perpetuated.” It argues that “Forced cultural assimilation of Palestinians should accompany deportation,” adding that “With demise of Palestinians, Arab Israeli conflict would lose its impetus [sic].”

The hate site advertised on Haaretz incites religious war, exploitation of children, and terrorism. It states for example that “Slavery is not an option in the modern world, but Israel adopting children from the poorest countries, indoctrinating them with anti-Islamism, and training them for low-rank military service in Israel Defense Forces may be feasible.” It also proposes that “Israel could invite Western Christian radicals to police the Palestinian territories” as “they would be happy to get a training ground in Israel for their militia.”

The site adds that “To succeed, Israeli violence against Arabs should be immediately overwhelming. Israel should show itself a bloodthirsty monster to scare the Arabs into submission.” Among the violence advocated by the site is the unprovoked wholesale murder of relatives of the rulers of Arab countries, civilians, and prisoners of war.

The site even calls for nuclear strikes against neighboring countries: “Israel should legislate that a nuclear attack against her from whatever source means immediate, simultaneous nuclear destruction by Israel Defense Forces of everything Muslim — capitals, temples, population centers — by the hundred or so nuclear weapons in Israel’s possession. Islamic terrorists who plan to use nuclear weapon against Israel must understand that the Jewish state will be commemorated with a really big bang.”

The website’s call for the destruction of the Palestinians appears to violate the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The convention defines as genocide acts including killing, expulsion and causing bodily and mental suffering “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”

The Convention, adopted in the wake of the Nazi holocaust, also defines as crimes “Direct and public incitement to commit genocide” and “Complicity in genocide.” The treaty, ratified by over 130 countries including Israel and the US, calls for the prosecution and punishment of these acts whether the individuals committing them “are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.”

Contacted by EI, Osnat Kohali, the manager of Haaretz.com stated that the newspaper and its website have a clear policy of not allowing any advertisements that include “incitement against any side.” In reaction to some of the statements on the Samson Blinded site quoted in this article, Kohali noted that the offensive statements were on the advertised website itself rather than in the advertisements that appeared on Haaretz. Kohali added, “We don’t go through each and every website and make a complete review about what it says.” However she undertook to review the Samson Blinded advertisements noting that “mistakes can be made.”

But the Samson Blinded ads are not the only case of Haaretz apparently profiting from extremism; its website has often carried advertisements for an organization called “The Jerusalem Summit” which also advocates the removal of the Palestinians from their homeland and holds that “the de-legitimization of the Palestinian narrative becomes a vital prerequisite to any comprehensive resolution of the Palestinian issue.”

This kind of militant Jewish extremism has been making steady inroads into Israel’s political mainstream, as numerous parties openly advocate the “transfer” (expulsion) of Palestinians and Israeli leaders have done little to marginalize and discourage it. What is surprising is that the widely respected Haaretz, which publishes jointly in Israel with The International Herald Tribune, would profit from hate groups and their possibly criminal incitement.

In 2006, the German newspaper publisher M. DuMont Schauberg bought a 25 percent stake in Haaretz, a move German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised as an instance of German reconciliation with Israel. In Germany, as in many other European countries, incitement to racial hatred is illegal.

Electronic Intifada

Retro Article

July 20th 2006

By Ned Parker and Stephen Farrell

The rightwingers, including Binyamin Netanyahu, the former Prime Minister, are commemorating the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the headquarters of British rule, that killed 92 people and helped to drive the British from Palestine.

They have erected a plaque outside the restored building, and are holding a two-day seminar with speeches and a tour of the hotel by one of the Jewish resistance fighters involved in the attack.

Simon McDonald, the British Ambassador in Tel Aviv, and John Jenkins, the Consul-General in Jerusalem, have written to the municipality, stating: “We do not think that it is right for an act of terrorism, which led to the loss of many lives, to be commemorated.”

In particular they demanded the removal of the plaque that pays tribute to the Irgun, the Jewish resistance branch headed by Menachem Begin, the future Prime Minister, which carried out the attack on July 22, 1946.

The plaque presents as fact the Irgun’s claim that people died because the British ignored warning calls. “For reasons known only to the British, the hotel was not evacuated,” it states.

Mr McDonald and Dr Jenkins denied that the British had been warned, adding that even if they had “this does not absolve those who planted the bomb from responsibility for the deaths”. On Monday city officials agreed to remove the language deemed offensive from the blue sign hanging on the hotel’s gates, though that had not been done shortly before it was unveiled last night.

The controversy over the plaque and the two-day celebration of the bombing, sponsored by Irgun veterans and the right-wing Menachem Begin Heritage Centre, goes to the heart of the debate over the use of political violence in the Middle East. Yesterday Mr Netanyahu argued in a speech celebrating the attack that the Irgun were governed by morals, unlike fighters from groups such as Hamas.

“It’s very important to make the distinction between terror groups and freedom fighters, and between terror action and legitimate military action,” he said. “Imagine that Hamas or Hezbollah would call the military headquarters in Tel Aviv and say, ‘We have placed a bomb and we are asking you to evacuate the area’.”

But the view of the attack was very different in 1946 when The Times branded the Irgun “terrorists in disguise”. Decades later, Irgun veterans are unrepentant. Sarah Agassi, 80, remembers spying in the King David Hotel.

She and a fellow agent posed as a couple. They danced tangos and waltzes, sipped whisky and wine while they cased out the hotel.

On the day her brother and his fellow fighters posed as Arabs delivering milk and brought seven milk churns, each containing 50kg of explosives, into the building. Ms Agassi waited across the street until her brother rushed out. She said that she then made the warning call to the British command in the hotel.

Sitting in the luxurious hotel lobby, she expressed no regret. “We fought for our independence. We thought it was the right way . . . If I had to fight for Israel, I swear even now I would do anything.”

TWO VERSIONS

The original wording:

The Hotel housed the Mandate Secretariat as well as the Army Headquarters. On July 1946 (sic) Irgun fighters at the order of the Hebrew Resistance Movement planted explosives in the basement. Warning phone calls had been made urging the hotel’s occupants to leave immediately. For reasons known only to the British the hotel was not evacuated and after 25 minutes the bombs exploded, and to the Irgun’s regret and dismay 91 persons were killed.

The amended version

. . .Warning phone calls had been made to the hotel, the Palestine Post and the French Consulate, urging the hotel’s occupants to leave immediately.

The hotel was not evacuated, and after 25 minutes the bombs exploded. The entire western wing was destroyed, and to the Irgun’s regret 92 per