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The
Jewish Agency escalated their terror campaign against Palestinian
Arabs. They decided to perpetrate a wholesale massacre by bombing
the Semiramis Hotel in the Katamon section of Jerusalem, in order to
drive out the Palestinians from Jerusalem. The massacre of the
Semiramis Hotel on January 5, 1948, was the direct responsibility of
Jewish Agency leader David Ben-Gurion and Haganah leaders Moshe Sneh
and Yisrael Galili. If this massacre had taken place in World War
II, they would have been sentenced to death for their criminal
responsibility along with the terrorists who placed the explosives.
A
description of the massacre of the Semiramis Hotel from the United
Nations Documents follows, as well as the Palestinian Police report
on the crime sent to the Colonial Office in London:
January
5, 1948. Haganah terrorists made a most barbarous attack at one
o’clock in the early morning of Monday…at the Semiramis Hotel in the
Katamon section of Jerusalem, killing innocent people and wounding
many. The Jewish Agency terrorist forces blasted the entrance to the
hotel by a small bomb and then placed bombs in the basement of the
building. As a result of the explosion the whole building collapsed
with its residents. As the terrorists withdrew, they started
shooting at the houses in the neighborhood. Those killed were: Subhi
El-Taher, Moslem; Mary Masoud, Christian; Georgette Khoury,
Christian; Abbas Awadin, Moslem; Nazira Lorenzo, Christian; Mary
Lorenzo, Christian; Mohammed Saleh Ahmed, Moslem; Ashur Abed El
Razik Juma, Moslem; Ismail Abed El Aziz, Moslem; Ambeer Lorenzo,
Christian; Raof Lorenzo, Christian; Abu Suwan Christian family,
seven members, husband, wife, and five children.
Besides
those killed, 16 more were wounded, among them women and children.
The
following is a text of a cable by the High Commissioner for
Palestine to the Colonial Office about the massacre:
Jerusalem. 0117 hours, Urban. At approximately 0117 hours, a grenade
was thrown into the Semiramis Hotel, Katamon Quarter, causing
superficial damage but no casualties. During the ensuing confusion,
a charge was placed in the building and it exploded about one minute
later, completely demolishing half the hotel. Witnesses have stated
that the perpetrators arrived by way of the Upper Katamon Road in
two taxis. Four persons are reported to have alighted from the first
taxi, and one person, who apparently covered the main party, from
the second. All were wearing European clothes…
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