GLORIFYING TERRORISM

The plaque outside the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which has incensed the British Ambassador.

British anger at terror celebration

As Israel wages war against Hezbollah “terrorists” in Lebanon, Britain has protested about the celebration by right-wing Israelis of a Jewish “act of terrorism” against British rule 60 years ago this week.
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.

[A hot night in Jerusalem 60 years ago when the King David Hotel, HQ of the British Palestinian Mandate, was destroyed by bombs planted by Menachim Begin's terrorist group, the Irgun, killing British, Arabs, Jews and others. The Irgun was asked to do this by the main Zionist group, the Haganah, but successive governments are understandably reluctant to celebrate it.
The Irgun's defenders have always claimed that a warning was called in prior to the explosion. Police records suggest it was no more than a few minutes. The best a recently unveiled plaque celebrating the attack can say is:
From Crikey.com, edition 24 July 2006:
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.
In other words, even the official, set-in-stone, spin puts the founding fathers of Israel on a moral level with the Provisional IRA.
One thing is remarkable about this – the Irgun are routinely called "freedom fighters" these days but at the time they were described as terrorists not only by their enemies – but by themselves. Indeed at the time Irgun supporters took out a full page congratulatory ad in the New York Times offering praise TO THE JEWISH TERRORISTS.
But here's the real rub – it is not because incidents such as the King David Hotel, or the Stern Gang's kidnap and murder of two British soldiers (sound familiar?) were wanton terrorist acts that Israel's government shies away from them, but because they weren't – they were legitimate, if ruthless, actions against military targets in a declared guerrilla war (the massacre of Arab villages is another matter).
Yet to acknowledge that would be to concede that urban guerrilla action can shade into terrorism. It would inevitably lead people to make similar distinctions between a suicide bomb attack on a restaurant, and the same on a military checkpoint. And the last thing wanted is that sort of symmetry, which might suggest that freedom fighting is terrorism plus time.
Still, it's an ill-wind. Maybe some sympathetic group could be persuaded to put up a replica plaque in Australia. Then we can test the government's commitment to its "glorification of terror" legislation.]