Film content

A newsreel entitled “Terror Packs Palestine” shows the checking of passports of Jews leaving the country for Europe (Britain and Austria). They board a train and wave goodbye. A ship with a large number of Jewish immigrants arrives on the coast of Palestine. They are refused entry and fights break out with British soldiers. The injured are taken away. The people leave the ship and are transferred to other ships for deportation to Cyprus. At the same time there are terrorist attacks in Haifa, Palestine. A bomb explodes at the British Officers Club in Haifa, killing 17 people. The injured are carried out of the destroyed building by soldiers. Suspects (Jewish extremists) are arrested and prisoners are searched for weapons. British soldiers patrol the streets while martial law is imposed in the city.

Historical background

On March 1, 1947 a bomb attack occurred in Haifa, then part of the British Mandate of Palestine. The Jewish underground organisation Irgun carried out the attack. 17 British officers were killed, during bombing of the Goldschmidt Officer’s Club.

The Irgun was a paramilitary group that advocated the establishment of an independent Jewish state in Palestine. It carried out a series of attacks against British targets, as the British government had introduced immigration restrictions on Jewish refugees to Palestine at the time.