Page 178 - ISRAEL'S CRADLE

The Keren Hayesod Wing was almost completely destroyed. Offices in other wings sustained varying degrees of damage. Glass windows in nearly all the offices were shattered, and damage was caused to doors, closets and office equipment. Glass panels also shattered in the houses within several hundred meters of the building. Several cars that were parked in the square in front of the National Institutions Building went up in flames. The Zionist Archive, a valuable source for learning about the past of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Yishuv in the Land of Israel since the First Aliya – was not damaged. The reason: It was located in the rear basement of the building. The "Herzl Room", which was located at the time in the right wing – the residence of the KKL-JNF, was also undamaged. This room had been transferred from Vienna to Jerusalem.
In 5708-1948, Hadassah Avigdori-Avidov was an active convoy escort. Nearly every day or two she, along with a group of Palmach members, would join a convoy that made its way from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. She remembered March 11 quite well. The following day she wrote in her journal: "They bombed the Agency Building yesterday. Of late, they would not allow cars to enter the courtyard except for exceptional cases. For some reason, Jews always have exceptional cases and it seems this rule did not apply to the consulate vehicles." She later told that no one checked the driver of the American Consulate, who drove a car loaded with explosives. The explosion also damaged the convoy escort headquarters Room 16 of the National Institutions Building, and according to Hadassah: "The car exploded just outside our office in the Agency. There are many injured and dead."
Hadassah further added and noted:
[Among the dead was] our dear family friend Leib Yaffe. In our office, our beloved friend – Yossi Margalith – was killed, our treasurer, and Ruta Karpovski from Ein Harod was seriously injured. Some say her eyesight is in jeopardy. This hurts so much. The city is in shock and the devastation is tremendous. It is so difficult to meet the eyes of Yossi's girlfriend Yaffa. She tries to continue with her work in the office, tries to put up a brave face and my heart goes out to her.
The essayist and literary critic Yeshurun Keshet (the nom de plume of Ya'akov Koplewitz) also kept a journal. In his statements from March 12, 1948, a day after the explosion, he mistakenly thought that the British were involved, as they were in the last two bombings – in the "Palestine Post" building and on Ben Yehuda Street. "This is nothing but their desire to demonstrate here, like in the flare up point, what sort of chaos they have finally decided to leave us with upon their departure." Keshet did not conceal his grief that the Jerusalemites have yet to internalize that their city was at war:
It turns out that the stone barricades that we set up in public (as well as at the entrance to the Agency courtyard), are insufficient protection against the enemy, so long as our minds were not accustomed to the idea that we are in an emergency situation and that our very existence as a nation in its land is in constant danger. Our mindset is still that of placid, peace-seeking citizens – but the heart can sense trouble and says that we will soon become a frontline against our will...
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