ZIONIST MASSACRES IN 1948: New evidence

[Gość: wojo!!!!]

The following article (3160 words!) was published in
the Hebrew daily Ha'ir on 6 May 1992. It contains new
revelations about war crimes committed by the Zionist
forces in 1948 against Palestinian Arabs.


There are a number of reasons why the publication of
this information is important:


1. It shows once more and through the pen of Israeli
historians what motivated the Palestinian Arabs to
flee in 1948.


2. It shows how the Zionist establishment has
attempted and still attempts to hide the truth about
the massacres of Palestinians in the 1948 War.


3. It exposes the fallacy according to which it was
mainly right-wing Zionists (the terrorist groups IZL
and LEHI led by Menahem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir) who
committed atrocities against Palestinian Arabs in
1948. In fact, most atrocities and massacres were
committed by 'nice Jewish boys and girls', from the
Labour movement, may of whom grew up in kibbutzim in a
humanist environment.


4. It exposes the myth, entertained in the West,
according to which Israel's practices towards
Palestinians worsened when the right-wing Likud came
to power.


5. It documents the development of a growing awareness
among Israeli intellectuals of the need to face the
past with honesty. This is a rather recent and
salutary phenomenon.


An appendix to the article includes summary
descriptions of some other massacres (published along
the article in Ha'ir).


Elias Davidsson translated from Hebrew and added some
explanatory notes .

[Gość: A.D.]

Gość portalu: wojo!!!! napisał(a):

> The following article (3160 words!) was published in
> the Hebrew daily Ha'ir on 6 May 1992. It contains new
> revelations about war crimes committed by the Zionist
> forces in 1948 against Palestinian Arabs.
>
>
> There are a number of reasons why the publication of
> this information is important:
>
>
> 1. It shows once more and through the pen of Israeli
> historians what motivated the Palestinian Arabs to
> flee in 1948.
>
>
> 2. It shows how the Zionist establishment has
> attempted and still attempts to hide the truth about
> the massacres of Palestinians in the 1948 War.
>
>
> 3. It exposes the fallacy according to which it was
> mainly right-wing Zionists (the terrorist groups IZL
> and LEHI led by Menahem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir) who
> committed atrocities against Palestinian Arabs in
> 1948. In fact, most atrocities and massacres were
> committed by 'nice Jewish boys and girls', from the
> Labour movement, may of whom grew up in kibbutzim in a
> humanist environment.
>
>
> 4. It exposes the myth, entertained in the West,
> according to which Israel's practices towards
> Palestinians worsened when the right-wing Likud came
> to power.
>
>
> 5. It documents the development of a growing awareness
> among Israeli intellectuals of the need to face the
> past with honesty. This is a rather recent and
> salutary phenomenon.
>
>
> An appendix to the article includes summary
> descriptions of some other massacres (published along
> the article in Ha'ir).
>
>
> Elias Davidsson translated from Hebrew and added some
> explanatory notes .

>> No a gdzie ta strona internetowa?

Part I

[Gość: wojo!!!!]

NOT ONLY DEIR YASSIN
By Guy Erlich, Ha'ir, 6 May 1992
After Lydda (1) gave up the fight, a group of stubborn
Arab fighters barricated themselves in the small mosque.
The commander of the Palmach's(2) 3d Battalion, Moshe
Kalman, gave an order to fire a number of blasts towards
the mosque. The soldiers who forced their way into the
mosque were surprised to find no resistance. On the
walls of the mosque they found the remains of the Arab
fighters. A group of between twenty to fifty Arab
inhabitants was brought to clean up the mosque and bury
the remains. After they finished their work, they were
also shot into the graves they dug.


The Jewish American journalist Dan Kurtzman, heard this
testimony from Moshe Kalman, who has meanwhile died,
while he was writing his book 'In the Beginning 1948
(Bereshit 1948)' about the War of Independence. As
Kurtzman did not want to hurt the State of Israel, he
did not include this testimony, but told this story to
Israeli historian Aryeh Yitzhaki, when they met in the
IDF archives, when Kurtzman was there working on his
book. Kurtzman, who is now visiting Israel in connection
with his new book (incidentally, these days a new
edition of his older book is coming out), confirmed -
after some hesitation - that he heard this testimony
from Moshe Kalman.


Since its establishment, the State of Israel keeps a
conspiracy of silence concerning massacres committed in
the War of Independence (4). The only massacre
acknowledged in official publications is that of Deir
Yassin, perhaps because it was perpetrated by the IZL
(Irgun). Books and press reports have referred to dozens
of cases, but only partially and incompletely. Yitzhaki
corroborates this impression: 'I read all the documents
in the IDF archives written about the War of
Independence. In the course of years I became especially
alert to anything concerning the massacres.' Yitzhaki is
a lecturer in the Bar Ilan University [Tel Aviv] in the
Faculty of Eretz Yisrael Studies (5) and is also senior
lecturer in the field of military history in IDF courses
for officers. In the sixties he served as director of
the IDF archives within the framework of his IDF service
in his capacity as historian.


Yitzhaki assembled all the testimonies and documents
concerning the subject matter and waited for the right
time to publish. 'The time has come' he says, 'for a
generation has passed, and it is now possible to face
the ocean of lies (6) in which we were brought up. In
almost every conquered village in the War of
Independence, acts were committed, which are defined as
war crimes, such as indiscriminate killings, massacres
and rapes. I believe that such things end by surfacing.
The only question is how to face such evidence.'


According to Yitzhaki, about ten major massacres were
committed in the course of the War of Independence (i.e.
more than fifty victims in each massacre) and about
hundred smaller massacres (of individuals or small
groups). According to him, these massacres had an
enormous impact on the Arab population, by inducing
their from the country.


Yitzhaki: 'For many Israelis it was easier to find
consolation in the lie, that the Arabs left the country
under orders from their leaders. This is an absolute
fabrication. The fundamental cause of their flight was
their fear from Israeli retribution and this fear was
not at all imaginary. From almost each report in the IDF
archives concerning the conquest of Arab villages
between May and July 1948 - when clashes with Arab
villagers were the fiercest - a smell of massacre
emanates. Sometimes the report tells about blatant
massacres which were committed after the battle,
sometimes the massacres are committed in the heat of
battle and while the villages are "cleansed". Some of my
colleagues, such as Me'ir Pa'il, don't consider such
acts as massacres. In my opinion there is no other term
for such acts than massacres. This was at the time the
rule of the game. It was a dirty war on both sides. This
phenomenon spread out in the field; there were no
explicite orders to exterminate. In the first phase a
village was usually subjected to heavy artillery from
distance. Then soldiers would assault the village. After
giving up resistance, the Arab fighters would withdraw
while attempting to snipe at the advancing forces. Some
would not flee and would remain in the village, mainly
women and old people. In the course of cleansing we used
to hit them. One was 'tailing the fugitives', as it used
to be called ('mezanvim baborchim'). There was no
established battle procedure as today, namely that when
blowing up a house, one has first to check whether
civilians are still inside. In a typical battle report
about the conquest of a village we find: 'We cleansed a
village, shot in any direction where resistance was
noticed. After the resistance ended, we also had to
shoot people so that they would leave or who looked
dangerous'.


The historian Uri Milstein, a myth-shatterer,
corroborates Yitzhaki's assessment regarding the
massacres' extent and goes even further. 'If Yitzhaki
claims that almost in every village there were murders,
then I maintain that even before the establishment of
the State, each battle ended with a massacre. In all
Israel's wars massacres were committed but I have no
doubt that the War of Independence was the dirtiest of
them all. All over the world, massacres constitute an
integral part of the norm of war and it is in fact the
fundamental basis of human conduct in a situation of
battle. The idea behind a massacre is to inflict a shock
on the enemy, to paralyze the enemy. In the War of
Independence everybody massacred everybody, but most of
the action happened between Jews and Palestinians.'


Milstein adds: 'In my opinion, the regular armies of
Arab states were less barbaric than the Jews and the
Palestinians. Until the entry into the battle of the
Arab armies, the concept of taking prisoners was
unknown. The regular armies, especially that of Jordan
and Egypt, were the first in the region who did not kill
prisoners, as a matter of principle. Not that they were
exceptional, but they killed the least of all,
relatively speaking. The Jordanian Legion even succeeded
to stop Palestinians of massacring Jews in Gush Etzion,
at least in a part of this area. The education in the
Yishuv (7) at that time had it that the Arabs would do
anything to kill us and therefore we had to massacre
them. A substantial part of the Jewish public was
convinced that the most cherished wish of say, a nine-
year old Arab child, was to exterminate us. This belief
bordered on paranoia.'


A careful study reveals that until today over twenty
massacres were publicly reported. The testimonies were
not published in one collection, a fact which adds to
this phenomenon another dimension. At least eight
massacres were described by Benny Morris in his
book 'The Birth of the Palestine Refugee Problem'. Two
cases were reported in Milstein's books. Two cases are
reported in the book of Palestinian historian Arif al-
Arif. The rest were reported in novels, memories and the
press. But it appears that at least eight more massacres
were committed which are reported here for the first
time. Two of them were discovered by Yitzhaki, three by
Milstein, one case was revealed by Kurtzman and was
presented in the introduction to this reportage. One
case was brought to our knowledge by a kibbutz member
who wishes to remain anonymous and one more case was
revealed by Dov Yirmiya.


The testimonies concerning the massacres, revealed here
for the first time by Yitzhaki, are kept in the IDF
archives. Those who wish to study the documents in
question confront a blank refusal. The directo

Part II

[Gość: wojo!!!!]

The testimonies concerning the massacres, revealed here
for the first time by Yitzhaki, are kept in the IDF
archives. Those who wish to study the documents in
question confront a blank refusal. The director, Miki
Kaufman: 'If you are looking for what I believe you are
looking for, then you can forget it. In any case, just
keep in mind that we are reading over any documents
before you are allowed to see them and we cull out
material that you should not see'.


A person who already had to face this barrage is Benny
Morris. He addressed himself to the State Archivist to
get a report by the government-nominated Shapira
Committee, on killings in the War of Independence, but
his request was denied.


'The Archivist refused to let me see the report and I
went then to the Supreme Court. According to the [State]
Archives Law (1953), access is open to documents
concerning [government] policies and political matters
after 30 years and documents related to security matters
after 50 years. As the report by the Shapira committee
is a political document issued by the Ministry of
Justice, it was to be accessible by the public. But
after I entered my request to the State Archivist and to
the courts, the State Prosecutor and the Archivist made
me a trick. It appeared that by convening a special
meeting of at least two Cabinet members - in this case
Arens and Sharir - it was possible to extend
indefinitely the classified status of any archived
document by arguing that disclosure might endanger state
security. The meeting was duly convened and the document
was reclassified (...)'


But Yitzhaki kept the testimonies. The first case he
presents happened in Tel Gezer. A soldier of the the
Kiryati Brigade (...) testifies that his colleagues got
hold of ten Arab men and two Arab women, a young one and
and an old one. All the men were murdered. The young
woman was raped and her destiny was unknown. The old
woman was murdered. Yitzhaki tells that he discovered
the testimony in a specific folder containing
testimonies from Guard Units (Kheil Mishmar) in the IDF
archives. Later he also obtained an oral testimony about
this event from a person who wished to remain anonymous.


Another case happened in Ashdod. Towards the end of
August 1948, the Giv'ati Brigade executed the 'Cleansing
Campaign' (Mivtza Nikayon) in Ashdod's dunes. This
happened after the forced landing of an Israeli plane in
the area and the killing of his eight passengers by
locals. A company of mounted cavalry, jeeps and Giv'ati
fighters went to comb the area. In the course of this
action, and according to a conservative estimate, ten
farmers ('fellahin') were murdered. Yitzahki says that
evidence about that can be found in the campaign
chronicle of Giv'ati in the IDF archives and in the
second chapter of the book on the Giv'ati Brigade.


'Apart from these cases', says Yitzhaki, 'there are more
cases described in IDF's archives, but I don't want to
disclose them at this stage. I will yet write a book.'


The historian Uri Milstein presented in his book
series 'The History of the War of Independence' a number
of massacres. Three more cases came to his knowledge
after he finished writing. One case happened in Ayn
Zaytoon. According to Milstein two massacres happened
there in addition to the case described by Netiva Ben
Yehuda in her book 'Within the Bounds' (mibe'ad
la'avutot). Milstein possesses a testimony from a
soldier named Aharon Yo'eli: 'Three men from Safad came
to Ayn Zaytoon, they took 23 Arabs, told them they were
murderers and gangsters, took from them their watches
and put them in their pockets, led them over the hills
and killed them. This was the revenge of the Jews of
Safad. I understood that our commanders were looking for
additional killers to execute such jobs. Not everybody
in Safad was a hassid [strictly observing Jew]. In my
opinion this was not the execution of prisoners but the
killing of Arab murderers. The rest were expelled in the
direction of the Germak that same evening and to make
them go fast, we shot at them.' The second case was
reported to Milstein by a soldier named Yitzhak Golan,
as he referred to thirty prisoners who were brought to
interrogation in Har Kna'an: 'The men of the
Intelligence Unit interrogated them and after the
interrogation the question came up what to do with them.
We were told to take them down to the Rosh Pina police
station. On the way they attempted to escape so we shot
at them. There was no alternative. The danger was that
they might reach Safad and would tell there how few
weapons and manpower we had. It is possible that they
were killed chained. Next morning a plattoon was sent to
bury them'.


Another case happened in Caesarea. In February 1948 the
Fourth Batallion of the Palmach forces, under the
command of Josef Tabenkin (8), conquered Caesarea.
According to Milstein, all those who did not escape from
the village were killed. Milstein gleaned testimonies
about this fact from fighters who participated in the
conquest.


A member of Kibbutz Be'eri, who was assigned to the the
Guard Milices for a short time, reveals another
unpublished case about the murder of an Arab
soldier: 'We were in the strong point in the Wadi Ara
area, near Giv'at Ada. Not far away was a post of
Palestinians who fired from time to time at us. One
night we raided their post and brought back a prisoner
for interrogation. One of the soldiers of the Guard
Milices took the prisoner after interrogation, beheaded
him and with a knife scalped the head. No one present
tried to stop him. He then tied the skin to a high pole
facing the Palestinian post to inspire a deadly fear
among the Palestinians. This soldier was later brought
to the batallion commander for trial.'


On 20 May 1948 the Karmeli Brigade conquered the village
Kabri. Dov Yirmiya, who was a company commander in the
21th batallion, tells: 'Kabri was conquered without a
fight. Almost all inhabitants fled. One of the soldiers,
Yehuda Reshef, who was together with his brother among
the few rescapees from the Yehi'am convoy, got hold of a
few youngsters who did not escape, probably seven,
ordered them to fill up some ditches digged as an
obstacle and then lined them up and fired at them with a
machine gun. A few died but some of the wounded
succeeded to escape. The batallion commander did not
react. Reshef was a brave fighter and as a rescapee from
the Yehi'am convoy, enjoyed special status in the
batallion. He advanced later to the grade of Brigadier
General. He justified his action as an act of revenge.'


'When the action ended, we left, namely the batallion
commander Dov Tschitchiss, Education Officer Tzadok
Eshel, the driver and myself. We drove over fields to
Nahariya. While driving we saw refugees escaping to the
North. The batallion commander ordered the driver to
stop and went with the driver and the Education Officer
to chase an Arab who was escaping with a girl eight or
nine years old. I heard shots and had scarcely the time
to understand what happened. When they returned, the
batallion commander declared: We killed them. I asked:
The girl too? And he answered to me: No, no, we did not
kill the girl'.


The Education Officer, Tzadok Eshel, has already
forgotten about the episode. 'In our Carmeli Brigade',
he said, 'we did not commit massacres. I can tell you
about the massacre that the IZL people did in Haifa. It
was typical for the IZL and the LEHI, not to us. It was
totally outside our way of thinking. There was the case
of an officer who wanted to loot a village but they did
not allow him.' After hearing the testimony of Yermiya,
Eshel changed his version: 'Did I tell you about this
case, no?...Probably I forgot...

Part III

[Gość: wojo!!!!]

The Education Officer, Tzadok Eshel, has already
forgotten about the episode. 'In our Carmeli Brigade',
he said, 'we did not commit massacres. I can tell you
about the massacre that the IZL people did in Haifa. It
was typical for the IZL and the LEHI, not to us. It was
totally outside our way of thinking. There was the case
of an officer who wanted to loot a village but they did
not allow him.' After hearing the testimony of Yermiya,
Eshel changed his version: 'Did I tell you about this
case, no?...Probably I forgot...Yes, there was in fact
one case where we drove in a jeep and an officer, I
don't remember who, but I don't think it was the
batallion commander, wanted to shoot down an Arab with a
girl. I told him that if he will fire at them, I will
shoot at him. When we returned to the jeep I felt good
that I succeeded to stop such a thing.' - Yirmiya, in
his testomony mentions [however] shots', -'I don't at
all remember that I was in the jeep. I was in the area.
I tell you, you better leave these things. There were no
such things.'



---------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------

Notes by Elias Davidsson


(1) Lydda: An Arabic town between Tel Aviv and
Jerusalem. Most of its inhabitants were expelled in 1948
under written orders by Yitzhak Rabin.

(2) Palmach: Shock troups of the Labour-controlled
Hagana forces.


(3) IDF: Israel Defense Forces.


(4) The War of Independence is the name given by
Zionists. The Palestinian Arab call this war the Naqba
(The Tragedy). Less loaded names might be The First
Zionist-Palestinian War, or the War of 1947-1948.


(5) Eretz Yisrael: The Hebrew name for the area of
Mandatory Palestine (from the Jordan to the
Mediterranean sea).


(6) One of the most potent lies, disseminated in the
whole world, was that the Palestinian Arabs left their
homes under explicite orders by Arab leaders outside
Palestine. There is no evidence for this claim, but it
has served Israel very well for at least 15 years after
its establishment, especially in the West.


(7) Yishuv: Jewish society in Mandatory Palestine.


(8) One of the leadesr of the leftist Zionist Ahdut
Avoda movement.

[Gość: !!!]

to wszystko wymysl propagandy panstw arabskich, ci bojownicy sami do siebie
strzelali, obrzucali granatami a nastepnie wysmykiwali sie z ich domow (nie
zampominajac najpierw wysadzic je w powietrze) gwalcac sie podrodze.
wiem to z wiarygodnego zrodla - rzecznik prasowy idf.
jak w ogole mozna oskarzac pokoj milujacych israelczykow
powinienes sie wstydzic, fe bad boy, bad

Uwaga--bydle z Kanady falszuje podpisy Wojo Puls

[puls]

Tyle prawdy w tych arabskich bredniach jak w podpisach sfalszowanych
tego smiecia jewhatera.
Sam wstydzi sie pod klamstwami arabskimi podpisac i falszuje podpisy
innych uczestnikow forum.

[Gość: !!!]

nie wiedzialem ze archiwa idf maja obsluge arabska

He,he....

[Gość: A.D.]

puls napisał:

> Tyle prawdy w tych arabskich bredniach jak w podpisach
sfalszowanych
> tego smiecia jewhatera.
> Sam wstydzi sie pod klamstwami arabskimi podpisac i falszuje
podpisy
> innych uczestnikow forum.


>>> Jezeli dla zydow tylko ...'bydleta' maja monopol na prawde, to jak
zakwalifikowac zydow?