The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (49 page)

57
. Nazzal,
The Palestinian Exodus
, p. 29.

58
. Netiva Ben-Yehuda,
Between the Knots
.

59
. For a review on the film, see
Al-Ahram Weekly
, 725, 13–19 January 2005.

60
. See the synthesis of the available sources in Khalidi (ed.),
All That Remains
, p. 437.

61
. Hans Lebrecht,
The Palestinians, History and Present
, pp. 176–7.

62
. This is an openly available publication,
The Palmach Book
, vol. 2, p. 304.

63
. Ben-Yehuda,
Between the Knots
, pp. 245–6.

64
.
The Palmach Book
.

65
. Interview with Sela (see
chapter 2
, note 31).

66
. Ibid.

67
. Ibid.

68
. Ibid.

69
. Laila Parsons, ‘The Druze and the Birth of Israel’ in Eugene Rogan and Avi Shlaim (eds),
The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948
.

70
. Ben-Gurion Archives, Correspondence, 23.02–1.03.48, doc. 70.

71
. See the discussion in the Arab League in Pappe,
The Making of the Arab–Israeli Conflict
, pp. 102–34.

72
. Walid Khalidi, ‘The Arab Perspective’ in W. Roger Louis and Robert S. Stookey (eds),
The End of the Palestine Mandate
.

73
. Pappe,
The Making of the Arab–Israeli Conflict.

74
. Qasimya Khairiya,
Fawzi al-Qawuqji’s Memoirs, 1936–1948

75
. See Shlaim,
Collusion.

76
. Ben-Gurion’s
Diary
, 2 May 1948.

77
. As much was also conveyed by the Hagana senior officers in a meeting on 8 May 1948 and to Golda Meir by King Abdullah, on May 10. Meir did report to the Zionist leadership that Abdullah would not sign a treaty with the Jews and would have to go to war. But Moshe Dayan affirmed in 1975 what the British suspected, that in fact he promised that the Iraqi and Jordanian troops would invade the Jewish state. See Dayan in
Yeidot Acharonot
, 28 February 1975 and see Rivlin and Oren,
The War of Independence
, pp. 409–10 about the 8 May meetings.

78
. PRO, FO 800,477, FS 46/7 13 May 1948.

79
. Nimr Hawari wrote a war memoir called
The Secret of the Nakba
, which he published in Nazareth in Arabic in 1955.

80
. Quoted in Flapan,
The Birth of Israel
, p. 157.

81
. Recently there was an interesting debate between Israeli historians on Ben-Gurion’s position. See
Ha’aretz
, 12 and 14 May 2006 ‘The Big Wednesday’.

82
. Wahid al-Daly,
The Secrets of the Arab League and Abd al-Rahman Azzam
.

83
. In front of the Joint Parliamentary Middle East Councils, Commission of Enquiry – Palestinian Refugees, London: Labour Middle East Council and others, 2001.

1
. Levy,
Jerusalem
, criticized the decision to try and defend these enclaves as a strategic mistake which did not serve the overall strategy; Levy,
Jerusalem
, p. 114.

2
. Yehuda Sluzky,
Summary of the Hagana Book
, pp. 486–7.

3
. For all meetings I quote from Ben-Gurion’s
Diary
.

4
. Interview with Glubb, and see Glubb,
A Soldier with the Arabs
, p. 82.

5
. Ben-Gurion’s
Diary
, 2 June 1948.

6
. Amitzur Ilan,
The Origins of the Arab–Israeli Arms Race: Arms, Embargo, Military Power and Decision in the 1948 Palestine War
.

7
. IDF Archives, 51/665, File 1, May 1948.

8
. Pail, ‘External’.

9
. In fact some of the books we have mentioned, notably Khalidi (ed.),
All That Remains
, Flapan,
The Birth of Israel
, Palumbo,
The Catastrophe
and Morris,
Revisited
prove this point very convincingly.

10
. The orders can be found in the IDF archives, 51/957, File 16, 7 April 1948, and see 49/4858, File 495 to 15 October 1948 [hence IDF Archives, orders].

11
. See Maqor Rishon. The reason quoted was direct hits on the Red House and Ben-Gurion’s flat by Egyptian airplanes.

12
. IDF Archives, 1951/957, File 24, 28 January 1948 to 7 July 1948.

13
. Ibid.

14
. See Ilan Pappe, ‘The Tantura Case in Israel: The Katz Research and Trial’,
Journal of Palestine Studies,
30(3), Spring 2001, pp. 19–39.

15
. Based on Pappe, ibid., p. 3 and also Pappe, ‘Historical Truth, Modern Historiography, and Ethical Obligations: The Challenge of the Tantura Case,’
Holy Land Studies
, vol. 3/2 November 2004.

16
. Nimr al-Khatib,
Palestine’s Nakbah
, p. 116.

17
. Sinai and Rivlin,
The Alexandroni Brigade
.

18
. IDF Archives, 49/6127, File 117, 13 April to 27 September 1948.

19
. Ibid.

20
. Hagana Archives, 8/27/domestic, 1 June 1948.

21
. See note 8.

22
. Report to Yadin, 11 May 1948 in Hagana Archives, 25/97.

23
. Eshel (ed.),
The Carmeli Brigade in the War of Independence
, p. 172.

24
. Posted on
www.palestineremembered.com
, 1 July 2000.

25
. Ben-Gurion’s
Diary
, 24 May 1948.

1
. Morris,
The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem
, p. 128.

2
. Four such villages – Beit Tima, Huj, Biriyya, and Simsim – are reported in Ben-Gurion’s
Diary
, 1 June 1948; the Israeli State Archives report setting fire to villages, in 2564/9 from August 1948.

3
. As reported in his diary.

4
. Ben-Gurion’s
Diary
, 2 June 1948.

5
. Ibid.

6
. Naji Makhul,
Acre and its Villages since Ancient Time
s, p. 28.

7
. Interview by Teddy Katz with Tuvia Lishanski, see Pappe,
Tantura
.

8
. The recollections of eyewitnesses were presented in Salman Natur,
Anta al-Qatil, ya-Shaykh
, 1976 (no publishing house); Michael Palumbo, who scrutinized the UN archives, reports that the UN was aware of Israel’s method of summary execution,
The Palestinian Catastrophe
, pp. 163–74.

9
. IDF Archives, 49/5205/58n, 1 June 1948

10
. Israeli State Archives, 2750/11 a report of the intelligence officer to Ezra Danin, 29 July 1948.

11
. IDF Archives, 49/6127, File 117, 3 June 1948.

12
. Israeli State Archives, 2566/15, various reports by Shimoni.

13
. Orders, for instance, to the Carmeli Brigade in the Hagana Archives, 100/29/B.

14
. See oral history evidence on the website
www.palestineremembered.com
.

15
. Morris,
The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem
, pp. 198–9.

16
. Ben-Gurion’s
Diary
, 16 July 1948.

17
. IDF Archives, 49/6127, File 516.

18
. Report by the Intelligence Officer of the Northern Front to the HQ, 1 August 1948 in IDF Archives, 1851/957, File 16.

19
.
The New York Times
, 26 and 27 July 1948.

20
. Khalidi (ed.),
All That Remains
p. 148.

21
. Lydda in
The Encyclopedia of Palestine
.

22
. Dan Kurzman,
Soldier of Peace
, pp. 140–1.

23
. Ben-Gurion’s
Diary
, 11, 16 and 17 July 1948 (this was a real obsession).

24
. Ibid., 11 July 1948.

25
. Ben-Gurion’s
Diary
, 18 July 1948.

26
. Ibid.

27
. Interview with Sela (see
chapter 2
, note 31).

28
. Nazzal,
The Palestine Exodus
, pp. 83–5.

29
. IDF Archives, 49/6127, File 516.

30
. A detailed description of the expulsion of the Bedouin can be found in Nur Masalha,
A Land Without a People: Israel, Transfer and the Palestinians
.

31
. IDF Archives, File 572/4, a report from 7 August 1948.

32
. Ibid. 51/937, Box 5, File 42, 21 August 1948.

33
. Ibid.

34
. IDF Archives, 549/715, File 9.

35
. Ibid. 51/957, File 42, Operation Alef Ayn, 19 June 1948.

1
. Morris,
The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem
, pp. 305–6.

2
. Detailed information on the current location of refugees and their original villages may be found in Salman Abu Sitta’s
Atlas of Palestine 1948.

3
. Nazzal,
The Palestinian Exodus
, pp. 95–6 and Morris,
The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem
, pp. 230–1 and Khalidi, (ed.),
All That Remains
, p. 497.

4
. The oral history evidence was posted on
www.palestineremembered.com
by
Mohammad Abdallah Edghaim on 25 April, 2001, and the archival evidence can be found in the Hashomer Ha-Tza‘ir Archives, Aharon Cohen, private collection, a memo from 11 November, 1948.

5
. Appears in the testimony of Edghaim, who interviewed Salim and Shehadeh Shraydeh.

6
. Morris,
The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem
, pp. 194–5.

7
. Iqrit has an official website with a succinct report about the events:
www.iqrit.org

8
. Daud Bader (ed.),
Al-Ghabsiyya; Always in our Heart
, Center of the Defence of the Displaced Persons’ Right, May 2002 (Nazareth, in Arabic).

9
. IDF Archives, 51/957, File 1683, Battalion 103, company C.

10
. Ibid. 50/2433, File 7.

11
. Ibid. 51/957, File 28/4.

12
. Ibid. 51/1957, File 20/4, 11 November 1948.

13
. Morris,
The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem
, p. 182.

14
. IDF Archives, 51/957, File 42, Hiram Operative Commands and 49/715, File 9.

15
. United Nation Archives, 13/3.3.1 Box 11, Atrocities September–November.

16
. IDF Archives, The Committee of Five Meetings, 11 November 1948.

17
. Ibid.

18
.
Ha-Olam ha-Ze
, 1 March 1978 and testimony of Dov Yirmiya, the Israeli commander on the spot, published in
Journal of Palestine Studies
, vol. 7/4 (Summer 1978), no. 28, pp. 143–5. Yirmiya does not mention numbers, but the Lebanese website of the association of these villages does; see Issah Nakhleh, The
Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem
, Chapter 15.

19
. IDF Archives, 50/121, File 226, 14 December 1948.

20
. Michael Palumbo,
Catastrophe
, pp. 173–4.