Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sam who wrote (114321)	9/10/2003 9:50:11 AM
From: Noel de Leon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Since Nadine hasn't commented on your post I thought it would be of use to provide some background material. "...These two documents became the basis for all future Israeli and Jewish comment and analysis. Until the late 1980's the veracity of their claims was accepted without question. The "Arab orders" thesis moved from hearsay to historical truth through the quoting and requoting of these original documents by pro Israeli authors like Kimche, Eban, Syrkin, Sachar, Gilbert and even the anti Israeli writer, Moshe Menuhin. The novel Exodus, by Leon Uris and the film that followed established these views as historical fact. They all quote that "documented proof exists that the Arabs were promised they could return to their homes on the heels of Arab victories to loot the destroyed State of Israel." (Uris:1958). But the truth is otherwise. Ben-Gurion never urged Arabs to stay in Israel. In fact he instructed Rabin to expel over 50,000 Arab citizens from Lydda (Lod) and Ramle on July 12, 1948. Rabin issued the following order, "the inhabitants of Lydda must be expelled quickly without attention to age." The Mapam Mayor of Haifa, Abba Hushy did plead with the Arab minority in Haifa to stay. On the other hand Weitz, Head of Settlement and Land Acquisition of the JNF wrote in his diary on April 22, 1948 that "the state of mind of the fleeing Arabs should be exploited" and that the "inhabitants of Haifa who had not left should be pressed to leave." After hearing from the local Haganah commander that two Arab villages outside of Haifa had been evacuated Weitz wrote on April 24 that "I was happy to hear that this line was being adopted by the command - to frighten the Arabs so long as flight-inducing fear was upon them." In the months prior to Independence, Yigal Yadin, Head of the Haganah prepared an operation plan called Tochnit Dalet (Plan D). He explained that its objective "is to gain control of the territory of the Hebrew State and to defend its borders and to gain control of the areas of Jewish population and settlement outside the areas allocated to the Jewish State." He elaborated that "if Arab towns or villages occupied strategic points … the Haganah must undertake … the expulsion of the population outside the borders of the State." Prof. Sir Martin Gilbert, the famed historian of the Holocaust and Israel, details in his most recent book "Israel A History" (1998) incident after incident of Palmach, Haganah and IDF actions that aimed "to clear out the Arab population." He quotes Yigal Allon, official historian of the Palmach, "We regard it as imperative to cleanse the interior of Galilee and create Jewish continuity in the whole of Upper Galilee." In April 1948 the last Palestinian village whose population had not yet fled, Deir Yassin on Jerusalem's west was attacked by Irgun and Stern forces. The official Israeli account written by Lieutenant Colonel Lorch in 1961, (later head of Military History of IDF) describes how they "massacred hundreds of villagers, took the rest prisoner and paraded them proudly through the streets of Jerusalem." Deir Yassin was only one of over 250 Palestinian villages to disappear completely from the map of Israel. We can imagine the effect the news of this massacre had on Palestinians who were unwilling to leave their homes or property. Weitz wrote on April 21, 1948 that "… our army is steadily conquering Arab villages and their inhabitants are afraid and flee like mice. During the night several shells will whistle over them and they flee for their lives. Villages are steadily emptying, and if we continue on this course then villages will empty of all their inhabitants." The war hero of Israel, Yigal Allon, ordered the harassment of (Arab villages and towns) in order to speed up their evacuation. Only the leaders of Mapam, the socialist Zionist party, protested against this policy of "filling the roads with women, children and old men.". Since the late 1980's, Israeli historians have gained access to declassified documents from the Israeli State Archives. Historians like Flapan, Segev, Kapeliouk and Benny Morris, published books that dared to challenge the amnesia, mythology and fabrication of traditional Israeli-Zionist history. These Israelis are proud Zionists and cannot be accused of running an anti-Israel agenda. Morris found that direct Jewish expulsions in many parts of Israel was significant in the Palestinian flight. Morris however says, there is no evidence of a Cabinet or General Army Staff level decision to expel Arabs from Jewish areas. These historians found there was also no evidence of any blanket Arab Higher Command order to flee. On October 21, 1948 the Government of Israel took a decision that was to have the most lasting and divisive effect on the rights and status of the remaining Palestinians who lived within the State's borders. The creation of military government security zones in the remaining areas of Arab habitation which prohibited residents' movement without permission and authorised the military to remove and transfer residents from their homes. The reassessment of Israel's early history has radically transformed contemporary discussions about the Palestinian refugee origin and resulted in far reaching changes to the Israeli education curriculum. Its influence on the wider Jewish diaspora, Australia included, has not surprisingly, been more limited. But it is past time that we accept the evidence, based as it is on solid historical research. To continue to claim otherwise is to fabricate history. Once the past has been accepted, the plight of today's Palestinian refugees must be addressed. Not only by Israel, but by all countries in the area who have played their part over the last 55 years. Israel must in principle accept the Palestinian right of return while Palestinians and other Arab states must accept that Israel cannot settle an unlimited number of returning refugees. Compensation and re-settlement of refugees in the emerging Palestinian state will be the key to resolution of the refugee tragedy." ajds.org.au