Research Guide
to the
Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
Last updated: July 2002
I have always intended to update this list. Since that hasn't happened, hopefully this resource retains some usefulness in its current form.
I. Basic Information
A. Historical Overview
1. Overview Collections
50 Years of Dispossession (Al-Ahram Weekly)
Israel and the Intifada (The Guardian newspaper from London)
Israel, Palestine and the Occupied Territories (Global Policy Forum)
Middle East: The Faultline (Le Monde diplomatique newspaper in Paris)
Middle East: Israel and the Palestinians (CBC)
Palestine: Facts and Info (PASSIA: Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs)
Palestine: Home of History (Palestinehistory.com)
Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Primer (MERIP: Middle East Research and Information Project)
Primer on the Uprising in Palestine (MERIP: Middle East Research and Information Project)
Statistics collected by the Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine
Transformation of Palestine (Birzeit University)
Understanding the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (resources collected by the Coalition for Justice in Israel/Palestine at Stanford University)
Voices from the Conflict (BBC)
Washington Report On Middle East Affairs (American Educational Trust) Search the archive.
2. Historical Document Collections
The Middle East 1916-2001: A Documentary Record (The Avalon Project)
Middle East Peace Process Historical Background (MidEast Web)
Selected Documents Regarding Palestine (Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine)
Treaties and Historic Documents (Ariga)
3. Timelines
Chronology of Events In The Middle East from 1908-1966 (Glen Rangwala)
Chronology of Events in the Middle East from 1967 to 2002 (Glen Rangwala)
Middle East Timeline (ZNet)
Middle East Timeline (The Guardian)
Timeline of Palestinian History and Politics (Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine)
4. Individual Documents
a. General Historical and Analytical Documents
"Background to the Israel-Palestine Crisis" (Stephen R. Shalom; Z Magazine; May 2002) Excellent
Media Style Sheet (Americans for Middle East Understanding; 2002)
"The Key to Peace: Dismantling the Matrix of Control" (Jeff Halper; Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions; 2002?)
"Israel's Brand of Apartheid: The Nakba Continues" (Dianne Luping and Rhys Johnson; LAW; August 2001)
The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict (Jews for Justice, 2000)
Transformation of Palestine (Abdul Jawad Saleh; Challenge; February 1995)
Palestine Monitor Fact Sheet on the Oslo Accords
The Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917-1988, part I (UN Division for Palestinian Rights, 1978)
The Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917-1988, part II (UN Division for Palestinian Rights, 1979)
The Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917-1988, part III (UN Division for Palestinian Rights, 1984)
The Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917-1988, part IV (UN Division for Palestinian Rights, 1990)
"Zionism And Its Impact" (Ann M. Lesch; Washington Report on Middle East Affairs)
b. For American Jews
See also American Jewish peace organizations.
The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict (Jews for Justice, 2000)
"From Jew To Jew: Why We Should Oppose The Israeli Occupation of The West Bank and Gaza" (A Jewish Voice for Peace
"Jewish Friends of Palestine" (gateway to a large number of organizations)
"A Basic History of Zionism and its Relation to Judaism" (Hanna Braun; London; September 2001)
c. Works that Lay Bare the Truth
"Jenin Deaths Video Implicates Army" (BBC; July 5, 2002)
| The BBC has obtained video footage which appears to show an incident in the West Bank city of Jenin two weeks ago in which two Palestinian children were killed by Israeli tank fire. The Israeli army has apologised for causing the deaths of six-year-old Ahmad Abu Aziz and his 13-year-old brother Jamil, but said the tank crew opened fire to deter Palestinians breaking a curfew and approaching them. However, the footage shows a tank firing the first of two shells, at close range, at a group of civilians who are running away. |
"The Real Disaster Is the Closure: Half the Palestinians in the West Bank Are Unemployed, Half Are in Dire Poverty, and the Economy Is Sliding into Barter" (Amira Hass; Ha'aretz; June 12?, 2002)
"At Checkpoint in Gaza, Travelers Wait and Wait" (Tim Golden; New York Times; June 12, 2002)
"The Donkeys of the Holy Land" (Minerva Wright; CounterPunch; June 11, 2002)
Resisting Closure: A Village Demands to be Heard (Richard Johnson; Palestine Chronicle; June 5, 2002)
"I Made Them a Stadium in the Middle of the Camp" (originally published in Hebrew in Yediot Aharonot on May 31, 2002) The story of a bulldozer driver in Jenin Camp.
"Palestinian Enslavement Enters a New Phase" (Arab News; May 26, 2002)
"There Is a Firestorm Coming, And It Is Being Provoked by Mr. Bush: More And More, President Bush's Rhetoric Sounds Like the Crazed Videotapes of Osama Bin Laden" (Robert Fisk; The Independent; May 25, 2002)
"Why Does John Malkovich Want to Kill Me?" (Robert Fisk; The Independent; May 14, 2002)
"We Don't Need Your Help" (Reem Mohammed Al-Faisal; Arab News; May 7, 2002)
"Someone Even Managed to Defecate into the Photocopier" (Amira Hass; Ha'aretz; May 6, 2002)
"Jenin: IDF Military Operations" (Human Rights Watch; May 2, 2002)
"The Bulldozer War" (Christian Salmon; Le Monde diplomatique; May 2002)
Witness to Execution in Gaza (C.E. Carlson; May 2002)
"US-Israel-Palestine" (Noam Chomsky; Red Pepper; May 2002)
"Operation Destroy the Data" (Amira Hass; Ha'aretz; April 24?, 2002)
"Jenin: The Bloody Truth" (Marie Colvin; The Sunday Times (London); April 21, 2002)
"What Israel Has Done" (Edward Said; Al Ahram Weekly; April 18, 2002)
"First the Carrot, Then the Stick: Behind the Carnage in Palestine" (Norman Finkelstein; CounterPunch; April 17, 2002)
"The Roots of Palestinian Despair" (Gerd Nonneman; The Guardian/Observer Worldview; April 14, 2002)
"How Pointless Checkpoints Humiliate the Lions of Palestine, Sending Them on the Road to Vengeance" (Robert Fisk; The Independent; April 14, 2001)
"Occupation is Oppression" (Desmond Tutu; April 13, 2002) Essential.
"The Future of Palestine" (Edward Said; April 7, 2002)
"Eyewitness: West Bank Commuter Odyssey" (Martin Asser; BBC; April 6, 2002)
"The Palestinian Vision of Peace" (Yasir Arafat; New York Times; February 3, 2002)
"Alone in Their Cage, Palestinians Suffer The Illness of Despair" (Samah Jabr With Betsy Mayfield; WRMEA; Jan.-Feb. 2002)
"The Blood on Israel's Hands - When War Criminals Play The Victim, And The World Nods in Agreement" (Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed; Media Monitors Network; December 7, 2001)
"A Gaza Diary" (Chris Hedges; Harper's Magazine, October, 2001)
| "Children have been shot in other conflicts I have covered--death squads gunned them down in El Salvador and Guatemala, mothers with infants were lined up and massacred in Algeria, and Serb snipers put children in their sights and watched them crumple onto the pavement in Sarajevo--but I have never before watched soldiers entice children like mice into a trap and murder them for sport." |
"Not Only Deir Yassin" (Guy Erlich, Ha'ir [Israeli newspaper], 6 May 1992) Essential
| "According to [Israeli historian Aryeh] 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 a hundred smaller massacres (of individuals or small groups). ... 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.'" |
Compare the moral and intellectual level of Israeli government position papers:
"The Involvement of Arafat, PA Senior Officials and Apparatuses in Terrorism against Israel, Corruption and Crime" (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs; May 6, 2002
Fatal Terrorist Attacks in Israel Since the Declaration of Principles in Sept. 1993 (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
"Inciting and Educating Children toward Hate, Anti-Semitism and Violence in the Palestinian Authority" (Israel's Office of the Prime Minister, undated)
Conversion stories:
If you have a story of how you came to see the light that you would like to share, please contact me.
"My Journey in The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" (Linda Belanger; Palestine Chronicle; June 12, 2002)
"Memoirs of an Anti-Zionist Jew" (Hanna Braun; London; 1991)
"Palestine/Israel: Do You Know Your ABCs?" (Tzaporah Ryter; Pulse of the Twin Cities; June 27, 2001)
"On the Jericho Road" (James M. Wall; The Link; volume 33, issue 4 (September--October, 2000))
"Epiphany at Beit Jalla" (Donald Neff; The Link; volume 28, issue 5 (November-December 1995))
5. Books
a. Bibliographies and Book Lists
"A New Literary Look at the Middle East" (1991 AMEU booklist) Useful for seeing the books that were important 10 years ago. Many still are.
Palestinian American Research Center Bibliography
ZNet's Middle East Reading List
b. Organizations that Sell Books
American Educational Trust
Americans for Middle East Understanding
Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine
Institute for Palestine Studies
B. Human Rights Organizations
See many more listed under Organizations.
Addameer: Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association
Al-Haq: Law in the Service of Man
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights (Jabalia Refugee Camp)
Amnesty International USA
-----Home office of Amnesty International in London
B'Tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
Defence For Children International: Palestine Section
Human Rights Watch
International Committee of the Red Cross
-----The ICRC in Israel, the Occupied Territories and the Autonomous Territories
LAW: The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment
MIFTAH: The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialog and Democracy
Palestine Red Crescent Society
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group
Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights
Palestinian Prisoners' Society
The Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees
UN Commission on Human Rights: News releases on Israel and the Palestinians
UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East)
Current casualty figures:
Palestinian Red Crescent Society
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
LAW: The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment
Chart of Monthly Intifada Deaths (The Guardian; May 9, 2002)
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs Note that this appears to include all Israeli Jews killed by Palestinians, including soldiers (certainly) and victims of nonpolitical criminal acts (apparently).
C. Maps
Israel-Palestine Maps (Open Directory)
Key Maps of the Middle East (BBC)
Maps collected by the Coalition for Justice in Israel/Palestine
Maps collected by the Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine
Maps on the Middle East (Le Monde diplomatique) Scroll down to Middle East.
Web Guide to Maps of the Middle East (MERIA)
West Bank and Gaza Maps (University of Texas)
See also maps of Israel's March 29, 2002, invasion from The Times of London:
"13 Days of Bloodshed" (The Times; April 9, 2002)
"Eight Days in the West Bank" (April 6, 2002)
"The Israeli Advance" (April 5, 2002)
Arafat's Compound
See also maps scattered throughout the Research Guide, including:
Maps of checkpoints
Maps of Israel's "generous" offer at Camp David II
Maps of Palestinian refugee camps
Maps of settlements in the West Bank and Gaza
Maps of settlements in the Golan Hights
D. Portal Sites
Birzeit University Guide to Palestine's Websites
The Country of Palestine
The Middle East Information Network
Open Directory: Israel-Palestine Conflict
Palestine Center
Palestine-Net
Palestinian Development InfoNet
PalSeek.com (in Arabic)
The People of Palestine
Yahoo!: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Yahoo! Palestinian Authority Category
Yahoo! Groups: Palestinian Authority
Zeal.com: Middle East
Webrings:
PalestineInfo Network WebRing
Palestinians Webring
Sites Supporting Middle East Peace, Democracy and Tolerance
E. Updates from the Occupied Territories
For most current news stories, see Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
See also the resources listed in the News category.
al-Aqsa Intifada.com
Colorado Campaign For Middle East Peace
Electronic Intifada
Independent Media Center Palestine (Bethlehem)
IndyMedia Israel (Tel Aviv)
Palestine Chronicle (Mountlake Terrace, WA)
II. Commentary and Deeper General Information
A. Middle East-Specific Sites
Ariga
bitterlemons.org
Cactus48.com
The Electronic Intifada Excellent
Mideastfacts.com
Mideast Realities
MidEast Web
nileMedia.com
Oznik.com
Palestine Media Watch
Palestine Monitor
RamallahOnline.com
Western Journalists in Support of Palestine
These smaller sites are also useful:
Hope Site
Palestine Dying To Live
B. Progressive and Anti-War Sites
See also Progressive Resources.
AlterNet
Antiwar.com
Common Dreams
CounterPunch
International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism)
Media Monitors Network
The Nation
War Times
ZNet
C. Particular Writers
Uri Avnery
------ Archive at ZNet (Uri Avnery)
Noam Chomsky (archive at ZNet)
Bad News: Noam Chomsky Archive
Alexander Cockburn
Norman Finkelstein
Robert Fisk
-----Archive at ZNet
Sidebar: Interviews with and Writings about Robert Fisk
"Mideast Views to Make Us Squirm" (Allan Jalon; Los Angeles Times; April 22, 2002)
"Beyond Disappointment" (Marc Cooper interview with Robert Fisk; LA Weekly; April 19-25, 2002)
Robert Fisk: The Progressive Interview, December 2001
Amira Hass (archive at ZNet) Writer for Ha'aretz.
Robert Jensen Professor at the University of Texas.
Gideon Levy (archive at ZNet) Writer for Ha'aretz.
Alfred Lilienthal Home Page Longtime U.S. anti-Zionist activist.
Tanya Reinhart Professor at Tel Aviv University.
-----Archive at ZNet
TESA: The Edward Said Archive
Sidebar: Israel Shahak
-----Collections:
Israel Shahak articles collected by the Middle East Policy Council
Israel Shahak Resources on the Web
-----Writings about Dr. Shahak:
"A Survivor for Whom Never Again Means Never Again" (Mark Dow; The Link; volume 28, issue 2 (May-June 1995)
Dr. Israel Shahak (Richard H. Curtiss; Washington Report on Middle East Affairs; June 1989)
Interview with Israel Shahak (Middle East Policy Council; Summer 1989)
-----Writings by Dr. Shahak:
"Shahak Condemns Labor Zionism" (January 1997)
"The Real Israeli Interest in Lebanon" (July 1996)
"Israel's Discriminatory Practices Are Rooted in Jewish Religious Law" (March 1995)
"The Ideology Behind the Hebron Massacre" (March 1994)
"Falsification of the Holocaust" (May, 1989)
-----Translations by Dr. Shahak:
They Shoot POWs
-----Obituaries:
"Israel Shahak, 1933-2001" (Mark Dow; Between the Lines)
"ADC Mourns Death of Israel Shahak"
"A Determined Critic of Israel's Apartheid" (Socialist Worker)
"With Israel Shahak's Death, A Prophetic Voice Is Stilled" (Allan C. Brownfeld; Washington Report on Middle East Affairs)
"Israel Shahak, 1933-2001" (Christopher Hitchens: The Nation; July 23, 2001)
"Israel Shahak: Belsen Survivor Who Attacked Israel's Treatment of Palestinians" (Elfi Pallis; The Guardian; July 6, 2001)
"The Last Israeli Liberal - Remembering Israel Shahak (1933 - 2001)" (Michael Warschawski; Jerusalem Quarterly File)
"Mourning the Death of Jewish Professor Israel Shahak" (Ramzi Baroud; Arabia.com)
"Prof. Israel Shahak, Scourge of Nationalists, Laid to Rest" (Avi Katzman; Ha'aretz)
"Israel Shahak (1933-2001): In Memory of Israel's Leading Voice of Dissent" (Sunil Sharma; Dissident Voice)
"Remembering Israel Shahak" (Alexander Cockburn)
Three commentators for mainstream American newspapers who think independently on the Middle East:
James Goldsborough at the San Diego Union Tribune
Holger Jensen "He left the Rocky Mountain News and Scripps Howard in May 2002 and is now self-syndicated."
Charley Reese with King Features Syndicate
D. Selected Political Commentary
These are comments that I feel are particularly noteworthy.
"The Politicide of the Palestinian People" (Baruch Kimmerling; Arab News; June 21, 2002)
"A Moral Campaign to End the Occupation" (Desmond Tutu; Jordan Times; June 18, 2002)
"Palestinian Reforms Have Multitude of Motives" (David Hirst; The Guardian; June 18, 2002)
"Burning the Oslo Candle at Both Ends" (Gideon Levy; Ha'aretz; June 16, 2002)
"Palestinian Elections Now" (Edward Said; Al-Ahram Weekly; June 13-19, 2002)
"Mr Bush's Titanic War on Terror Will Eventually Sink beneath the Waves" (Robert Fisk; The Independent; June 12, 2002)
"What Is Antisemitism?" (Michael Neumann; CounterPunch; June 4, 2002)
"Neocolonial Invitation to a Tribal War" (Noam Chomsky; June? 2002)
"After Jenin" (Yitzhak Laor; Arab News; May 26, 2002)
"There Is a Firestorm Coming, And It Is Being Provoked by Mr. Bush: More And More, President Bush's Rhetoric Sounds Like the Crazed Videotapes of Osama Bin Laden" (Robert Fisk; The Independent; May 25, 2002)
"Lies, Damned Lies, and Israeli Propaganda" (Paul D'Amato and Anthony Arnove; Arab News; May 24, 2002)
"Was Barak Telling the Truth?" (Yoav Peled; The Guardian; May 24, 2002)
[The preceding is a response to "Lying Is Cultural Trait of Arabs, Says Barak" (Brian Whitaker; May 23, 2002)]
"Letter to a Fallen Friend" (Emad J. Fraitekh; Arab News; May 22, 2002)
"Crisis for American Jews: (Edward Said; Al-Ahram Weekly; May 16-22, 2002)
"Is Criticism of Israel Anti-Semitic? On Rhetorical Border-Grabbing in the Media" (Alexander Cockburn; Creators Syndicate; May 16, 2002)
"Why Does John Malkovich Want to Kill Me?" (Robert Fisk; The Independent; May 14, 2002)
"Sharon And His Bag of Tricks" (Richard H. Curtiss; Arab News; May 11, 2002)
"The Solution Is the Problem" (Noam Chomsly; The Guardian; May 11, 2002)
"Give Us an Alternative" (Menachem Klein; The Guardian; May 10, 2002)
"The Collaborator Who Failed" (Tom Segev; Ha'aretz; May 10, 2002) "For, as long as Yasser Arafat agreed to collaborate with Israel and ignore the expansion of the settlements, he was a partner"
"Sharonic Victory" (Gabriel Ash; Yellow Times; May 10, 2002)
"Israel's Unwinnable War" (James Goldsborough; San Diego Union Tribune; May 9, 2002)
"After Jenin" (Yitzhak Laor; London Review of Books; May 23, 2002, but posted by May 9)
"Israel's Black Propaganda Bid Falters as Documents Reveal an Impotent Leader Not a Terrorist Mastermind: Israel's 'Book of Terror' Purporting to Show Arafat's Role in Suicide Attacks Is 'Riddled with Omissions and Falsehoods'" (Robert Fisk; The Independent; May 9, 2002)
"While in US You Feel More Palestinian Than Ever" (Kinda Balkhair; Arab News; May 9, 2002)
"This Slur of Anti-Semitism Is Used to Defend Repression" (Seumas Milne; The Guardian; May 9, 2002)
"The Solution to this Filthy War" (Robert Fisk; The Independent; May 8?, 2002)
"We Don't Need Your Help" (Reem Mohammed Al-Faisal; Arab News; May 7, 2002) Every American should read this.
"ANDDOVUS Nations Authorize 'Regime Change' for USA: Pro-Democracy Coup to be Staged No Later Than Next Spring" (Dennis Hans; Common Dreams; May 7, 2002)
"Globalization of the American Democracy" (Hani Emam; Arab News; May 5, 2002)
"Sharon the Merciless and Arafat the Corrupt Have Nothing Meaningful to Offer Each Other" (Robert Fisk; The Independent; May 4, 2002)
"Bleak Horizons After Operation Defensive Wall" (Mouin Rabbani; MERIP; April 30, 2002)
"The Lessons Israel Should Learn (Meir Pa'il; Media Monitors Network; April 30, 2002)
"Sharon Is Taking Us Back to 1948" (Ahmad Samih Khalidi; The Guardian; April 30, 2002)
"Who's Anti-Semitic?" (Richard Cohen; Washington Post; April 30, 3002)
"Bury My Heart at Wounded... Jenin (Frank M. Afflitto; Media Monitors Network; April 29, 2002)
"America's Own 'Rogue State'" (David Hirst; Japan Times; April 28, 2002)
"Sharon's Plan Is to Drive Palestinians across the Jordan" (Martin van Creveld; The Daily Telegraph; April 28, 2002)
"The Real Aim" (Uri Avnery; ZNet; April 27, 2002)
"Just Get Out" (Gabriel Ash; YellowTimes.org; April 25, 2002)
"The Israelisation of America's War" (Marwan Bishara; Al-Ahram; April 25-May 1, 2002)
"Something Stinks" (Uri Avnery; Media Monitors Network; April 22, 2002)
"America Can Persuade Israel to Make a Just Peace" (Jimmy Carter; New York Times; April 21, 2002)
"Beyond Disappointment" (Marc Cooper interview with Robert Fisk; LA Weekly; April 19 - 25, 2002)
"You Are Not Nazis, That's True; Why Do Those Who Deny the Holocaust Fall into Well-Deserved Disrepute, While Those Who Silence the Crimes of the US or Israel Are Blessed, Decorated, and Applauded?" (Santiago Alba Rico; Rebelion.org; April 19, 2002 )
"What Israel Has Done" (Edward Said; Al Ahram Weekly; April 18, 2002)
"First the Carrot, Then the Stick: Behind the Carnage in Palestine" (Norman Finkelstein; CounterPunch; April 17, 2002)
Profound Contempt (Amira Hass; Ha'aretz; April 16, 2002)
"Europe Must Show its Mettle and Punish Israel" (Ann Clwyd; The Independent; April 16, 2002)
"US-Israel-Palestine" (Noam Chomsky; Red Pepper; dated May 2002 but available mid-April)
"It's the Policy, Stupid!" (James Zogby; Media Monitors Network; April 15, 2002)
"A Brutal Occupation" (James J. David; Media Monitors Network; April 15, 2002)
"The Roots of Palestinian Despair" (Gerd Nonneman; The Guardian/Observer Worldview; April 14, 2002)
"Mr. Powell Must See for Himself What Israel Inflicted on Jenin" (Robert Fisk; the Independent; April 14, 2002)
"America Must See that Sharon Is the Problem" (Avi Shlaim; The Guardian/Observer Worldview; April 14, 2002)
"From the Ashes: The Struggle for Freedom in Palestine" (M. Junaid Alam; CounterPunch; April 14, 2002)
"The Roots of Palestinian Despair" (Gerd Nonneman; The Guardian/Observer Worldview; April 14, 2002)
"Occupation is Oppression" (Desmond Tutu; April 13, 2002) Essential.
"U.S. Wrong to Back Sharon" (Nathan Gardels interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski; New Perspectives Quarterly; April 12, 2002)
"Break the Mirror Now" (Ilan Pappe; Al-Ahram Weekly; April 11-17, 2002)
"This Will Be the Week When We See Who Runs the US-Israeli Alliance" (Robert Fisk; The Independent; April 8, 2002)
"The Future of Palestine" (Edward Said; April 7, 2002)
"An End to Israeli Occupation Will Mean a Just War" (Amos Oz; The Guardian/Onserver Worldview; April 7, 2002)
"Sharon's Military Tactics Should Not Surprise Anyone" (Fergal Keane; The Independent; April 6, 2002)
"Murdering Arafat" (Uri Avnery; Al-Ahram Weekly; April 4-10, 2002)
"Thinking Ahead" (Edward Said; Al-Ahram Weekly; April 4-10, 2002)
"Let There Be Justice for All, Mr. Bush" (Lord Gilmour; The Guardian/Observer Worldview; March 31, 2002)
"What Price Oslo?" (Edward Said; Al-Ahram Weekly; March 14-20, 2002)
"Europe Must Stop Parroting the American Script in the Middle East" (Robert Fisk; The Independent; Feb. 21, 2002)
"The Palestinian Vision of Peace" (Yasir Arafat; New York Times; Feb. 3, 2002)
"Reflections on Zionism from a Dissident Jew" (Tim Wise; ZNet; September 5, 2001)
"Strategies of Hope" (Edward Said; Al Ahram Weekly; September 18-24, 1997)
III. Deir Yassin Massacre; Other Zionist/Israeli Massacres and Terrorism
A. Massacres
The Jewish Militias:
Haganah: official militia of the Jewish community in Palestine (the Yishuv); led by David Ben-Gurion, who became Israel's first Prime Minister; became the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) after Israel declared statehood on May 14, 1948.
Irgun (full name: Irgun Zvai Leumi, or IZL): "unofficial" militia headed by Menachem Begin. Undertook terrorist acts that the Haganah wouldn't.
Palmach: the attack troops of the Haganah.
Stern Gang (formal name: Lohamei Herut Yisrael, or Fighters for the Freedom of Israel; often referred to by its abbreviation LEHI): splinter from, and even more extreme than, the Irgun. Yitzhak Shamir, the groups's operations commander, later became Prime Minister of Israel.
Note: I'm defining "massacre," for the purposes of this section, as the killing, by Israeli government forces (or, pre-state, any of the three Jewish militias), of five (occasionally four) or more civilians or defenseless military personnel in a single incident. While this list is far from complete, it should include most of the major incidents that have come to light. (Massacres committed by private individuals are included under subdivision B., Some Other Acts of Terror.)
Caution: While I'm only including listings that appear to be valid, and many of the most serious massacres are well-documented, I have not checked the underlying sources for most of these entries, and some may be false or inaccurate.
The lack of punishment: An important aspect of the story of Israel's atrocities against the Palestinians and other Arabs is the lack of punishment meted out to the perpetrators. Low- and middle-level perpetrators--the soldiers who carried out the killings and their commanders--were only infrequently punished, and any punishment was light. The high-level perpetrators, on the other hand, tended to become prime ministers of Israel: David Ben-Gurion, Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, all of whom are mentioned above, and Ariel Sharon, the current prime minister and the commander of Unit 101, responsible for the Qibya massacre in 1953.
I am still in the process of compiling this section. I'll post a note when I have finished adding the information I have.
If you want to link directly to this section of the Research Guide, use this URL: http://www.robincmiller.com/fr-III.htm
Books with abbreviated citations: These are the full citations for those books whose citations are given in abbreviated form in the list of massacres.
Sami Hadawi, Bitter Harvest: A Modern History of Palestine, NY: Olive Branch Press, revised and updated ed. 1990.
Walid Khalidi (ed.), All that Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992, 636 pp. A massive and invaluable work.
Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949, Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Nafez Nazzal, The Palestinian Exodus from Galilee 1948, Beirut: The Institute for Palestine Studies, 1978.
Michael Palumbo, The Palestinian Catastrophe: The 1948 Expulsion of a People from Their Homeland, London: Faber and Faber, 1987.
Who Are the Terrorists? Aspects of Zionist and Israeli Terror, Beirut: The Institute for Palestine Studies, 1972.
R. Dare Wilson, Cordon & Search: With 6th Airborne Division in Palestine, 1945-1948, London: Aldershot, Gale & Polden, 1949, 275 pp. Reprinted Nashville, TN: Battery Press, 1984.
King David Hotel in Jerusalem (July 22, 1946)
What happened: 91 people killed by explosives planted by the Irgun: 28 Britons, 41 Arabs, 17 Jews and five persons of other nationalities. Of the dead, 21 were British government officials, 13 were soldiers, and three were police officers. There were also 49 employees of either the hotel or the British government and five members of the public.
The Bombing Of The King David Hotel (Islamic Association for Palestine)
The Outrage (Britain's Small Wars, 1945-2001)
For the Zionist perspective, see:
Jewish Virtual Encyclopedia
The Irgun Site
Print Resources:
Thurston Clarke, By Blood & Fire: The Attack on the King David Hotel, New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1981, 304 pp.
Menachem Begin, The Revolt: The Story of the Irgun, New York: Henry Schuman, Inc., 1951, pp. 212-230 gives Begin's perspective on the affair.
At Tira (December 11, 1947)
What happened: "5 Arabs killed and 6 injured at At Tira village in attack by Jews."
Source: Wilson, Cordon & Search, p. 267 (table).
Location: Unknown; At Tira is a common village name. The index to Morris, Birth, lists five.
Alternate spellings: al-Tira
Village outside Haifa (December 12, 1947)
What happened: "12 Arabs lost their lives when Jews attacked a village outside Haifa."
Source: Who Are the Terrorists?, p. 20 (citing The Times (London), December 13, 1947).
Location Unknown (December 13, 1947)
What happened: Three bombing incidents attributed to the Irgun killed 16 Arabs and wounded 57.
Source: Who Are the Terrorists?, p. 17 (citing Middle East Journal, April 1948, p. 216).
Other sources:
"Trouble between Jews and Arabs in Safad. Several killed and wounded." Wilson, Cordon & Search, p. 267 (table).
Note: In view of the lack of specificity in the description, these incidents may actually duplicate other entries.
Village near Tel Aviv (December 14, 1947)
What happened: "Arab village near Tel-Aviv attacked by Jews in steel helmets wearing Khaki uniforms. 18 Arabs killed and 100 injured."
Source: Who Are the Terrorists?, p. 21 (citing The Times (London), December 15, 1947).
al-Khisas (December 18, 1947)
What happened: 10 civilians killed by the Haganah, most within their own houses.
| "On 18th December [1947] there was trouble in the Huleh Valley when Jews entered the Arab village of Khissas, near the Syrian frontier, and killed 10 and wounded 5 Arabs, most of whom were women and children, with grenades and machine-gun fire. They withdrew without suffering any casualties after leaving pamphlets stating that the attack was carried out by the Hagana as a reprisal for casualties suffered in Safad, and an incident near Khissas where a Jew had recently been killed by Arabs. The latter event had been in turn a reprisal for the shooting of an Arab by a Jewish Settlement policeman. So the system of one life for another, and often ten lives for another, was fostered. The attack on Khissas, in which 2 Lebanese and 2 Syrian visitors had been killed, resulted in the first hostile invasion of Arab irregulars over the frontier from Syria." | ||
Source: Wilson, Cordon and Search, p. 159. |
Location: Safad district
Alternate spellings: Khisas, Khissas
Khalidi reference: pp. 465-466
Haifa (December 30, 1947)
What happened: "Two bombs thrown from passing vehicle by I.Z.L. or Stern members at crowd of Arab employees standing outside C.R.L. [Consolidated Refineries, Ltd.], Haifa. 6 Arabs killed and 42 wounded. Arabs inside and outside refinery reacted spontaneously and attacked Jewish employees who were outnumbered. 41 Jews killed and 48 injured."
Source: Wilson, Cordon & Search, p. 268 (table).
Other sources:
Who Are the Terrorists?, p. 17 (citing Middle East Journal, April 1948, p. 216).
The riot led the Haganah to raid the village of Balad Esh-Sheikh the next night [or that night?] (see below).
Jerusalem (December 30, 1947)
What happened: The Irgun threw a bomb from a speeding taxi in Jerusalem, killing 11 Arabs and two Britons.
Source: Who Are the Terrorists?, p. 17 (citing Middle East Journal, April 1948, p. 216).
Balad Esh-Sheikh (December 31-January 1 night, 1947)
What happened: 14 (perhaps as many as 60) civilians killed by the Haganah, most within their own houses.
| "The following night [i.e., following the riot at the Haifa refinery] the Arab village of Balad es Sheik, which lies three miles southeast of Haifa, was attacked by a strong party of armed Hagana, who entered the village dressed as Arabs under heavy covering fire from the high ground. Firing sub-machine guns and throwing grenades into the houses, they succeeded in killing 14 Arabs, of whom 10 were women and children, and wounding 11. Their own casualties were slight." | ||
Source: Wilson, Cordon and Search, p. 158. |
Location: Haifa district
Alternate spellings: Balad es Sheik, Balad ash Sheikh
Khalidi reference: pp. 151-154
The refinery riot was one of the few incidents during the 1947-1949 war in which Arabs killed a large number of Jews.
| "In the evening of January 30-31, 1947 a mixed force of the First Battalion of Palmach and the 'Carmel' Brigade under the command of Haim Avinoam attacked the village of Balad al-Shaikh (now Tel Hanan). In this operation more than sixty of the enemy, most of them noncombatants, were killed in their houses." | ||
Source: An article by Israeli historian Arieh Vitzhaqi in the April 14, 1972, issue of the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, translated in "From the Hebrew Press," Journal of Palestine Studies, vol. 1, no. 4 (summer 1972), p. 144. Also quoted in Hadawi, Bitter Harvest, p. 88. |
| "In the evening of December 30-31 a mixed force of the First Battalion of the Palmach and the 'Carmel Brigade' under the command of Haim Avinoam attacked the village of Balad al-Shaikh; in this operation more than sixty of the enemy were killed in their houses.... The attacking units entered the village and started operating inside the houses and because of the heavy firing in the rooms, it was impossible to avoid hitting women and children also." | ||
Source: Who Are the Terrorists?, p. 21 (translating from Ha Sefer Ha-Palmach [The Book of the Palmach], Tel Aviv: Ha-Kibbutz Ha-Meuchad, 1955, p. 55). |
Jaffa (January 4, 1948)
What happened: 15-30 people killed, 100 wounded, from a truck bomb planted by the Stern Gang in the middle of the city.
| "One Sunday in January [1948] a large truck loaded with oranges parked in the centre of Jaffa between Barclays bank and a government office Building. The building was driven by two Stern Gang terrorists. They had failed on a previous attempt to enter Jaffa, when Arab sentries guarding access to the city had become suspicious and opened fire on the truck, Now on their second try, they had penetrated into the heart of the city with a truck that contained more than just oranges. Disguised as Arabs, the experienced terrorists walked away from the vehicle, stopping for coffee at a nearby restaurant before leaving Jaffa. Soon after, an explosion demolished many buildings in the centre of the city. According to a Jaffa resident, Basil Ennab, one of the buildings destroyed was 'sort of a feeding centre for children,'[2] many of whom were among the over 100 casualties." [2] Middle East Centre, Saint Anthony's College (Oxford, UK), Thames Interviews, box II, file 1. |
||
Source: Palumbo, pp. 83-84. See generally Chapter V, "The Fall of Jaffa," pp. 82-94. |
Other Sources:
"Stern Gang members bombed a crowded square in Jaffa, killing between 15 and 30 people and wounding 98." Who Are the Terrorists?, p. 17 (citing Middle East Journal, April 1948, p. 217).
"Jews penetrate into Jaffa, blow up the headquarters of the Arab National Committee; heavy explosion also destroys police station, many shops and Barclay's Bank. Casualty list of 9 Arabs killed and 71 wounded probably incomplete. (Jews dressed as Arabs drove a lorry of orange crates and left it in front of the building.)" Who Are the Terrorists?, p. 19 (citing The Times (London), January 5, 1948).
Semiramis Hotel in Jerusalem (January 4-5 night, 1948)
What happened: 10-25 killed by the bombing of the hotel by Haganah.
| "The Katamon district in West Jerusalem was another area from which the local inhabitants were driven out by the Haganah. Populated by mainly Christian Arabs with some Muslim and British residents, Katamon took its name from an Orthodox monastery situated on a hill which dominated the district. According to Sami Haddawi, a long-time resident of Katamon, the section was regarded as a 'strategic area' which the Jewish forces needed if they were to secure their hold over West Jerusalem. On the night of 3-4 January, the Haganah made its move. The target was the Semiramis Hotel, one of the well-known landmarks of the district. The hotel was only two blocks away from Sami Haddawi's home so that he clearly recalls the huge explosion when the Semiramis was dynamited by the Zionists. A total of twenty-six people were killed, including a Spanish diplomat and numerous women and children. The Haganah claimed that the hotel had been 'used as a base for marauding Arab gangs and headquarters of the Arab military youth organization.' But the British administration, which still exercised at least nominal control, investigated the incident and found that the Jewish charge that the Semiramis was a military headquarters was 'entirely without foundation.' The British report called the bombing 'wholesale murder of innocent people.'[10]" [10] Central Zionist Archives (Jerusalem) S25/4013. |
||
Source: Palumbo, p. 98. Note that the date given for the bombing appears to be wrong, as most sources place the blast on the night of January 4/5. |
Other Sources:
"Haganah claimed responsibility for blowing up of the Semiramis Hotel. 20 people dead, among them the Spanish Consul. 'Haganah claims guests in the hotel must have been cooperating with Arab gangs.' Government inquiry later establishes the falsehood of the accusation." Who Are the Terrorists?, p. 19-20 (citing The Times (London), January 6, 1948).
"Hagana blew up Semiramis Hotel in Jerusalem killing 12 Arabs and injuring 2." Wilson, Cordon & Search, p. 269 (table).
Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem (January 7, 1948)
What happened: "A Jewish driver used a British Army car to get past [an] Arab barricade at Jaffa Gate. The bomb he threw rolled on to a cafe near the gate. 17 Arabs dead so far."
Source: Who Are the Terrorists?, p. 17 (citing The Times (London), Jan. 8, 1948).
Unknown Location (January 16, 1948)
What happened: "Jews today blew up 3 Arab buildings. In the first 8 children between the ages of 18 months and 12 years died, one child is still under the debris and one woman died. In the second, 5 Arabs died and 5 are still buried."
Source: Who Are the Terrorists?, p. 20 (citing The Times (London), Jan. 17, 1948).
Tireh (February 10, 1948)
What happened: "12 Arabs returning to Tireh village near Tulkarm were stopped by a large party of Jews who fired at them. Some sought refuge in a house but were followed and fired at. 7 Arabs killed, 5 injured."
Source: Who Are the Terrorists? (citing The Times (London), February 11, 1948).
Bus from Safad (February 12, 1948)
What happened: "Armed Jews attacked an Arab bus from Safad. Explosion in bus kills 5 Arabs and injures 5."
Source: Who Are the Terrorists?, p. 19 (citing The Times (London), February 13, 1948).
Sa'sa' (February 14-15 night, 1948)
What happened: 60 civilians killed, most within their own houses.
| "In this operation, which was for many years to be regarded as a model raid because of the high standard of its execution, twenty houses were blown up over their inhabitants, and some sixty Arabs were killed, most of them women and children." | ||
Source: An article by Israeli historian Arieh Vitzhaqi from the April 14, 1972, issue of the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, translated in "From the Hebrew Press," Journal of Palestine Studies, vol. 1, no. 4 (summer 1972), p. 145. Also quoted in Hadawi, Bitter Harvest, p. 88; and Who Are the Terrorists?, p. 21-22. |
Location: Safad district
Alternate spellings: Sa'sa
Khalidi reference: pp. 495-497
See also Jon Kimche and David Kimche, Both Sides of the Hill: Britain and the Palestine War, London: Secker & Warburg, 1960, p. 84.
Sa'sa' was subjected to two massacres. The second one appears to have taken place on October 30. See the entry below, under that date, for information on the second massacre.
Qisarya (February 15-20?, 1948)
What happened: "Another case [of a massacre] happened in Caesarea. In February 1948 the Fourth Battalion of the Palmach forces, under the command of Josef Tabenkin, 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."
Source: "Not Only Deir Yassin" (Guy Erlich, Ha'ir [Israeli newspaper], 6 May 1992) (quoting Israeli military historian Uri Milstein)
Location: Haifa district
Alternate spellings: Caesarea
Khalidi reference: pp. 182-184
Additional sources:
Morris, Birth, p. 54, recounts that Jewish militas conquered Qisarya on February 15 and expelled the remaining population on the 20th. As Milstein's account doesn't date the killings, I have given this time frame.
Haifa (February 20, 1948)
What happened: Jews attacked the Arab sections of Haifa with mortars, killing at least 6 Arabs and wounding 36.
Source: Who Are the Terrorists? (citing Middle East Journal, April 1948, p. 220.
Khantara-Haifa Train (February 27, 1948)
What happened: "Khantara-Haifa train near Rehovoth by Jews. 27 British soldiers killed and 36 wounded."
Source: Wilson, Cordon & Search, p. 271 (table).
Haifa (March 3, 1948)
What happened: "Stern Gang destroyed Salameh Building in Haifa with explosive vehicle. 11 Arabs killed, 27 wounded."
Source: Wilson, Cordon & Search, p. 271 (table).
Other sources:
"The Stern Gang claimed responsibility for the detonation of an army truck in front of the Salam building in Haifa. Fourteen Arabs were killed and at least 26 wounded." Who Are the Terrorists?, p. 20 (citing Middle East Journal, July 1948, p. 329.
al-Husayniyya (March 12 and 16-17, 1948)
What happened: Palmach twice raided the village of al-Husayniyya, killing 15 and wounding 20 in the first attack on March 12, and killing "more than 30" in the second onslaught on the evening of March 16-17.
Location: Safad district, 11 km. from town of Safad.
Alternate spellings: Al Huseiniya, Kfar Husseinia
Sources:
1. An article in the New York Times of March 14, 1948, cited in Khalidi, All that Remains, p. 456-457, describes the March 12 assault.
2. Morris, Birth, p. 157 cites Palmach reports for the following narrative: "In March, the Palamch's 3rd Battalion twice raided the village of Al Huseiniya, near the Hula Lake in Upper Galilee. In the first raid, on 12 March, the battalion blew up five houses. In the second raid, on 16-17 March, 'more than 30 Arab adults (excluding women and children) were killed ... The village was abandoned byall its inhabitants.'"
3. Who Are the Terrorists?, p. 22, cites Arthur Koestler, Promise and Fulfillment: Palestine 1917-1949, New York: Macmillan, 1949, p. 159, for the second attack.
Train near Benjamina (March 31, 1948)
What happened: "Jews blew up train near Benjamina killing 24 Arabs and injuring 61."
Source: Wilson, Cordon & Search, p. 272 (table).
al-Sarafand (April 5, 1948)
What happened: "Jews attacked the Arab village of Sarafand. 16 Arabs were killed and 12 wounded. Most Arabs were killed when a house was mortared."
Source: Who Are the Terrorists? (citing The Times (London), April 6, 1948).
Location: Haifa district
Alternate spellings: as Sarafand, Sarafand
Khalidi reference: p. 188
Deir Yassin (April 9-11, 1948)
1. Websites
Coming to Terms with Deir Yassin (PEACE Middle East Dialog Group)
Dayr Yasin (Palestine Remembered)
Deir Yassin: Arab & Jewish Tragedy in Palestine (1998 novel by Ray Hanania)
Deir Yassin Committee (Yahoo! eGroup for descendants from Deir Yassin)
Deir Yassin Remembered
Open Directory: Deir Yassin
Survivors' Testimonies (alnakba.org)
2. Articles
"Jews May Not Want to Look at This" (Robert Fisk; The Independent; April 7, 2002)
"The 1948 Massacre at Deir Yassin Revisited" (Matthew Hogan; Historian; Winter, 2001)
"Deir Yasin: Still Remembered After 51 Years" (Pat and Samir Twair; Washington Report on Middle East Affairs; April/May 1999)
"On the Fiftieth Anniversary of Deir Yassin: A Jewish Perspective on Memory, Justice and Reconciliation" (Marc H. Ellis; Ariga; April 1998)
"Reinterpreting Deir Yassin" (Sharif Kanaana; Birzeit University; April, 1998)
"Remembering Deir Yassin (James Zoghby; Al-Ahram Weekly; April 1998)
"Deir Yassin Remembered" (Daniel A. McGowan; The Link; volume 29, issue 4 (September-October, 1996))
Print Resources:
Daniel McGowan and Marc Ellis, Remembering Deir Yassin: The Future of Israel and Palestine, New York: Olive Branch Press, 1998
3. Zionist Denials
"Deir Yassin" at Jewish Virtual Encyclopedia
"Deir Yassin: History of a Lie"
"Deir Yassin" at The Irgun Site
Tel Litvinsky (April 16, 1948)
What happened: "Jews attack the former British Army camp at Tel Litvinsky and kill 90 Arabs there."
Source: Who Are the Terrorists?, p. 20 (citing The Times (London), April 17, 1948).
Tiberias (April 19, 1948)
What happened: "14 Arabs were killed in Tiberias in a house blown up by Jews."
Source: Who Are the Terrorists?, p. 20 (citing The Times (London), April 20, 1948).
Ayn al-Zaytun and perhaps other nearby villages (May 1-4, 1948)
What happened: Apparently five separate killings of various magnitudes took place over three or four days: (1) Barrel bomb and grenade attacks by the Palmach killed and injured many of the villagers as the militia was attacking the village. (2) "Several" villagers in Ayn al-Zaytun were shot, and 37 young men were taken prisoner, when the Palmach conquered the village on May 1. (3) On May 3 or 4, "some 70" Arab prisoners, probably including these 37, were massacred with their hands still tied. (4) "23 Arabs" taken from Ayn al-Zaytun and shot. (5) 30 Arab prisoners who tried to escape were shot. "It is possible that they were killed chained. Next morning a platoon was sent to bury them." The source for the final two atrocities does not date them.
Nazzal describes the attack on the village:
| "During the night of May 1, 1948, a Palmach unit, with mules loaded with ammunition, advanced towards the village of Ein ez Zeitun by way of Tall al Durraiyat, which overlooks the village to the north. From the top of the hill, Palmach soldiers rolled barrels filled with explosives down the hill to the village and threw hand grenades, killing and injuring many of the villagers." | ||
Source: Nazzal, The Palestinian Exodus, pp. 34-35. |
Massacres two and three are attested by Morris:
| After the Palmach took Ayn al-Zaytun on May 1, "several villagers apparently were shot by the Palmach troops." [from note 133 on page 321] "Some 37 of the young men caught in the village were detained. They were probably among the 70 or so Arab prisoners massacred by two Palmach 3rd Battalion soldiers, on Battalion OC Moshe Kelman's orders, on 3 or 4 May in the gully between Ein az Zeitun and Safad." [from page 102] "Kelman's company commanders all refused to carry out the massacre or to allow their men to carry it out. The battalion OC in the end had to use two 'broken' men, who did not belong to the fighting formations and who claimed that they had suffered at Arab hands earlier in the war, to do the killing. Afterwards, Kelman assigned Ben-Yehuda [Netiva Ben-Yehuda--see below] to untie the hands of the dead as a Red Cross visit to the area was expected." [from note 133 on page 321] |
||
Source: Morris, Birth, p. 102 and note 133 on p. 321. |
Netiva Ben-Yehuda recounted the slaughter in a book: Miba'ad La'avutot (Through the Binding Ropes), Jerusalem: Domino Press, 1985, pp. 243-248. According to Morris, "Ben-Yehuda graphically describes the prelude to, and aftermath of, the slaughter of the 70, which she did not witness."
See also Nazzal, The Palestinian Exodus, p. 107, which states (without identifying his source) that "The Zionists separated the men from their families, beat and humiliated a few villagers, crucified one of the villagers on a tree, and took at random thirty-seven boys as hostages, who were never heard of again."
The final two massacres are attested by Israeli military historian Uri Milstein:
| "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 platoon was sent to bury them.'" | ||
Source: "Not Only Deir Yassin" (Guy Erlich, Ha'ir [Israeli newspaper], 6 May 1992). |
Location: Safad district
Alternate spellings: Ayn Zaytoon, Ein az Zeitun
Khalidi reference: pp. 436-438
Abu Shuska (May 13-14 night?, 1948)
What happened: "But Yitzhaki kept the testimonies. The first case he presents happened in Tel Gezer [i.e., Abu Shuska]. A soldier of the Kiryati Brigade (...) testifies that his colleagues got hold of ten Arab men and two Arab women, a young one 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."
Source:"Not Only Deir Yassin" (Guy Erlich, Ha'ir [Israeli newspaper], 6 May 1992) (quoting Israeli historian Aryeh Yitzhaki)
Location: Haifa district
Khalidi reference: pp. 142-143.
Morris, Birth, p. 127, says that the Jewish assault on Abu Shuska began with a mortar attack on the night of May 13-14, but he doesn't mention the massacre, and the information provided by Aryeh Yitzhaki doesn't date the atrocity. Therefore, the date of the massacre is uncertain; I've tentatively used the May 13-14 date.
al-Bassa (May 14?, 1948)
What happened: Several killings of villagers were recounted by survivors.
| "Mahmud Hassan Dukhi returned two days after the village had fallen to bring back his mother, who had insisted on staying, only to find her burnt body at his home. Hussain As'ad Khalil, who also returned, reported: '... I saw the bodies of Abdullah Isma'il Muhammad, Ahmad Muhammad Khalil, and Ali Hussain Ali, who had been killed by Jewish soldiers as they tried to infiltrate into the village. ...' Hussain As'ad Khalil's uncle and his wife, who stayed on after the fall of El Bassa ... described the Jewish occupation of the village: 'The day the village fell, Jewish soldiers ordered all those who remained in the village to gather in the church. Simultaneously, they took a few young people--including Salim Darwish and his sister, Illin--outside the church and shot them dead. Soon after, they ordered us to bury them.'" |
||
Source: Nazzal, The Palestinian Exodus, p. 58 (who adds that Hussain As'ad Khalil's uncle and his wife, who asked that their names not be used, gave him the names of five people killed in the process of occupation) |
Location: Acre district
Alternate spellings: El Bassa
Khalidi reference: pp. 6-8
Acre (May 18, 1948)
What happened: After capturing Acre on May 18, Israeli troops killed at least 100 Arab civilians.
| "Several months after the Israeli capture of Acre, Lieutenant Petite, a United Nations observer from France, visited Acre to investigate Arab charges that those Palestinians who remained under Israeli rule were being mistreated. ... Lieutenant Petite noted that the Jews had murdered at least 100 Arab civilians in Acre. In particular the Israelis killed many residents of the new city who refused to move into the portion of the old city that was being used as an Arab ghetto. The Israelis considered the new city totally off-limits to Arabs. The case of Mohammed Fayez Soufi was typical. He was forced to leave his home in the new part of town and was relocated in the portion of the old city of Acre that had not been demolished. When Mohammed and four of his friends went back to their former homes in the new city to get food, they were stopped by a gang of Israeli soldiers who put a pistol to each of their heads and forced them to drink cyanide. Mohammed faked swallowing the poison but his friends were not so lucky. After half an hour, three of the Arabs died and were tossed in the sea by the Israelis. Several days later, their bodies were washed up on the shore." |
||
Source: Palumbo, Palestinian Catastrophe, p. 119, relying on Petite's reports, stored at United Nations Archives 13/3.3.1, box 13. |
Possible caution: I have not seen this massacre noted anywhere except in Palumbo's work. While the timing is consistent with massacres in the same area, additional evidence would be useful.
al-Kabri (May 20, 1948)
What happened: Two groups of al-Kabri villagers killed; in one case, "several" youngsters were machine-gunned (some survived); in the other, the Israelis shot (and apparently killed) six refugees from the village whom they had seized trying to escape.
|
"On 20 May 1948 the Karmeli Brigade conquered the village Kabri. Dov Yirmiya, who was a company commander in the 21th battalion, 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 dug 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 battalion commander did not react. Receive was a brave fighter and as a rescapee from the Yehi'am convoy, enjoyed special status in the battalion. 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 battalion 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 battalion 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 battalion commander declared: We killed them. I asked: The girl too? And he answered to me: No, no, we did not kill the girl.'" |
||
Source: "Not Only Deir Yassin" (Guy Erlich, Ha'ir [Israeli newspaper], 6 May 1992) |
| "My husband and I left Kabri the day before it fell. ... At dawn [the next day], while my husband was preparing for his morning prayer, our friend Raja passed us and urged us to proceed, saying that we should run. ... It was not too long before we were met by the Jews. ... They took us and a few other villagers (...) in an armoured car back to the village. There a Jewish officer interrogated us and, putting a gun to my husband's neck, he said "You are from Kabri?" .... The Jews took away my husband, Ibrahim Dabajah, Hussain Hassan al-Khubaizah, Khalil al-Tamlawi, Uthman Iban As'ad Mahmud, and Raja. They left the rest of us.... An officer came to me and asked me not to cry. We slept in the village orchards that night. The next morning, Umm Hussain and I went to the village. ... I saw Umm Taha on the way to the village courtyard. She cried and said "You had better go see your dead husband." I found him. He was shot in the back of the head." | ||
Source: Nazzal, Palestinian Exodus, p. 61-62 (quoting Aminah Muhammad Musa, interviewed at Burj al-Barajnih Camp, Beirut, Lebanon, February 24, 1973). |
Location: Acre district
Alternate spellings: Kabri
Khalidi reference: pp. 19-20
Other sources: Morris, Birth, p. 125, states that al-Kabri was captured on May 20-21, and that "Al Kabri had long been a centre of anti-Yishuv forces. In early May, most of its inhabitants fled following a Haganah retaliatory action, in which a number of villagers were killed."
al-Tantura (May 22-23, 1948)
What happened: More than 200 villagers, mostly unarmed young men, shot by the Israeli army's Alexandroni Brigade.
"The Tantura Massacre, 22-23 May 1948" (Journal of Palestine Studies; Vol XXX, No. 3 [Spring 2001; Issue 119])
"The Tantura Case in Israel: The Katz Research and Trial" (Ilan Pappe; Journal of Palestine Studies; Vol XXX, No. 3 [Spring 2001; Issue 119])
Tantura Massacre Exposed: 21 Eyewitness Testimonies of War Crimes against Humanity (PalestineRemembered.com)
For Zionist denials, see:
"History's Revenge" (Avi Davis; israelinsider; November 20, 2001)
PalestineFacts.org
Location: Haifa district
Alternate spellings: Tantura
Khalidi reference: pp. 193-195
Lydda (July 11-12, 1948)
What happened: Several hundred civilians killed by Israeli troops, including 80 machine-gunned inside the Dahmash Mosque.
If the following accounts are all true, there were several stages to the massacre at Lydda. Many died on the evening of July 11 during Moshe Dayan's famous lightening strike into the town. The town surrendered, and things were then quiet until just before noon the next day, when two or three Arab Legion armored cars rolled into town. Two (or perhaps as many as four) Israeli solders were killed, inciting a spasm of Israeli violence that killed 250 Arabs, including the (first?) massacre at the mosque. Finally, according to Guy Erlich's article, some 20-50 Arabs were slaughtered after cleaning up the mosque. Note that this account and Palumbo's assertion that the bodies of the first group killed at the mosque "lay decomposing for ten days in the July heat" cannot both be true.
After all this, the inhabitants of Lydda and neighboring Ramle were expelled in the infamous "Lydda death march," as a result of which several hundred more probably died. See Chapter VIII, "The Lydda Death March" (pp. 126-138), in Palumbo, The Palestinian Catastrophe.
| "Civilians ran for cover as an armoured unit of the Israeli 89th Commando Battalion fired its way into Lydda, an Arab town not far from Tel Aviv. At the head of the column in an armoured car he called 'The Terrible Tiger' rode Major Moshe Dayan, a relatively obscure professional soldier who had personally recruited the men of his battalion including a contingent of Stern Gang terrorists. Dayan was eager to prove that his method of lightening warfare would win quick results against the Arabs. For fourth-seven minutes on the evening of 11 July 1948, Dayan and his armoured forces terrorized both the defenders of Lydda and the neighbouring town Ramle, as well as their Arab civilian population. Keith Wheller, a reporter for the Chicago Sun Times, witnessed the attack. In an article titled 'Blitz Tactics Won Lydda,' he wrote that as the Israeli vehicles surged through the town, 'practically everything in their way died.' [1] Not all the casualties were members of the Arab Legion that was defending the town. Kenneth Bilby of the New York Herald Tribune who entered Lydda in the company of an Israeli intelligence officer noticed 'the corpses of Arab men, women and even children strewn about in the wake of the ruthlessly brilliant charge.'[2] The Israelis were not keen to take prisoners. Netiva Ben Yehuda, a young female member of the Palmach, recalled that a soldier 'went through the streets of Lydda with loudspeakers and promised everybody who would go inside a certain mosque that they would be safe.' Hundreds of Arabs entered the Dahmash Mosque believing that nothing would happen to them if they sat quietly with their hands on their head. But according to Ben Yehuda 'something did happen.'[3] In retaliation for a grenade attack after the surrender which killed several Israeli soldiers, over eighty Arab prisoners were machine-gunned to death. The bodies lay decomposing for ten days in the July heat. The Dahmash Mosque massacre terrorized the people of Lydda." Footnotes: 1. Reprinted in Palestine Post, 13 July 1948. 2. Kenneth Bilby, New Star in the Near East, p. 43 3. Lynne Reid Banks, A Torn Country: An Oral History Of The Israeli War Of Independence, New York, Franklin Watts, 1982. Also Raja'i Buseilah, The Fall of Lydda 1948: Impressions and Reminiscences, Arab Studies Quarterly, Spring 1981, pp. 137-138. |
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Source: Palumbo, The Palestinian Catastrophe, pp. 126-127. |
| "After the entry of the [Arab Legion] detachment, the local Arab population rose in revolt, and, to suppress the revolt, orders were given to fire on any one seen in the streets. 'Yiftah' troops opened heavy fire on all passers-by and suppressed the revolt mercilessly in a few hours, going from house to house and firing at every moving target. According to the commander's report, 250 Arabs were killed in the fighting." | ||
Source: An article by Israeli historian Arieh Vitzhaqi from the April 14, 1972, issue of the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, translated in "From the Hebrew Press," Journal of Palestine Studies, vol. 1, no. 4 (summer 1972), p. 145. Also quoted in Hadawi, Bitter Harvest, p. 88. |
| "After Lydda gave up the fight, a group of stubborn Arab fighters barricaded themselves in the small mosque. The commander of the Palmach's 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." | ||
Source: "Not Only Deir Yassin" (Guy Erlich, Ha'ir [Israeli newspaper], 6 May 1992). |
See also Morris, Birth, pp. 205-206, who writes that "In the confusion, dozens of unarmed detainees in the mosque and church compounds in the centre of the town were shot and killed." He also suggests that to call the events on July 12 a "revolt" is unwarranted. As is his tendency, Morris attempts to mitigate Israeli moral responsibility by asserting that the occupying Israeli solders "felt threatened, vulnerable and angry" during the July 12 phase of the massacre.
Elot (end of July, 1948)
What happened: "At the end of July 1948, after conducting a search in the village of Elot near Nazareth, the Israeli army arrested forty-six young men and took them away. On August 3 several of these men were found dead in the hills near the village. On the same day fourteen of those arrested were killed in an olive grove, in full view of the villagers."
Source: Sabri Jiryis, The Arabs in Israel, New York: Monthly Review Press, 1976, p. 154.
Location: Nazareth district
Khalidi reference: None.
Arab Suqrir (August 29, 1948)
What happened: 10 villagers "who tried to escape" killed by Israeli army.
Location: Gaza district
Alternate spellings: Arab Abu Suwayrib, Khirbet Sukreir
Khalidi reference: pp. 80-81
| "Another case happened in Ashdod [the name of an Israeli settlement where Arab Suqrir used to stand]. 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." | ||
Source: "Not Only Deir Yassin" (Guy Erlich, Ha'ir [Israeli newspaper], 6 May 1992) (quoting Israeli military historian Aryeh Yitzhaki). |
See also Morris, Birth, p. 215, quoting a Givati intelligence officer as explaining, on 29 August, that "ten Arabs who tried to escape were killed."
Hula, Lebanon (sometime during October 24-29, 1948)
What happened: 50 villagers machine-gunned to death by Israeli army.
| "During the 'Hiram' operation (October 24-29, 1948), which cleared away the remains of Qawuqji's army from the Galilee, company 22 from the 'Carmeli' brigade, where I had served as an officer, conquered the village Hula, which is located [inside Lebanon] 3 km. west of the Kibbutz Manara. ... I received a report that there had been no resistance in the village, that there was no enemy activity in the area, and that about a hundred people were left in the village. They had surrendered and requested to stay. The men among them were kept in one house under guard. I was brought there and saw about 35 men. [Yirmiya does not remember the exact number today, and there were in fact over 50 men there] in the age range 15-60, including one Lebanese soldier in uniform.... When I returned to the village the following morning with an order to send the villagers away, I found out that, while I was away, two of the troops' officers had killed all of the captives who were in the house with a sub-machine gun, and had then blown up the house on top of them to be their grave. The women and children were sent west. When I asked him why he had done this, the officer answered that this was 'his revenge for the murder of his best friends in the [Haifa] refineries." |
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Source: Article from Mapam newspaper Al Hamishmar by R. Barkan, title not given, quoting a letter from eyewitness Dov Yirmiya, translated in the Journal of Palestine Studies, vol. VII, no. 4 (summer 1978), number 28, pp. 143-145. Hadawi, Bitter Harvest, p. 89, discusses this massacre, and Morris, Birth, p. 350, note 37, states without amplification that 34 villagers were murdered by the IDF in the Lebanese village "Hule" (this is apparently a typo, as he uses "Hula" in other places). The article reveals what happened after the war: The officer described in Yirmiya's letter was Shmuel Lahis. Although he was later convicted of the murders in a military court, he received (via an appeal) only a one-year sentence, and, due to an amnesty that he received, didn't even serve that long in jail. Subsequently, he became a lawyer and was admitted to the Israeli bar upon a finding that his conduct "was not an act which carried with it a stigma." He later became Secretary General of the Jewish Agency. |
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