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Is Israel Guilty of Ethnic Cleansing?
Arab spokesmen, fluent in the use of standard cliches, attribute the
refugee problem to a program of 'ethnic cleansing' by the Jewish
leadership. This is palpably false.
It was first and foremost at the urging of their
leaders that the largest number of Arab refugees fled, with
the promise of a swift victory over the weak Zionist enemy
and an imminent return to their homes. Rumors of
atrocities, highlighted by the tragic Deir Yassin episode,
fanned a country-wide panic.
Many Arabs did not heed the warnings to flee and
stayed on, a wise decision they never regretted. There is
peace between the Arab and Jewish communities in downtown
Haifa today because of this choice, as is the case in
nearby Acre.
In Jaffa, a considerable number of Arabs remained to
live under the joint Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality. Although
the Hassan Beq mosque was used as a sniper's nest against
Jewish passersby in 1948, it still stands as a Muslim
landmark in Tel Aviv.
Many of these Arab villages have developed into
thriving townships. This applies even more dramatically to
East Jerusalem, where the Arab population had increased
from some 50,000 in 1948 to over 230,000 by the year 2000.
It is true that some villages, mainly those who laid
siege to Jerusalem, were destroyed and their inhabitants
expelled. Their number was grossly inflated to a count of
400, according to Benny Morris, a forerunner of the school
of "new historians" of Zionism.
There is substantial evidence to corroborate these
facts in the following citations:
Citations from Arab leaders:
"We will smash the country with our guns and obliterate every place the Jews seek shelter in. The Arabs should conduct their wives and children to safe areas until the fighting has died down."
- Iraqi prime minister Nuri Said, Sir Am Nakbah (The Secret Behind the Disaster) by Nimr el-Hawari, Nazareth, 1952
"Azzam Pasha assured the Arab peoples that the occupation of Palestine and of Tel Aviv would be as simple as a military promenade ... and that all the millions the Jews had spent on land and economic development would be easy booty, for it would be a simple matter to throw Jews into the Mediterranean ... "
- Habib Issa, secretary-general of the Arab League (Azzam Pasha's successor), Al Hoda, June 8, 1951
It is of summary importance to point out that while
Jordan's British-trained, fully equipped Arab legion was
able to pummel Jewish Jerusalem with in excess of 10,000
artillery shells, the Hagana had to make do with scant and
often makeshift weapons.
"As early as the first months of 1948, the Arab League issued orders exhorting the people to seek a temporary refuge in neighboring countries, later to return to their abodes ... and obtain their share of abandoned Jewish property."
- Bulletin of The Research Group for European Migration Problems, 1957
"The Arab states succeeded in scattering the Palestinian people and in destroying their unity. They did not recognize them as a unified people until the states of the world did so, and this is regrettable."
- Abu Mazen from the official journal of the PLO, Falastin el-Thawra (What We Have Learned and What We Should Do), Beirut, March 1976
Leading American and British sources confirm the real
cause of the flight:
Citations from the international media:
"The mass evacuation, prompted partly by fear, partly by order of Arab leaders, left the Arab quarter of Haifa a ghost city.... By withdrawing Arab workers their leaders hoped to paralyze Haifa."
- Time Magazine, May 3, 1948, page 25
"[The Arabs of Haifa] fled in spite of the fact that the Jewish authorities guaranteed their safety and rights as citizens of Israel."
- Monsignor George Hakim, Greek Catholic Bishop of Galilee, New York Herald Tribune, June 30, 1949
"Israelis argue that the Arab states encouraged the Palestinians to flee. And, in fact, Arabs still living in Israel recall being urged to evacuate Haifa by Arab military commanders who wanted to bomb the city."
- Newsweek, January 20, 1963
Citations from British military sources:
Highly credible are the comments of the British
commander of the Arab Legion, who, having bombarded Jewish
Jerusalem and destroyed the Jewish Quarter of the Old City,
cannot be suspected of a pro-Zionist attitude:
"The Arab civilians panicked and fled ignominiously. Villages were frequently abandoned before they were threatened by the progress of war."
- General John Glubb "Pasha," The London Daily Mail, August 12, 1948
"Every effort is being made by the Jews to persuade the Arab populace to stay and carry on with their normal lives, to get their shops and businesses open and to be assured that their lives and interests will be safe."
- Haifa District HQ of the British Police, April 26, 1948, (quoted in Battleground by Samuel Katz).
For decades, April 6, 1948 has been commemorated in
the Arab world as "Deir Yassin Day," through sermons in
mosques and lessons in schools, on stamps and posters, in
books and songs. On that day, Deir Yassin, an Arab village
at the entrance to Jerusalem, was captured by the Irgun
Tzva'i Le'umi (known as the Irgun), defending the besieged
Holy City.
Arab leaders spread word that Jewish terrorists had
stormed the peaceful village, raping the women and
ultimately killing over 500 residents. There was even talk
of aerial bombardment and tanks. The effect was double-
edged. Actually, it was a standard battle that took a
tragic turn.
The village harbored Arab guerrillas who had long
exploited their strategic position, attacking Jewish
mountain convoys trying to break the three-month siege of
Jerusalem.
Iraqi irregulars dressed as women
During the house-to-house fighting women and children
were mistakenly killed. Among the Arab fighters were Iraqi
irregulars who were dressed as women.
Years later, Palestinian researchers at Bir-Zeit
University found that the death toll was 107. Murder and
rape have always been an athema to Israel's military.
Israel has never denied its role in the Deir Yassin
massacre nor reserved remorse. Nonetheless, the Arab world
refused to accept that what happened on April 6, 1948 was
the exception, not the rule, and Deir Yassin became a
crucial factor in creating, and a tool in fanning, anti-
Israeli hatred for generations.
An Arab revenge attack was quick to follow. Four days
after Deir Yassin, the Jewish convoy on its way to Hadassah
Hospital on Mount Scopus was ambushed.
Seventy-seven people were killed, including doctors,
nurses, patients, and the hospital director. Another 23
medical personnel were wounded.
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