The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (47 page)

49
. See chapter four.

1
. Palestine was divided into several administrative districts. In 1947 these were the percentages of Jews in them: Safad 12%; Acre 4%; Tiberias 33%; Baysan 30%; Nazareth 16%; Haifa 47%; Jerusalem 40%; Lyyd 72% (this includes Jaffa, Tel-Aviv and Petah Tikva); Ramla 24% and Beersheba 7.5%.

2
. See Ilan Pappe,
The Making of the Arab
–
Israeli Conflict, 1947–1951
, pp. 16–46.

3
. See United Nations Archives: The UNSCOP Documents, Box 2.

4
. Walid Khalidi, ‘Revisiting the UNGA Partition Resolution’,
Journal of Palestine Studies
, 105 (Autumn 1997), p. 15. For more on UNSCOP and how, prompted by the Zionists, it maneuvered the UN towards the pro-Zionist solution of the partition of Palestine, see Pappe,
The Making of the Arab
–
Israeli Conflict
, pp. 16–46.

5
. Khalidi, ibid.

6
. Ibid.

7
. Plenary Meetings of the General Assembly, 126th Meeting, 28 November 1947,
UN Official Record
, vol. 2, pp. 1390–1400.

8
. Flapan,
The Birth of Israel
, pp. 13–54.

9
. See, for example, David Tal,
War in Palestine, 1948: Strategy and Diplomacy
, pp. 1–145.

10
. Bar-Zohar,
Ben-Gurion
, part II, pp. 660–1.

11
. See his speech in the Mapai Centre on 3 December, 1947.

12
. Private Archives, Middle East Centre, St. Antony’s College, Cunningham’s Papers, Box 2, File 3.

13
. Ibid.

14
. For an extensive analysis of the Arab reaction see Eugene L. Rogan and Avi Shlaim (eds.),
The War For Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948
; see especially Charles Tripp, ‘Iraq and the 1948 War: Mirror of Iraq’s Disorder’; Fawaz A. Geregs, ‘Egypt and the 1948 War: Internal Conflict and Regional Ambition’ and Joshua Landis, ‘Syria and the Palestine War: Fighting King Abdullah’s “Greater Syria” Plan.

15
. Ben-Gurion’s
Diary
, 7 October, 1947.

16
. Only once did Ben-Gurion refer to it by name. In an entry in his diary (1.1.1948) he called it ‘a party of experts’,
Mesibat Mumhim
. The editors of the published diary added that a party means a meeting of the experts on Arab Affairs. The document of that meeting shows a larger forum that included, in addition to the experts, certain members of the High Command. Indeed when the two groups met together they became what I have called the Consultancy.

17
. Ben-Gurion’s
Diary
refers to the following meetings: 18 June 1947, 1–3 December 1947, 11 December 1947, 18 December 1947, 24 December 1947 (which was reported in his diary on the 25th and dealt with fortifications in the Negev), 1 January 1948, 7 January 1948 (discussion on the future of Jaffa), 9 January 1948, 14 January 1948, 28 January 1948, 9–10 February 1948, 19 February 1948, 25 February 1948, 28 February 1948, 10 March 1948 and 31 March 1948. Pre and post correspondence of all the meetings mentioned in the diary are to be found in the Ben-Gurion Archives, the correspondence section and the private correspondence section. They fill many gaps in the sketchy diary references.

18
. Here is a reconstruction of the individuals who were part of the Consultancy: David Ben-Gurion, Yigael Yadin (Head of Operations), Yohanan Ratner (Strategic Adviser to Ben-Gurion), Yigal Allon (Head of the Palmach and Southern Front), Yitzhak Sadeh (Head of Armoured units), Israel Galili (Head of the High Command), Zvi Ayalon (Deputy to Galili and Commander of the Central Front). Others not part of the
Matkal
, the High Command, were Yossef Weitz (Head of settlement department in the Jewish Agency), Isar Harel (Head of intelligence) and his people: Ezra Danin, Gad Machnes and Yehoshua Palmon. In one or two meetings, Moshe Sharett and Eliahu Sasson were present too, although Ben-Gurion met Sasson almost every Sunday separately with Yaacov Shimoni in Jerusalem, as his diary testifies. Some officers from the field were also alternately called in to join: Dan Even (Commander of the Coastal Front), Moshe Dayan, Shimon Avidan, Moshe Carmel (Commander of the Northern Front), Shlomo Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin.

19
. The meeting is also reported in his book
When Israel Fought
, pp. 13–18.

1
. We have testimony from the British High Commissioner in Palestine, Sir Alan Cunningham, about how this protest, initially a strike, turned violent: ‘The initial Arab outbreaks were spontaneous and unorganized and were more demonstrations of displeasure at the UN decision than determined attacks on Jews. The weapons initially employed were sticks and stones and had it not been for Jewish recourse to firearms, it is not impossible that the excitement would have subsided and little loss of life been caused. This is more probably since there is reliable evidence that the Arab Higher Committee as a whole and the Mufti in particular, although pleased at the strong response to the strike call, were not in favour of serious outbreaks’; quoted in Nathan Krystal, ‘The Fall of the New City, 1947–1950,’ in Salim Tamari,
Jersualem 1948. The Arab Neighbourhoods and their Fate in the War
, p. 96.

2
. This is discussed in detail in the next chapter.

3
. Bar-Zohar,
Ben-Gurion
, p. 663.

4
. Meir Pail, ‘External and Internal Features in the Israeli War of Independence’ in Alon Kadish (ed.),
Israel’s War of Independence 1948–1949
, pp. 485–7.

5
. Smith,
Palestine and the Arab–Israeli Conflict
, pp. 91–108.

6
. Avi Shlaim,
Collusion.

7
. Avi Shlaim, ‘The Debate about 1948’ in Pappe (ed.),
The Israel/Palestine Question
, pp. 171–92.

8
. Rivlin and Oren,
The War of Independence
, vol. 1, p. 320, 18 March 1948; p. 397, 7 May 1948; vol. 2, p. 428, 15 May 1948.

9
. Ibid., 28 January 1948, p. 187.

10
. This included an arms deal worth $12,280,000, which the Hagana concluded with Czechoslovakia, purchasing 24,500 rifles, 5,200 machine guns and 54 million rounds of ammunition.

11
. See note 8.

12
. The order to the Intelligence Officers will be mentioned again. It can be found in the IDF Archives, File 2315/50/53, 11 January, 1948.y t

13
. As can be seen from his letters to Ben-Artzi quoted in Bar-Zohar,
Ben-Gurion
, p. 663 and to Sharett in Ben-Gurion Archives, Correspondence Section, 23.02–1.03.48 document 59, 26 February 1948.

14
. Ben-Gurion’s letters, ibid.

15
. Israeli State Archives Publications,
Political and Diplomatic Documents of the Zionist Central Archives and Israeli State Archives
, December 1947–May 1948, Jerusalem 1979 (Hebrew), Doc. 45, 14 December 47, p. 60.

16
. Masalha,
Expulsion of the Palestinians
.

17
. Bar-Zohar,
Ben-Gurion
, p. 702.

18
. On 12 July, 1937, there is a long entry in Ben-Gurion’s
Diary
in which he
expresses the wish that the Jewish leadership would have the will and the power to transfer the Arabs from Palestine.

19
. The whole speech was published in his book, David Ben-Gurion,
In the Battle
, pp. 255–72.

20
. Central Zionist Archives, 45/1 Protocol, 2 November 1947.

21
. Flapan,
The Birth of Israel
, p. 87.

22
. Morris,
The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited
.

23
. That this was disconnected was reported to Ben-Gurion. See Ben-Gurion Archives, Correspondence Section, 1.12.47–15.12.47, Doc. 7, Eizenberg to Kaplan, 2 December 1947.

24
. Ben-Gurion’s
Diary
reports one such meeting on 2 December 1947 when the Orientalists suggested attacking water supplies and transport centres of the Palestinians.

25
. See Ben-Gurion’s
Diary
, 11 December 1947; for the assessment that most peasants did not wish to be involved in a war.

26
. Hagana Archives, 205.9.

27
. This meeting was reported in Ben-Gurion’s
Diary
a day later, on 11 December 1947; it may have taken place in a more limited forum.

28
. IDF Archives, 49/5492/9, 19 January 1948.

29
. See the website
www.palestineremembered.com
– an interactive site that invites oral history testimonies.

30
. Ben-Gurion’s
Diary
, 11 December 1947, and the letter to Moshe Sharett, are from G. Yogev, Documents, December 1947–May 1948, Jerusalem: Israel State Archives 1980, p. 60.

31
. Reported in
The New York Times
, 22 December 1947. The Hagana report was sent to Yigael Yadin, on December 14; see the Hagana Archives, 15/80/731.

32
. IDF Archives, 51/957, File 16.

33
. Central Zionist Archives, Report S25/3569, Danin to Sasson, 23 December 1947.

34
.
The New York Times
, 20 December 1947, and speech by Ben-Gurion in the Zionist Executive, 6 April 1948.

35
. Ben-Gurion summarized the wednesday meeting in his Diary, 18 December 1947.

36
. Yaacov Markiviski, ‘The Campaign on Haifa in the Independence War’ in Yossi Ben-Artzi (ed.),
The Development of Haifa, 1918–1948
.

37
.
Filastin
, 31 December 1947.

38
. Milstein,
The History of the Independence War
, vol. 2, p. 78.

39
. Benny Morris,
The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem
, p. 156 and Uri Milstein,
The History of the Independence War
, vol. 2, p. 156.

40
. National committees were bodies of local notables that were established in various localities throughout Palestine in 1937, to act as a form of emergency leadership for the Palestinian community in each city.

41
. Morris,
The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem
, p. 50 and Milstein,
The History of the Independence War
, vol. 3, pp. 74–5.

42
. Morris,
The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem
, p. 55, note 11.

43
. Political and Diplomatic Documents, Document 274, p. 460.

44
. Ibid., Document 245, p. 410.

45
. Rivlin and Oren,
The War of Independence
, editorial remark, p. 9.

46
. The text of the Protocol for the Long Seminar is in Ha-Kibbutz Ha-Meuchad Archives, Aharon Zisling’s private collection.

47
. Ben-Gurion’s
Diary
, 31 December 1947.

48
. Weitz,
My Diary
, vol. 2, p. 181.

49
. Morris,
The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem
, p. 62.

50
. Ben-Gurion Archives, The Galili papers, Protocol of the meeting.

51
. Danin testimony for Bar-Zohar, p. 680, note 60.

52
. Ben-Gurion Archives, Correspondence Section, 16.1.48–22.1.48, Document 42, 26 January 1948.

53
. Ben-Gurion’s
Diary
, 7 January 1948.

54
. Ben-Gurion’s
Diary
, 25 January 1948.

55
. Rivlin and Oren,
The War of Independence
, p. 229, 10 February 1948.

56
. Ben-Gurion Archives, Correspondence Section, 1.1.48–31.1.48, Doc. 101, 26 January 1948.

57
. These were Yohanan Ratner, Yaacov Dori, Israeli Galili, Yigael Yadin, Zvi Leschiner (Ayalon) and Yitzhak Sadeh.

58
. Ben-Gurion’s
Diary
, 9 January 1948.

59
. This appeared in their publication
Mivrak
.

60
. Ben-Gurion’s
Diary
, 31 January 1948.