The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, by Ilan Pappé (2006, p. 72)

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, by Ilan Pappé (2006, p. 72)

FEBRUARY 1948: SHOCK AND AWE Nothing of the atmosphere that pervaded the first meetings of the Consultancy was reflected in the fiery speeches Ben-Gurion delivered to the wider public. Melodramatic and full of pathos, he told his audience: 'This is a war aimed at destroying and eliminating the Jewish community,' never referring to the passivity of the Palestinians or the provocative nature of Zionist actions. These speeches, one should add, were not just rhetoric. The Jewish forces did suffer casualties in their attempts to keep the lines open to all the isolated settlements the Zionists had planted in the heart of the Palestinian areas. Bythe end of Ianuary, 400 Jewish settlers had died in these attacks - a high number for a community of 660,000 (but still a much lower number than the 1500 Palestinians who had so far been killed by the random bombardment and shelling oftheir villages and neighbourhoods). These casualties Ben-Gurion now depicted as 'victims of a second Holocaust.' - Pappé, 2006, p. 72. Ch 4., under 'February 1948: Shock and Awe.'ALT

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, by Ilan Pappé (2006, p. 72)

The rhetoric from Israel and their defenders really hasn’t changed one bit, has it? Months and months of terrorizing Palestinian villages, and the moment they retaliate, it must be because the Arabs are violent Nazis set to exterminate the oh-so-peaceful Zionist settlers for no other reason than them being Jewish

And what were the Zionists settlers - with Ben-Gurion’s explicit approval - doing at the time?

The reality was very different by the end of1947. From the morning after the UN Partition Resolution was adopted, the 75,000 Palestinians in the city were subjected to a campaign of terror jointly instigated by the Irgun and the Hagana. As they had only arrived in recent decades, the Jewish settlers had built their houses higher up the mountain. Thus, they lived topographically above the Arab neighbourhoods and could easily shell and snipe at them. They had started doing this frequently since early December. They used other methods of intimidation as well: the Jewish troops rolled barrels full of explosives, and huge steel balls, down into the Arab residential areas, and poured oil mixed with fuel down the roads, which they then ignited. The moment panic-stricken Palestinian residents came running out of their homes to try to extinguish these rivers of fire, they were sprayed by machine-gun fire. In areas where the two communities still interacted, the Hagana brought cars to Palestinian garages to be repaired, loaded with explosives and detonating devices, and so wreaked death and chaos. - Pappé, 2006, p. 58ALT

Pappé (2006, p. 58)

Similarly, in the villages:

Khisas was a small village with a few hundred Muslims and one hundred Christians, who lived peacefully together in a unique topographical location in the northern part of Hula Plain, on a natural terrace that was about 100 metres wide. This terrace had been formed thousands of years before by the gradual shrinking of Lake Hula. Foreign travelers used to single this village out for the natural beauty of its location on the banks of the lake, and its proximity to the Hasbani River. 33 Jewish troops attacked the village on 18 December 1947, and randomly started blowing up houses at the dead of night while the occupants were still fast asleep. Fifteen villagers, including five children, were killed in the attack. The incident shocked The New York Times' correspondent, who closely followed the unfolding events. He went and demanded an explanation from the Hagana, which at first denied the operation. When the inquisitive reporter did not let go, they eventually admitted it. Ben-Gurion issued a dramatic public apology, claiming the action had been unauthorised but, a few months later, in April, he included it in a list of successful operations." - Pappe, 2006, p. 57ALT

Pappé (2006, p. 57)

Still the same playbook, 75+ years later…

Also, it’s important to understand that these violent attacks against Palestinian cities and villages - and there were many more in the winter of 47/48 than the examples included here - were part of a larger, deliberate operation meant to ‘drive out’ (i.e. ethnically cleanse) the Native population of Palestine. It didn’t matter if the Palestinians were just quietly living their life in the countryside; if they were not Jewish, they would had to go. And if the Zionists could not find a pretext for retaliation, they would make one.

In the aftermath of the UN partition, this operation of ethnic cleansing - without 'pretext’ - was not only openly discussed, but approved of, by Ben-Gurion and the rest of the Zionist leadership:

Allon and Palmon now set out to explain the new orientation to their colleagues: there was a need for a more aggressive policy in areas that had been 'quiet for too long'." There was no need to persuade Ben-Gurion. By the end of the Long Seminar he had given the green light to a whole series of provocative and lethal attacks on Arab villages, some as retaliation, some not, the intention ofwhich was to cause optimal damage and kill as many villagers as possible. And when he heard that the first targets proposed for the new policy were all in the north, he demanded a trial action in the south as well, but it had to be specific, not general. In this he suddenly revealed himself as a vindictive book-keeper. He pushed for an attack on the town of Beersheba (Beer Sheva today), particularly targeting the heads of aI-Hajj Salameh Ibn Said, the deputy mayor and his brother, who in the past had both refused to collaborate with the Zionist plans for settlement in the area. There was no need, stressed Ben-Gurion, to distinguish any more between the 'innocent' and the 'guilty' - the time had come for inflicting collateral damage. Danin recalled years later that Ben Gurion spelled out what collateral damage meant: "Every attack has to end with occupation, destruction and expulsion."! Danin even claimed that some specific villages were discussed. 52 - Pappé, 2006, p. 64ALT

Pappé (2006, p. 64)

What we’re seeing today in Gaza - with the collective punishment of 2 million Palestinians - is the continuation of this very same Zionist program of ethnic cleansing that Israel was founded on.

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