Encountering the Nakba

1
Encountering the Nakba
The Nakba in History
2
Population of Palestine in 1947
The Nakba in Numbers
900,000
600,000
These figures refer to the area on which the
state of Israel was founded Source Abu Sitta,
2004.
3
Number of localities in Palestine in 1947
The Nakba in Numbers
700
350
Palestinians
Jews
4
Population of Palestine/Israel in 1949
The Nakba in Numbers
1,100,000
1,000,000
150,000
Palestinians
Jews
5
The Nakba in Numbers
Number of localities in Palestine/Israel in 1949
400
170
Palestinians
Jews
6
The Nakba in Numbers

• In other words, from 1947 1949
• 530 Palestinian localities were destroyed
• 800,000 residents fled or were expelled and not
  allowed to return

7
What was Palestine like before the Nakba?
What was Palestine like before the Nakba?
Towns
There were twenty-nine towns in 1946. The large,
mixed (Arab-Jewish) towns were Jerusalem, Haifa
and Jaffa. The large Arab towns were Nazareth,
Nablus, Hebron, Ramle, Lydda and Gaza. Tel Aviv
was the large Jewish town. In 1947, one-third of
Palestines Arabs lived in towns.
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What was Palestine like before the Nakba?
Villages
Almost two-thirds of the Arab population was
rural. The main source of income was agriculture.
The village was led by the Mukhtar, who was
usually a representative of its most important
family. Most villages were independent social,
political and economic units.
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What was Palestine like before the Nakba?
Ceremony inaugurating a Jewish-Arab clinic in
Kibbutz Amir, 1945. The sign reads, Behold, I
will bring it healing and cure, and I will cure
them, and I will reveal to them a greeting of
peace and truth. (Jeremiah 336) In Hebrew.
Palestinians and Jews
Kibbutz Amir archive
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What was Palestine like before the Nakba?
Palestinians and Jews
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Though neighborly relations and cooperation
developed in many places in the country, the
growing strength of the two national movements
(particularly Zionism) and competition for
resources led to tensions, suspicion and
violence.
Palestinian farmers and their Jewish neighbors in
the Hula Valley, 1946.
11
When did it happen?
The Nakba occurred primarily during 1948. In
November 1947 the UN proposed a partition plan
which split the land about equally between the
Jewish and Arab sides. At this time Jews
comprised 1/3 of the local population and owned
about 5 of the land.
12
David Ben Gurion supported the 1937 Peel
Commission partition plan shown here for
tactical reasons. He told the Zionist Executive
that After the formation of a large army in
the wake of the establishment of the state, we
will abolish partition and expand to the whole of
Palestine. He reiterated this position in a
letter to his family during that same period A
Jewish state is not the end but the beginning. .
. we shall organize a sophisticated defense
force--and elite army. I have no doubt that our
army will be one of the best in the world. And
then I am sure that we will not be prevented from
settling in other parts of the country, either
through mutual understanding and agreement with
our neighbors, or by other means. (Simha
Flapan, The Birth of Israel Myths and
Realities,1987, p.22)
Text
PEEL COMMISSION PLAN 1937
13
When did it happen?
When the partition plan was passed, and until
March 1948, there was an escalation in violence
between the two sides, such as firing on
transportation routes and retaliations. However,
at this time the violence was not expressed as
wholesale expulsion or clearing of Palestinian
localities.
14
In the conquest of villages in your area, you
will determine whether to cleanse or destroy
them in consultation with your Arab affairs
advisers and You are permitted to restrict
insofar as you are able cleansing, conquest and
destruction operations of enemy villages in your
area. From the text of Plan Dalet
How did it happen?
This situation changed in March 1948, when the
Hagana embarked on Plan Dalet. The purpose of
this plan was to create territorial continuity
for the Jewish side by controlling the largest
possible territory with the smallest possible
Arab population. To accomplish this task, Jewish
military forces began a campaign to expel and
destroy Arab villages. This was the beginning of
the Nakba. Two months later, on May 16, 1948, the
war between Israel and the Arab states began.
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How did it happen?
Of 530 villages and cities that were destroyed
the causes were
51
Military assault by Jewish forces 270 localities
23
Expulsion by Jewish forces 122 localities
9
Fall of a neighboring town 49 localities
9
Psychological warfare and fear of attack 50
localities
Orders of Arab leaders 5 localities
1
6
No information 34 localities
In most localities (83) the population exodus
was directly due to Israeli military action.
As Israeli historian Benny Morris claims, the
assertion that the Palestinian refugees left
their villages because they were instructed to do
so by their leaders is a myth.
16
Military assault
During the morning the Jews were continually
shooting down on all Arabs who moved both in Wadi
Nisnas and the Old City. This included completely
indiscriminate and revolting machinegun fire,
mortar fire and sniping on women and children
sheltering in churches and attempting to get out
through the gates into the docks The 40 Royal
Marine Commando who control the docks sent the
Arabs through in batches but there was
considerable congestion outside the East Gate of
hysterical and terrified Arab women and children
and old people on whom the Jews opened up
mercilessly with fire. A British intelligence
officer, cited in Morris, 2004, p. 191.
In most cases Jewish forces bombed the village,
sometimes from the air, so that the population
would flee. Less frequently there was Arab and
Palestinian military resistance, but the balance
of power typically favored the Jewish side.
17
Expulsion
They abandon the villages of their birth and
that of their ancestors and go into exile Women,
children, babies, donkeys everything moves, in
silence and grief, northwards, without looking to
right or left. Wife does not find her husband and
child does not find his father no one knows the
goal of his trek. Many possessions are scattered
by the paths the more the refugees walk, the
more tired they grow and they throw away what
they had tried to save on their way into exile.
Suddenly, every object seems to them petty,
superfluous, unimportant as against the chasing
fear and the urge to save life and limb. - Moshe
Carmel, Commander of the Carmeli Brigade ,
Northern Battles, 1949 (in Morris, 2004, p.482).
A pattern of expulsion was repeated in numerous
locations After residents of the village
surrendered, the village was surrounded from
three sides and the fourth was left open so that
residents would leave in the direction of the
neighboring Arab state. Men were separated into
one group and women, children and the elderly in
another. The latter were expelled by threats and
shooting over their heads, and sometimes their
valuables were also taken. Some of the men were
killed in order to scare the others, and many
were taken to prisoner of war camps. At left is a
military order setting out such an instruction
for the village of Hunin.
18
Expulsion
There were also a number of areas where the
population was expelled by trucks (Ramleh,
Baysan, Majdal, and others).
19
Fall of a neighboring town
Many localities were abandoned following the fall
of a neighboring village or city, as residents
feared they would be defenseless against a coming
attack. The fall of cities and large towns had a
particularly strong effect, as the surrounding
economic and social network broke down.
20
Psychological warfare and fear of attack

• We, therefore, looked for a means that would not
  oblige us to use force to drive out the tens of
  thousands of hostile Arabs left in the Galilee
  and who, in the event of an invasion, could
  strike at us from behind. We tried to utilize a
  stratagem that exploited the Arabs defeat in
  Safad and in the area cleared by Operation
  Broom - a stratagem that worked wonderfully.
• I gathered the Jewish mukhtars, who had ties with
  the different Arab villages, and I asked them to
  whisper in the ears of several Arabs that a giant
  Jewish reinforcement had reached the Galilee and
  were about to clean out the villages of the Hula,
  and to advise them, as friends, to flee while
  they could. And rumor spread throughout the Hula
  that the time had come to flee. The flight
  encompassed tens of thousands. The stratagem
  fully achieved its objective . . . and we were
  able to deploy ourselves in face of the
  prospective invaders along the borders, without
  fear for our rear."
• Yigal Allon, Book of the Palmah, in Morris, 2004
  p.251

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Should the Jews make an effort to bring the
Arabs back to Haifa, or not ? Meanwhile, so
long as it is not decided differently, we have
decided on a number of rules, and these include
We wont go to Acre or Nazareth to bring back the
Arabs. But, at the same time, our behavior should
be such that if, because of it, they come back
then let them come back. We shouldnt behave
badly with the Arabs who remained so that
others who fled wont return. Golda Meir,
from Protocol of meeting of JAE, 6 May 1948 (In
Morris, 2004).
Preventing Return
During the war, the question of whether
Palestinians should be allowed to return was an
open one.
1973, ??? ?????, ???? ???????? ????????
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(1) Destruction of villages as much as possible
during military operations. (2) Prevention of
any cultivation of land by them(3) Settlement
of Jews in a number of villages and towns so that
no vacuum is created. (4) Enacting legislation
(5) Propaganda From a memorandum by Yosef
Weitz to Ben-Gurion, Retroactive Transfer, A
Scheme for the Solution of the Arab Question in
the State of Israel (June 5, 1948) (in Morris,
2004, p.313).
Preventing Return
During the war, the question of whether
Palestinians should be allowed to return was an
open one.
However, as the war progressed, the Israeli side
came to adopt a strict policy of preventing
return.
Text
The 1950 Absentee Property Law and 1953 Israel
Land Acquisition Law were used to confiscate the
homes and lands of Palestinians, including those
who had fled their homes but remained in what
became the state of Israel.
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