Ilan Pappe is an Israeli historian, a proven expert on Zoinism and has researched the roots of the Israeli State. His academic works have given the

public a unique insight on the historical conflict between Israel and Palestine, his being one of the few, if not the only jewish point of view to defend the Palestinian position. According to his words, “every Palestinian has a legitimate, individual right to return to his or her original home and to

absolute restitution of his or her property.” 1In his book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Pappe tries to explain how the eviction of the

indigenous population of those lands not only hasn’t been a voluntary move, but was the result of a planned, consecutive cleansing performed on

political, ethic and religious ground.

1 http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-ethnic-cleansing-of-palestine-by-ilan-pappe/4715

‘There were two hundred villages [in the front] and

these are gone. We had to destroy them, other-wise we would have had Arabs here [namely in the

southern part of Palestine] as we have in Galilee. We would have had another million Palestinians’

Yitzhak Pundak 2004

‘They caneitherbe massarrestedor expelled; it isbetterto expel them.’

David Ben-Gurion on Palestinians 1947

“The UN totally ignored the ethnic composition of the country’s population. They also sought to

compensate the Jews for the Nazi Holocaust in Europe”

1896-1897

Theodor Hertzl, an Austro-Hun-garian Jewsish writer publishes Der Judenstaat and one year later establishes the Zionist movement

asking for “a home for theJewish people in Palestine”.

ZIONISM

: “Our thought is that the colo-nization of Palestine has to go in two directions: Jewish settle-ment in Eretz Israel (the name for Palestine in the Jewish re-ligion) and the resettlement of the Arabs of Eretz Israel in areas outside the country. The transfer of so many Arabs may seem at first unacceptable eco-nomically, but is nonetheless practical. It does not require too much money to resettle a Pales-tinian village on another land.”Leo Motzkin, 1917

The Zionism is a movement which first appeared in Eu-rope in the 1880s, fighting for national revival of the Jewish, By the beginning of the 20th cen-tury, the Zionist leaders start-ed associating this idea with the colonization of Palestine.

“Jewish tradition and religion clearly instruct Jews to await the coming of the promised Messiah at ‘the end of times’ before they can return to Eretz Israel as a sovereign people in a Jewish theocracy, that is, as the obedient servants of God.”

1901

The Jewish National Fund was established to aquire lands in Pal-

estine.

1904-1914

40,000 Zionist immigrants arrive in Palestine; At that mo-ment the total number of Jews is

a 6% of the population.

THE VILLAGE FILES

“Founded in 1901, the JNF (Jewish National Fund) was the prin-cipal Zionist tool for the colonization of Palestine.”By the end of the Mandate in 1948, the Jewish community owned around 5.8% of the land in Palestine. That is the reason why the JNF head - Yossef Weitz pro-posed a “national project” - the creation of an archive with village files with not only topographical, but also historical, ethnical, religious, information on Palestin-ian settlements. Mapping was also done with the help of aereal photographies.

6th MAYSaid al-Husayni, claimes that ‘the Jews intend to create a state in the area that will include Palestine, Syria and

Iraq’.

1911

The Balfour declaration “opened the door to the endless conflict that would soon engulf the country and its people.”

1917

The British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issues a declara-tion in support of “the establish-ment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”.

1918

After the end of World War I, Palestine is occupies by the

Allies.

DAVID BEN-GURIONBen-Gurion was the leader of the Zi-onist movement from the 1920s until the 1960. Even before the creation of the Israeli state, he did play the role of a defence minister and prime minister.

‘We will demand a large chunk of Palestine’ (Paris, 1946)

The Zionist Leaders never thought of a possible resistance from the Palestinians, their pri-mary concerns were the British and the international community, Bitachon (”security” in Hebrew) was , amongst many other things for the Jewish leaders, the poli-cy they adopted against the in-digenous Palestinian population.

Force and Opportunity

THE CONSULTANCY‘We were told that the army had the ability of destroying whole village and taking out all its inhabitants; indeed, let’s do it!’ Agudat Israel‘Is it not now the time to get rid of them? Why continue to keep in our midst those thorns at a time when they pose a danger to us?’ ‘The only solution is to transfer the Arabs from here to neighbouring countries. Not a single village or a single tribe must be let off.’ Yossef Weitz, 31 December 1947

Orde Charles Wingate, an Indian-born British oficer, made the Zionist leaders realize more fully that the idea of Jewish statehood had to be closely associated with militarism and an army.

Under Wingate, the Haganá acquired the neccesary skills to be in a battle, and became the “military arm of the Jewsish Agency”. Wingate also succeeded to attach Haganá troops to the British forces and gave them the opportunity to be seasoned in battle (they consecuently took part in the Second World War).

THE HAGANÁ

IRGUN, STERN GANG AND THE PALMACH

1920

The Haganá (“defense”in Hebrew) was established in 1920 and was creat-ed as a militia to protect the Jewish population.

Irgun (Etzel in Hebrew) was a part of the Haganá un-til 1931 when they split from the military group to be-come one of the separatist groups, later to perform a terrorist attack on the King David Hotel against the British. They were led by Menachem Begin.

The Stern Gang (Lehi) was a further ramifica-tion on the Haganá, it parted from Irgun in 1940.

The Palamach was created as a possible Jew-ish legion to assist the British in case of a Nazi attack on Palestine. Later, its activity shift-ed to outrooting Palestinians from their vilag-es and building new Jewish settlements.

Irgun emerges from the Haganá.

1931

The mass immigration of Jews and the oppression of the Brit-ish rule make the Palestinians

rise in revolt.

1936

The Stern Gang (Lehi) was born after parting from

the Irgun.

1941

The Palmach was created.

19401937

The British expell al-HajjAminal-Husayni, the Pal-estinian political leader

form the country.

PLANS A, B AND CThe strategies that the Zionists have drafted out for the take-over of Palestine were more than one. The ‘Elimelech plan’ or also Plan A was elaborated in 1937. Plan B followed in 1946. Both were merged in Plan C, also called Gimmel.

Killing the Palestinian political leadership.Killing Palestinian inciters and their financial supporters.Killing Palestinians who acted against Jews.Killing senior Palestinian officers and officials [in the Mandatory system].Damaging Palestinian transportation.Damaging the sources of Palestinian livelihoods: waterwells, mills, etc.Attacking nearby Palestinian villages likely to assist in future attacks.Attacking Palestinian clubs, coffeehouses, meetingplaces, etc.

PLAN DALET (the Yehoshua plan)“Two months before the end of the Mandate- it [the Zionist movement] would seek to take

over the land and expel the indigenous population by force: Plan Dalet.”

“These operations can be carried out in the following manner: either by destroying vil-lages (by setting fire to them, by blowing them up, and by planting mines in their debris) and especially of those population centers which are difficult to control continuously; or by mounting combing and control operations according to the following guidelines: encir-clement of the villages, conducting a search inside them. In case of resistance, the armed forces must be wiped out and the population expelled outside the borders of the state.”

After the first few months of open hostilities between Arabs and Jews, the Zionist move-ment felt more secure on its position. By that time, the total fragmentation of the Palestin-ian political leadership and the confusion in the Arab troops; also the posibility of achiev-ing their dream of a sovereign Jewish estate were the principal motivations they had. “even before the direct orders had reached the field, the troops already knew exactly what

was expected of them.”

RESOLUTION 181

1947

FEBRUARYThe British troops decide to pull out of Mandatory Palestine and to pass the Jewish-Palestinial problem

to the UN.

NOVEMBER 29thThe UN adopted the Partition Resolution.

The Zionists had their own plans: “The [Jewish] leadership al-lowed only one constraint to influence the shape of their future map, and that was the possibility that certain ar-eas in the east of Palestine, in today’s West Bank, couldbecome part of a fu-ture GreaterJordan rath-er than a Greater Israel.”They reached an agreement with King Abdulah of Jordan, who promised not to take part in any Arab intervention against the Jewish State.

9th JANUARYThe first units of the Arab Liber-ation army enters in Palestine, fistly in areas allocated by the UN to the future Arab state and then attacks the settlements of

Kefar Sold and Kefar Etzion. 1948

On the 31st of December 1947, the Hagana units in Haifa tested the ground with a more drastic action: they went into one of the city’s Arab neighbourhoods, Wadi Rushmiyya, expelled its people and blew up its houses. This act could be regarded as the official beginning of the ethnic cleansing operation in urban Palestine. The British looked the other way while these atrocities were being committed.

RESOLUTION 1811948: retaliation and ethnic cleansing

The word cleansing,’tihur’, was used economically in the Consultancy’s meetings, butappears on every order the High Command passed down to the units on the ground.

It means in Hebrew what it means in any other language: the expulsion of entire populations from their villages and towns.

The first meeting of the Consultancy for 1948 became known as the “Long semi-nar”. Weitz left the Long Seminar with a per-mit to create his own small cabal under the title of a ‘transfer committee’, and by the next meeting showed up with con-crete plans.”“Yigal Allon and Israel Galili, on the oth-er hand, left the meeting with the im-pression that they had been given a free rein to start massive attacks against the Palestinian towns and villages within the coveted Jewish state. They were right.”David Ben-Gurion stressed on that meating that the distinction between ‘inocent’and ‘guilty’had become irrel-evant and that it was inevitable to inflict colateral damage. ”Every attack has to end with occupation, destruction and expulsion.”

‘You have to blow up twenty houses and kill as many”warriors”[read: “villagers”] as possible’the order to atack the village of Sa’sa

9th JANUARYThe first units of the Arab Liber-ation army enters in Palestine, fistly in areas allocated by the UN to the future Arab state and then attacks the settlements of

Kefar Sold and Kefar Etzion.

16th JANUARYThe Arab troops ambush and kill a convoy of Hagana fighters on their way to Gush Etzion. The event is known as Lamed-heh in Hebrew (35) and later was adopted as a name of a

Jewish military operation,

FEBRUARYThe Jewish start the devel-opment and production of a

weapon that could blind people.

Qisarya was the first village to be expelled in its entirety, on 15 February 1948. 1500

people were evicted.

10th MARCHPlan Dalet was adopted. By the end of April about 250 000 Palestinians are

uprooted.

Operation Nachshon was the first action under Plan Dalet. It took place near Jerusalem, where the Jewish comunity was made of Mizrahi and Orthodox, whose support for the Zion-ist cause was doubtful. “Whereas the official Plan Dalet gave the villages the option to surrender, the operational orders did not exempt any village for any reason.With this the blueprint was converted into military order to begin destroying villages.” In the village of Qasal the Palestinian forces met the Jewish troops of Uri Ben-Ari on April 9th. Their commander - Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni was killed and the village fell in hands of the Zionists.

APRILOperation Nachshon begins. The Jewish forces become a

single army.

DEIR YASSINThey took us out one after the other; shot an old man and when one of his daughters cried, she was shot too. Then they called my brother Muhammad, and shot him in front us, and when my mother yelled, bending over him - carrying my little sister Hudra in her

hands, still breastfeeding her - they shot her too.

9th APRILThe village of Deir Yassin was asaulted by the Jewish tropps and more than 100

people were massacred.

AYN AL-ZAYTUN“Operation ’Broom’ provided a chance for the Hagana’s elite unit, the Palmach, not only to cleanse the village in accordance with Plan Dalet on 2 May 1948, but also to settle ‘old ac-counts’, namely the hostility with which the Palestinian villagers had viewed and received the settlers.”Two very famous novels document the atrocities of the Massacre of Ayn al-Zaytun.

18th APRILThe British informed the Jewish authorities that they would be retreating and the only obstacle between Arabs and the Jewish

army was removed.

13th MAYThe last city to be taken before the end of the British Mandate was Jaffa. It was attacked by Irgun and

Hagana troops.

HAIFA FALLSAround 15,000 to 20,000 wealthy peo-ple from Haifa fled the city in the year before Plan Dalet was put into motion. This meant that between 55 000 and 60 000 Palestinians were left leaderless.The Jewish operation that cleansed the city of Haifa was naimed ‘Scissors’ (Misparay-im).When the British command announced that it would leave some of the Palestinian areas, this gave way to Operation ‘Cleans-ing the Leaven’ (bi’urhametz) on 21st April.

“Men stepped on their friends and women on their own children. The boats in the port were soon filled with living cargo. The overcrowding in them was horrible. Many turned over and

sank with all their passengers.”

In the city of Acre, the water supply was poisoned and thypoid pandemic spread. Weakened by the illness, it had to surrender, After Jerusalem, Baysad and Sa-fad, the last city to be taken was Jaffa.

Between 30 March and 15 May, 200 villages were oc-cupied and their inhabitants

expelled.

The New York Times, was methodically reporting Jewish attacks on Palestinian villages and neighbourhoods.

Prior to the end of the British Mandate, neither the Arab volunteers from outside Palestine nor the paramilitary troops on the inside put the Jewish community at any serious risk of either

losing the battle or being forced to surrender.

For most Palestinians, the date of 15 May 1948 was of no special significance at the time: it was just one more day in the horrific calendar of ethnic cleansing that had started more than

five months earlier.The Consultancy went on meeting, but less regularly as the Jewish state had become a fait ac-

compli with a government, cabinet, military command, secret services, etc., all in place.An evicted Palestinian village - Matkal became the headquarters of the Israeli Army.

On the eve of 14 May the State of Israel was proclaimed.