Sunday, March 10th, 2024
When humans face a traumatic and important problem, a great deal of energy is expelled in the exploration of relevant data. With regard to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (which I would argue deserves a new and more accurate label), most of us have impressions that we have long assumed align fairly closely with reality.
And — since October 7th, those of us willing to learn have discovered that our “impressions” often fall very far from the tree of objective truth.
When I say “most of us,” I mean everyone except the very, very few who have actually studied this topic in depth, from many angles, and with a professional historian’s attention to detail. Even an Israeli (of any religious background) who’s lived his or her entire life in the country — can get things wrong. And of course, with 50% of Gazans currently under the age of 18, we can’t expect any of them to understand the situation clearly! Then, we Americans (living in a country rife with internet access), misremember our history constantly. As do people everywhere on this planet.
Forgetting our past is ONE THING all humans share in common.
S0 — since October 7th, I’ve been doing a deep dive on the subject. It’s been wonderful, despite the tragic reason for my sudden interest. I love to learn, especially when it comes to human history, and since October 7th, I’ve discovered that many people (1) never knew about the Nakba, (2) had heard the word but were very fuzzy on what it meant, or (3) were aware of it only on a surface level.
I was part of that third cohort. I’d seen photos, read chapters in books, talked about it with my family, and was otherwise “familiar” with the events surrounding the Nakba.
Or so I thought.
Here’s the “Wikipedia” description of the Nakba: “The Nakba was the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Mandatory Palestine during the 1948 Palestine war through their violent displacement and dispossession of land, property and belongings, along with the destruction of their society, culture, identity, political rights, and national aspirations.”
(Hint: this is one more reason to never trust Wikipedia.)
Sadly, Wikipedia’s version is very much what most people in “The West” think happened. It’s also what I thought happened, minus all the melodramatic language. For me, context matters, and while the Nakba wasn’t a particularly fun experience for anyone, it was also typical of the times and location. Remember, World War II had just happened, following closely on the heels of World War I (yes, they both impacted the Middle East and Africa), the Ottoman Empire had recently collapsed, the Middle East and Africa were deeply controlled by European Powers who’d spent the previous 400 years brutalizing and enslaving their people, the crusades still lived in society’s not so distant memories, as did the extremely violent conquests by Islamic/Muslim Culture since its inception in the 6th century. To be blunt, this is a place where shit happens.
Still, the Nakba sucked. And, it seemed to be a clear cut situation where “the Allies” removed the “poor Palestinians” by force in order to put “unwanted Jews” somewhere other than Europe. Right?
Maybe. Or maybe not. Maybe — it all played out very differently?
No, I didn’t say “it could have” played out differently. I’m saying, maybe it WAS totally different than what most of us believe. Maybe — we’re all deeply misinformed? Maybe, what I’m about to share below is what really happened? I invite you to read the following description, and then go out and fact-check it for yourself.
Because, if this is the case? Well, then we’ve been blaming the wrong people for the past seventy-five years, and it’s time for the descendents of the victims of the “Nakba” to have a more accurate and nuanced understanding of the suffering of their great-grandparents (and themselves). It is possible that four to five generations of Palestinians have been sacrificed for the goals of people who hated (and still hate today) Jews and seek to destroy Israel, at all costs.
If this is the case, then those people are the true enemies of today’s Palestinian children.
Author’s self-description: “Lawyer & Historian with Passion for Jewish History/Identity Seeking to Empower Jews and the Curious from all Backgrounds with Knowledge and Analytical Skills.”
(Note: I’ve put into bold those who influenced and manipulated the situation during the “Nakba.” Bold added by me unless stated otherwise. In fairness, my goal is to remind my readers that many Palestinians - then and now - are victims, to a degree.)
Why are there Palestinian refugees?
In the months before the British abandoned its mandate & Israel declared independence, civil war raged as Arab factions tried to prevent the Jewish state from being born.
Of course, had the Arabs agreed to the UN's partition plan, they would have had yet another state & there would have been no war in 1948.
But their goal was not another Arab state; it was to ensure there would be no Jewish state.
Meanwhile, five Arab armies amassed on the borders & waited for the British to leave so they could push the Jews into the Mediterranean Sea.
As Secretary-General of the Arab League Azzam Pasha put it on the day of the Arab invasion: "This will be a war of extermination & momentous massacre, which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades."
Or as the then war criminal & fugitive Nazi Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini put it during the invasion: "Murder the Jews. Murder them all!"
But before the invasion began, & starting as early as Dec 1947, Arab officers began ordering Arab residents of specific villages to flee. Their reasoning? Arab citizens not involved in active fighting could only: (1) "treacherously" abide the creation of a Jewish state &/or even become citizens of same; or (2) be in the way of Arab #military deployments & potentially get caught in the crossfire.
And so, for example, on this day (March 8) in 1948, the Arab Higher Committee ordered all Arab women, children & elderly to leave Jerusalem. The order continued, "Any opposition to this order ... is an obstacle to the holy war ... & will hamper the operations of the fighters in these districts.”
In fact, the Arab Higher Committee ordered the evacuation of dozens of Arab villages between April & July of 1948.
Meanwhile, on April 19, 1948, Jewish forces secured Tiberias, which had a population of ~6,000 Arabs - all of whom chose to leave (bold by author). In fact, they left under British military supervision.
The Jewish Community Council immediately issued a statement regarding Tiberias' Arabs: "We did not dispossess them; they themselves chose this course ... Let no citizen touch their property."
At around this same time, in early & mid-April of 1948, an Arab faction led by Fawzi al-Qawukji was attacking Haifa & attempting to take the city. Then, rumors spread among Haifa's Arab community that Arab air forces were about to bomb the city & ~25,000 of Haifa's Arabs fled.
As U.S. Consul-General in Haifa Aubrey Lippincott noted on April 22, 1948: "local mufti-dominated Arab leaders ... [urged] all Arabs to leave the city, & large numbers did so."
On April 23, 1948, however, Jewish forces fought back the Arab attack & retook Haifa.
Three days later, on April 26, 1948, a British police report from Haifa noted: "[E]very 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."
What were some of those "efforts?"
Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, sent future Prime Minister Golda Meir to Haifa with the direct instructions to "persuade the Arabs to stay."
Ms. Meir was unsuccessful, however, as Haifa's Arabs told her they feared that if they stayed, they would be branded "traitors."
And so, another ~25,000 of Haifa's Arabs fled.
Stop me if you've heard this one before, but despite facts on the ground, Arab leaders at the UN began demanding the end to a fake "massacre." Specifically, Syria's UN Ambassador Faris al-Kouri, said the Jewish victory at Haifa was a "massacre" that provided "evidence that the 'Zionist program' is to annihilate Arabs within the Jewish state if partition is effected."
The British were still on the ground, however, & the British Ambassador to the UN, Sir Alexander Cadogan, told the UN the very next day both that the fighting in Haifa had only begun as a result of "continuous attacks by Arabs against Jews" & that the "reports of massacres & deportations [were] erroneous."
Meanwhile, after Israel declared its independence & was invaded by five Arab armies, the newly established IDF issued an Order on July 6, 1948, making it clear that non-combatant Arab civilians were not to be harassed or expelled, nor their villages touched.
But the Arabs were being given a very different message.
Iraqi PrimeMinister Nuri Said announced: "We will smash the country with our guns & obliterate every place the Jews seek shelter in. The Arabs should conduct their wives & children to safe areas until the fighting has died down."
This used to be known. In fact, Arab leaders for years after the war had no qualms about repeating it. (Bold added by author.)
For example, Syrian Prime Minister Haled al Azm later wrote: "Since 1948, we have been demanding the return of the refugees to their homes. But we ourselves are the ones who encouraged them to leave. Only a few months separated our call to them to leave & our appeal to the UN to resolve on their return."
Similarly, Jordan's King Abdullah wrote: "The tragedy of the Palestinians was that most of their leaders had paralyzed them with false & unsubstantiated promises that they were not alone; that 80 million Arabs & 400 million Muslims would instantly & miraculously come to their rescue."
Similarly, Edward Atiyah, Secretary of the Arab League Office in London wrote: "This wholesale exodus was due partly to the belief of the Arabs, encouraged by the boastings of an unrealistic Arabic press & the irresponsible utterances of some of the Arab leaders that it could be only a matter of weeks before the Jews were defeated by the armies of the Arab States & the Palestinian Arabs enabled to reenter & retake possession of their country.”
Even as the war still raged on Aug 16, 1948, the Arab Greek Orthodox Catholic Bishop of the Galilee told Beirut newspaper Sada al-Janub: “The refugees were confident their absence would not last long, & that they would return within a week or two ... Their leaders had promised them that the Arab Armies would crush the ’Zionist gangs’ very quickly & that there was no need for panic or fear of a long exile.”
A few months later, on Feb 19, 1949, the Jordanian newspaper Filastin confirmed: "The Arab States encouraged the Palestine Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies."
Even many of the Palestinian Arab refugees themselves admitted their reasons for leaving.
For example, on June 8, 1951, Habib Issa admitted to NewYork Lebanese newspaper Al Hoda: "Azzam Pasha assured the Arab peoples that the occupation of Palestine & TelAviv would be ... simple ... He pointed out that they were already on the frontiers & that all the millions the Jews had spent on land & economic development would be easy booty, for it would be a simple matter to throw Jews into the Mediterranean ... Arabs of Palestine [were told] to leave their land, homes & property & to stay temporarily in neighboring fraternal states, lest the guns of the invading Arab armies mow them down.”
Similarly, Asmaa Jabir Balasimah recalled being told by Arab leaders to "evacuate the village & return after the battle is over," & that she & others in her village left all their possessions behind "based on the assumption that we would return after a few hours."
Again, however (& most importantly), had the Arabs agreed to Partition or even agreed to negotiate different borders with Zionist leaders who begged Azzam Pasha to make any counteroffer instead of invading with genocidal intent, there would never have been a single Palestinian refugee.
NOW, BEFORE YOU ACCUSE ME OF ONE-SIDEDNESS…
Here is a link to the IMEU’s (Institute for Middle East Understanding) opinion on the Nakba and Palestine Refugees. In particular, after offering the traditional Palestinian Victimhood version of events, the IMEU asks the following question: “Was Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Planned?” The IMEU’s answer is YES!
They then direct you to a lengthy pdf version of a paper written by Walid Khalidi, who is “a founder and the honorary general secretary of the Institute for Palestine Studies. He is a leading authority on the Palestine problem and the Arab-Israeli conflict and is currently a research fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University.” Hmmm. Maybe the violent antisemitism at Harvard and other wealth class university campuses isn’t so surprising after all?
But — I encourage you to review the paper! Please do! HERE’S THE LINK AGAIN.
This pdf document is worth your time, partly because it presents Walid Khalidi’s views, in his own words, allowing him to speak for himself.
But, equally as important, it gives you a chance to compare his “characterization” of Israel’s intentions with Israel’s own “Plan Dalet” language, as it begins on page 20.
Walid Khalidi’s bias is so strong that he doesn’t see the deep differences between Israel’s own verbiage and his reading or interpretation of their written plans. I, with a more objective viewpoint, was immediately interested to read Israel’s own words describing their intentions — and I was startled by the difference between the two.
You can learn more about Walid Khalidi by following the link on the IMEU’s website.
Their link takes you to the Institute for Palestine Studies, which begins their description of Walid Khalidi in this way: “Walid Khalidi (Arabic: وليد خالدي, born 1925 in Jerusalem) is an Oxford University-educated Palestinian historian who has written extensively on the Palestinian exodus. He is a co-founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies, established in Beirut in December 1963 as an independent research and publishing center focusing on the Palestine problem and the Arab–Israeli conflict, and was its General Secretary until 2016.”
BTW — for those who are interested, Walid Khalidi’s stated opinion on the Palestine question is for a two-state solution. In Foreign Affairs, “A Palestinian state in the occupied territories within the 1967 frontiers in peaceful coexistence alongside Israel is the only conceptual candidate for a historical compromise of this century-old conflict. Without it the conflict will remain an open-ended one.”
All in all, it’s worthwhile to read and consider myriad perspectives. Yet, it seems to me that Walid Khalidi, the IMEU, and the Institute for Palestine Studies are incapable of an objective or unbiased view on this topic. Why do I say this?
(1) Walid Khalidi was born in Jerusalem in 1925 and was therefore a youthful 20 year old when the Israeli/Palestinian conflict began.
(2) Walid Khalidi is clearly much beloved and revered within the Palestinian Advocacy Community, but he was also born in 1925 and is almost 100 years old. Yet, he has a blog apparently, which is written in the most incredible and clear manner. My own granddad lived to be 98, and my aunt’s mother lived to be 99, yet I still have a hard time imagining this is actually his own content. Suggesting Walid Khalidi’s reputation is being taken advantage of by those at the Institute for Palestine Studies who are willing to write what they want in his name. “Walid Khalidi’s” most recent blog post, January 10th, 2024: Prince Turki al-Faisal's Plan.
(3) The Institute for Palestine Studies claims expert status, which implies accuracy resulting from objectivity, yet consider this video interview from November 30th, 2023, titled: “Tareq Baconi: Oct. 7 Shattered the Idea That Israel Was Invincible.”
I’m sorry, but calling October 7th “a very effective campaign” (3:30 in the video) is just the most egregious example (up to that point) of soft support for Hamas and a positive coloring of Hamas’ actions within Gaza since it violently deposed its co-governing Fatah leadership, murdering nearly 1/3 of Gaza’s duly elected representatives in 2007.
As Fred Kaplan wrote, on October 24th, 2023, “Hamas’ absolute rule of Gaza is not what the Palestinians voted for back in 2006. In fact, since the median age of Gazans is 18, half of Hamas’ subjects weren’t even born when the election took place. Since they have known no alternative, have absorbed little information but Hamas propaganda, and have witnessed periodic outbursts of violent conflict with Israel throughout their lives, it is impossible to know what they really think about their rulers.”
And that’s enough for tonight.
Not only is Israel an apartheid state,
it is a white supremacist one at that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRAUQn904ic&ab_channel=TRTWorld
Do you support a ceasefire or the continuation of genocide?