Oct. 29th: Zionist massacres in Palestine
Sabbah's blog

October 29, 2007

Following post was published a year ago in the same occasion:

Oct. 29th massacres in Palestine history and Ben Gurion wonders: "How
can an order be given to shoot children?"

Starting from the oldest:

1. On October 29, 1948, when Israeli brigades captured the village of
Safsaf. The known details of the massacre come to us via several
contemporary second-hand Zionist reports and via Arab oral history.
Yosef Nachmani, a senior officer in the Haganah (and later the
director of the Jewish National Fund in Eastern Galilee), recorded in
his diary what he was told by Immanuel Friedman, a representative of
the Minority Affairs ministry:

In Safsaf, after ... the inhabitants had raised a white flag, the
[soldiers] collected and separated the men and women, tied the hands
of fifty-sixty fellahin [peasants] and shot and killed them and
buried
them in a pit. Also, they raped several women... (quoted in Zertal,
2005, p. 171; see also Morris, 2005, p. 500).

Moshe Erem reported on the massacre to a meeting of the Mapam
Political Committee but his words were censored from the minutes.
According to the notes taken by another person present, Erem spoke
of:

Safsaf 52 men tied together with a rope. Pushed down a well and shot.
10 killed. Women pleaded for mercy. 3 cases of rape . . . . A girl of
14 raped. Another four killed (Morris, 2004, p. 500).

These accounts in broad detail are supported by Palestinian witnesses
who told their stories to historians.

2. On October 29, 1948 (same day and year of above massacre), the
Arab
town al-Dawayima was conquered by Israeli terrorist groups known as
Irgun and Lehi.

An unnamed Israeli soldier told this version: "The first wave of
conquerors killed about 80 to 100 Arabs, women and children. The
children they killed by breaking their heads with sticks. There was
not a house without dead."

Meron Benvenisti writes:

Atrocities and acts of brutality characterised this period: summary
executions, rape, blowing up houses along with their occupants,
looting and plundering, and leaving hundreds of villages to their own
devices in the fields, without food or water. The most serious
atrocities were committed in the village of Al-Dawayima on the
western
slopes of the Hebron Highlands. This large village, with a population
of some 3,500 was taken on 29 October, 1948. The occupying forces
indiscriminately killed between 80 and 100 males villagers, blew up
houses together with their occupants, murdered women and children,
and
committed rape. According to eyewitness testimony, these acts were
committed "not in the heat of battle and inflamed passions, but out
of
a system of expulsion and destruction. The fewer Arabs remained - the
better."

3. On October 29, 1956, during the Suez Crisis, Israeli Border Police
started at 4 pm what they called a tour in Kafr Qasim town (also
known
as Kafr Qassem, Kufur Kassem and Kafar Kassem). They told the
Mukhtars
(Aldermen) of the town that the curfew from that day onwards was to
start from 5 pm until 6 am next morning. They reached Kafr Qasem
around 4:45 pm and informed the Mukhtar who protested that there are
about 400 villagers working outside the town and there is no enough
time to inform them of the curfew timings. An officer assured him
that
they will be taken care of.

The guards waited at the entrance to the town. 43 Kafr Qasem
inhabitants were massacred in cold blood by the army as they returned
from work. Their crime was violating a curfew they did not know
about.
On the northern entrance of the town 3 were killed and 2 were killed
inside of the town. Amongst the dead were men, women, and children.
Lutanat Danhan was touring the area in his jeep reporting the
massacre, on his wireless he said "minus 15 Arabs" after a while his
message on the radio to his H.Q. was "it is difficult to count."

Interestingly enough, on Nov. 11, 1956, Prime Minister Ben Gurion
told
the cabinet about the Kfar Qasim massacre. He said:

"We have a wonderful army, but it appears that sometimes there are
incidents and circumstances that make people lose their minds."

On March 28, 2001, Ha'aretz published some excerpts from this cabinet
meeting.

Ha'aretz March 28, 2001
Excerpts from the State Archives, Jerusalem.

The Kfar Kassem massacre took place on October 29, 1956, but it
reverberates through Israeli political culture to this day. The
following transcripts, from the state archives, depict David Ben-
Gurion's government as shocked, contrite - and worried about how the
news of the event will reflect on Israel overseas. At one point, Ben-
Gurion regrets that Israel "gave up the death penalty too soon." At
one point, he indicated that he was inclined to accept the idea of
the
two sergeants in the case being hanged in the village square of Kfar
Kassem.(Please note that the initials G.M. that occasionally appear
in
this text refer to Guy Ma'ayan, a historian. His review of "Kfar
Kassem: Events and Myths," by Rubik Rosenthal, appears in today's
Hebrew Book Review.)

Protocols of the government session, 7 Heshvan, 5757, (November 11,
1956).

Source: State Archives, Jerusalem.

Participants: Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion (Mapai), Finance
Minister Levi Eshkol (Mapai), Foreign Minister Golda Meir (Mapai),
Interior Minister Yisrael Bar-Yehuda (Ahdut Avoda), Health Minister
Yisrael Barzilai (Mapam), Police Minister Bechor Shalom-Sheetrit
(Mapai), Housing Minister Mordechai Bentov (Mapam), Welfare Minister
Peretz Naftali (Mapai). Central District IDF Commander Zvi Tzur.

Ben-Gurion: I now must report on a uniquely horrible and regrettable
incident, the scandal that took place in three villages in the
Triangle: Kfar Kassem, Jeljoulya, and Taibe. On October 29, the
central command issued an order to place a curfew on the villages in
that area. The order itself was proper. The villagers (who knew of
the
curfew - G.M.) obeyed the order. There was a curfew from five in the
afternoon until six in the morning. But there were villagers who were
outside the villages and they returned in the morning, after the
curfew went into effect - they were shot and killed. There were
children and women. I first heard about this on November 1.

Barzilai: What's the overall number?

Ben-Gurion: Forty-seven. Seventeen were women and children. I
immediately decided to order an inquiry. I immediately asked the
Supreme Court President to name a judge. He advised me to take
Binyamin Zohar, whom I named as chairman and added attorney Hoter-
Yishai and Abba Hushi. I asked them to quickly investigate: a) the
circumstances of the events in the villages on October 29; b) the
degree of responsibility of the Border Patrolmen, officers, sergeants
and troops, and if they should be charged and tried. I received word
that everything done was the responsibility of the Border Patrol, but
that's not true, because the Border Patrol at the time was under the
command of the army; c) The compensation the government must pay to
the families that suffered as a result of the Border Patrolmen's
behavior.

The committee delivered a report. According to the report, Brigade 17
commander (Col. Yashka Shedmi - G.M.) gave the order (to kill the
curfew breakers - G.M.). He denies he gave such an order, since the
order was given in private to regimental commander 2 (sic) Shmuel
Melinki. The order said apply the curfew from five in the evening to
six in the morning - and notify everyone in the village. But the bus
showed up and it knew nothing about the matter. When the passengers
alighted, they were shot and killed. According to the inquiry, one
thing remains in doubt. The committee have given the brigade
commander
the benefit of the doubt, because the brigadier denies he gave such
an
order to the regiment commander. But they decided the regimental
commander is responsible for the order to shoot. They also found that
those who followed the orders are responsible for obeying an illegal
order. All of them were court martialed. I am sorry there are also
Druze among the accused. In my view, they are not guilty. They got an
order. It's impossible to demand of a Druze that he decide if the
order is legal or illegal.

Bentov: How many people were put on trial?

Ben-Gurion: The regimental commander, his deputy (Gavriel Dahan -
G.M.), sergeants and troops. Those who gave the order and those who
obeyed. Since I asked the committee to prepare the report quickly,
they did not accomplish one request, concerning who should get
compensation. They suggest the immediate appointment of another
committee to look into the matter, but that meanwhile a base sum of
IL
1,000 be paid to every family that suffered in this matter, and that
the IL 1,000 later be discounted from the overall compensation.

I want to commend the police minister, who immediately went to the
village and spoke with the village leaders expressing the
government's
sorrow, telling them that an inquiry had been appointed, informing
them that the people would be tried, and severely punished, and the
families would get compensation. Now I suggest the treasury make
ready
the entire amount. There will certainly be a need of IL 50,000 or IL
60,000, and that every family be paid immediately. It may turn out
that the new committee decides on more money. I suggest the justice
minister appoint the compensation committee.

Meir: Is the court martial over?

Ben-Gurion: Not yet.

Bentov: Will their be an announcement about this?

Ben-Gurion: We have to take counsel on this. I doubt whether it is
possible to hide such an affair, even though it is so shameful. How
can people from among us do such a thing? It is horrifying.

Eshkol: What did the regimental commander say?

Ben-Gurion: He said the brigadier gave him an order in the following
manner: He asked what to do if the curfew is violated. The brigadier
said, I don't want sentimentalism. The regimental commander wasn't
satisfied. He asked, but what if? The regimental commander ...

read more »

On Mar 14, 1:11 pm, globalchec...@yahoo.ca wrote: