Benny Morris Chapter on the context of the 1948 War

I've run out of my history but this is an interesting chapter from The War for Palestine.

The chapter discussed the attitude of Ben-Gurion and others to transfer of Arabs from occupied territory in the period 1937 to 1947 and then actual expulsion orders and actions related to Operation Hiram of 28-31 October 1948 in central upper Galilee.

Regarding Ben-Gurion’s views, of particular note are a diary entry of July (?) 1937 and the unexpurgated version of a speech he gave to the 20^th Zionist Congress in Zurich in August 1937. He appears to hold that the Sharon Plain, Jezreel Valley, possibly the Jordan Valley, the Negev and some other places ought to be Israeli. The Jordan Valley is the main part occupied only since 1967.

He envisioned 100,000 Arab families being settled in Iraq after a payment of money to the Iraqi government and other transfers to then-Transjordan.

Compulsion was envisioned as a possible necessity with “ruthless compulsion” but 'voluntary' repatriation to an Arab country on the then recent European model was preferred. The actual so far final refugee exodus amount from what is now Israel is now considered to have been around 700,000 to 800,000. The envisioned area of Israel was then thought to be likely to be 2 and a half million dunams or around 23 million hectares (to be more precise, around 0.9193 X 25 million hectares). The actual area is now about a tenth of that.

A small “friendly” Arab minority (but only a small minority) was then considered feasible and acceptable but Jewish leaders preferred others (such as the British) to propose this publicly rather than themselves. They were apparently keen to be involved in the process of removal, however.

In a complex and indirect sense, Morris argues, the earlier transfer ideas led to the actual expulsions that occurred and perhaps to some intimidatory massacres that occurred especially related to Operation Hiram (the focus of the chapter) under the command of General Moshe Carmel.

The war began with a March massacre and some April 1948 expulsions (that Ben-Gurion gave nods and winks to) and was exacerbated by the 15 May Arab invasion force (following the declaration of Israeli independence from Britain).

Hiram required some expulsions and a 5km exclusion zone for Arabs next to the border with Lebanon to be enforced (including from Iqrit and Bir‘im) and included some massacres.

In total in 1948 Morris suggests that there were around 12 currently established massacres upon which he focuses which tended to follow a pattern of lining up a number of military-aged males against a wall to be shot summarily. Some of the executed men were apparently (conveniently) believed to have been working under the command of the Palestinian and Syrian-Lebanese forces of Fawzi al-Qawuqji or Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husayni.

He lists the known massacres as follows:

Date (if known)

Place

# illegally Killed (if known)

March Al-Husayniyya several dozen (per Wikipedia)

May Burayr a large number (per Wikipedia)

13 May Al-Husayniyya (return – per Wikipedia) > 30 women and children

30 October Eilabun (in eastern Galilee) 12

2 November ‘Arab al-Mawasi 14 Bedouin (official)

(Khirbet al-War‘a Al-Sauda – 8 km East of Eilabun)

Majd al-Kurum 12 (per Wikipedia)

Al-Bin‘a (near Majd)

Dayr al-Assad (near Majd)

Nahf

Safsaf 52-70 (per Wikipedia)

Jish 13-24 (per Wikipedia)

Sasa 60 (? per Wikipedia)

Saliha 60-94 (per Wikipedia)

Hula (in Lebanon?) > 50 (per Wikipedia)

Ilabun (Maybe the same as Eilabun

– see above)

Nobody was tried for any of these massacres or the dozen or so others Wikipedia lists (Deir Yassin is perhaps the best known of them – c. 107 killed and an atrocity occurred at Khisas as early as December 1947).