Encountering the Nakba
The nakba in
history
Population of
Israel/Palestine in 1947
The Nakba
in
Numbers
1,100,000
1,000,000
900,000
900,000
800,000
700,000
600,000
600,000
500,000
400,000
300,000
These figures refer to the
area on which the state of
Israel was founded
200,000
100,000
Palestinians
Jews
Source: Abu Sitta, 2004.
Number of localities in
Israel/Palestine in 1947
900
800
700
600
700
500
400
350
300
200
100
Palestinians
Jews
The Nakba
in
Numbers
Population of
Israel/Palestine in 1949
1,100,000
1,000,000
1,000,000
900,000
800,000
700,000
600,000
500,000
400,000
300,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
Palestinians
Jews
The Nakba
in
Numbers
Number of localities in
Israel/Palestine in 1949
900
800
700
600
500
400
400
300
200
100
170
Palestinians
Jews
The Nakba
in
Numbers
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
Whatwas
was
What
Palestine
Palestine
like before
like
thebefore
Nakba?
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 Palestine’s
Arabs lived in towns.
‫ילדי בית הספר האורתודוכסי ביאפא‬, 1938
What was
Palestine
like before
the Nakba?
Villages
‫חטין‬, 1934. ‫צלם לא ידוע‬
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.
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 33:6) – In Hebrew.
What was
Palestine
like before
the Nakba?
Palestinians
and Jews
Kibbutz Amir archive
What was
Palestine
like before
the Nakba?
‫קלוגר זולטן‬, ‫לשכת העיתונות הממשלתית‬
Palestinian farmers and their Jewish neighbors in the Hula Valley, 1946.
Palestinians
and Jews
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.
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.
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 Text
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)
PEEL COMMISSION PLAN 1937
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.
“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 D]
How did it
happen?
This situation changed in
March 1948, when the
Hagana embarked on “Plan
D.” 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.
How did it happen?
Of 530 villages and cities that were destroyed the causes
were:
Military assault by Jewish forces – 270 localities
51%
Expulsion by Jewish forces – 122 localities
23%
Fall of a neighboring town – 49 localities
9%
Psychological warfare and fear of attack – 50 localities
9%
Orders of Arab leaders – 5 localities
1%
No information – 34 localities
6%
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.
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.
Military
assault
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.
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).
Expulsion
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.
Expulsion
There were also a number of
areas where the population
was expelled by trucks
(Ramleh, Baysan, Majdal,
and others).
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.
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."
20
Yigal Allon, Book of the Palmah, in Morris, 2004 p.251
“[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 won’t 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 shouldn’t behave badly
with the Arabs [who remained] so that others [who fled]
won’t return.”
Preventing
Return
Golda Meir, from Protocol of meeting of JAE, 6 May 1948 (In:
Morris, 2004).
1973, ‫רון פרנקל‬, ‫לשכת העיתונות הממשלתית‬
During the war, the question of
whether Palestinians should
be allowed to return was an
open one.
“(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).
Text
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.
1938, ‫רודי ויסנשטיין‬, ‫ל"ארכיון קק‬
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.