Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: I profughi Palestinesi (WAS: Perche gli accordi di pace sono falliti

Deborah Fait wrote:
:! Di
:a Khalil che si informi meglio e soprattutto che non racconti palle.
Avendo scritto, precedentemente, che:
: e sulla parola profugo avrei un po' da dire
:poiche' la maggior parte se ne e' andata volontariamente e comunque :sono 
stati convinti dai paesi arabi che dovevano "entrare in Israele :per 
distruggerlo".
...
:******NESSUNA AMMISSIONE DI UNA COLPA CHE NON ESISTE.Gli arabi se ne :sono 
andati perche' hanno venduto agli ebrei, perche' gli altri arabi :li hanno 
costretti ad andare per poter ammazzarci meglio, perche' la :legge della 
guerra e' questa.
Forse si dovrebbe discutere su chi racconta balle.
Leggi un pochino questo articolo, sul NY Times:
--------
   JERUSALEM, Oct. 22 -- A censorship board composed of five Cabinet members
   prohibited former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin from including in his
   memoirs a first-person account of the expulsion of 50,000 Palestinian
   civilians from their homes near Tel-Aviv during the 1948 Arab-Israeli 
war.
   [...]
   The account does not appear in either the Hebrew edition of Mr. Rabin's
   memoirs or in the American edition, which was published in the United
   States this month by Little, Brown & Company under the title "The Rabin
   Memoirs".
   Although reports of such expulsions have been published by authors not
   subject to censorship, Israel remains highly sensitive to the issue,
   especially when it threatens to bolster Palestinian claims to territory
   that is now part of Israel.
   [...]
   The Rabin account involves two Arab towns, Ramle and Lydda, now called
   Lod.  Both are near Tel Aviv airport and were in strategic positions
   when the Arabs attacked the new nation in 1948.  Mr. Rabin was then
   commander of the Harel Brigade, assigned to eliminate Arab Legion
   bases along the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Road.  A copy of his manuscript
   was provided to The New York Times by Peretz Kidron, who translated
   the book from Hebrew to English.
   Under Israeli law, those who have served in government must submit
   written material to two sets of censors: the military, which cleared the
   paragraphs in question, and then a board composed of Cabinet ministers
   and headed by Justice minister Shmuel Tamir.
   [...]
   His narrative opens with a meeting that included him, Mr. Ben-Gurion and
   Yigal Allon, who later became Foreign Minister.  The text is as follows:
   "While the fighting was still in progress, we had to grapple with a
   troublesome problem, for whose solution we could not draw on any previous
   experience: the fate of the civilian population of Lod and Ramle,
   numbering some 50,000.
   "Not even Ben-Gurion could offer any solution, and during the discussions
   at operational headquarters, he remained silent, as was his habit in such
   situations.  Clearly, we could not leave Lod's hostile and armed
   population in our rear, where it could endanger the supply route to
   Yiftach [another brigade], which was advancing eastward.
   "We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us.  Allon repeated his
   question: 'What is to be done with the population?'  B.G. waved his hand
   in a gesture which said 'Drive them out!'.
   "Allon and I held a consultation.  I agreed that it was essential to
drive
   the inhabitants out.  We took them on foot towards the Ben Horon Road,
   assuming that the legion would be obliged to look after them, thereby
   shouldering logistic difficulties which would burden its fighting
   capacity, making things easier for us.
   "'Driving out' is a term with a harsh ring.  Psychologically, this was
   one of the most difficult actions we undertook.  The population of Lod
   did not leave willingly.  There was no way of avoiding the use of force
   and warning shots in order to make the inhabitants march the 10 to 15
   miles to the point where they met up with the legion.
   "The inhabitants of Ramle watched and learned the lesson.  Their leaders
   agreed to evacuate voluntarily, on condition that the evacuation was
   carried out by vehicles.  Buses took them to Latrun, and from there,
   they were evacuated by the legion.
   "Great suffering was inflicted upon the men taking part in the
   eviction action.  Soldiers of the Yiftach brigade included youth-movement
   graduates, who had been inculcated with values such as international
   brotherhood and humaneness.  The eviction action went beyond the concepts
   they were used to.
   "There were some fellows who refused to take part in the expulsion
   action.  Prolonged propaganda activities were required after the action,
   to remove the bitterness of these youth-movement groups, and explain why
   we were obliged to undertake such a harsh and cruel action."
   Mr. Rabin's account does not differ markedly from others.  In
   "O Jerusalem", Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre described
   "a calculated Israeli policy" to drive people from their homes, and
   they confirmed reports from some survivors that many elderly people and
   small children died in the overpowering heat during the forced march.
--------
Amenoche' non si conclude che Rabin si sia messo a fare
il propagandista palestinese, bisogna dire che almeno nel caso
di Lod e Ramle (citta' con una popolazione combinata di 80,000
abitanti, nel 1948) se ne siano andati perche' cacciati
dall'esercito Israeliano.
La faccenda di Lod e Ramle e' riapparsa proprio un paio di mesi
fa:  Lo storico Israeliano Benny Morris (probabilmente il piu'
famoso storico che si occupa del problema medio-orientale) ha
chiesto al governo Israeliano di declassificare la seduta che il
primo gabinetto fece a proposito di quelle due citta' nel 1948.
La declassificazione e' stata negata, perche' i dettagli di quella
seduta "potrebbero avere un effetto negativo sui nostri negoziati
con i Palestinesi".  Che dici, Deborah, secondo te che significa?
Lod e Ramle sono stati casi isolati?  Direi di no, e la loro popolazione non 
e' stata neanche la piu' sfortunata, come dimostra
l'articolo sotto preso dal giornale israeliano Ha'Ir.
Penso che sia sufficiente a illustrare che
la maggior parte dei profughi se ne sia andata a causa della paura
per i crimini commessi dalle forze Israeliane, e questa paura
era tutt'altro che ingiustificata.  E tu?
------------------
NOT ONLY DEIR YASSIN
By Guy Erlich, Ha'ir, 6 May 1992
After Lydda (1) gave up the fight, a group of stubborn Arab  fighters
barricaded themselves in the small mosque. The  commander of the
Palmach's(2) 3d Battalion, Moshe Kalman,  gave an order to fire a number
of blasts towards the mosque.  The soldiers who forced their way into the
mosque were  surprised to find no resistance. On the walls of the mosque
they found the remains of the Arab fighters. A group of  between twenty to
fifty Arab inhabitants was brought to clean  up the mosque and bury the
remains. After they finished their work, they were also shot into the
graves they dug.
The Jewish American journalist Dan Kurtzman, heard this  testimony from
Moshe Kalman, who has meanwhile died, while  he was writing his book 'In
the Beginning 1948 (Bereshit  1948)' about the War of Independence. As
Kurtzman did not  want to hurt the State of Israel, he did not include
this testimony, but told this story to Israeli historian Aryeh  Yitzhaki,
when they met in the IDF archives, when Kurtzman  was there working on his
book. Kurtzman, who is now visiting  Israel in connection with his new
book (incidentally, these  days a new edition of his older book is coming
out), confirmed  - after some hesitation - that he heard this testimony
from Moshe Kalman.
Since its establishment, the State of Israel keeps a conspiracy  of
silence concerning massacres committed in the War of Independence (4). The
only massacre acknowledged in official  publications is that of Deir
Yassin, perhaps because it was  perpetrated by the IZL (Irgun). Books and
press reports have referred to dozens of cases, but only partially and
incompletely. Yitzhaki corroborates this impression: 'I read all  the
documents in the IDF archives written about the War of  Independence. In
the course of years I became especially alert  to anything concerning the
massacres.' Yitzhaki is a lecturer in  the Bar Ilan University [Tel Aviv]
in the Faculty of Eretz  Yisrael Studies (5) and is also senior lecturer
in the field of military history in IDF courses for officers.  In the
sixties he  served as director of the IDF archives within the framework of
his IDF service in his capacity as historian.
Yitzhaki assembled all the testimonies and documents concerning the
subject matter and waited for the right time to  publish. 'The time has
come' he says, 'for a generation has  passed, and it is now possible to
face the ocean of lies (6) in  which we were brought up. In almost every
conquered village  in the War of Independence, acts were committed, which
are defined as war crimes, such as indiscriminate killings, massacres and
rapes. I believe that such things end by surfacing. The only question is
how to face such evidence.'
According to Yitzhaki, about ten major massacres were committed in the
course of the War of Independence (i.e. more  than fifty victims in each
massacre) and about hundred smaller massacres (of individuals or small
groups). According  to him, these massacres had an enormous impact on
the Arab population, by inducing their from the  country.
Yitzhaki: 'For many Israelis it was easier to find consolation in  the
lie, that the Arabs left the country under orders from their leaders. This
is an absolute fabrication. The fundamental cause of their flight was
their fear from Israeli retribution and this fear was not at all
imaginary. From almost each report in the IDF  archives concerning the
conquest of Arab villages between May and July 1948 - when clashes with
Arab villagers were the fiercest - a smell of massacre emanates. Sometimes
the  report tells about blatant massacres which were committed after the
battle, sometimes the massacres are committed in the heat of battle and
while the villages are "cleansed". Some of my colleagues, such as Me'ir
Pa'il, don't consider such acts as massacres. In my opinion there is no
other term for such acts than massacres.  This was at the time  the rule
of the game. It was a dirty war on both sides.  This  phenomenon spread
out in the field; there were no explicit orders to exterminate.  In the
first phase a village was usually subjected to heavy artillery from
distance.  Then soldiers would assault the village. After giving up
resistance, the Arab fighters would withdraw while attempting to
snipe at the  advancing forces. Some would not flee and would remain in
the village, mainly women and old people. In the course of cleansing we
used to hit them. One was 'tailing the fugitives',  as it used to be
called ('mezanvim baborchim'). There was no established battle procedure
as today, namely that when blowing up a house, one has first to check
whether civilians are still inside.  In a typical battle report about the
conquest of a village we  find: 'We cleansed a village, shot in any
direction where resistance was noticed. After the resistance ended, we
also had to shoot people so that they would leave or who looked
dangerous'.
The historian Uri Milstein, a myth-shatterer, corroborates  Yitzhaki's
assessment regarding the massacres' extent and goes even further. 'If
Yitzhaki claims that almost in every village there were murders, then I
maintain that even before the  establishment of the State, each battle
ended with a massacre. In all Israel's wars massacres were committed but I
have no doubt that the War of Independence was the dirtiest of them  all.
All over the world, massacres constitute an integral part of  the norm of
war and it is in fact the fundamental basis of human conduct in a
situation of battle. The idea behind a massacre is to inflict a shock on
the enemy, to paralyze the enemy. In the War of Independence everybody
massacred  everybody, but most of the action happened between Jews and
Palestinians.'
Milstein adds: 'In my opinion, the regular armies of Arab  states were
less barbaric than the Jews and the Palestinians.  Until the entry into
the battle of the Arab armies, the concept of taking prisoners was
unknown.  The regular armies,  especially that of Jordan and Egypt, were
the first in the region who did not kill prisoners, as a matter of
principle. Not that they were exceptional, but they killed the least of
all, relatively speaking. The Jordanian Legion even succeeded to stop
Palestinians of massacring Jews in Gush Etzion, at least in a part of this
area. The education in the Yishuv (7) at that time  had it that the Arabs
would do anything to kill us and  therefore we had to massacre them. A
substantial part of the  Jewish public was convinced that the most
cherished wish of say, a nine-year old Arab child, was to exterminate us.
This  belief bordered on paranoia.'
AA careful study reveals that until today over twenty massacres were
publicly reported. The testimonies were not published in  one collection,
a fact which adds to this phenomenon another dimension. At least eight
massacres were described by Benny  Morris in his book 'The Birth of the
Palestine Refugee Problem'.  Two cases were reported in Milstein's books.
Two cases are reported in the book of Palestinian historian Arif al-Arif.
The rest were reported in novels, memories and the press. But it appears
that at least eight more massacres were committed which are reported here
for the first time. Two of them  were discovered by Yitzhaki, three by
Milstein, one case was  revealed by Kurtzman and was presented in the
introduction to this reportage. One case was brought to our knowledge by a
kibbutz member who wishes to remain anonymous and one more case was
revealed by Dov Yirmiya.
The testimonies concerning the massacres, revealed here for the first time
by Yitzhaki, are kept in the IDF archives. Those  who wish to study the
documents in question confront a blank refusal. The director, Miki
Kaufman:
'If you are looking for  what I believe you are looking for, then you can
forget it. In any case, just keep in mind that we are reading over any
documents before you are allowed to see them and we cull out material that
you should not see'.
A person who already had to face this barrage is Benny Morris.  He
addressed himself to the State Archivist to get a report by the
government-nominated Shapira Committee, on killings in the War of
Independence, but his request was denied.
'The  Archivist refused to let me see the report and I went then to the
Supreme Court. According to the [State] Archives Law (1953), access is
open to documents concerning [government] policies and political matters
after 30 years and documents  related to security matters after 50 years.
As the report by the Shapira committee is a political document issued by
the  Ministry of Justice, it was to be accessible by the public. But
after I entered my request to the State Archivist and to the courts, the
State Prosecutor and the Archivist made me a trick. It appeared that by
convening a special meeting of at least two Cabinet members - in this case
Arens and Sharir - it was possible to extend indefinitely the classified
status of any archived document by arguing that disclosure might endanger
state security. The meeting was duly convened and the document was
reclassified (...)'
But Yitzhaki kept the testimonies. The first case he presents happened in
Tel Gezer. A soldier of the Kiryati Brigade (...)  testifies that his
colleagues got hold of ten Arab men and two  Arab women, a young one and
an old one. All the men  were murdered. The young woman was raped and her
destiny was unknown. The old woman was murdered. Yitzhaki tells that he
discovered the testimony in a specific folder containing testimonies from
Guard Units (Kheil Mishmar) in the IDF  archives. Later he also obtained
an oral testimony about this  event from a person who wished to remain
anonymous.
Another case happened in Ashdod. Towards the end of August 1948, the
Giv'ati Brigade executed the 'Cleansing Campaign' (Mivtza Nikayon) in
Ashdod's dunes. This happened after the  forced landing of an Israeli
plane in the area and the killing of  his eight passengers by locals. A
company of mounted cavalry, jeeps and Giv'ati fighters went to comb the
area. In the course  of this action, and according to a conservative
estimate, ten farmers ('fellahin') were murdered. Yitzahki says  that
evidence about that can be found in the campaign chronicle of Giv'ati in
the IDF archives and in the second chapter of the  book on the Giv'ati
Brigade.
'Apart from these cases', says Yitzhaki, 'there are more cases described
in IDF's archives, but I don't want to disclose them at this stage. I will
yet write a book.'^?
The historian Uri Milstein presented in his book series 'The  History of
the War of Independence' a number of massacres.  Three more cases came to
his knowledge after he finished writing.  One case happened in Ayn
Zaytoon. According to Milstein two massacres happened there in addition to
the case described by  Netiva Ben Yehuda in her book 'Within the Bounds'
(mibe'ad la'avutot). Milstein possesses a testimony from a soldier named
Aharon Yo'eli: 'Three men from Safad came to Ayn Zaytoon,  they took 23
Arabs, told them they were murderers and  gangsters, took from them their
watches and put them in their  pockets, led them over the hills and killed
them. This was the revenge of the Jews of Safad. I understood that our
commanders were looking for additional killers to execute such  jobs. Not
everybody in Safad was a Hassid [strictly observing Jew]. In my opinion
this was not the execution of prisoners but the killing of Arab
murderers. The rest were expelled in the direction of the Germak that same
evening and to make them go fast, we  shot at them.'  The second case was
reported to Milstein by a soldier named Yitzhak Golan, as he referred to
thirty prisoners who were brought to interrogation in Har Kna'an: 'The men
of the Intelligence Unit interrogated them and after the interrogation the
question came up what to do with them.  We were told to take them down to
the Rosh Pina police  station. On the way they attempted to escape so we
shot at them. There was no alternative. The danger was that they  might
reach Safad and would tell there how few weapons and  manpower we had. It
is possible that they were killed chained.  Next morning a platoon was
sent to bury them'.
Another case happened in Caesarea. In February 1948 the  Fourth Battalion
of the Palmach forces, under the command of Josef Tabenkin (8),
conquered Caesarea. According to Milstein, all those who did not escape
from the village were killed.  Milstein gleaned testimonies about this
fact from fighters who participated in the conquest.
A member of Kibbutz Be'eri, who was assigned to the Guard Milices for a
short time, reveals another unpublished case about the murder of an Arab
soldier: 'We were in the  strong point in the Wadi Ara area, near Giv'at
Ada. Not far  away was a post of Palestinians who fired from time to time
at us. One night we raided their post and brought back a prisoner for
interrogation. One of the soldiers of the Guard Milices took the prisoner
after interrogation, beheaded him and with a knife scalped the head. No
one present tried to stop him. He then tied the skin to a high pole facing
the Palestinian post to inspire a deadly fear among the Palestinians. This
soldier was later brought to the battalion commander for trial.'
On 20 May 1948 the Karmeli Brigade conquered the village  Kabri. Dov
Yirmiya, who was a company commander in the 21th battalion, tells: 'Kabri
was conquered without a fight. Almost  all inhabitants fled. One of the
soldiers, Yehuda Reshef, who  was together with his brother among the few
rescapees from the Yehi'am convoy, got hold of a few youngsters who did
not escape, probably seven, ordered them to fill up some ditches dug as an
obstacle and then lined them up and fired at them with a machine gun. A
few died but some of the wounded succeeded to escape.  The battalion
commander did not react.  Receive was a brave fighter and as a rescapee
from the Yehi'am convoy, enjoyed special status in the battalion. He
advanced later to the grade of Brigadier General.  He justified his action
as an act of revenge.'  'When the action ended, we left, namely the
battalion commander Dov Tschitchiss, Education Officer Tzadok Eshel, the
driver and myself. We drove over fields to Nahariya. While  driving we saw
refugees escaping to the North. The battalion  commander ordered the
driver to stop and went with the  driver and the Education Officer to
chase an Arab who was escaping with a girl eight or nine years old. I
heard shots and  had scarcely the time to understand what happened. When
they returned, the battalion commander declared: We killed them. I asked:
The girl too? And he answered to me: No, no, we did not kill the girl'.
The Education Officer, Tzadok Eshel, has already forgotten  about the
episode. 'In our Carmeli Brigade', he said, 'we did not commit massacres.
I can tell you about the massacre that the  IZL people did in Haifa. It
was typical for the IZL and the LEHI,  not to us. It was totally outside
our way of thinking. There was  the case of an officer who wanted to loot
a village but they did not allow him.' After hearing the testimony of
Yermiya, Eshel changed his version: 'Did I tell you about this case,
no?...Probably I forgot...Yes, there was in fact one case where  we drove
in a jeep and an officer, I don't remember who, but I don't think it was
the battalion commander, wanted to shoot  down an Arab with a girl. I told
him that if he will fire at  them, I will shoot at him. When we returned
to the jeep I felt good that I succeeded to stop such a thing.'  -
Yirmiya, in his  testimony mentions [however] shots', -'I don't at all
remember that I was in the jeep. I was in the area. I tell you, you better
leave these things. There were no such things.'
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at 
http://explorer.msn.com
-- 
Posted from [128.196.188.5] by way of 
f51.law4.hotmail.com
 [216.33.149.51] 
via Mailgate.ORG Server - 
http://www.Mailgate.ORG

graves they dug.
***********brutta cosa la guerra, eh? Libia,
Etiopia, Grecia, ne ha fatte di porcherie l'italia .
Deborah Fait
Israel
--------------------------------
Inviato via 
http://usenet.iol.it
 

Ridicolo affermare che due episodi purtroppo abbastanza normali in guerra
abbiano provocato l'esodo di un intera popolazione. Con questa proporzione
noi italiani, avremmo duvuto rifugiarci tutti nell'artide durante la guerra
mondiale.
Ciao
Veniero.