"Whereas Edom (the Jews) saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the Lord of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever." [1]
���� The English Government as a body is to be blamed for the shortsighted, and also extremely harmful, attitude towards Palestine. At this day and time it cannot be doubted that Mr. Balfour's declaration of November 2, 1917, with regard to British support of the Zionist claim, was a clever move to keep France out of the Promised Land. The ambition of the Jews to establish a homeland of their own in Palestine was used by the British as a pretext to include that part of Asia in the orbit of British influence. Mr. Herbert Adams Gibbons was right when as far back as in January, 1919, he asserted that the Britishers "have planned, through using Zionism, to prevent condominium with France and other nations in Palestine, to establish an all-rail British route from Haifa to Bassorah." [2]
���� So far, so good, or at least, so long as political Zionism, advocated by British diplomats, had a definite political object to serve, criticism was confined to the question of whether England or France, or both, ought to control Palestine and Mesopotamia. It is not impossible that Messrs Weizmann and Sokolow intended to double-cross British diplomacy, while the British intended to double-cross their Zionist friends, and it was difficult to forecast who, in the long run, would prove to be the user and who the used.
���� Still there was logic in the declaration of November 2, 1917, because there was a chance for Britain to expand her influence in Asia Minor through the wise realization of the Palestine scheme. Moreover, in a way, Palestine could have been used as a new stronghold for British rule in the East, thus strengthening England's position with regard to India. Instead, England appointed Sir Herbert Samuel High Commissioner of Palestine, which renders the whole Palestine scheme hopeless.
���� It is important to remember that according to Jewish sources the population of Palestine is divided thus: Mohammedans, Christians, and Jews. The bulk of the population is composed of Arabs, part of whom profess the Koran, while others have been converted to Christianity. The latter group, which is but a minor section of the total Arabian populace, is ravaged by internal strife, belonging to different denominations of the Christian Church: Roman Catholic, Protestant, Russian Greek Orthodox, etc. Nevertheless, the Arabs, whether Christians or Mohammedans, are united in their hatred of the Jew. As everywhere, the Jew in Palestine is an urban element, while the Arabs are mostly farmers. The Jew in Palestine, as all over the world, is a middleman and not a producer. He is engaged in small trade.
���� The antagonism between the Arabs and the Jews is so accentuated that often the country has been on the brink of an open anti-Jewish revolt. The Ottoman Empire had great trouble in suppressing the anti-Jewish feeling among both its Christian and Mohammedan subjects. The appointment of Sir Herbert Samuel, which was so much applauded by the Zionist group in England, was a direct challenge to the Arabs. To appoint a Jew to a post which required holding the balance between the Jews and the Arabs, was a measure which was apt to ruin the very idea of British prestige. What England gained through the gallant efforts of General Allenby was now nullified by Samuel's appointment.
���� It is immaterial whether Sir Herbert Samuel was good or bad, whether he was able or inefficient, the point is that he was a Jew, and as such, he could not maintain an equilibrium between the two parts of the Palestinian population which was so bitterly hostile to each other. Nor does it add to British prestige when orders were given, ad they were given by Sir Herbert Samuel, to British governmental employees to stand up when the Zionist anthem, Atikva, was played.
���� When the Zionist claim was first established, and Theodore Hertzl, in 1897, came out with his specific program of a Jewish State, the world at large gave a sigh of relief as it was trusted that henceforth the Jews would have a country of their own where they would be able to develop freely and unhampered their racial peculiarities, their cultural traditions and their religious thought.
Christian countries have been so accustomed to innumerable complaints made by the Jews of their oppression, of anti-Semitism breeding through out the world, of pogroms ravaging the Jewish masses, that there was every reason to hope that the Jews would dash to Palestine, leaving those cruel Christians to their own destinies. What better scheme for a fair solution of the Jewish problem could be hoped for by both non-Jews and Jews? The enormous wealth of Jewish bankers could be easily used for the reconstruction of Palestine, which could thus be made a model state. There was a place for everybody under the sun, and there is no reasons whatsoever why the Jews should not have their place in Asia Minor, with Jerusalem once more becoming their metropolis, with the Rothschilds and Warburgs conferring the blessings of their benevolent rule on the hitherto downtrodden people.
With this understanding, the greatest statesmen of Europe, long before Mr. Balfour's declaration, promised Theodore Hertzl their utmost support to the Zionist scheme. Kaiser Wilhelm II was the first to migrate to Palestine, thus setting the example for the Jews to follow. The Turkish Sultan assured Mr. Hertzl that he would favorably look upon the Zionist efforts in the Ottoman Empire. The Russian Minister of the Interior, Mr. V.K. Plehve, promised to help to facilitate Jewish emigration from Russia. Another reason why so many non-Jews were willing to give their enthusiastic support to the Zionist movement was because it was justly argued that should the Jews build up a state of their own, they would be relieved of the necessity of bearing the burden of double-citizenship and double-allegiance on the one hand to their own nation, and on the other hand to the countries of their adoption.
This would also enable them to abandon their traditional policy of intermeddling in foreign matters, giving them a chance to enjoy genuine independence and civic freedom. From a legal point of view, then, the Jews would be considered, outside of Palestine, as aliens, just as American are considered in Japan, or the Japanese in America.
While, of course, as Jewish citizens, they would not enjoy the rights of citizenship in any other country outside of their own Jewish State, they would also be relieved of all duties to non-Jewish countries. Consequently, they would be relieved of the hardship of serving simultaneously god and mammon. But when the time came, and the restoration of Palestine was announced by the Great Powers, many people, including some of the Jews themselves, became bitterly disappointed.
Palestine has been restored not as a Jewish State, but merely as a Homeland for those restless spirits who, while residing in New York, London or Paris, would use Palestine as their summer resort, or perhaps as an additional base for their Third International. The British protectorate over Palestine converted that country into a British colony, with the British administration ruling over the population. The most representative Zionists, themselves, came out with bitter criticism against such a solution. Thus, Israel Zangwill, in The London Jewish Chronicle, violently denounced the Judeo-British pact proposing to make Palestine a purely Jewish State, with the expulsion of all Arabs to Arabia. The Jewish Guardian, referring to this situation, remarked: "Zionists were aiming for a Jewish Palestine but the Jews received a British Palestine."
Mr. Eberlin, a Jew himself, and one of the foremost leaders of the Poale-Zionist movement, in a book published in Berlin, entitled On the Eve of Regeneration, stated: "The foreign policy of England in Asia Minor is determined by its interests in India. There was a saying about Prussia that she represents the army with an admixture of the people. About England it could be said that she represents a colonial empire with a supplement of the metropolis...It is obvious that England desires to use Palestine as a shield against India. This is the reason why she is feverishly engaged in the construction of strategic railroad lines, uniting Egypt to Palestine, Cairo to Hafia, where work is started for the construction of a huge port. IN the near future Palestine will be in a position to compete with the Isthmus of Suez, which is the main artery of the great sea route from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean." [3] But this Poale-Zionist goes a step farther when he asserts that: "It is only Socialism attained in Europe which will prove capable of giving honestly and without hypocrisy Palestine to the Jews, thus assuring them unhampered development... The Jewish people will have Palestine only when British Imperialism is broken."
That was the policy towards Palestine that it was hopelessly erroneous can scarcely be denied. The Jews blamed England for making it a British colony, while the Arabs were outraged by the appointment of Sir Herbert Samuel, because he was a Jew. The British public itself was at the cross roads; whether to consider Palestine as the Promised Land for the Jews, or for the English, and so, everybody on the Thames was waiting for Mr. Lloyd George and his parliamentary secretary Mr. Sassoon, to solve the mystery of the Sphinx with regard to their Asia Minor policy.
However, there was nothing humorous in the whole situation because Lenin, the Argus of international dissension, was closely watching the developments in Syria, Mesopotamia and Palestine, and his agents were hard at work inciting the Jews against the British and the Arabs against the Jews.
Moscow Soviet propagandists were always headed for political mischief; wherever there was natural cause for unrest, they stimulated it, converting it into an international scandal. All the more serious was the situation because Palestine was literally the shield for British rule in India.
It is a long story about Hindu agitation. As far back as in 1900 the International Socialist Congress at Paris took up the Hindu question, condemning "the system of brigandage in India," which, so it was alleged, for decades had been practiced by England. Next came the Amsterdam International Congress in 1904, at which the specific demand was made by the Socialists that Great Britain "introduce the simple and feasible plan for Home Rule in India under British supervision." Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji, the Hindu member of the Conference, violently denounced British rule in his native country. Among other things he stated: "Just as it is an outrage for a strong man to fall upon a weaker one, so is it an equally great outrage for a strong nation to set upon a weaker one and plunder it. This system of barbarism and bandit-politics must be ended by the establishment of a representative government such as has been granted to every other English colony." [4]
A similar attitude was adopted by subsequent international Socialist gatherings at Stuttgart in 1907 and in Copenhagen in 1910. Under the guidance of Mr. Keir Hardie, British labor naturally took sides with this agitation. Meanwhile nationalist propaganda in India herself went on unhampered. In the same way, however, that the Sinn Fein movement acquired both its impetus and its legal title from Mr. Wilson's Fourteen Points, so also Hindu revolutionary incendiarism acquired its "dope" from the theory of self-determination advocated by the spokesmen of the entente.
As a result of systematic propaganda, and also because of the shortsighted policy of Great Britain, India became the Ireland of the East. Armed uprisings in India had become as much a habit as chewing gum in America. In these happy circumstances, Mr. Samuel Montagu was made Secretary for India. The fact that he was a Jew, and a cousin of Sir Herbert Samuel, was, of course, less important than the fact that in his official capacity he rendered support to the Hindu revolutionary clique, headed by Mr. Gandhi.
���� The latter being a stanch admirer of Mr. Arthur Griffith, leader of Sinn Fein, succeeded in combining the inborn fanaticism of the Hindu with Irish stubbornness. His fame rose in proportion to the progress of revolutionary propaganda, reaching a climax after the riots at Jallianwalgah Bagh, when General Dyer ordered his men to open fire on a revolutionary mob. Gandhi was behind these riots, as he was behind every revolutionary manifestation which took place in India.
Mr. Montagu, however, out of friendship for Mr. Gandhi, dismissed General Dyer, as no longer "fitted to remain intrusted with the responsibilities which his rank and position imposed upon him." this case, which aroused just and almost unanimous criticism in the British press, is indicative of Mr. Montagu's whole policy in India. After all, what position could have been taken by General Dyer?
Lord Hunter's Commission, which was sent out to investigate the "Dyer case," confirmed the fact that the natives of Amritsar were in a state of open revolt against British rule. The mob was engaged in the destruction of railroad lines and telegraph wires, trains were derailed, disorderly meetings were held in spite of General Dyer's repeated warnings that all gatherings were prohibited and would be dispersed by force. Nor did Mr. Montagu deny that posters were put up in which the natives were urged to revolt against and conquer the "British monkeys." "God will grant victory;" thus read one of the fly-sheets circulated on the eve of the Amritsar tragedy.
"Leave off dealings with the Englishmen. Close offices and workshops. Fight on. This is the command of Mahatma Gandhi! Get ready soon for the war, and God will grant victory to India very soon. Fight with enthusiasm and enlist yourselves in the Gandhi army."
What other course could have been taken by General Dyer, when, in spite of his repeated warnings, the mob continued rioting? There is but one answer to this question: General Dyer was in duty bound to open fire on the mob and thus put an end to the revolutionary mischief. However, because General Dyer acted in compliance with his duties as a British soldier and a British subject, Mr. Montagu considered it his duty to force the resignation of Mr. Gandhi's opponent.
This was logical on the part of Mr. Montagu, for why should he act as a Brutus towards the Hindu trouble-maker? Friendship counts. That Mr. Gandhi was Mr. Montagu's friend was frankly admitted by Mr. Montagu himself. When speaking in the House of Commons, in defense of his policy in India, he exclaimed: "There is no man who offers such perplexity to a government as Mr. Gandhi; a man of the highest motives and of the finest character, a man whom his worst enemy, if he has any enemies, would agree is of the most disinterested ambitions that it is possible to conceive; a man who has deserved well of his country by the services that he has rendered both in India and outside it, and yet a man who his friends; and I will count myself as one of them, would wish would exercise his great powers with a greater sense of responsibility, and would realize in time that there are forces beyond his control and outside his influence, who use the opportunities afforded by his name and reputation." [5]
One more interesting detail with regard to Mr. Montagu and Mr. Gandhi; these two Ajaxes of Hindu politics. India's move for self-demoralization was the adoption of the so-called policy of non-cooperation. The aims of this Hindu movement were:
�� 1). The surrender of all titles of honor or honorary offices.
�� 2). Suspension by lawyers of practice and settlement of civil disputes by private arbitration.
�� 3). Non-participation in government loans.
�� 4). Boycott of government-schools by parents.
�� 5). Boycott of reformed councils.
�� 6). Refusal to accept any civil or military post in Mesopotamia or to refuse to offer as units for the army special in Turkish territories� being�������������������������������� administered in violation of pledges.
�� 7). Vigorous prosecution of Swadeshi movement, inducing people to be satisfied with India's own productions and manufactures.
�� 8). The public are asked to refrain from taking any service either civil or military and they are enjoined to avoid all violence. [6]
Now this was an outspoken appeal to sabotage the British rule even though represented by Mr. Montagu. Mahatma Gandhi, touching upon this point in his organ Young India, stated: "Whatever the fate of non-cooperation, I wish that not a single Indian will offer his services for Mesopotamia, whether for the civil or military department. We must learn to think for ourselves and before entering upon any employment find out whereby thereby we may not make ourselves instruments of injustice. Apart from the question of Khalifat and from the point of abstract justice, the English have no right to hold Mesopotamia. It is no part of our loyalty to help the Imperial Government in what is in plain language daylight robbery. If, therefore, we seek civil or military employment in Mesopotamia, we do so for the sake of obtaining a livelihood. It is our duty to see that that source is not tainted." [7]
The Sinn Feiner, published in New York, from which the above quotation is taken, on its own part added: "The independence of India and Ireland are involved in any plan which destroys the very backbone of England's imperialism, her militarism and her navalism, and that is why Sinn Fein, Ireland, and a Swadeshi, India, are linked up and this is why the world is so interest in them."
That Sinn Fein and Hindu revolutionary agitation were linked up is undeniable; those, however, are not the only links in the chain of a gigantic plan to ruin the British Empire in the same way that the Russian Empire was ruined. It is not insignificant that Mr. Hourwich, a co-partner of Mr. Martens, the Soviet "Ambassador" to the United States, takes such an active part in the movement for the "liberation" of India.
Mr. Hourwich is neither a British subject nor a Hindu native, but there is every reason to suspect that he was a Jew. As such, it would seem he should have nothing in common with Hindu revolutionary propaganda and the Hindu scandals which Mr. Montagu imposes upon his land of adoption. Unfortunately, however, the contrary is true. The strife for the destruction of the British Empire had much deeper causes than the mere disapproval by some Hindu or Irish fanatics of the principles of the British colonial policy.
Once more we must revert to Mr. Eberlin, the distinguished Jewish writer, who was both a Bolshevik and a Poale-Zionist; the two terms being practically identical. In his instructive book On the Eve of Regeneration he specifically refers to the question as to why the Jews ought to support the scheme of the "Red East" and the land for the disintegration of the British Empire.
"...The struggle for the social emancipation of the East has become an indispensable condition of the world's emancipation of the proletariat ...England's Imperialism, as could have been anticipated, proved to be the main, the most stubborn, and the most hypocritical enemy of the Russian social revolution. Whatever course the revolution in Russia may assume, it will be brought into conflict with England's Imperialism...The English theory of colonization is based upon the thesis of supremacy of the White Race. In other words, on the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon Race. This theory does not roughly proclaim, as the Germans did, the doctrine of 'fertilizing nations' (D�nger-V�lker) but it applies this doctrine in practice, trying to build up by various means the so-called 'moral prestige' in order to veil its policy of brigandage. This moral prestige, however, is precisely the thing which in its very foundation is undermined by Soviet propaganda...Under the influence of this propaganda, which is one of the most successful undertakings of the Soviet Government in the realm of foreign policy, for which many of its sins will be pardoned, the peoples of the East, who are mercilessly exploited, have discovered in Socialism new means for their resistance against Imperialism. We (the Jews), too, must struggle against it side by side with all victims from Ireland to India as well as with the revolutionary British proletariat, ignoring the threats and disregarding the hypocritical advances made to us...By destroying British Imperialism at its principal root; in India, whose juice nourishes it, the Russian Revolution will accelerate the process of revolutionary fermentation in England herself and at the same time of the revolution throughout the all Western Europe. At this point Poale-Zionism encounters Soviet propaganda to which it must give its full assistance...It is necessary to force into the orbit of the gigantic social movement which started in Russia the advanced countries of the East, Egypt, Persia, etc. The Jewish socialistic center in Palestine is fit to play an important r�le in spreading Socialism in Asia Minor and in Africa." [8]
The Jews after: Having expelled 800,000 Palestinians from the 80% of Palestine they occupied in 1948, committed massacres against the Palestinians and plundered all Palestinian lands, homes and possessions, the Zionist leaders continued their campaign of war crime, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Palestinians and Christians. From 1948 to the present they committed these crimes according to a carefully designed and calculated policy. In her book, "Israel's Sacred Terrorism," Livia Rokach describes this policy as follows: "The personal diary of Moshe Sharett sheds light on this question by amply documenting the rationale and mechanics of Israel's 'Arab policy' in the late 1940s and the 1950s. The policy portrayed, in its most intimate particulars, is one of deliberate acts of Israeli provocation, intended to generate Arab hostility and thus to create pretexts for armed action and territorial expansion. Sharett's records document this policy of 'sacred terrorism' and expose the myths of Israel's 'security needs' and the 'Arab threat' that have been treated as self-evident truths from the creation of Israel to the present, when Israeli terrorism against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and against Palestinians and Lebanese in South Lebanon, has reached an intolerable level. It is becoming increasingly evident that the exceptional demographic and geographic alterations in Israeli society within the present generation have been brought about, not as the accidental results of the endeavor to guard 'Israel's security' against an 'Arab threat' but by a drive for lebensraum." [9]
The Haganah, the Irgun Z'vai Leumi and the Stern Gang cooperated together in committing these crimes against the Palestinian Arabs. When they formed the Israeli army some units of this army, namely the commandos and the Frontier Guards, were in charge of expelling Arab villagers and Bedouins from the areas they occupied. The Jewish National Fund and the Custodian of Enemy Property were in charge of the plunder, looting and usurpation of Arab lands, homes and worldly possessions. When Livia Rokach read Moshe Sharett's diaries in Hebrew, she extracted and translated the most important points regarding Israel's strategic aims after 1948, to be realized through the following means:
���� "(a) New territorial conquests through war. Although the 1949-50 armistice agreements assigned to Israel a territory one-third larger than had the UN partition plan, the Israeli leadership was still not satisfied with the size of the state, the borders of which it had committed itself to respect on the international level. It sought to recover at least the borders of mandate Palestine. The territorial dimension was considered to be a vital factor in Israel's transformation into a regional power.
���� (b) Political as well as military efforts to bring about the liquidation of all Arab and Palestinian claims to Palestine through the dispersion of the Palestinian refugees of the 1947-49 war to faraway parts of the Arab world as well as outside the Arab world.
���� (c) Subversive operations designed to dismember the Arab world, defeat the Arab national movement, and create puppet regimes which would gravitate to the regional Israeli power." [10]
To implement this strategic purpose the Israeli army needed special units which could operate without any conventional restraints. When General Moshe Dayan was Commander of the Southern Command, he formed a special commando-like patrol unit for raids across the border. When he became Head of Operations of the General Staff, Dayan was in favor of forming a special unit and later remarked: "We were in need of a man of daring, a man with a great deal of personal ambition, a skilled leader, who would be flexible and original enough to adapt literal orders according to the situation he found himself in. This force could not be allowed to disobey orders or change the goals that had been decreed from above. On the other hand, this was a new and special unit, a force that would have to establish and carry out novel methods of warfare. Therefore the commander of this new force had to be superior in his ability to think and perceive clearly and cool headedly. Arik Sharon seemed to fill all these requirements." [11]
Having previously experimented with the concept, and having a ruthless candidate to command such a unit, Dayan engineered the approval of the General Staff for the plan proposed by Brigadier Michael Shaham to create "a special forces unit that would operate behind the armistice lines in reprisal and preemptive strikes against the Arabs." [12]
"Thus came into being the commando force that had such an influence upon the structure and methods of action of the Israeli army today ...There was no happier man alive than Arik Sharon as he received the new appointment. He became one of the chosen few who are able to realize a cherished dream...It was with the formation of the new force, and the deviation from conventions that this implied, that Arik Sharon began his march to glory..." [13]
Called Commando Unit 101, Sharon's command was to become synonymous with infamous crimes and the depths of depravity in an armed force. They became "a group of blood-thirsty adventurers, leaping at a chance to fire at others." [14] The original nucleus of Commando Unity 101 was composed of volunteers who were "veterans of the Palmach, soldiers of the 'Golani' and 'Gvati' Brigades and paratroopers." [15] Sharon trained them to be even more proficient as killers, and imbued in them the concept that they were above and beyond any kind of moral restraints, or even any discipline except within the confines of Commando Unit 101.
On one occasion when a member of Commando Unity 101 was apprehended by military policemen for a minor motor vehicle infraction, a squad of the unit's goons raided the military police station in Tiberias and "beat up three policemen so severely that they required hospitalization." Sharon "punished" the culprits "by granting them two weeks leave." [16] Sharon further encouraged contempt for any kind of authority by "addressing his superiors with an impudence bordering on insubordination ...Arik regularly referred to the senior commanders of the IDF and the more well-known members of the government as 'dumb shits' or 'assholes,' adding vivid descriptions of the sex life that he assumed they must lead. [17] Within two months, the 40 men of Command Unity 101 had been turned into a group of soldiers that craved battle. Gradually, Arik began sending small groups on reconnaissance missions and ambushes over the border." [18]
In September, 1953, Command Unit 101 was given the task "to remove the Bedouin tribe of Azama from the Negev Desert." When even some of his men "voiced their reservations about using a top army unit to fight a group of defenseless civilians," Sharon responded: "By removing the Bedouins, the country is preserving its sovereignty. The Bedouins were growing accustomed to seeing our land in the desert as their own, and had we not acted now, it would have been very difficult in the future to build new settlements, or a road. [19] Finally, Commando Unit 101 was authorized to organize and carry out a raid against the Palestinian refugee camp El-Burj in the Gaza Strip. Arik's plan was to trap Arab refugees in a crossfire between two groups of soldiers, killing a large number of them. One member of the 101st, Shmuel Falah, objected.
���� As they sat around the fire discussing the operational plans for the raid, Falah announced, 'I'm not going to take part in this kind of raid. We should be attacking military targets within Egypt and not civilian targets. After we're successful on this mission, the Egyptians and the guerrillas will only intensify their activities against our own civilian population...' Arik did not respond directly to Falah. Instead he offered him a smaller role, to blow up the home of the Egyptian commander who lived near the refugee camp. Falah, together with two other soldiers, accepted this assignment, while the others set out to complete the main part of Arik's plan. The results were lethal. Fifteen residents of the camp were killed, including a number of women and children. At the summary of the mission, a number of men voiced their reservations: 'Are a few hundred miserable refugees, including women and children, our real enemy?' they asked incredulously. Arik replied, 'The women are the whores of the Arab infiltrators who have been attacking our civilians. If we don't act forcefully against the refugee camps they will turn into comfortable nests for murderers.'" [20]
Having molded his men into a bloodthirsty unit rationalizing the most heinous acts, Sharon set his sights on a new target: bringing the Israeli paratroopers under his command. Sharon's opportunity to assume control of the paratroopers soon came, when David Ben-Gurion, Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon, the Chief of the General Staff, Mordecai Maklef, and the Chief Operations Officer, Moshe Dayan, concocted the notorious raid against Kibya. A General Staff officer, Meir Amit, the only officer to later hold the post of Head of Military Intelligence and then Head of Mossad, "carried Dayan's operational order to the Central command to be translated into action. [21] Even acting Prime Minister Moshe Sharett had only a vague idea of the evolving action. No one had bothered to inform him about what it would entail or listen to his reservations about any kind of military action." [22]
With the exception of acting Prime Minister Moshe Sharett, practically all of the top Zionist leadership of the time were thirsting for war. In his diary entry for October 11, 1953, Sharett sarcastically recorded that Yitzhak Ben Zvi, then President of Israel, "raised as usual some inspired questions...such as do we have a chance to occupy the Sinai and how wonderful it would be if the Egyptians started an offensive which we could defeat and follow with an invasion of that desert. He was very disappointed when I told him that the Egyptians show no tendency to facilitate us in this occupation task through a provocative challenge on their side." [23]
But the conspiracy of Ben-Gurion, Lavon, Maklef, and Dayan to attack Kibya across the Jordanian border was implemented. In his diary entry for October 15, 1953, Sharett recorded his reaction: "I was simply horrified by the description in Radio Ramallah's broadcast of the destruction of the Arab village. Tens of houses have been razed to the soil and tens of people killed. I can imagine the storms that will break out tomorrow in the Arab and Western capitals." [24]
In his diary on the following day, October 16, Sharett wrote: "I must underline that when I opposed the action I didn't even remotely suspect such a bloodbath. I thought that I was opposing one of those actions which have become routine in the past. Had IU remotely suspected that such a massacre was to be held, I would have raised real hell. Now the army wants to know how we at the foreign ministry are going to explain the issue. In a joint meeting of army and foreign ministry officials. Shmuel Bendor suggested that we say that the army had no part in the operation, but that the inhabitants of the border villages, infuriated by previous incidents and seeking revenge, operated on their own. Such a version will make us appear ridiculous: any child would say that this was a military operation." [25]
In his diary entry for October 17, Sharett reports the opinion of Yehoshafat Harkabi, then Assistant Chief of Military Intelligence, that "It is impossible that the Jordanians did not get the impression that the bombing of Kibya means, if not a calculated plan to cause war, then at least the willingness to have one starting as a consequence of this action." [26]
Of the Israeli cabinet meeting on October 18, 1953, Sharett writes: "I condemned the Kibya affair that exposed us in front of the whole world as a gang of blood-suckers, capable of mass massacres regardless, it seems, of whether their actions may lead to war. I warned that this stain will stick to us and will not be washed away for many years to come...It was decided that a communiqu� on Kibya will be published and Ben-Gurion was to wrote it...Ben-Gurion insisted on excluding any responsibility of the army...I said that no one in the world will believe such a story and we shall only expose ourselves as liars." [27]
Former Knesset member Michael Bar-Zohar, a biographer of Ben-Gurion, confirms that Ben-Gurion lied: "Ben-Gurion believed that under certain circumstances, it was permissible to lie for the good of the state. But Moshe Sharett was astounded by his behavior. 'I told my wife Zipporah that I would have resigned if it had fallen to me to step before a microphone and broadcast a fictitious account of what happened to the people of Israel and to the whole world." [28]
Sharon's personal war to gain control of the Israeli army's paratroopers had a victorious outcome as a result of the Kibya raid. When the operational plan for the raid was presented at Central Command's headquarters, the deputy commander of the paratroop battalion balked at accepting the assignment. Moshe Dayan had intended for the paratroop battalion to attack Kibya, while Commando Unit 101 was to "be responsible for the diversionary action in Shukba and Nahalin." [29] The refusal of the paratroop battalion's command to participate in the Kibya raid resulted in Sharon's gaining total command of the raid, combining his own Commando Unit 101 with all of Israel's paratroopers. The head of the paratroopers, Lt. Col. Yehuda Harari, was subsequently forced to resign and Sharon amalgamated Commando Unit 101 and the paratroopers into one command, "designated Unit 202." [30] From that day until today, when every senior Israeli army officer has served in the paratroopers, the paratroopers became the "murder" arm of the Israeli army, carrying out raids against civilians and murdering defenseless women and children. Only by sharing in this type of guilt with his fellow paratroopers can an Israeli officer hope to reach a senior rank.
Participation in the crimes perpetrated from 1948 to 1967 against Palestinians became a qualification for promotion for the Israeli officer corps. No career officer could achieve promotion until he had first taken part in the commission of these crimes. The Records of the United Nations Security Council from 1948 to 1967 include letters, verbatim records of Security Council Meetings, and Reports of the United Nations Truce Supervision units containing hundreds of reports documenting these crimes.� They include the following:
�� 1). The assassination of UN Mediator Count Folke Bernadotte.
�� 2). Expulsion of Palestinian villagers.
�� 3). Attacks on Palestinian villages, destroying houses and murdering civilians.
�� 4). Attacks on civilian aircraft.
�� 5). The massacre of Kibya.
�� 6). Dragging a doctor from his car on the Behtlehem-Hebron road; shooting him and killing him.
�� 7). The Nahalin massacre.
�� 8). Attacks on Palestinian villages in the Syruian truce zones and on Syrian villages.
�� 9). The massacre of Hussan.
�� 10). Attacking a Lebanese aircraft.
�� 11). Expelling Bedouins.
�� 12). Shelling and air attacks against villages in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
The following crimes were investigated by the United Nations Truce Supervision personnel, and Israeli guilt was verified.
������������������������������������������������������������������ Massacres Committed by the Jews in Palestine
�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� A Partial List
The worst of the massacres were the King David Hotel, the Semiramis Hotel, Deir Yassin, Dawayma, Kibya, Kafr Kassim, the attack against the USS Liberty and the Libyan Boeing 727 Airliner, and the massacres against Sabra and Shatila and other� refugee camps in Lebanon. Following are just a few of the many massacres committed by the Jewish/Zionists; specifically the Hagana, Irgun and Stern Gangs of Israel: The Massacre of
1. King David Hotel, July 22, 1946.
2. Sharafat, Feb. 7, 1951.��������
3. Deir Yassin, April 10, 1948.
4. Naseruddine, April 14, 1948.
5. Carmel, April 20, 1948.
6. Al‑Qabu, May 1, 1948.
7. Beit Kiras, May 3, 1948.
8. Beitkhoury, May 5, 1948.
9. Az‑Zaytoun, May 6, 1948.
10. Wadi Araba, May 13, 1950.
11. Falameh, April 2, 1951.��������
12. Quibya, Oct. 14, 1953.���������
13. Nahalin, March, 28, 1954.������
14. Gaza, Feb. 28, 1955.�����������
15. Khan Yunis, May 31, 1955.
16. Khan Yunis Again, Aug. 31, 1955.
17. Tiberia, Dec. 11, 1955.
18. As‑Sabha, Nov. 2, 1955.
19. Gaza Again, April 5, 1956.
20. Houssan, Sept. 25, 1956.
21. Rafa, Aug. 16, 1956.
22. Qalqilyah, Oct. 10, 1956.
23. Ar‑Rahwa, Sept. 12, 1956.
24. Kahr Kassem, Oct. 29, 1956.
25. Gharandal, Sept. 13, 1956.
26. Gaza Strip, Nov. 1956.
July 2, 1946: The King David Hotel in Jerusalem was bombed. Killing 91 people. Menachem Begin, who was recently given the so‑called Nobel Peace Prize (It seems this prize is given to the people who can kill the most Christians and get away with it!), and is the same Begin who planned the destruction of the King David Hotel and the massacre of Deir Yassin. Ex prime minister, Shamir, was originally a member of the Jewish terrorist gang called Irgun, which was headed by none other than Menachem Begin. Shamir later moved over to the even more radical "Stern Gang," which committed many vicious atrocities. Shamir himself has defended the various assassinations committed by the Irgun and Stern gangs on the grounds that "it was the only way we could operate, because we were so small. So it was more efficient and more moral to go for selected targets." The selected moral targets in those early days of the founding of the state of Israel included bombing of the King David Hotel and the massacre of Deir Yassin.
1946: Treaty. President Truman ordered the augmentation of U.S. Troops along the zonal occupation line and the reinforcement of air forces in Northern Italy after Yugoslav forces shot down an unarmed U.S. Army transport plane flying over Venezia Giulia. Earlier U.S. Naval units had been dispatched to the scene. The Irgun Gang murdered almost 100 British by bombing the King David Hotel. Terrorism also was (and still is) routinely practiced against Arabs to stampede them out of Palestine, thereby reducing their demographic strength even as uninvited Jews stream into the country.
The King David Hotel explosion of July 22, 1946, which resulted in the deaths of 92 Britons, Arabs and Jews, and in the wounding of 58, was not just an "extremist act" of "Jewish extremists," but a premeditated massacre conducted by the Irgun in agreement with the highest Jewish political authorities in Palestine, the Jewish Agency and its head David Ben-Gurion. According to Yitshaq Ben-Ami, a Palestinian Jew who spent 30 years in exile after the establishment of Israel investigating the crimes of the "ruthless clique heading the international Zionist movement." "The Irgun had conceived a plan for the King David attack early in 1946, but the green light was given only on July first. According to Dr. Sneh, the operation was personally approved by Ben-Gurion, from his self-exile in Europe. Sadeh, the operations officer of the Hagnah, and Giddy Paglin, the head of the Irgun operation under Menachem Begin agreed that thirty-five minutes advance notice would give the British time enough to evacuate the wing, without enabling them to disarm the explosion." [31]
The Jewish Agency's motive was to destroy all evidence the British had gathered proving that the terrorist crime waves in Palestine were not merely the actions of "fringe" groups such as the Irgun and Stern Gang, but were committed in collusion with the Haganah and Palmach groups and under the direction of the highest political body of the Zionist establishment itself, namely the Jewish Agency.
That so many innocent civilian lives were lost in the King David massacre is a normal part of the pattern in the history of Zionist outrages: A criminal act is committed, allegedly by an isolated group, but actually under the direct authorization of the highest Zionist authorities, whether of the Jewish Agency during the Palestine Mandate or of the Government of Israel thereafter.
The following is a statement made in the House of Commons by then British Prime Minister Clement Attlee: "On July 22, 1946, one of the most dastardly and cowardly crimes in record history took place. We refer to the blowing up of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Ninety-two persons lost their lives in that stealthy attack, and 45 were injured, among whom there were many high officials, junior officers and office personnel, both men and women. The King David Hotel was used as an office housing the Secretariat of the Palestine Government and British Army Headquarters. The attack was made on July 22 at about 12 o'clock noon when offices are usually in full swing. The attackers, disguised as milkmen, carried the explosives in milk container, placed them in the basement of the Hotel and ran away. The Chief Secretary for the Government of Palestine, Sir John Shaw, declared in a broadcast: 'As head of the Secretariat, the majority of the dead and wounded were my own staff, many of whom I have known personally for eleven years. They are more than official colleagues, British, Arabs, Jews, Greeks, Armenians; senior officers, police, my orderly, my chauffeur, messengers, guards, men and women, young and old, they were my friends.
���� No man could wish to be served by a more industrious, loyal and honest group of ordinary decent people. Their only crime was their devoted, unselfish and impartial service to Palestine and its people. For this they have been rewarded by cold-blooded mass murder.' Although members of the Irgun Z'vai Leumi took responsibility for this crime, yet they also made it public later that they obtained the consent and approval of the Haganah Command, and it follows, that of the Jewish Agency." [32]
The King David Hotel massacre shocked the conscience of the civilized world. On July 23, 1946, Anthony Eden, leader of the then British opposition Conservative Party, posed a question in the House of Commons to Prime Minister Atlee of the Labor Party, asking "the Prime Minister whether he has any statement to make on the bomb outrage at the British Headquarters in Jerusalem." The Prime Minister responded: "Hon. Members will have learned with horror of the brutal and murderous crime committed yesterday in Jerusalem. Of all the outrages which have occurred in Palestine, and they have been many and horrible in the last few months, this is the worst. By this insane act of terrorism 93 innocent people have been killed or are missing in the ruins. The latest figures of casualties are 41 dead, 52 missing and 53 injured. I have no further information at present beyond what is contained in the following official report received from Jerusalem:
���� 'It appears that, after exploding a small bomb in the street, presumably as a diversionary measure, this did virtually no damage, a lorry drove up to the tradesmen's entrance of the King David Hotel and the occupants, after holding up the staff at pistol point, entered the kitchen premises carrying a number of milk cans. At some stage of the proceedings, they shot and seriously wounded a British soldier who attempted to interfere with them. All available information so far is to the effect that they were Jews. Somewhere in the basement of the hotel they planted bombs which went off shortly afterwards. They appear to have made good their escape.
���� Every effort is being made to identify and arrest the perpetrators of this outrage. The work of rescue in the debris, which was immediately organize, still continues. The next-of-kin of casualties are being notified by telegram as soon as accurate information is available. The House will wish to express their profound sympathy with the relatives of the killed and with those injured in this dastardly outrace.'" [33]
As a result of his massacre it was said: "Root of regicide, master robbers, sinister, carrion birds of humanity, hateful, oriental slavers, puppeteers, plague, revolutionaries, subversives..."
April 9, 1948: Deir Yassin Massacre. The first major massacre in the 1948 War was the massacre of Deir Yassin on April 9/10, 1948. It was designed to spread terror and panic among the Palestinian population in every city and village of Palestine in order to frighten them into fleeing, so that their homes and land could be confiscated for the use of Jewish colonialist settlers. The tactics of the Zionist Jews were to frighten defenseless people into fleeing their homes out of fear for their lives.
A combined force of Irgun and Stern Gangs committed a brutal massacre of 260 Arab residents of the village of Deir Yassin. Most of whom were women and children. The Israeli hordes even attacked the dead to satisfy their bestial tendencies. In April, 1954, during Holy Week, and on the eve of Easter, The Christian cemeteries in Haifa were invaded, crosses broken down and trampled under the feet of these miscreants, and the tombs desecrated. The Israeli military conquest, therefore was made against a defenseless people, who had been softened up by such earlier massacres as Deir Yasin (250 Arabs; men, women and children were massacred there).
The Jew, Weizman, referred to the massacre as this "miraculous simplification of our task" and Ben Gurion said "without Deir Yasin there would be no Israel." Americans are not told that 10% of the Arabs killed by the Israeli's in 1948 were Christian and that 10% of the Arab property confiscated belonged to Christians. Nor are they told the fact that Israel's massacres and military actions forced 100,000 Christians to become refugees. Accounts by Red Cross and United Nations observers who visited the scene, said that the houses were first set on fire and the occupants were shot down as they came out to escape the flames. One pregnant woman had her baby cut out of her stomach with a knife. Reminiscent of the acts committed by their brother Jews in Russia during and after the Bolshevik (Jewish) take over. The head of the International Red Cross delegation in Palestine, Jacques de Reynier, drove into the village and was met by a detachment of Irgun terrorists. In his report of the massacre the previous night, he wrote: "All of them were young, some even adolescents, men and women armed to the teeth: revolvers, machine‑guns, hand‑grenades, and knives, most of them still blood‑stained. A beautiful young girl with criminal eyes showed me her (knife) still dripping with blood, she displayed it like a trophy."
Two hundred and fifty people were slaughtered. Mutilating the bodies, even before death, the culprits cut off parts and opened the bellies of others. Nursing babies were butchered on the bosoms of helpless mothers. Of those two hundred and fifty people, twenty-five pregnant women were bayoneted in their abdomens while still alive. Fifty-two children were maimed under the eyes of their own mothers, and then they were slain and their heads cut off. Their mothers were in turn massacred and their bodies mutilated. About sixty other women and girls were also killed and their bodies mutilated. Such are the historical facts concerning the horrible crime perpetrated against the Arab village of Deir Yassin.
On the night of April 9/10, 1948, the peaceful Arab village of Deir Yassin, a suburb of Jerusalem, was surprised by loudspeakers calling upon the inhabitants to evacuate the village immediately. The villagers woke up and, in a state of turmoil and fear, proceeded to investigate what was going on, only to find themselves surrounded on all sides by Jewish gangs. The Jews made use of the prevailing state of fright and disorganization by killing and mutilating people who had been deprived of every opportunity to defend themselves.
The marauders were not satisfied with the crimes they had committed in the village. They gathered together the women and girls who were still alive, and after removing all their clothes, put them in open cars, driving them naked through the streets of the Jewish section of Jerusalem, where they were subjected to the mockery and insult of the onlookers. Many took photographs of those women. The crime of Deir Yassin shocked the world, which called upon the International Red Cross Society to establish the truth.
The representative of the Red Cross, Mr. Jacques Reynier, asked the Jewish Agency for permission to visit the site of the massacre. The granting of this permission was delayed twenty four hours while the Jews tried to erase the traces of their crimes. They gathered together all that was possible to collect of the parts of the mutilated bodies of their victims, dumped them in the cistern of the village and locked it up.
They did all they could to obliterate any traces that the representative of the Red Cross could come across. On visiting the site of the crime, however, the representative of the Red Cross discovered the cistern, and found one hundred and fifty maimed bodies of women and children. He could express his horror, disgust and fright at the sight only by declaring that "the situation was horrible."
In addition to the bodies that he had found in the cistern, the representative of the Red Cross discovered many other corpses scattered throughout the backstreets of the village and buried under the debris of the destroyed homes. Mr. Reynier found under a mound of dead bodies a girl of six who had been seriously sounded, but was not yet dead. He extracted the girl from under the human debris and carried her with him to the hospital.
All the Jewish Agency (the body responsible at that time for the activities of the Jewish gangs) did was to express its sorrow and condemn the affair as if it had been completely unaware of it. David Shaltiel, Commander of the Haganah, released a communiqu� about Deir Yassin on April 10, in which he stated: "This morning the last Lehi and Etzel soldiers ran from Deir Yassin, and our forces entered the village. We were forced to take command of the village after the splinter forces (Irgunists and Sternists) opened a new enemy front and then fled, leaving the western neighborhoods of the city open to enemy attack. The splinter groups did not launch a military operation...They could have attacked enemy gangs in the Jerusalem area and lightened the burden which Jerusalem bears. But they chose one of the quiet villages in the area that has not been connected with any of the gang attacks since the start of the present campaign; one of the few villages that has not let foreign gangs in. For a full day, Etzel and Lehi soldiers stood and slaughtered men, women and children, not in the course of the operation, but in a premeditated act which had as its intention slaughter and murder only. They also took spoils, and when they finished their work, they fled..." [34]
The communiqu� denied Irgun and Sternist claims that a Palmach force had participated in the attack. Enraged by this declaration, Raanan and Zetler released the text of the letter Shaltiel had sent them guardedly approving the attack in advance. Israel Galili, the Haganah commander, then asked Shaltiel about this letter, which Tel Aviv had never sanctioned. Shaltiel cabled back on April 15: "I learned they were preparing action against Deir Yassin. As I didn't want to meet them I sent a letter. I would stop to the extent possible future operations of dissidents." [35] Two days after this maneuver of the Jewish Agency, the newspaper "Hamashekev," the organ of the Irgun, replying to the Jewish Agency's condemnation of the Deir Yassin massacre, published the fact that the Commander of the Haganah (the organized forces of the Jewish Agency) had been fully aware in advance of the details of the plan and had already contemplated the occupation of Deir Yassin by the Irgun Terrorists. Meanwhile, Menahem Begin, the leader of the Irgun gang, himself admitted on December 28, 1950, in a press interview in New York, that the Deir Yassin incident had been carried out in accordance with an agreement between the Irgun and the Jewish Agency and the Haganah.
Four criminals who had taken part in the deir Yassin massacre and had been badly injured demanded remuneration from the Jewish authorities in occupied Palestine on the basis of a government decision to compensate all persons who suffered injuries during the fighting in Palestine. The authorities refused the request on the grounds that the Deir Yassin incident had not been perpetrated on orders from responsible Jewish authorities. The four culprits raised an action before the District Court at Tel-Aviv. They produced evidence that the Deir Yassin massacre had been carried out on the orders of the Jewish Agency, and in agreement with the Haganah. The District Court considered the evidence produced to be genuine and irrefutable and ruled that the plaintiffs should be compensated by the state.
By the criteria established in the International War Crimes Tribunals after World War II, the Irgun and Stern gang members directly responsible for the Deir Yassin massacre would receive death sentences for committing such an atrocity. The leaders of both gangs, including Menachem Begin of the irgun and Yitzhak Shamir of the Stern Gang, would have been convicted with a death sentence for their Command Responsibility for the massacre. Moreover, the senior commanders of the Haganah, especially Chief of Staff Yaacov Dori and Commander David Shaltiel, and the political authority responsible for the discipline of the Jewish armed units, the Jewish Agency leaders and its head David Ben-Gurion, would have borne ultimate responsibility and would have been hung like their Nazi political counterparts after World War II.
1948: The following testimony of a soldier who participated in the occupation of the Palestinian village of Dawayma (in Haifa sub-district) on October 29, 1948 is only the most recent disclosed item in a long chain of evidence: "They killed between eighty to one hundred Arab men, women and children. To kill the children they (soldiers) fractured their heads with sticks. There was not one home without corpses. The men and women of the villages were pushed into houses without food or water. Then the saboteurs came to dynamite them. One commander ordered a soldier to bring two women into a building he was about to blow up...Another soldier prided himself upon having raped an Arab woman before shooting her to death. Another Arab woman with her newborn baby was made to clean the place for a couple of days, and then they shot her and the baby. Educated and well-mannered commanders who were considered 'good guys'...became base murderers, and this non in the storm of battle, but as a method of expulsion and extermination. The fewer the Arabs who remain, the better." [36]��
1948: The Semiramis Hotel Massacre, in the Katamon section of Jerusalem, by the Jews against the Palestinians. The Jewish Agency escalated their terror campaign against Palestinian Arabs. They decided to perpetrate a wholesale massacre by bombing the Semiramis Hotel in the Katamon section of Jerusalem, in order to drive out the Palestinians from Jerusalem. The massacre of the Semiramis Hotel on January 5, 1948, was the direct responsibility of Jewish Agency leader David Ben-Gurion and Haganah leaders Moshe Sneh and Yisrael Galili. If this massacre had taken place in World War II, they would have been sentenced to death for their criminal responsibility along with the terrorists who placed the explosives. A description of the massacre of the Semiramis Hotel from the United Nations Documents follows, as well as the Palestine Police report on the crime sent to the Colonial Office in London: "January 5, 1948, Haganah terrorists made a most barbarous attack at one o'clock in the early morning of Monday, January 5, 1948, at the Semiramis Hotel in the Katamon section of Jerusalem, killing innocent people and wounding many. The Jewish Agency terrorist forces blasted the entrance to the hotel by a small bomb and then placed bombs in the basement of the building. As a result of the explosion the whole building collapsed with its residents. As the terrorists withdrew, they started shooting at the houses in the neighborhood. Those killed were: Subhi El-Taher, Moslem; Mary Masoud, Christian; Georgette Khoury, Christian; Abbas Awadin, Moslem; Nazir Lorenzo, Christian; Mary Lorenzo, Christina; Mohammed Saleh Ahmed, Moslem; Ashur Abed El Razik Juma, Moslem; Ismail Abed El Aziz, Moslem; Ambeer Lorenzo, Christian; Raof Lorenzo, Christian; Abu Suwan Christian family, seven members, husband, wife and five children. Besides those killed, 16 more were wounded, among them women and children." [37]
The following is a text of a cable by the High Commissioner for Palestine to the Colonial Office about the massacre: "Jerusalem. 0117 hours, Urban. At approximately 0117 hours, a grenade was thrown into the Semiramis Hotel, Katamon Quarter, causing superficial damage but no casualties. During the ensuing confusion, a charge was placed in the building and it exploded about one minute later, completely demolishing half the hotel. Witnesses have stated that the perpetrators arrived by way of the Upper Katamon Road in two taxis. Four persons are reported to have alighted from he first taxi, and one person, who apparently covered the main party, from the second. All were wearing European clothes.
���� The following are the known casualties: Dead - Manuel Allendesalazar y Traveseda - Spanish Consul at Jerusalem; Nazira Lorenzo; Mary Lorenzo; Abbas Ahmed Awadin, an Egyptian waiter, and Ashur Abdul Razzik Juma. (The last two named have not yet been extricated from the debris). Seriously Injured - Mrs. Georgette Khouri, aged 38, of Jaffa. Slightly Injured - Silvo Lorenzo; Eddy Lorenzo; Rene Lorenzo; Rita Lorenzo; Joseph Lorenzo; Dr. Abu Sawan; Cyril Abu Sawan; Matier Abu Sawan; Friek Batawi; Daoud Khadoush; Mohammed Ahmed Abdul Najib; Ibrahim Nicola; Hassan Mohammed; Awad Mohammed; Hassan Ibrahim; and No. 874 F.P.C. Hamil Ragheb Dajani.
���� The following are believed to be buried underneath the debris: Raouf Lorenzo and his wife; Lutfi Abu Sawan (62) and his wife (45); Labibeh Lorenzo (40); Hubert Lorenzo (25); Subhi Taha (25); Amneh Abdul Azziz Zorob (34); Ismail Zaid Abdo (15), son of Amneh Zorob; and Gharviayeh Saoud Abu Yunis (30). The bodies of two of these persons have been extricated from the debris but have not yet been identified. Heavy firing broke out in the Katamon area after the first explosion, and Mohammed Ahmed Saleh of Beit Rima, who was near the hotel in the company of another Arab, was shot in the head and killed." [38]
May 1948: The U.S. appointed Count Folke Bernadotte of Sweden to mediate between the Arabs and the Israelis. In his first progress report (of Sept. 16, 1948) he recommended that the U.N. should affirm "the right of the Arab refugees to return to their homes in Jewish controlled territory at the earliest possible date." The Israelis responded in their own quiet way. The following day Bernadotte was murdered in Jerusalem.
The spectacular assassination which caused an International outcry was claimed, the, by an unknown "Fatherland Front," but that was a cover for Shamir's Stern Gang. Yoshua Zeitler and Meshlam Markover of Stern told Israeli Television earlier this year (1989) that, they respectively directed and led the operation that killed the Swedish diplomat and his French aid‑de‑camp. Zeitler, 71, said he decided to speak now because of fear that the U.N. and the "goyim" (non‑Jews) are again trying to force Israel into concessions.
������������������������������ Vol XXX, No. 3, Spring 2001, Issue 119
���������������� THE TANTURA MASSACRE, 22‑23 MAY 1948
���������������� On the night of 22‑23 May 1948, a week after the declaration of the State of Israel, the
���������������� Palestinian coastal village of Tantura (population 1500) was attacked and occupied by units of
���������������� the Israeli army's Alexandroni Brigade. The village, some thirty‑five kilometers south of Haifa,
���������������� lay within the area assigned to the Jewish state by the UN General Assembly's partition
���������������� resolution. In its occupation, depopulation, subsequent destruction, and seizure of all its lands
���������������� by Israel, the fate of Tantura was similar to that of more than 400 other Palestinian villages
�������� ��������during the 1948 war. But it also shared with some two score of these villages the additional
���������������� agony of a large‑scale massacre of its inhabitants.
���������������� Word of the Tantura massacre was completely overshadowed at the time by the fighting
���������������� between Israel and the regular armies of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Syria, which had entered the
���������������� country after the state had been proclaimed. The first written reference to it was made by Haj
������������� ���Muhammad Nimr al‑Khatib, a Muslim cleric who had been an active member of the Arab
���������������� National Committee of Haifa (the highest local political body) before its capture by the
���������������� Haganah on 23‑25 April. In about 1950, Khatib published in Damascus under the title Min Athar
���������������� al‑Nakba (Consequences of the Catastrophe) a compendium of writings, including his own
���������������� memoirs on Haifa and several eyewitness accounts by Palestinian refugees from various parts
���������������� of the country. Khatib's work, along with those of two other Arab authors, was translated into
���������������� Hebrew in 1954 by the Israel Defense Forces, General Staff/History Branch, and published
���������������� under the title Be'einei Oyev (In Enemy Eyes). Khatib's references to the Tantura massacre
���������������� comprise a short account by Iqab al‑Yahya (a notable of the village) and a longer and more
���������������� detailed account by his son Marwan (pp. 118ff. in Min Athar). Khatib also reports cases of
���������������� Tantura female rape victims being treated in a Nablus hospital. Later, using Marwan's
���������������� testimony, Walid Khalidi referred to "the methodical shooting and burial in a communal grave of
����� �����������some forty young men in Tantura village" in the famous triangular Spectator correspondence
���������������� between Erskine Childers, Jon Kimche, and himself (12 May‑4 August 1961; republished in 1988
���������������� in JPS 18, no. 1). Nonetheless, the entry under Tantura in Khalidi's, All That Remains
���������������� (Washington: IPS, 1992), inadvertently omitted mention of the massacre.
���������������� The issue of the Tantura massacre has come into recent prominence because of the work of
���������������� an Israeli researcher, Teddy Katz, who dealt with it at length in his 1998 master's thesis at
���������������� Haifa University. A summary of his research, particularly his finding that more than 200 Tantura
���������������� villagers, mostly unarmed young men, had been shot after the village surrendered, was
���������������� published in an article in the Hebrew press in January 2000. The article unleashed a storm in
���������������� Israel, culminating in a 1 million shekel libel suit brought by veterans of the Alexandroni Brigade
���������������� against Katz (though his research was based on taped testimonies not only of survivors but
���������������� also of members of the brigade). What happened at the December 2000 trial is dealt with in an
���������������� article in this issue by Israeli historian Ilan Papp�, who also discusses the research itself and
���������������� its ramifications.
���������������� The fate of Tantura was sealed long before the night of its fall. It was one of the tens of
���������������� Palestinian villages and towns inside and outside the boundaries of the UN‑envisaged Jewish
���������������� state specifically targeted for capture under the notorious Plan Dalet, the Haganah master
���������������� plan for the military establishment of Israel on the largest area possible of Palestine (see JPS
���������������� 28, no. 1 for the full text). Tantura itself fell within the zone of operation of the Alexandroni
���������������� Brigade, one of the erstwhile Haganah's six Khish (field force) brigades (to be distinguished
���������������� from its strike force, the three Palmach brigades). The official history of the Haganah, Sefer
���������������� Toldot Haganah (vol. 3, pp. 1474‑75), summarizing the operational orders to the brigades
���������������� under Plan Dalet, lists the assignments of the four battalions constituting the Alexandroni
���������������� Brigade. These include the "occupation of al‑Tantura and al‑Furaydis" as well as the capture
���������������� of "twenty villages in enemy territory" (i.e., land assigned to the Arab state under the UN
���������������� General Assembly partition plan). Plan Dalet was put into operation in the first week of April,
���������������� six weeks before the end of the Mandate and the entry of the Arab regular armies. The task of
���������������� capturing Tantura was assigned to the Alexandroni Brigade's 33d Battalion.
���������������� After the fall of the village and the massacre, the women and children were taken to the
���������������� nearby village of Furaydis, which had already fallen but whose inhabitants had not been
���������������� expelled. The surviving men were held in prison camps and were eventually transported under
���������������� prisoner exchanges out of Israel; their families followed. Today most live in refugee camps in
���������������� Syria or in the al‑Qabun quarter of Damascus. In June 1948, a few weeks after Tantura's fall,
���������������� the kibbutz of Nachsholim was established on its lands by Holocaust survivors. The village
���������������� itself was razed, except for a shrine, a fortress, and a few houses. The site of the village is
���������������� now an Israeli recreational area with swimming facilities, and the fortress houses a museum.
���������������� The evidence provided by the testimonies published below supplements the evidence of the
���������������� two Yahyas and the research of Katz, albeit from the inevitably fragmented and narrow
���������������� perspective of individual villagers caught in the vortex of events beyond their capacity to
���������������� comprehend. The testimonies were selected from tens of interviews collected during the
���������������� summer of 2000 by Mustafa al‑Wali, a Palestinian researcher living in Damascus. First published
���������������� in the autumn 2000 issue of Majallat al‑Dirasat al‑Filastiniyya, JPS's sister quarterly, they form
���������������� part of a larger oral history project on 1948 to be published later this year.
���������������� THE TESTIMONIES
���������������� Muhammad Abu Hana, born in 1936, resident of the Yarmuk camp
���������������� We were awakened in the middle of the night by heavy gunfire. The women began to scream
���������������� and ran out of the houses carrying their children, and they gathered in several places in the
���������������� village.
���������������� I also left the house during the fighting and went around the streets trying to see what was
���������������� going on. Suddenly a woman shouted to me, "Your uncle is wounded! Quick, bring some
���������������� alcohol!" I saw my uncle with a wound in his shoulder and the blood gushing out like a
���������������� fountain. Because I was young, I didn't know fear. I grabbed an empty bottle and ran to the
���� ������������clinic. The nurse, a Christian from the village named Zahabiyya, filled the bottle with rubbing
���������������� alcohol and I ran back to my uncle. The women cleaned the wound and took my uncle to our
���������������� house, where they hid him from the Israelis in the grain attic.
���������������� But the soldiers saw the trail of blood and soon burst in, asking my grandfather where my
���������������� uncle was. My grandfather said he didn't know. They left but came back several times with
� ���������������the same question. At some point my uncle, who was in pain, asked for a cigarette, and my
���������������� grandmother gave him one. When the soldiers came back again, the smell of burning tobacco
���������������� clinched the matter. They grabbed him and took him away. On their way out they insulted my
���������������� grandfather, shouting that he was a liar, and he answered back that he had only tried to
���������������� defend his son, as anyone would.
���������������� My uncle survived thanks to the intervention of the mukhtar of Zichron Yaacov. He had good
���������������� relations with my grandfather, who was the mukhtar of Tantura.
���������������� By morning, the shooting had stopped and the attackers rounded everyone up on the beach.
���������������� They sorted them out, the women and children on one side, the men on the other. They
���������������� searched the men and ordered them to keep their hands above their heads. Female soldiers
���������������� searched the women and took all their jewelry, which they put in a soldier's helmet. They
���������������� didn't give the jewelry back when they expelled us toward Furaydis. During the entire
���������������� operation, military boats were offshore.
���������������� On the beach, the soldiers led groups of men away, and you could hear gunfire after each
���������������� departure.
���������������� Toward noon we were led on foot to an orchard to the east of the village, and I saw bodies
���������������� piled on a cart pulled by men of Tantura who emptied their cargo in a big pit. Then trucks
���������������� arrived, and women and children were loaded onto them and driven to Furaydis. On the road,
���������������� near the railroad tracks, other bodies were scattered about.
����� �����������Muhammad Ibrahim Abu `Amr, born in 1935, resident of the Yarmuk camp
���������������� We had gathered at the center of the village, in the house of Hajj Mahmud al‑Yahya. When
���������������� the village fell and the soldiers entered, they herded us to the beach. On the way, near the
���������������� house of Badran on the street leading to the mosque, I counted the bodies of seven young
���������������� people from the village.
���������������� A woman, `Izzat Ibrahim al‑Hindi, started to scream at the horror of the sight, but a burst of
���������������� gunfire silenced her for good. This woman was the mother of the martyr `Abd al‑Wahhab
���������������� Hassan `Abd al‑`Al, who had been killed at the end of 1947 by bombs planted by the Jews at
���������������� the Haifa market.
���������������� When they loaded us onto trucks, we saw bodies piled along the road like stacked wood. A
���������������� woman recognized her nephew among the dead‑‑it was Muhammad Awad Abu Idriss. She
�������������� ��started to scream. She didn't know yet that her three sons had met the same fate. Her sons,
���������������� Ahmad Sulayman, Khalil, and Mustafa, had been killed, but we only learned this later, in exile.
���������������� But the mother always refused to believe it and insisted that they had escaped to Egypt and
���������������� would come back to find her one day. She spent the rest of her life waiting for them.
���������������� Amina al‑Masri (Umm Mustafa), born in 1925, resident of the Qabun quarter of
���������������� Damascus
���������������� From the time that the village of Kafr Lam was captured after the fall of Haifa, we began to
���������������� fear an attack on Tantura. The night of the assault, men were on guard duty at the various
�������� ��������entrances to the village, but they were poorly armed. I heard gunfire and thought it came from
���������������� al‑Bab [the gate], that is to say from southeast of the village. I woke up my husband. At first
���������������� he thought I was dreaming, but the firing grew louder, and there were explosions and all. They
���������������� came from the hill of Umm Rashid in the south and from the direction of al‑Burj [the tower], on
���������������� the coast to the north where the Roman ruins are located. We got the children out and hurried
���������������� to the house of my parents. They were terrified. The shooting had died down a little and
���������������� people thought that the battle was over. How naive we were! Abu Khalid `Abd al‑`Al even
���� ������������believed that the Jewish attack had been countered, and cried out, "We won! We got them!"
���������������� A few minutes later the gunfire resumed with a vengeance, accompanied by shelling. People
���������������� began running in all directions shouting, "The Jews are inside the village! The Jews are in the
���������������� village!"
���������������� In the morning, when they were leading us to the collection point on the beach, they killed
���������������� Fadl Abu Hana at the place known as the Marah. Fadl was unarmed, but he wore a khaki
���������������� jacket. Before our eyes, they took a group of men away and shot them all except for one. To
���������������� him they said, "Go tell the others what you saw."
���������������� In their search for money and gold, they even went through the swaddling clothes of our
���������������� infants, and when a little girl tarried in taking off an earring, a woman soldier ripped it off, and
���������������� the little one began to bleed.
����������� �����They then herded us to a piece of land that belonged to the Dassuki family. We had walked
���������������� there barefoot over stones and brambles, and then they loaded us onto trucks which took us
���������������� to Furaydis. There, my grandfather, Hajj Mahmud Abu Hana, sent one of his daughters to find
���������������� him a shroud in `Ayn Ghazal or Ijzim, for he sensed that his hour had come. She couldn't find
���������������� one in either place and returned empty‑handed. But he had already drawn his last breath after
���������������� having bowed to the ground twice and read verses of the Qur'an, calling on the Almighty not
���������������� to let him die outside Palestine. We then found a coverlet, which we split open to remove the
������������� ���wool filling to make a shroud with the material and wrapped him in it for burial.
���������������� In Furaydis, a military vehicle driven by a female soldier purposely ran down a woman of
���������������� Tantura, Amina Muhammad Abu `Umar, the wife of Falih al‑Sa`bi, who had been returning from
���������������� the field with a bundle of wheat on her head that she had gathered to feed her children. A
���������������� woman who witnessed the scene rushed to pull the dead woman's body off the roadway.
�� ��������������Another vehicle barrelled toward her. It missed her but ran over the dead woman a second
���������������� time.
���������������� That day, I told myself that the End of Days had come and that none of us would survive
���������������� these events.
���������������� We spent a month in Furaydis. A child was born there, the first child of Tantura born after the
���������������� massacre. The family, the Abu Safiyyas, had lost most of their menfolk the day the village fell.
���������������� Farid Taha Salam, born in 1915, resident of the Qabun quarter of Damascus
���������������� After we heard the news that Haifa and the surrounding villages had fallen, we took up a
���������������� collection to buy arms. What we had was a few rifles and one automatic weapon, a Brenn.
���������������� Most of the weapons were English, guns that had been owned by the police demobilized by
���������������� the English. We also had a few hunting guns.
���������������� We organized ourselves for night watches but had more men than guns. The guard posts were
���������������� Qarqun, Talat Umm Rashid, the water tower, the church, al‑Bab, al‑Burj, and al‑Warsha. At
���������������� each lookout post, there were only a few men, as many as there were weapons. Our training
���������������� didn't go beyond the stage of assembling and disassembling rifles, and even then, those who
���������������� had mastered this skill were practically seen as professionals. The best were the ones who had
���������������� served in the English police.
���������������� When the attack began, our guards returned fire until the ammunition ran out. Because of our
���������������� lack of experience, a lot of ammunition was wasted with firing too quickly. Most of the
���������������� defenders fell back toward the center of the village, others managed to get out of Tantura
���������������� altogether, and a third group did not leave their posts until they were martyred on the spot or
���������������� taken prisoner and liquidated.
������� ���������The population had been rounded up by the victors. Groups of men were led away one by one,
���������������� and we didn't know what happened to them. I remember that the last group counted about
���������������� forty men. Taha Mahmud al‑Qasim was one of the ones who came back alive. He told us that
���������������� a Jew had asked his group, "Who here speaks Hebrew?" When Taha said he did, the Jew said,
���������������� "Watch how these men die and then go tell the others." Then they lined up the other men
���������������� against a wall and shot them.
���������������� Later Yaacov, who was the mukhtar of Zichron Yaacov, came on the beach where we were
���������������� being held. My father, who knew him, said, "Abu Yussef, the village has fallen, and you have
���������������� taken all the weapons. What more do you want?" He replied, "Taha, we have to reconcile you
���������������� with the Haganah in order to be able to stop the fighting."
���������������� Later, when we were prisoners at the Sarafand camp, I got to know a young Jew who must
���������������� have been about seventeen years old. One day I said to him, "Where are you from? Why did
���������������� you come to Palestine?" He told me he had come from Russia and added, "If someone hears
���������������� that he now has a state, who wouldn't rush to go there?" I then remembered Rothschild, who
���������������� had visited Tantura one day in the 1920s. When he found only Arabs there, he reproached the
���������������� Jews of Zichron Yaacov because they hadn't succeeded in buying any of the land of our
���������������� village. Even Musa, who was Jewish, who had come to our village, who had lived there, worked
���������������� the land, built a house there, and whom we called "Musa the Tanturi"‑‑even he left because
���������������� he felt like a stranger among us.
���������������� Musa `Abd al‑Fattah al‑Khatib, born in 1924, resident of Yarmuk camp
���������������� The night of 23 May 1948, Muhammad al‑Hindi, who was the head of the guard of the village,
���������������� had me called to take position at Dabbit al‑Bi'r, between the water tower and the school.
���������������� There I found Issa al‑Fakhri, who had a hunting rifle, `Abd al‑Jabbar Taha al‑Shaykh Mahmud,
���������������� who had a German rifle and fifty bullets, the son of the mukhtar of Qisarya, also armed with a
���������������� hunting rifle, and Hasan Faysal Abu Hana, who was unarmed.
���������������� I had an English gun and seventy‑five bullets. At midnight I gave my weapon to the man who
���������������� came to replace me, and I was about to go home when `Abd al‑Jabbar suddenly told me to be
���������������� still and listen. Voices speaking in Hebrew reached us from the field close by. We left our
���������������� position and crept toward the field to investigate. Suddenly a volley of fire rang out from the
���������������� direction of the water tower and Qaqun. We hastily regained our position and started firing
���������������� toward the fields in the east.
��� �������������After a few minutes, we thought that the attackers had withdrawn. But then we saw vehicles
���������������� unloading armed men near the school, and the attack on this last position began. We were a
���������������� few dozen meters from the school, and at one point I thought that our position there had
���������������� fallen. Then I saw military vehicles advancing on the road from al‑Bab.
���������������� `Abd al‑Jabbar and I thought the village had fallen. It was then that `Abd al‑Rahman Zaydan
���������������� reached us with 300 bullets, which he gave to me. I stopped firing to take stock of the
���������������� situation. I then heard Faysal Abu Hana say to Issa al‑Hamdan, "Brother, I'm hit, I'm dying."
���������������� Sulayman and Ahmad al‑Masri came at that moment and said they were going back into the
���������������� village to see what was happening. I warned them, but they left anyway and never returned.
���������������� Later I learned that both had been killed.
���������������� Soon `Abd al‑Jabbar had only five bullets left. There were only three of us now, and only my
���������������� gun had ammunition. An armored vehicle started coming down the dirt track nearby, and we
���������������� thought we had been spotted. Two men got out, and we fired on them and hit them. A second
���������������� armored vehicle with a white flag approached, and they tried to pick up the two bodies but
���������������� couldn't because we were firing on them with our only gun. Then intensive shelling of our
���������������� position began, and the armored vehicle pulled off the dirt track and onto the plowed fields. A
���������������� man from the village had hidden himself under some straw, and the vehicle crushed his leg, but
���������������� he didn't even cry out so as not to be discovered.
���������������� It was then that I suggested to `Abd al‑Jabbar that we change position. We came back to
���������������� the first hill, where Issa al‑Hamdan joined us. The soldiers were advancing toward us. Issa
���������������� asked me for my gun and gave me his, which had jammed. I tried to get it working again, but
���������������� couldn't. That's why it was Issa who began firing on them after taking cover.
���������������� Little by little, we were falling back toward the water tower. We reached a cave, where we
���������������� found `Atiyya `Amshawi and Muhammad Shihada. We remained there until nine in the morning,
���������������� when we left our two comrades and advanced toward the water tower a few dozen meters
���������������� from the cave. Suddenly I heard Hebrew and someone say to `Abd al‑Jabbar, "Hands up!" We
���������������� hit the ground instantly and managed to get to a crevasse in the quarry, where we hid. We
���������������� didn't move and could not be seen from their side. But Issa had continued to fire on them until
���������������� he was out of ammunition. They ordered him to put up his hands and asked where the other
���������������� gunman was. He said he was alone. They asked if he had served with the British police. He
���������������� said yes. Then they ordered him to undress and led him to an unknown destination.
���������������� Soldiers had taken up position a few meters from our hiding place. We held our breaths. At
����� �����������sundown, they left the position and moved toward the water tower. We then decided to try to
���������������� make it to the village of Furaydis, where `Abd al‑Jabbar's uncle lived. That's where we learned
���������������� the fate of our village. We stayed at Furaydis for three days, spending the day at Mount
���������������� Carmel and the night in the village. Then we left for `Ayn Ghazal, where we found others who
���������������� had withdrawn from Tantura‑‑`Ali Taha, Nimr al‑Jamal, Mahmud `Abd al‑Rahim, Yahya al‑Hindi,
���������������� and Kamil al‑Dassuki.
���������������� `Adil Muhammad al‑`Ammuri, born in 1931, resident of Yarmuk camp
���������������� Lots of things happened before the attack on Tantura the night of 23 May 1948. I especially
���������������� remember watching the train go by loaded with armored vehicles, supplies, and ammunition for
���������������� the colonies of Khudeira, Ramat Gan, and Netanya. During the same period, armed men would
���������������� fire at Tantura villagers working their fields. As`ad Abu Mdayriss was killed during one of those
���������������� incidents.
���������������� The night of the attack, I was in our house at the center of the village. I tried to go to the
���������������� southern part but was stopped by machine‑gun fire. People were rushing about, old men and
���������������� children, asking God to grant us victory. They weren't so much in a state of panic as
���������������� confused, not knowing what to do and what was really happening.
���������������� During the earlier clashes, the villagers of the Haifa district had gone to the aid of the others.
���������������� This time, we thanked God that the neighboring villagers didn't come, because they would
���������������� have been cut down at the Israeli positions set up on all the roads leading to our village. Later
���������������� I learned that the inhabitants of Jaba` and `Ayn Ghazal had tried to come to our aid but had
���������������� been unable to reach the village.
��������� �������When they rounded us up on the beach, the Jews asked us, "Are there any Syrians among
���������������� you? Have you received Syrian help from the sea?"
���������������� Once we were captured, we were taken to the camp that had been set up in Umm Khalid.
���������������� Later they transferred us to the Jalil prison camp, where a Red Cross representative registered
���������������� our names and informed us of our rights as prisoners of war. The soldiers then made us
���������������� harvest Arab fields on behalf of a Jewish army contractor. They paid us with coupons with
���������������� which we could get food items at the canteen. This allowed us to satisfy our hunger, because
���������������� our daily prison rations were woefully insufficient. One day, several buses arrived in the camp
���������������� loaded with men. They were made to get down so they could drink at the camp's only water
���������������� tank. Because they were parched with thirst, they were pushing and shoving to get to the
�� ��������������tap. The soldiers opened fire on them and blood mixed with water. Tens of men fell dead
���������������� before our eyes. It was only later that we learned that the men were from Lydda and Ramla.
���������������� When we left the camp for exile, we had to cover the distance between Wadi al‑Milh and Jinin
���������������� by foot. I saw numerous Arab corpses along the road.
���������������� Mahmud Nimr `Abd al‑Mu`ti, born in 1930, resident of Yarmuk camp
���������������� My father and I took turns on sentry duty. The night of the attack, it was my father's shift,
���������������� and he was posted at Qarqun, south of the village. When the attack began I left the house,
���������������� and people were running in all directions, congregating in groups. I ran into Muhammad Shihada
���������������� near the Marah. He gave me his rifle and told me that our position at al‑Warsha had not yet
���������������� fallen. I ran to join the defenders.
���������������� On the road, my uncle stopped me and told me that al‑Warsha had fallen. We returned to the
���������������� village, and he hid my weapon in the tomato patch inside the walled garden of our house.
���������������� When we were coming out we ran face‑to‑face into Israeli soldiers. They searched us and
���������������� confiscated my identity card as well as seven Palestinian pounds. Then they took us and other
���������������� prisoners to bury our martyrs, one of whom was Mustafa al‑Salhud. Later I learned that they
���������������� had already killed his two brothers. One of those who had been spared was Taha Muhammad
���������������� Abu Safiyya, but when they sent him back his hair had turned white, even though he was only
���������������� sixteen. On the road leading to the cemetery, I saw a number of bodies that I was not able to
���������������� identify.
���������������� I also remember seeing an old man from the Yahya family known as Abu Rashid. He had been
���������������� badly wounded and had leaned up against a stack of sugar cane. He died in a sitting position
���������������� and looked like he was alive, and seemed to be smiling. I saw one of the Jewish soldiers take a
���������������� picture of him.
���������������� Later, they took us from the camp at Umm Khalid to the Jalil prison camp, where they
���������������� exploited our labor by making us take in the harvest. A number of groups that had been taken
���������������� out to work in the fields never came back. One day while we were still at the Umm Khalid camp
���������� ������we were ordered to dig a big pit, which we did at gunpoint. The Jewish soldiers were talking
���������������� among themselves in Hebrew, and some of us understood that they were intending to finish us
���������������� off. One of us managed to get word to the camp commander, who immediately had them
���������������� replaced.
���������������� One day they took us to the village of Qaqun, where the stench of corpses was overpowering.
���������������� We began digging a hole to bury the dead, but suddenly an Iraqi mortar shell landed
���������������� nearby‑‑the Iraqis were positioned five kilometers from there. A Jewish soldier was killed. I
���������������� myself was hit by shrapnel, but I didn't realize how badly until Issa `Abd al‑`Al told me I was
���������������� bleeding from my hand, chest, and shoulder and I lost consciousness.
���������������� They treated me along with their wounded and plastered my arm. The Red Cross visited us a
���������������� little later in the camp. They asked me about my wound. The man in charge of the camp,
���������������� whose name was Punstein, said that I had been wounded while fighting against his men in
���������������� Tantura. But the Red Cross delegate was not satisfied with his answer and asked if any of us
���������������� spoke English, and Fuad al‑Yahya told him what really happened.
���������������� The Red Cross then told me that I was to be freed, but at first I didn't believe it. As for Fuad
���������������� al‑Yahya, he was punished for speaking up.
���������������� The men from Tantura started writing letters to their loved ones. But I was at a loss‑‑where
���������������� to hide all these letters? My clothes were in rags and the only pocket was small. One of my
���������������� companions suggested my arm sling, and that's where we hid the letters.
���������������� The Red Cross turned me over to the Iraqi army, which closely questioned me. How many
���������������� Iraqis had been killed at Qaqun? How many tanks did the Jews have? How many machine guns,
���������������� how many artillery pieces?
���������������� I was afraid that they would discover the letters, since it was very easy then to be accused
���������������� of espionage or working with the enemy. Once I was released, I managed to get the letters,
���������������� one by one, to the ones they were for. I remained in Jordan into 1949, and then we were
���������������� moved to Syria.
���������������� Yusuf Salam, born in 1924, resident of Yarmuk camp
���������������� A week before the attack, my brother Mustafa and my cousin Muhammad, who were staying
���������������� with some of our relatives at Kafr Lam, were killed by the Jews in an attack on the village. My
���������������� father was wounded while trying to bring back their bodies.
���������������� I was awakened by the sound of bullets. I asked my aunt, who was staying with us to take
���������������� care of my wounded father, what was happening. She said: "Don't worry, it's not very
���������������� serious."
����������� �����I saw them enter the village and even though a white flag had been hung from the minaret of
���������������� the mosque, they killed every man who crossed their path.
���������������� While we were being held on the beach, and after they had selected a last group for
���������������� execution, the mukhtar of Zichron Yaacov arrived and spoke to Samson and warned him
���������������� against killing them. Samson replied that he had orders to kill the whole lot. Yaacov left and
���������������� soon returned with a piece of paper and handed it to Samson. That's how this last group,
���������������� which numbered about forty men, escaped death.
���������������� Besides the bodies that I saw in the mass grave that had been dug in the Dassukis' field, I
���������������� myself counted twenty‑five bodies of our people.
���������������� In Umm Khalid, the deserted village they had transformed into a prison camp, some people
���������������� from Zichron Yaacov came one day and tried to convince the head of the camp, whose name
���������������� was Ashkenazi, to treat us more kindly and with less insults and humiliation, but he refused to
���������������� listen and made them leave.
���������������� While we were being kept at Umm Khalid, `Arif Salam and Muhammad al‑Malah managed to
���������������� escape, so they decided to punish us collectively. We were then transferred to Jalil. One day,
���������������� a soldier started firing and killed a number of prisoners. Yusuf Abu `Ajjaj was one of the
���������� ������victims. Later we learned that the soldier wanted to avenge the Israeli losses at the battle of
���������������� Tirat Bani Sa`b against the Iraqis.
���������������� Another time, the guards became very nervous. A group of Irgun wanted to occupy the camp
���������������� to liquidate all the Arab prisoners. I remember hearing threatening words between the Haganah
���������������� and the Irgun people at the entrance of the camp.
���������������� When I learned from my comrades that the Jews were taking prisoners to work outside the
���������������� camp and that a number of them never came back, I resolved to escape. So one night I went
���������������� near the bungalow of the Egyptian prisoners, because it was unlit. Three other prisoners had
��� �������������decided to flee with me: Anwar Farhat, Ahmad al‑`Ammuri, and a man from the village of
���������������� Yazur. We were counting a lot on the Yazuri because he knew his way around the area. Three
���������������� rows of barbed wire surrounded the camp and my companions held back. I got through the
���������������� first row without difficulty. My face and chest got cut up going through the others, but I
���������������� plunged ahead until I got out. I had no idea about the region, and the weather was cold and
���������������� wintery. I wandered aimlessly around for three days until I was stopped by soldiers who turned
���������������� out to be Iraqi. A Palestinian was with them who knew my village and confirmed my account of
���������������� what had happened. They took me to Tirat Bani Sa`b. When the villagers saw me coming,
���������������� bleeding and accompanied by soldiers, they thought I was an Israeli prisoner captured by the
���������������� Iraqis and tried to attack me, but an officer stopped them.
���������������� Life was not easy there, either. There wasn't enough food or bedding, and no clothing.
���������������� Muhammad Kamil al‑Dassuki, born in 1935, resident of Raml camp, Lattakieh
���������������� People were screaming: "The Jews are attacking, the Jews are attacking!" Bullets were
���������������� whistling all around, and you could hear explosions in the village. At dawn, I saw boats
���������������� unloading soldiers near al‑Burj, north of the village, and they advanced toward the various
���������������� entrances of Tantura.
���������������� While we were carrying the dead, a young man‑‑it was Mustafa al‑Salbud‑‑started to weep. A
���������������� soldier asked him what was the matter. He replied, "My two brothers have been killed. Here's
���������������� the body of my brother Khalil, and here is my brother Muhammad. My mother has no one but
���������������� me now." "What use is your life then?" the soldier asked. And he shot him.
���������������� In the cemetery, I saw cars filled with Jews, some of them laughing and singing, but others
���������������� were terribly silent.
���������������� When we were rounded up on the beach, young Jews, boys and girls, climbed on the fishing
���������������� boats and began crowing their victory, while their chief, a tall man with pale skin, asked us:
���������������� "Where are the Syrian soldiers? Were you fighting alone?" Later, he turned us‑‑that is, the
���������������� women and children‑‑over to the mukhtar of the village of Furaydis. The people of Furaydis
���������������� welcomed us as best they could, and the people of the nearby villages of Jaba`, Ijzim, and
���������������� `Ayn Ghazal sent food and blankets for us.
���������������� We spent a month at Furaydis. One day, an old Jewish man came to the village. He gathered
���������������� all the boys between twelve and fourteen and led us to Tantura to harvest the garlic and
���������������� potatoes, under the guard of Jewish soldiers.
���������������� A soldier approached me: "You're from Tantura. Do you know anyone from the Dassuki family?"
���������������� "Me," I replied. "Do you know Abu `Aql?" "He's my mother's brother." He put down his rifle and
���������������� said, "Where is he?" I said he was at Furaydis. He then started to cry, "Greet him for me. I
���������������� know him, I'm the son of Abraham Hallaq, the train conductor on the Haifa‑Jaffa line and my
���������������� father is a friend of your uncle!" Then he asked after my cousins and I told him that Salim and
���������������� Nimr had been killed. He immediately cursed the murderers and added, "Me, too. Two of my
���������������� brothers were killed." Later, he came to Furaydis to visit my uncle.
���������������� My father, who was one of the defenders of the village, had managed to get to `Ayn Ghazal. I
���������������� decided to try to join him. I started walking, barefoot. When I got to my father, a man from
���������������� `Ayn Ghazal, Hajj Hasan, seeing that I was barefoot, took me with him and bought me a pair
���������������� of shoes.
���������������� Abd al‑Razzaq Nasr, born in 1931, resident of Raml camp, Lattakieh
���������������� The night of the attack, I was on guard duty north of the village, at Bi'r Jamus, not far from
������ ����������Dibbit al‑`Ijra. Shots were coming from the south near Talat Umm Rashid and then got closer
���������������� to our position. About 2:30 A.M., a train brought soldiers who took position above us, where
���������������� they started firing and shelling us. We attempted to withdraw but lost two men. I stayed with
���������������� Muhammad `Awad. During our failed retreat, I saw two other bodies. One of them was
���������������� Muhammad Shihada. When we got near al‑Burj, we passed a group of our people‑‑if my
���������������� memory serves, there was Hasuna Sa`id Salam, Hadi Abu Ghazala, Abu Subhi `Ashmawi, Hajj
���������������� `Abd al‑Rahman al‑Dassuki, and Fayiz Ayyub. The hajj was wounded in the head and Sa`id
���������������� Salam in the shoulder. I tried to help them. When we got near the hajj's house, near the
���������������� Marah, he asked us to leave him there. It was about six in the morning.
���������������� I went home and hid my gun and asked where people were. I learned that many were at the
���������������� house of `Iqab al‑Yahya but that soldiers had found them there. They had burst through the
���������������� front entrance facing the sea and the back door at the same time, firing in all directions and
���������������� shouting, "Get out, out!"
���������������� Everyone was herded to the beach. Their officer, Samson, came and asked for Muhammad
���������������� Yusuf al‑Hindi. He put a revolver to his temple and asked where weapons were hidden.
���������������� Muhammad was forced to give a few names, including mine. They led me, my arms tied with
���������������� my shirt, so I could find my rifle, and they took it. On the way I saw bodies near the Abu
���������������� Safiyya house, and on the way back, at the Marah, I saw the bodies of Fadl Abu Hana, Fawzi
���������������� Abu Zamaq, and Muhammad `Awad Abu Idriss. In the alley by Abu Juayd's barbershop, I saw a
���������������� long trail of blood running some twenty meters to where more than ten bodies had been piled
��������� �������up.
���������������� Yusra Abu Hana, born in 1915, resident of Yarmuk camp
���������������� The shooting began near midnight. Mudallala arrived from Zuluf. She told us, "Issa al‑Dassuki is
���������������� wounded, maybe dead. And when Su`ad al‑Filu ran to him to give him something to drink, they
���������������� fired at her and killed her."
���������������� One of my brothers, Fadl, also was killed; the other, Faysal, was wounded. He had hidden in
���������������� the stable, but he was caught: he was smoking, and the smell of his cigarette gave him away.
���������������� They wanted to kill him, but the mukhtar of Zichron Yaacov, who had good relations with my
���������������� father, interceded for him. It should be remembered that we treated the people of his colony
���������������� well when they came on the beach of Tantura.
���������������� Hasan al‑`Ammuri was an only child and his mother had been forty‑five years old when she
���������������� gave birth to him. He took part in the fighting. They promised him his life if he surrendered, but
���������������� they shot him the minute he gave them his weapon.
���������������� On the beach where we were assembled, they stripped us of everything: watches, bracelets,
���������������� money, identity papers. On the way to the beach, the door of one of the houses was open,
���������������� and I saw a pile of bodies inside. Not to mention the people they had gathered and executed
���������������� in the cemetery. More than fifty. All the ones they killed had no weapons, shot down in the
���������������� streets of the village or inside houses. On the beach, they led men away in groups, but no one
���������������� came back. Toward noon, the killing ended when the mukhtar of Zichron Yaacov came with a
���������������� written order. Some forty men who had just been led away thus were saved.
���������������� Wurud Sa`id Salam, born in 1937, resident of Yarmuk camp
���������������� It was Saturday night, and we were sleeping when the battle began. We immediately got up
���������������� and my mother called on God for protection. My father was a member of the Resistance. We
���������������� hurried to a house where a lot of people had gathered. Then soldiers arrived and ordered us
���������������� out. We walked along the Marah. My mother suddenly started to scream: she had recognized
���������������� the body of my uncle, Fadl Abu Hana. A Jew aimed his gun at her and threatened to kill her if
���������������� she didn't shut up.
���������������� Leaving our house, we took a few things with us for fear that the Jews would steal them‑‑a
���������������� gold pen, a ring with the name of my father engraved on it, some earrings, and eight
���������������� Palestinian pounds. When we got to the beach, my mother buried them in the sand, marking
���������������� the hiding place. Later, at Furaydis, a colonist from Zichron Yaacov who had a restaurant that
���������������� my father supplied with fish recognized us. My mother told him where she had hidden our
���������������� valuables, and he brought them to us. Nothing was missing. I remember that his name was
���������������� Lolik.
���������������� To come back to the massacre, when we were passing the cemetery, my mother said,
���������������� "There's the body of Salman al‑Shaykh!" In my panic, I had almost stepped on him, but my
���������������� mother held me back by my clothing. It was also near the cemetery that we saw my father
���������������� carrying the body of Hajj `Abd al‑Rahman al‑Dassuki, but he didn't get very far and laid the
���������������� body down among the prickly pears for fear of being shot himself. He was already wounded.
���������������� Near the low wall of Umm Fakhriyya, we saw twelve bodies, all from the Abu Safiyya family.
��� �������������After we were handed over to the Red Cross at Tulkarm, we had to set off again. We were
���������������� barefoot. The asphalt burned so hot that we were hopping about like sparrows.
���������������� Sabira Abu Hana, born in 1933, resident of Raml camp, Lattakieh
���������������� We had spent the evening at our neighbor's, Umm Khalid, the wife of Sa`d al‑Din Abu
���������������� al‑Hasan. We were preparing the charcoal fire to boil the laundry, because in the morning we
���������������� had to help with the harvest. Nimr Frahat suddenly burst in and shouted, "What are you still
���������������� doing here? The Jews are already at Talat Umm Rashid!" We ran toward the center of the
���������������� village where my maternal uncle, Sa`id Salam, had his house. We stayed there until six in the
���������������� morning. An hour later, we saw a Jew tie up a man from the village and take him away at
���������������� gunpoint.
���������������� My grandfather, Mahmud Abu Hana, was shot in front of the entrance of the house. My
���������������� paternal uncle, Fadl Abu Hana, was liquidated after the fall of the village and rolled in a straw
���������������� mat. Amina `Awad Abu Idriss discovered the body of her brother near the cemetery. She
����������� �����smoothed his hair, kissed him, and yelled her grief. The bodies that I saw at the cemetery in
���������������� the first lot were more than fifty. On our way there, I saw Abu Jawdat al‑Samra carrying his
���������������� dead son on a bier he had fashioned from a ladder.
���������������� Those who died after leaving Tantura were more than forty in number, most of them children.
���������������� This was on the road between Furaydis and the towns of the West Bank, including Tulkarm
���������������� and Khalil. Every hour you would hear that the child of so‑and‑so had died. I remember that in
���������������� the village of the Russian monastery, we buried more than twenty bodies.
���������������� What happened to our village isn't less horrible than the massacre of Dayr Yasin, but by the
���������������� time our village fell people were more preoccupied with the fate of the living and the loss of
���������������� the country, and no one talked about the massacre of Tantura, until recently.
���������� ������Back to the Journal of Palestine Studies index.
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February 1949: Israel launched an offensive across the Armistice lines with Egypt which brought its forces to the Gulf of Aqaba, occupying the Palestinian police post of Umm Rashrash which they afterwards named Eilat.
1950: Israelis seized the Al‑Uja de‑militarized zone on the Egyptian side and Baqqara on the Syrian side, expelling their Arab inhabitants and razed their homes to the ground by bulldozers.
July 24, 1950: A fighter aircraft of the Israeli air force violating the Lebanese frontier and the armistice boundaries established by decision of the Security Council attacked over Lebanese territory a Lebanese civil aircraft of the Campaign Generale Transports on regular service between Beirut and Jerusalem, in the following circumstances:
The Lebanese aircraft, carrying twenty-four civilian passengers, men, women and children, fourteen of whom were Jordanians, eight Americans and two Daines, left Kalandia Airport at 1530 GMT on July 24 and set it course 080 in the direction of Amman, flying over Jerusalem at 7,000 feet KFF, then continuing in the same direction as far as Amman at altitude 8,500 feet, then set its course at 350 degrees in the direction of Hermon leaving it thirty kilometers to the left and flying over the foothills of Hermon.� After reducing its height for about three minutes to altitude 7,000 feet, and at about seventeen minutes from Beirut, it saw a fighter aircraft bearing a star on a colored background with horizontal bands on the rudder. This aircraft approaching very near the Lebanese aircraft seven or eight times, lowering and raising its landing gear; the Lebanese aircraft, being over mountainous Lebanese territory, proceeded towards Beirut, its nearest aerodrome. At this moment the fighter attacked it from the rear with a machine gun, and it was hit by several bursts and pursued to altitude 2,000 feet near Saida.
One passenger was killed, seven were wounded and the radio navigator, who was seriously wounded, died later. The French pilot, who was wounded, was able to continue as far as Beirut, avoiding disaster. The weather was very fine and the sky clear; therefore, the registration markings on the Lebanese aircraft were fully visible. This unwarranted and premeditated attack over Lebanese territory against a defenseless civil aircraft constitutes a flagrant violation of the armistice conditions laid down by the Security Council and shows total disregard for United Nations principles, the laws of war and the most elementary principles of humanity.
1950‑1955: Israeli forces unleashed more than 40 acts of armed aggressions against Arab states, almost all causing a heavy loss of life. This included attacks and massacres in Qibya, Huleh 1953, Nahalin, Kfar Qassem in 1954, Gaza and a Syrian outpost on Lake Tiberias in 1955.
March 30, 1951: On March 30, 1951, Israeli police (illegally evacuated) the Arab inhabitants of the village Baqqara, numbering, with the neighboring refugees living in the same village, about 980. The village of Baqqara is situated within the demilitarized zone on the western side of the Jordan River in the Huleh area. It goes without saying that such an action is a flagrant violation of article V, paragraph 2 of the General Armistice Agreement, which stipulates that no hinderance to the restoration of normal civilian life by the inhabitants could be allowed in the demilitarized zone.
April 10, 1951: A detachment of Israeli police, who had illegally entered the demilitarized zone, opened fire on the Arab village of Nuqueib with the intention of occupying it in conformity with the Israel plan of systematic and progressive occupation of the demilitarized zone.
May 2, 1951: An Israeli patrol seized cattle, which were grazing near the demarcation line in the demilitarized zone. The Israeli patrol, they said, had fired on Arab shepherds. Small-arms fire was heard in that village and Arab villagers armed with rifles attempted to recover the cattle. The Israel patrol had by that time driven the cattle well within Israel territory and had already killed fifteen cows.
May 6, 1951: Intense mortar fire lasting fifteen minutes was opened on the Arab positions above Shamalne village, with several rounds falling on the village itself. There was in addition considerable rifle and automatic weapons fire. Shamalne village was shelled with heavy mortar and field artillery guns, at least 100 rounds falling in the village or its close proximity. Shamalne village in the demilitarized zone was the target of the fire. The mortar fire decreased and shells landed on an adjoining hail. Numerous casualties have been reported, the observer seeing three Arab dead and two wounded.
May 7, 1951: The Israeli Army had violated the general Armistice Agreement by attacking with artillery, air force and infantry, the Arabs of Shamalne village who were expelled from the demilitarized zone, leaving behind six killed and forty-seven wounded.
May 9, 1951: Israeli forces started shelling and machine-gunning the village of Shamalne. Several bombs fell on the Buteiha area (Syrian territory), and on the Syrian outpost of Al-Hassel; and one woman was killed.
September 1951: Incidents in the Gaza strip area, in so far as they could not be disposed of by a sub-committee of the Mixed Armistice commission, have been considered by the Mixed Armistice Commission itself. At a meeting held on September 23, 1951, it examined an Egyptian complaint alleging that on September 19 Israelis had shelled the Beit Hanum area in the Gaza strip and that they had blown up a number of houses, killing and injuring some Arabs. The Commission adopted the following resolution by unanimous vote: "The Mixed Armistice Commission. Having examined the Egyptian complaint dated September 19, 1951 and the report of the investigation carried out by the United Nations observer. Decided that the action carried out by the Israelis on September 19, 1951 is a violation of article II, paragraph 2, of the Egyptian/Israel Armistice Agreement."
October 19, 1951: A raid during the night of October 19 resulted in the destruction of the Gaza ice factory, the death of one Arab boy and the injury of eleven other persons.
September 2, 1953: The Israeli authorities started works to change the bed of the River Jordan in the central sector of the demilitarized zone. The purpose of these works was to divert the river into a new channel, in order to make it flow through territory controlled by the Israeli authorities. These acts were accompanied by military operations, also in the central sector of the demilitarized zone. Partial mobilization has been carried out behind the sector in question.
October 14, 1953: A battalion scale attack was launched by Israeli troops on the village of Qibya in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The Israelis entered the village and systematically murdered all occupants of many houses, using automatic weapons, grenades. and incendiaries, and dynamited houses over victims' heads. On October 14 the bodies of 42 Arab civilians were recovered. Four men and 38 women and children bore small arms or grenade wounds. Several more bodies were still under the wreckage. Forty house, the village school, and a reservoir were destroyed. Twenty-two cattle were killed and six shops looted. Approach roads from neighboring villages were mined.
October 14, 1953: was a continuation of such brutal, inhuman massacres as the King David Hotel, Semiramis Hotel and Deir Yassin. But it was also a watershed in one of the most sinister grand designs in military history - a deliberate turning of an entire officer corps into a cabal with shared personal guilt for vicious war crimes. The Nazis organized a separate all-volunteer army, under Heinrich Himmler, the Waffen SS. The SS was responsible for the majority of the German war atrocities comparable to those committed by the Zionists. In 1953, Ben-Gurion established an SS equivalent in the Zahal, designated as Commando Unit 101. This all-volunteer unit was responsible for the Kibya massacre and was given exemption from the rules of war as if the Geneva Convention never existed. The first, and only, commander of Commando Unit 101 was Ariel Sharon, the single person most responsible years later for the notorious Sabra dn Shatila massacre in Beirut, Lebanon. The guilt of Commando Unit 101 was the in the most sinister fashion extended first to the Israeli Airborne forces, and subsequently to the entire career officer corps of the Israeli Army. Sharon maneuvered the resignation of the professional commander of the Israeli paratroops, Yehuda Harari, and amalgamated the paratroops along with Commando Unit 101 into Unity 202 of the Israeli Army. The professionalism of the Israeli Airborne troops was thus destroyed, turning all Israeli paratroopers, not just the participants in the Kibya Massacre, into common criminals and murderers of innocent men, women and children.
The Zionists, having destroyed the professionalism of their own Airborne Force, proceeded to destroy the professionalism of the entire career Officer Corps of the Israeli Defense Forces. No senior officer of the IDF could gain promotion without prior service in the paratroops, and all paratroopers shared in war crimes guilt through assignments given them to murder civilians and to commit other acts illegal under the Geneva Convention. According to an authoritative survey of the Israeli Army "The silver parachute 'jump-wings' are worn by almost all Zahal officers, as it is normally a required qualification." [39] The Government of Israel at the time claimed that the Kibya Massacre was performed by "civilian Jewish settlers." But the historical record shows that it was sanctioned by acting Prime Minister Moshe Sharrett, and was planned by Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon, the Chief of the General Staff Mordecai Maklef, and the Chief of Operations, General Moshe Dayan, in concert with vacationing Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion.
Despite the Israeli Government's attempt at cover-up, word spread of their responsibility for the Kibya Massacre and Ariel Sharon's role ultimately came out in connection with this crime. No less a Zionist figure than I.L. Kenen, the founding father of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), the official Israeli lobby in the United States, revealed in his Memoirs: "I was on my way home on the subway, headed for Riverdale, when I heard a brief news flash in the World Telegram disclosing that 66 Arabs had been killed at Kibya as Israelis sought to avenge the slaughter of an Israeli family. I did not know until years later that the raid was ordered by Ariel Sharon, the Israeli commander who led the invasion of Lebanon in 1982." [40]
���� At 9:30 p.m., on Wednesday, October 14, 1953, Israeli troops attacked the border Jordanian village of Kibya, Northwest of Jerusalem. Seven hundred regular Israeli troops participated in the attack in which mortars, machine guns, rifles and explosives were used. Forty-two houses as well as the school and the mosque of the village were dynamited. Every man, woman and child found by the attackers was killed; all in all, seventy-five innocent villagers were murdered in cold blood that night. Later, the attackers turned their fire on the cattle, killing 22 cows. The attack was the bloodiest and most brutal Zionist crime since the infamous Deir Yassin massacre of 1948. The Jordanian Government immediately informed the Truce Supervision Organization of the attack. The signatories of the Three Power Declaration of 1950 (U.S.A., Britain and France) were also informed of the serious consequences of the despicable Zionist aggression. The Arab Legion cancelled all leaves, thousands of persons demonstrated in the streets of Amman, Nablus and Old Jerusalem asking for arms to avenge the innocent victims of Kibya. The Jordan Cabinet held a series of meetings with military chiefs to discuss measures to be taken to deal with the situation resulting from the Zionist attack. After a two-hour meeting, the Jordan-Israeli Mixed Armistice Commission convicted Israel of the Kibya murders.
���� Reaction of Western Powers: In London, the Ministers of major western powers who were meeting in the British capital condemned the Israeli crime. The British Foreign Office issued a statement in which the attack was described as constituting the gravest violation of the Palestine Armistice Agreement and a serious threat to peace in the area. The statement added: "Her Majesty's ambassador in Tel-Aviv has been instructed to express to the Israeli Government the horror of her Majesty's Government at the apparently calculated attack. Her Majesty's Government expects the Israeli Government to bring to justice those who are responsible and to take measures to compensate the victims."
In Paris, the French Government announced that it associated itself with Great Britain in protesting in horror against the Israeli attack. A spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry also confirmed that a French note of protest was delivered to Israel through the French embassy in Tel-Aviv. In Washington, the Department of State issued a statement in which it said: "The U.S. Government has the deepest sympathy for the families of those who lost their lives in and near Kibya during the recent attack by Israeli forces. The shocking reports which have reached the Department of State of the loss of lives and property involved in this incident convince us that those who are responsible should be brought to account and that effective measures should be taken to prevent such incidents in the future."
���� Jordan Reports Kiby Massacre to Security Council: On October 16, 1953, Dr. Yousif Haikal, Jordanian Ambassador to the United Nations, addressed the following letter to the President of the Security Council reporting the Israeli Kibya attack: "Under instructions from my Government I have the honor to bring the following matter to your attention: On Wednesday, October 14, 1953, at 9:30 p.m., a battalion scale attack was launched by Israeli troops on the village of Kibya in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The Israelis entered the village and systematically murdered all occupants of houses, using automatic weapons, grenades, and incendiaries; and dynamited houses over victims' heads. On October 14, the bodies of forty-two Arab civilians were recovered. Four men and thirty-eight women and children bore small-arms or grenade wounds. Several more bodies were still under the wreckage. Forty houses, the village school, and a reservoir were destroyed. Twenty-two cattle were killed and six shops looted. Approach roads from neighboring villages were mined. Several men of the village police and National Guards, who were absent on frontier duty preventing Jordan infiltrators from entering Israel, lost their families, one man lost his entire family of eleven. Quantities of unused explosives bearing Israeli Army markings in Hebrew were found in the village.
���� At about 3:00 a.m., to cover their withdrawal, Israeli support troops began shelling the neighboring villages of Budrus and Shuqba from positions in Israel, damaging a number of houses. On that same day, October 14, Israel had been condemned by the Mixed Armistice Commission for ambushes on a civilian buss and taxi travelling between Beit Sira and Latrun. At an emergency meeting on October 15, the Mixed Armistice Commission condemned Israel by majority vote for the shelling of Budrus by a supporting unit of the Israel attacking forces (under the Armistice Agreement, Article 3, Paragraphs 2 and 3). The Commission passed a resolution by majority vote, calling upon the Israeli Government to take immediate and most urgent steps to prevent the recurrence of such steps on Jordan and Jordan citizens. The Jordan Government has taken appropriate measures to meet the emergency. However, it feels that this criminal Israeli aggression is so serious that it might start a war in the area. It has the view, therefore, that the situation calls imperatively for an immediate and effective action by the United Nations, and especially by those nations party to the Tripartite Declaration of May 25, 1950." [41]
���� Security Council Debate on Israeli Border Aggressions: On October 19, the United Nations Security Council met at the invitation of the three Great Western Powers to discuss the Israeli border aggressions. [42] On October 26, General Van Bennike testified before the United Nations Security Council. He gave irrefutable evidence that the brutal attack on Kibya was undertaken by regular army units of Israel and not by irregulars as claimed by official Israeli sources.
The following is the full text of General Van Bennike's report on Kibya: "The information I am going to submit on the Kibya incident is based on reports received from United Nations observers, in particular from the senior officer who is the Acting Chairman of the Mixed Armistice Commission. Following the receipt of a Jordan complaint that a raid on the village of Kibya had been carried out by Israel military forces during the night of 14-15 October, between 9:30 p.m. and 4:30 a.m., a United Nations investigation team departed from Jerusalem for Kibya at about 6:30 a.m. on 15 October. The Acting Chairman also left for Kibya on the same morning. On reaching the village he found that between thirty and forty buildings had been completely demolished, including the school, the water pumping station, the police station and the telephone office.
���� Near the police station, one lorry had been completely destroyed by fire. The necks and trigger attachments of incendiary bombs were found nearby. Bullet-riddle bodies near the doorways and multiple bullet hits on the doors of the demolished houses indicated that the inhabitants had been forced to remain inside until their homes were blown up over them.
���� There were several small craters along the western perimeter of the village, and the tails of two-inch mortar shells were found. Four gaps, approximately three meters in width, had been blasted in the barbed-wire protective fence surrounding the village. Fragments, easily identifiable as parts of Bangalore torpedoes, were found near these gaps.
���� By the time the Acting Chairman left Kibya, twenty-seven bodies had been dug from the rubble. The villagers were digging for others who they knew were still buried beneath the building stones. They believed that the number of dead might reach sixty. Six wounded persons were seen in the village, and the Acting Chairman was told that there were other wounded persons in the hospital.
���� Witnesses were uniform in describing their experiences as a night of horror, during which Israeli soldiers moved about in their village, blowing up buildings, firing into doorways and windows with automatic weapons and throwing hand grenades. A number of unexploded hand grenades, marked with Hebrew letters indicating recent Israeli manufacture, and three bags of TNT were found in and about the village. An emergency meeting of the Mixed Armistice Commission was held in the afternoon of 15 October. The following resolution, moved by the Jordan delegation, was adopted by majority vote, with the Israeli delegation voting against it:
���� '(a) The crossing of the demarcation line by a force approximately one half of a battalion from the Israeli Regular Army, fully equipped, into Kibya village on the night of 14-15 October, 1953, to attack the inhabitants by firing from automatic weapons and throwing grenades and using Bangalore torpedoes together with TNT explosives by which forty-one dwelling houses and a school building were completely blown up, resulting in the cold-blooded murder of forty-two lives, including men, women, children, and the wounding of fifteen persons and the damage of a police car, (and) at the same time, the crossing of a part of the same group in to Shuqba village, (are) a breach of article III, paragraph 2 of the General Armistice Agreement.
���� (b) The shelling by a supporting unit to that force by three-inch mortar guns resulted in the damage of some houses and a bus and the wounding of a N.C.O in charge of the National Guards, is a breach of article III, paragraph 3 of the General Armistice Agreement. The Mixed Armistice Commission decides that it is extremely important that the Israeli authorities should take immediately the most vigorous measures to prevent the recurrence of such aggressions against Jordan and its citizens.' I discussed with Commander Hutchison, of the U.S.A. Navy, the Acting Chairman of the Mixed Armistice Commission, the reasons why he had supported the resolution condemning the Israeli Army for having carried out this attack and, after listening to his explanations and technical arguments, I found them most convincing." [43]
���� Security Council Condemns Israel for Kibya Raid: On November 9, the British, United States, French and Greek delegates to the Security Council told the Council they held Israel responsible for the raid on Kibya. After a long debate which the Israeli delegate to the UN tried to drown the aggression on Kibya in a generalized discussion of all sorts of aspects of the Palestine Question, the Council finally approved on 25 November a draft resolution introduced by France the United Kingdom and the United States.
The resolution condemned Israel's crime at Kibya in unmistakable terms. It said in part: "The Security Council, Recalling its previous resolutions on the Palestine question, particularly those of 15 July 1948, 11 August 1949, and 18 May 1951 concerning methods for maintaining the armistice and resolving disputes through the Mixed Armistice Commission; Noting the reports of 27 October 1953 and 9 November 1953 to the Security Council by the Chief of Staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization and the statements to the Security Council by the representatives of Jordan and Israel; Finds that the action at Kibya taken by armed forces of Israel 14-15 October 1953 and all such actions constitute a violation of the ceasefire provisions of the Security Council resolution of 15 July 1948 and are inconsistent with the Parties' obligations under the General Armistice Agreement and the Charter; Expresses the strongest censure of that action which can only prejudice the chances of that peaceful settlement which both Parties in accordance with the Charter are bound to seek, and calls upon Israel to take effective measures to prevent all such actions in the future." [44]
���� American Private Citizens Expressed Outrage At Israel For The Kibya Massacre: The following comments are by Passionist Father Ralph Gorman, Editor of "The Sign," National Catholic Magazine of the United States: "Terror was a political weapon of the Nazis. But the Nazis never used terror in a more cold-blooded and wanton manner than the Israelis in the massacre at Kibya. The official report of the Palestine Truce Supervisor removed any possible doubt that the Israelis, themselves in large part refugees from Hitler's terror, were perpetrators of this horrible slaughter of innocent men, women and children. It also reveals that it was an official act of the State, carried out by an official organ, the army.
���� Kibya is an Arab village twenty miles northeast of Jerusalem and a mile and a half from he border of Israel. The evening of October 14, was like any other for the 1500 inhabitants of the peaceful village until at 9:30 all hell let loose. Mortar shells began exploding from artillery that had been carefully aimed from Israel before dark. After the town had been partly demolished and many of its inhabitants buried in the rubble of falling homes or blown to bits by the exploding shells, half a battalion of the regular Israeli army moved in and surrounded the village to cut off escape. Then followed an orgy of murder that would be incredible if it had not been verified by reliable neutral testimony. Women and children as well as men were murdered deliberately, systematically, and in cold blood.
���� The only response the Israelis have made to outraged protest of the civilized world had been one of defiance and self-justification. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion excused the murderers. Israeli newspapers openly gloated over the deed, and even American Zionists showed little concern other than a fear that American dollars might not continue to flow as freely as before into the coffers of the new state.
���� Most of our readers know by now our attitude on Zionism. We are not anti-Semitic, although anybody who criticizes Israel is tarred with this brush in some quarters. We have always advocated help for persecuted Jews and an open-door policy for Jewish immigration into the United States. But Palestine has been an Arab country since the seventh century, and it is a horrible injustice to rob the Arabs of their land and drive them into exile in order to make a home for Jewish refugees. If want a measure of justice for all concerned, if we want any respect for the United Nations and its decisions, if we want peace in the Middle East and the vast Moslem world on our side, then we must take action now. We simply cannot permit the Israelis to go on thumbing their noses at the United Nations and flouting the most fundamental decencies of the civilized world.
���� We should demand that the Israelis accept, and accept as final, the territorial limits established by the United Nations, with minor rectifications to return to Arab villages land which has been cut off by an arbitrary drawing of boundaries. We should give a guarantee to the Arabs that in case of further Israeli aggression we shall shut off all help to Israel and give all possible aid to the Arabs. We can and should force the Israelis to accept the United Nations decision to internationalize Jerusalem. This is a matter in which the whole Christian world has an interest. These are minimum and essential demands. We must confess a fear that little or nothing will be done in spite of the tremendous issues involved. The Zionist pressure group in this country is so powerful that even the highest Government officials either talk as if they were citizens of Israel or keep silent." [45]
John Barwick is an American citizen who was for many years YMCA Representative in the Middle East and was then living in Jerusalem. In the following article he describes the indelible effect of the fact that American ammunition was used in the Kibya Massacre: "FA 43, that is what is stamped on the rim of this cartridge shell. There is a dent in the copper center which means it had done its job. But it was still vigorous enough at midnight on October 14, 1953 to penetrate a baby's skull as it lay on its mother's lap. Its fellows in the magazine of that gun did the same for a three-year-old boy, this four-year old sister and their mother. All the wounds were in the back of their heads. Their bodies were bowed as in prayer when the stone of their home were lifted off them. Those who made that cartridge hoped it would keep the Nazis behind the Rhine. The Arab village of Kibya will probably outlive Lidice in the hot memories of hate. To Kibya, Israel dispatched its army, as its instrument of national policy, to use artillery to blast its way into an unarmed village of 2,000 people, kick open a few doors, shoot in cold blood a dozen families, put demolition bombs under their houses then sit on the wall in the moonlight to watch them blow up, smoking cigarettes looted from the shops. After that the soldiers loaded the loot on a few donkeys, shot the rest of the livestock and went leisurely home to well-earned rest. The irony of all this is that for centuries Arab countries had been the refuge of Jews persecuted in so-called Christian lands. The practical problem the world faces today is the mind of the Arab holding this shell. He has been told it is of American origin and he is not surprised, although it is not what he hoped for from a country known for its kindness. FA 13 against the background of a white hot memory - that night when his world fell around him, his army 75 miles away, unable to respond to his pleas, his women and children dying under the rubble of his roof, no help of any kind for hours, no doctors or nurses until all but two had died, not even an ambulance for almost 24 hours.
���� The conclusion is inescapable: all he held dear was destroyed through Barbarism made possible by American bullets and shells. All the missionaries America may send from now on, all the Point Four we can pour into the country, all the U.N. relief we can provide, will not wipe out the memory." [46]
���� Revelations From the Diary of Moshe Sharrett: Years after the Kibya incident, the diary of then Acting Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Moshe Sharrett was published. Sharrett had originally sanctioned a "reprisal" raid of some kind, but he changed his mind and tried to abort a major raid. But the ruthless clique then headed by Ben-Gurion ignored Sharrett's reservations. Sharrett's diary entries disclose: "I told Lavon that this (attack) will be a grave error, and recalled, citing various precedents, that it was never proved that reprisal actions serve their declared purpose. Lavon smiled...and kept to his own idea... Ben Gurion, he said, didn't share my view. According to the first news from the other side, thirty houses have been demolished in one village. This reprisal is unprecedented in its dimensions and in the offensive power used. I walked up and down in my room, helpless and utterly depressed by my feelings of impotence...I was simply horrified by the description in Radio Ramallah's broadcast of the destruction of the Arab village. Tens of houses have been razed to the soil and tens of people killed. I can imagine the storm that will break out tomorrow in the Arab and Western capitals. I must underline that when I opposed the action I dint' even remotely suspect such a bloodbath. I thought I was opposing one of those actions which have become a routine in the past. Had I even remotely suspected that such a massacre was to be held, I would have raised real hell. (In the cabinet meeting) I condemned the Kibya affair that exposed us in front of the whole world as a gang of bloodsuckers, capable of mass massacres regardless, it seems, of whether their actions may lead to war. I warned that this stain will stick to us and will not be washed away for many years to come." [47]
October 14‑15, 1953: Under the command of Ariel Sharon, Israeli squads attacked the unarmed Arab village of Qibya in the demilitarized one. Where they blew up 42 houses and killed more than sixty residents who were trapped inside. The details were so gruesome that the U.S. joined in a U.N. condemnation of the Israeli action, and for the first and only time, suspended aid to Israel in reprisal.
December 18, 1953: Captain Mansur Mouawad, a Lebanese physician in the service of the Army of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, was murdered in a brutal and barbaric manner by an Israeli armed group.
December 21, 1953: An armed group attacked a Bedouin camp near Tarqumyia wounding one man. Israel was condemned by the Mixed Armistice Commission for this incident.
December 21, 1953: An armed group, using explosives and automatic weapons, attacked a house near Hebron killing one pregnant woman and two men, and wounding another man. Israel was condemned for this incident.
February 17, 1954: An armed group, using explosives and automatic weapons, attacked a house at Kharass Village (south central area) killing one Jordanian and wounding his ten-year-old son. Israel was condemned by the Mixed Armistice Commission for this incident.
February 18, 1954: A patrol of two Egyptian soldiers in Egyptian territory was attacked by armed Israelis hiding in ambush. One of the Egyptian soldiers was kidnapped and killed inside Israel-controlled territory, close to the demarcation line.
February 19, 1954: Armed Israelis opened automatic fire across the demarcation line at an Arab working in his field. The Arab was seriously injured.
March 29, 1954: Nahhalin village, an Israel armed force, well equipped, surrounded the village from three directions and penetrated inside the village and opened fire from different automatic weapons, threw hand-grenades and placed mines at some houses, including the mosque of the village; 9 persons - 8 men and 1 woman were killed, and 14 others were injured and taken to a hospital.
June 12, 1954: Israeli terrorist activities against the Arab population of Baqqara and Ghannama are continuing. A large part of this population was obliged in desperation to take refuge near the bridge of Banat Ya'coub and to request admission to Syria. Clear proofs of this policy of harassment and evacuation directed against the Arab civilian population of the central demilitarized zone can easily be furnished on request.
July 4, 1954: A high Israel military officer visiting the two villages of the Arab population of Baqqara and Ghannama said to the Arab population: "You must do one of two things, either become Israel nationals or leave the zone, your land your houses and your property and go to an Arab country."
July 1954: Israeli intelligence planted "a ring of spies (Moles)" in Cairo, its task was to begin sabotage operations against selected Egyptian, British and American targets...On July 14, the Alexandria post office was fire‑bombed and the U.S. Information Agency offices in Cairo and Alexandria were damaged by fire started by phosphorous incendiary devices, as was a British‑owned theater. Members of the spy ring were caught, and they confessed. They had been planted by Modin, the Israeli military intelligence organization. The purpose, presumably, was to sabotage Egyptian relations with the U.S. and Britain. Various commissions of inquiry into the affair conducted in Israel were never able to decide whether or not Israeli Defense Minister Pinchon Lavon authorized the operation.
August 30, 1954: An Israeli military force of about three platoons crossed the demarcation line into Jordan territory and opened fire against Kh. Sikka and Deir Al'Asal villages. The group was supported by fire from within Israel. The fire was returned by Arab Legion and National Guard forces. The Israelis withdrew under cover of a smoke screen, leaving munitions, medical supplies and food containers behind them. One arab legionary was killed and three members of the Arab national Guard were wounded.
September 1-2, 1954: A large force of Israeli soldiers, estimated at battalion strength, crossed the demarcation line from the direction of Im'in. The Israeli force opened fire against the village of Beit Liqya well inside Jordanian territory using automatic weapons, hand grenades and 2-inch mortars, and blew a gap, with Bangalore torpedoes, in the wire fence surrounding this village. At the same time, another Israeli force was taking up positions in the hills to the south of Beit Liqya, from which they were firing heavily to support those who were trying to enter the village. To the north, near Beit 'Ur at Tahta, an Arab Legion modified troop-carrier, proceeding with reinforcements to the scene, blew up on a land mine which had been planted by Israeli soldiers. After the explosion, Israeli soldiers who were lying in ambush rushed to the truck, fired automatic weapons and threw an incendiary bomb into it. As a result, two Arab legionaries were killed, one was injured and three were abducted. Still another force of Israeli soldiers advanced into Jordan along the Wadi el Malaqi.
February 28, 1955: Violent and premedicated aggression committed by Israeli armed forces against Egyptian armed forces inside Egyptian controlled territory near Gaza, causing many casualties, including 39 dead and 32 wounded, and the destruction of certain military installations, in violation of, inter alia, article I, paragraph 2, and article II, paragraph 2, of the Egyptian-Israeli General Armistice Agreement.
March 9, 1955: Israel was condemned for an incident, when an Arab farmer was wounded in the Gaza strip by an Israeli patrol which fired across the demarcation line. The wounded man was captured by two armed Israelis who crossed the demarcation line.
April 2, 1955: The Mixed Armistice Commission found that at about 0940 hours local time, Israeli soldiers had fired at an Egyptian outpost with rifles, automatic weapons and 3-inch mortars, that an Israeli jeep had penetrated 100 meters into Egyptian controlled territory, and that, as a result of this act of aggression, two Egyptian soldiers had been wounded, one of whom had died of his wounds.
October 16, 1955: Israel forces opened fire on the village of Dureijat, near the Banat Ya'coub bridge in Syrian territory. Two people were seriously wounded.
October 22, 1955: An Israeli army detachment consisting of about 250 commandos crossed the demarcation line and entered Syrian territory. The detachment was equipped with heavy arms. After penetrating two kilometers into Syrian territory, the Israelis laid an ambush in the course of which they set fire to a Syrian army car and seized an officer and a soldier. Another military car drove up and was subjected to heavy artillery fire, as a consequence of which a Syrian officer and two soldiers were killed. The Israelis then attacked and burned a third car. They further seized a non-commissioned officer and two soldiers. During the fighting which followed the above mentioned operations, five soldiers were wounded. After the Israeli detachment had withdrawn, the United Nations observers noted at several points in Syrian territory, traces of the acts of brigandage it had committed. The observers found, among other things, hand-grenades, mines and a large quantity of ammunition; they seize this evidence at the outset of their investigations.
October 27, 1955: An Israeli patrol attacked the village of Banias, seriously wounding an unarmed civilian.
April� 5, 1956: Israeli armed forces started at 12:30 hours local time this morning to attack the cities of Gaza, Deir el Balah, Abasan and Khozaa in the Gaza Strip. According to the preliminary reports the casualties of this military attack which has been taking place since this morning are: 33 civilians killed; 92 civilians and 7 of the Egyptian armed forces including an officer injured.
August 2, 1956: An armed group from Israel encountered in this general area another Jordanian patrol and opened submachine gun fire, killing 2 national guardsmen.
August 16-17, 1956: Two serious incidents resulting in the death of nine Egyptians took place in the Egyptian controlled Gaza area. In the first of these incidents a group from twelve to twenty armed persons crossed the demarcation line from Israel into Egyptian controlled territory, where they exchanged fire with a three-man Egyptian listening post. Shortly thereafter an Egyptian patrol consisting of a sergeant and three other ranks ran into the Israel patrol still in Egyptian controlled territory. In the action following, the Egyptian sergeant and two other soldiers were killed. The bodies had extensive wounds caused by grenades and bullets. The second incident of the night of August 16/17 occurred on the main Gaza-Rafah road. An Egyptian jeep with six passengers, namely an Egyptian medical officer, a medical orderly and four soldiers, was ambushed and attacked by a group of five to seven men. The ambushing party had laid mines in the road and then attacked the jeep and its occupants with machine gun fire. The evidence indicates that the victims were killed by small arms fire at close range. Tracks were followed from the scene of the incident all the way to the demarcation line.
August 21, 1956: An Israel patrol crossed the demarcation line in the Kh. Umm ar Rihan area. An exchange of fire developed with a Jordanian patrol, as a result of which three Jordanian national guardsmen were wounded and one Israel soldier killed. Israel was held responsible in the August 29 Mixed Armistice Commission emergency meeting.
August 30, 1956: An Israeli patrol crossed the demarcation line in Deir el Balah area. A fire fight took place between the patrol and Egyptian troops. The patrol was supported by a mortar. Two Egyptian soldiers were killed, two wounded. Three Egyptian soldiers interrogated at the scene of the incident stated they heard three explosions and an exchange of fire at 21:30 hours from a listening post. When fire stopped they went to the listening post and found one Egyptian soldier dead and a second who died within a few minutes.
1956: Squads of Israeli soldiers committed a hideous atrocity in the Palestinian village of Kafr Qasim, forty‑seven innocent people were shot down in cold blood. The careful and premeditated mass murders, never received great attention in the West. Although the Israeli courts convicted eight soldiers of murder, they were all released within two years of their trial, and within three years one of them who had been convicted of killing forty‑three Arabs in an hour, was engaged by the municipality of Ramleh as the "officer responsible for Arab affairs in the city."
In October 1956: Israel, backed by England and France, attacked Egypt to gain control of the Suez Canal. Taking advantage of the situation created by Egypt's decision of nationalization of the Suez Canal, Israel joined forces with Britain and France to invade Egypt. As a result, it occupied the Sinai Peninsula, seized the Gaza Strip, and Sharm Al sheikh which guarded the Strait of Tiran and the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba. a year letter it withdrew reluctantly under the combined pressure of the U.N., U.S.A. and the Soviet Union.
There was no military necessity for this destruction; it was sheer vengeance against Arab Christians. This action created another 300,000 Arab refugees, thus making a total refugee population of Christian and Muslin Arabs, which is larger than the combined populations of Montana, Nevada and Wyoming. It was during this campaign that the Israeli's attacked the U.S.S. Liberty with the death of 34 of its number.
If this had been an Egyptian or a Russian attack, American would have been at war, but the Jewish vote of America silenced any American criticisms of this action. Americans are also not told that Israel has always refused to obey any mandate of the United Nations. Resolutions affirmed by vote every year since 1948 recognize the right of the return of Palestinian refugees, but Israel always refuses to obey. Israel has been condemned over and over again for breaking the charter and now fulfilling the conditions upon which she was allowed to become a member!
1956: The Massacre of Kafr Kassim. The aftermath of Kibya was a continued, and still continuing, Zionist policy of perpetrating massacres to serve the political purpose of the Zionist clique. In 1956, they joined in a conspiracy with the British and French to invade Egypt. The conspiracy to commit aggressive war was accompanied by atrocities against innocent civilians. Although the defenseless Arab population in Zionist-occupied Palestine posed no military threat to the Zionist Defense Forces, the Zionists feared the emotional arousal that would inevitably accompany their waging of a new, aggressive war. They decided to instill total fear in the hearts of the helpless Palestinian Arab communities, and selected the peaceful village of Kafr Kassim to perpetrate a cold-blooded massacre. Fifty one men, women and children were murdered on October 29, 1953, by the Frontier Guard force.
The following is a detailed account of the horrible massacre of Kafr Kassim as told by eyewitnesses. The Israeli daily, "Kol Haam" came out on Wednesday, December 19, carrying on its front page the following detailed story of the Kafr Kassim massacre which was committed by the Israeli army on October 29, 1956, against the Arabs in occupied Palestine and in which 49 people; men, women and children were slaughtered in cold blood. "Kol Haam" published the story of the massacre under the title, "In This Way Were the 49 Inhabitants of kafr Kassim Slaughtered." The following is a literal translation: "Here are the details of the massacre in which 49 of the peaceful inhabitants of Kafr Kassim; all Arabs living in Israel were slaughtered in cold blood. Another thirteen of these inhabitants also sustained serious injuries in this horrible massacre committed by the troops of the Israeli frontier guards.
���� On October 29, 1956, the day on which Israel launched its assault on Egypt, units of the Israeli frontier guards started at 4 p.m. what they called a tour of the Triangle Villages. They informed the Mukhtars and the rural councils that the curfew in those villages was from that day onwards to be observed from 5 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. as was the case before, and that the inhabitants were, therefore, requested to say home as from that very instant. One of the villages the frontier guards passed through was Kafr Kassim. This is a small Arab village situated near the Israeli settlement of Betah Tefka. The villagers there received the alert at 4:45 p.m. only 15 minutes before the new curfew time. The 'Mukhtar' of Kafr Kassim promptly informed the unit officer that a large number of the villagers, whose work took the outside the village, knew nothing of this new curfew. The officer in charge replied that his soldiers would take care of these. The villagers who were home complied with the newly-imposed curfew and remained indoors. Meanwhile, the armed frontier guards posted themselves at the village gates. Before long, the first batch of villagers came into sight. The first to arrive was a group of four laborers, home-bound, on bicycles. Here is what one of these laborers, Abdullah Samir Bedir by name, said about the incident:
���� 'We reached the village entrance at about 4:55 p.m. We were suddenly confronted by a frontier until consisting of 12 men and an officer, all occupying an army truck. We greeted the officer in Hebrew saying 'Shalom Katsin' which means 'Peace be unto you officer,' to which he gave no reply. He then asked us in Arabic: 'Are you happy?' and we said 'Yes.' The soldiers started stepping down from he truck and the officer ordered us to line up. Then he shouted to his soldiers this order: 'Laktasour Otem,' which means 'Reap them!' The soldiers opened fire, but by then I flung myself on the ground, and started rolling, yelling as I rolled over. Then I feigned death. Meanwhile, the soldiers had so riddled the bodies of my three friends with bullets that the officer in charge ordered them to cease firing, adding that the bullets were merely being wasted. As he put it, we had more than the necessary dose of those deadly bullets.
���� All this occurred while I lay very still, feigning death. Then I saw three laborers approaching on a small horse cart. The soldiers stopped the cart and killed all three of them. Soon after, the soldiers moved a few yards down the road, apparently to take up positions that would enable them to stop a new truckload of home-bound villagers, as well as a bunch of workers returning home on their bicycles. I seized this opportunity and moved as quickly as I could to the nearest house. The soldiers saw me and opened fire, but I was already in safety.
���� One of the trucks used for transporting farm produce was again stopped while carrying thirteen olive pickers, all women and girls, and two male laborers and the driver. They were attacked by the same group of frontier guards, who pitilessly butchers all but one of them.' This is what 16-year-old Hanna Soliman Amer, the only survivor, said about this incident: 'The soldiers brought our car to a halt at the entrance of the village and ordered the two workers and the driver to step down. Then they told them they were going to be killed. On hearing that the women started crying and screaming, begging the soldiers to spare those poor workers' lives. But the soldiers shouted at the women, saying that their turn was coming and that they, too, were going to be killed.
���� The soldiers stared at the women for a few moments, as if waiting for their officer to give the order. Then I heard the officer talk over the wireless set, apparently asking his headquarters for instructions regarding the women. The minute the wireless conversation was over, the soldiers took aim at the women and girls, who were 13 in number, and who included pregnant one (Fatma Dawoud Sarsour was in her eighth month of pregnancy) as well as an old woman of sixty and two thirteen-year old girls (Latifa Eissa and Rashika Bedair).'
���� The number of cars stopped by the Israeli soldiers of the frontier guards was three; the people in all three cares were ordered to descend and were shot by machine-gun fire, killing them instantly. A fourth car, which was a little late in coming, met with better luck, for the driver, seeing the bodies scattered around didn't heed the order to stop. He pressed the accelerator and thus managed to escape with his car. The soldiers, however, succeeded in shooting one of the passengers as the car sped by.
���� With the massacre practically over, the soldiers moved around finishing off whoever still had a pulse beating in him. Later on, the examination of these bodies showed that the soldiers had mutilated them, smashing the heads and cutting open the abdomens of some of the wounded women to finish them off. The only survivors were those who for some time lay buried under the corpses of their comrades and thus had their bodies covered with the blood of these victims, giving the impression that they, too, were dead. Those were the only ones who lived to speak of the horrors of the massacre of Kafr Kassim. The massacre lasted for an hour and a half and the soldiers looted whatever they could find, apparently while going round the bodies doing their finishing-off job. However, thirteen of those wretched people only fainted when they were shot at. These were taken to Bilinson as well as to other hospitals. One of those wounded was Osman Selim, who was traveling on one of the trucks. He witnessed the massacre, and escaped by pretending to be dead among the pile of corpses. Asaad Selim, a cyclist, was seriously injured. So was Abdel Rahman Yacoub Sarsoura, a youth aged 16, who is deaf and dumb. The only one who managed to escape death and reach Kroum El-Zeitoun is Ismail Akab Badeera, aged 18, who nursed his wounds until he got there, then climbing up an olive tree despite his suffering. He remained there for two whole days until a passing shepherd came along and carried him to a hospital where one of his legs had to be amputated for gangrene.
���� The blood bath was not restricted to the entrance or outskirts, but was carried right into the village itself. Talal Shaker Eissa, aged 8, left his home to bring in a flock of goats. He had hardly stepped out of his home when he was murdered by a shot fired by one of the soldiers. When his father ran out to investigate, he was killed by another shot. The mother, dragging in his body, was then shot. Noura, the remaining child, followed the cries of agony coming from her parents, and was killed on the spot by a hail of bullets. The only survivor of the family, a frail and aged grandfather, hearing the horror and the sounds of death, succumbed to a heart attack and died.
���� The next day, 31 October, 1956, a curfew was imposed on the village of Kafr Kassim, and during that time, the Israeli police brought over some of the villagers form neighboring Galgoulia and ordered them to bury the corpses, which included fathers, mothers, sons and daughters. Among these were Safa Abdalla Sarsour, a woman aged 45, Osman Abdalla Eissa was killed with his son Fathi aged 12; and Zeinab Abdel Rahman Taha and her daughter Bikria, aged 17." [48]
���� Details of the Massacre as Reported by Dr. Sabri Jiryis from the Records of the District Court in Israel, File No. 3/57, Israeli Newspapers, and records of the Knesset: "The massacre was carried out by the Frontier Guard, which had been formed in the early 1950's to protect Israel's borders. A description of the events at Kafr Kassim follows, as recorded by the Israeli military court: 'On the eve of the Sinai War...a battalion attached to the Central Area Command was ordered to prepare itself to defend a section of the Israeli-Jordanian frontier. (with this end in view)...a unit of the Frontier Guard was attached to the said battalion and the commander of this Frontier Guard unit, Major Shmuel Milinki, was placed under the orders of the battalion commander. Brigadier Yshishkar Shadmi.
���� In the morning of 29 October 1956, the Commander of the Central Area, Major General Zvi Tsur informed Brigadier Shadmi and the other battalion commanders, of the policy it had been decided to adopt toward the Arab population. The area commander went on to emphasize to the battalion commanders that the safeguarding of the operation in the south (the Suez campaign) required that the area coterminous with Jordan be kept absolutely quiet...Brigadier Shadmi requested that he be empowered to impose a night curfew in the villages of the minorities in the area under his command in order to: (a) facilitate the movements of his forces, and (b) prevent the population being exposed to injury by the reverse troops. These arguments convinced the area commander, who empowered Brigadier Shadmi to impose a curfew...
���� On the same day Brigadier Shadmi summoned Major Melinki to his headquarters, informed him of the duties of the unit under his command, and gave him instructions about the execution of these duties. One of the duties of this Frontier Guard unit was to impose the curfew...in the villages of Kafr Kassim, Kfar Barra, Jaljulya, Tira, Tayba, Qalansuwa, Bir al Sikka, and Ibtin during the night. The two commanders agreed that the curfew would be enforced between 5 p.m. and 6 a.m.
���� The battalion commander (Shadmi) also told the unit commander (Melinki) that the curfew must be extremely strict and that strong measures must be taken to enforce it. It would not be enough to arrest those who broke it; they must be shot. In explanation he said, 'A dead man' (or according to other evidence ' few dead men') is better than the complications of detention. When Melinki asked what was to happen to a man returning from his work outside the village, without knowing about the curfew, who might well meet the Frontier Guard units at the entrance to the village, Shadmi replied: 'I don't want any sentimentality' and 'That's just too bad for him.' Shadmi gave his orders to Melinki verbally, while they were alone, and Melinki wrote the following words in his diary during the interview: 'Curfew imposed from evening till morning (1700-0600). Strict policy.'[49] Similarly, the order drafted by Melinki and handed to the reserve forces attached to his group, shortly before the curfew was imposed, contained the following words under the heading 'Method': 'No inhabitant shall be allowed to leave his home during the curfew. Anyone leaving his home shall be shot; there shall be no arrests. [50]
���� Armed with these instructions, Major Melinki returned to his headquarters, where with the help of his officers, he prepared a series of orders for his forces. During this meeting, 'He informed the assembled officers that the war had begun, that their units were now under the command of the Israeli Army, and that their task was to impose the curfew in the minority villages from 1700 to 0600, after informing the mukhtars to this effect at 16:30. With regard to the observation of the curfew, Melinki emphasized that it was forbidden to harm inhabitants who stayed in their homes, but that anyone found outside his home (or, according to other witnesses, anyone leaving his home, or anyone breaking the curfew) should be shot dead. He added that there were to be no arrests, and that if a number of people were killed in the night (according to other witnesses: it was desirable that a number of people be killed as) this would facilitate the imposition of the curfew during succeeding nights...
���� While he was outlining this series of orders, Major Melinki allowed the officers to ask him questions. Lieutenant Frankenthal asked him, 'What do we do with the dead?' (or, according to other witnesses 'with the wounded.') Arieh Menches, a section leader, then asked, 'What about the women and children?' to which Melinki replied, 'No sentimentality' (according to another witness, 'They are to be treated like anyone else; the curfew covers them too.'). Menches then asked a second question: 'What about people returning from their work? Here Alexandroni tried to intervene but Melinki silenced him and answered: 'They are to be treated like anyone else' (according to another witness, he added, 'It will be just too bad for them, as the commander said.') [51]
���� In the minutes of the meeting, which were taken down and signed by Melinki a short time after he signed the orders, the following appears: 'As from today, at 1700 hours, curfew shall be imposed in the minority villages until 0600 hours, and all who disobey this order shall be shot dead.' [52] After this psychological preparation, and the instruction given to the policemen-soldiers to 'shoot to kill all who broke the curfew,' the unit went out to the village of Kafr Kassim to start its work. There Lieutenant Gabriel Dahan divided his unit into sections of three or four men each (including their leader) armed with submachine guns, rifles, and automatic rifles, and posted each section in a place overlooking one of the quarters of the village, at the entrance to the village, and at its end. He made the leaders of each section responsible for the enforcement of the curfew and authorized them to shoot according to his pervious instructions, which he repeated.
���� On the same day at 16:30 hours, a Frontier Guard sergeant informed the mukhtar of the village that a curfew was to be imposed from 5 p.m. to 6 a.m. the following morning and warned him that it would be strictly enforced and would involve danger of death, telling him to inform the village. The mukhtar, Wadi Ahmad Sarsur, informed the sergeant that there were four hundred villagers who worked outside the village, some of them in the neighborhood or in nearby places, while the remainder were in more distant places like Petah, Tikvah, Lydda, Jaffa and elsewhere, so that he could not inform them all of the curfew in time. After an argument the sergeant promised the mukhtar that he would let all men returning from work pass on his own responsibility and that of the government. The mukhtar, assisted by his relations, announced the imposition of the curfew in the center and to the north and the south of the village, saying that everyone inside the village must enter his home before 5 p.m. [53]
���� In other words, the curfew, of which the mukhtar was informed at 4:30 p.m. came into force half an hour later when dozens of the villagers were in different places of work, so that they could not possibly know of the curfew. And a bitter fate awaited them when they returned to the village. In the first hour of the curfew, between 5 and 6 p.m., the men of the Israeli Frontier Guard killed forty-seven Arab citizens in Kafr Kassim. The killing was carried out in cold blood and for no reason. Of the forty-seven, forty-three were killed at the western entrance to the village, one in the center, and three to the north; several other villages were wounded.� The forty-three killed at the western entrance included seven boys and girls and nine women of all ages; one sixty-six years old. Most of them were inhabitants of Kafr Kassim, returning from their work outside the village, nearly all by the main road, a few on foot, the majority on bicycles of in mule carts or lorries. In most cases the villagers were met by sections of the Frontier Guard who ordered the passengers to get down from their transport. When it was clear that they were residents of Kafr Kassim returning from their work, the order to fire was given, and shots were immediately fired at short range from automatic weapons and rifles, 'and of every group of returning workers, some were killed and others wounded; very few succeeded in escaping unhurt. The proportion of those killed increased, until, of the last group, which consisted of fourteen women, a boy and four men, all were killed except one girl, who was seriously wounded.
���� The killing might have gone on like this but Dahan who had personally taken part in the killing and who had seen what was going on as he went round the village in his jeep, informed the command several times over the radio of the number killed. Opinions differ as to the figure he gave in his reports, but all agree that in his first report he said 'one less' (one killed), and in the next two reports 'fifteen less' and 'many less'; 'it is difficult to count them.' The last two reports, which followed each other in quick succession, were...passed on to Melinki who was at Jaljulya. When he was informed that there were 'fifteen less' in Kafr Kassim, Melinki gave orders, which he was unable to transmit to Dahan before the report of 'many less' arrived, for the firing to stop and for more moderate procedures to be adopted in the whole area...This order finally ended the bloodshed at Kafr Kassim. [54]
���� This is an outline of the principal events at Kafr Kassim, but the details are no less important as reported in the files of the Israeli military court: 'The first to be shot at the western entrance to the village were four quarrymen returning on bicycles from the places where they worked near Petah Tikva and Ras al Ayin. A short time after the curfew began these four workmen came round the bend in the road pushing their bicycles. When they had gone some ten to fifteen meters...they were shot from behind at close range or from the left. Two of the four were killed outright. The third was wounded in the thigh and the forearm, while the fourth, Abdullah Samir Badir, escaped by throwing himself to the ground. The bicycle of the wounded man fell on him and covered his body, and he managed to lie motionless throughout the bloody incidents that took place around him. Eventually he crawled into an olive grove and lay under an olive tree until morning. Abdullah was shot at again when he rolled from the road to the sidewalk, whereupon he sighed and pretended to be dead. After the two subsequent massacres, which took place beside him, he hid himself among a flock of sheep, whose shepherd had been killed, and escaped into the village with the flock.
���� A short time after the above incident, a two-wheeled cart drawn by a male arrived at the bend. Sitting in it were Ismail Mahmud Badir...and his little daughter, aged eight, who were coming back from Petah Tikva in the cart, with three people, one of whom came from Kfar Barra, walking beside or behind the cart, carrying vegetables. One of these was a boy of fourteen, Mohammed Abdul Rahim Issa. At this moment Dahan arrived at the bend in the jeep with the mobile squad...on a tour of inspection. Dahan ordered his men to get out of the jeep...He then told Ismail to get out of the cart and stand in a row with the other two men (who had been walking beside the cart) at the side of the road. Dahan then ordered the boy Muhammed to get into the cart, and sent him off to the village with the weeping girl. Dahan ordered the three men to be shot, shooting them with the Auzi he was carrying. The three men fell under the rain of bullets and the firing continued after they had fallen. Two of them...were killed, while Ismail was seriously wounded, with several bullets in his hips and thigh; he survived only because the Frontier Guards believed him dead.
���� A short time after this killing a shepherd and his twelve year old son came back from the pasture with their flock. They approached the bend... the shepherd throwing stones at sheep that had strayed to turn them back onto the road. Two or three soldiers, standing by the bend, opened fire at close range on the shepherd and his son and killed them... [55]
���� A man in a lorry was killed, then a four-wheeled cart carrying two men arrived at the bend. Near the bend, a soldier stopped the car, ordered the two men to get down and to stand beside it in the road...Immediately after the arrival of this cart, several groups of workers started arriving, riding bicycles with lighted lamps. The soldiers ordered them all to lay their bicycles beside the cart and stand in a row with the two men...There were thirteen men in this row, and when one of them...tried to stand at the end of the row, the soldier shouted at him: 'Dog, stand in the middle of the row.' He thereupon moved to the middle.
���� When no more bicycle lamps were visible on the horizon, the same soldier asked the men standing in the row where thy came from. They all answered that they came from Kafr Kassim, whereupon the soldier took a step backwards and shouted to the soldiers lying opposite the row: 'Mow them down.' All the men in the row fell under the hail of bullets that followed, except for (one) who escaped by jumping over the wall. The soldiers continued firing at any of the fallen men who showed any signs of life. When it was clear that they were all dead, or almost so, the soldiers cleared the road of the bodies, piling them on the side of the road. Of these thirteen men, six were killed, while four were seriously injured... [56]
���� A short time after the killing of the cyclists, a lorry with its lights on approached the bend. Ten to fifteen meters before the bend it was stopped by a soldier, who ordered the driver and passengers (eighteen persons) to get out and stand in a single group to the left of the road, in front of the vehicle. The soldier then asked them where they came from, and when they said they were from Kafr Kassim, he ordered two of his men, who were lying beside the road between this group of workers and the bend, to open fire. They killed ten of the nineteen...
���� (A survivor) Raja (Hamdan Daud) said in his evidence that at five o'clock, his little son Riyadh came with the boy Jamal and told him that there was a curfew in the village and that his mother had said that he must hurry home...Nineteen people got into the lorry, including the driver ...and set out for the village. The people in this lorry, unlike most of the other people returning to the village, knew of the curfew, but they did not see that this prevented them from returning to the village. On the contrary ...they tried to get back to their homes as soon as possible because of the curfew. Indeed, it was Raja who persuaded the driver, who had no license to carry passengers, to take them because he thought that it would be safer to go by lorry rather than on foot during the curfew. After the lorry had been stopped, and Raja and his companions got out, his little son shouted: 'Father, take me down.' This was why Raja went back and took his son down from the back of the lorry, and rejoined the group on the road.
���� Raja held out his identity card to the soldier and was about to ask him why they had been detained, but at that moment the soldier gave the order to fire, and a hail of bullets mowed down the workmen. When Raja jumped over the wall, the Bren gun was fired at the wall, and this is perhaps how some of the workmen escaped. But Raja's son, Riyadh, aged eight, and his friend Jamal, aged eleven, were almost killed. [57] Two more men in a lorry were killed, and then a third lorry arrived, carrying four men and fourteen women, aged twelve to sixty-six years, on their way to Kafr Kassim. The lorry went on past the bend without stopping, whereupon a soldier who was still at the site of the previous incident ran behind it shouting 'Stop!' The lorry had already passed the bend and waking for the school road; the soldier crossed the space between the two roads and again shouted 'Stop! Stop!' At the same time he called to two or three other soldiers who were standing in the space between the two roads to follow him, which they did.
���� The lorry stopped in the road that passes near the school, whereupon the first soldier ordered the driver and the passengers to get out. The driver hooked the steps on tot he back of the lorry, and said to the women: 'Get out sisters, and have your identity cards ready.' The women had already seen the dead bodies of people from their village as the lorry turned the bend, and started imploring the driver in command to let them stay in the bus. But he took no notice of the identity cards or of the women's entreaties, and insisted on their getting out. As soon as the fourteen women and four men had got down from the lorry he ordered the other soldiers, who had by then joined him, to fire. They obeyed and continued firing until seventeen of the total of eighteen persons were killed. The sole survivor was a girl of fourteen, Hannah Suleiman Amer, who was seriously wounded in the head and leg and appeared to be dead...Two of the girls who were killed were twelve years old, and two others fourteen. [58]
���� The government took great pains to remove all traces of the crime in Kafr Kassim and to hide the truth from the Jewish population, despite the fact that certain circles spread news of the massacre throughout the Arab sectors, apparently to 'encourage' the Arabs to leave. A three-member committee headed by Benjamin Zohar, a district court judge in Haifa, was appointed to investigate the incident. The two other members, in whom the authorities had great confidence, were Abba Hoshi, mayor of Haifa and head of the Arab department in the ruling Mapai, and Aharon Hotar Yshay, who had once been a lawyer for the Haganah. When the committee had concluded its investigation, some ten days after the massacre, Prime Minister Ben-Gurion issued a brief press release in which he referred to the fact that some people in the Triangle had been 'injured' by the Frontier Guards and stated the government's determination to bring the matter before the courts and to pay compensation.
���� This did not stop rumors about the extent of the crime from spreading. Tawfiq Tubi made his way to Kafr Kassim as soon as news of the crime reached him in order to see for himself what had happened. On his return he gave his information to Uri Avneri, the editor of the periodical 'Haolam Hazeh,' which devoted a special issue to it. The story was taken up by the press, there was a great uproar, and a wide range of Jewish groups expressed concern. The poet Nathan Alterman, a close friend of Ben-Gurion's, was moved to publish a poem censuring the deed and calling for a trial of all those responsible, with detailed disclosures of what had taken place. [59] A special session of the Knesset was held, lasting twelve minutes, during which Ben-Gurion spoke of the 'shocking incident in the villages of the Triangle,' and cited his appointment of the fact-finding committee as soon as he had heard of the event; three days after it occurred. He added that the government had paid compensation ranging between one thousand and five thousand pounds to the families of the dead, but clearly that 'no sum of money could compensate for the loss of human life.' [60] At the end of the session, all members present stood in mourning for the dead. Following the recommendations of the committee, eleven officers and soldiers of the Frontier Guard were brought to trial for 'carrying out illegal orders.'
���� 'The trial was lengthy; judgment was finally given on 16 October 1958, two years after the incident. The court found Major Melinki and Lieutenant Dahan guilty of killing forty-three citizens and sentenced the former to seventeen years imprisonment and the latter to fifteen years. The third accused, Sergeant Shalom Ofer, who perpetrated most of these terrible killings, was found guilty, with Dahan, of killing forty-one citizens, and was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment. The accused Private Makhlouf Hreish and Private Eliahu Abraham were found guilty of killing twenty-two citizens, while Corporal Gabriel Olial, Private Alber Fahimi, and Private Edmond Nahmani were found guilty of killing seventeen citizens. All these five were sentenced to eight years imprisonment and deprived of their ranks. The remaining three accused, including two young Druze volunteers, were acquitted.'
���� These light sentences (premeditated murder incurs a sentence of life imprisonment or twenty years) astounded many Jews as well as Arabs and gave rise to deep fears that similar incidents might occur in the future. On the other hand, there were many in Israel who thought that the trial of the killers and even their arrest, seemed a grave injustice. They argued that these men were performing their duty and were therefore in no way responsible for their deeds. An extensive campaign for the release of the killers was launched as soon as it was known that they would be brought to trial. This was intensified after the sentencing. The Israeli press was clearly involved in the campaign.
���� With two or three exceptions, the press has been party to a conspiracy of silence, throwing a veil over the incident. It wrote of condemned men instead of killers; instead of a killing or a crime in Kafr Kassim it wrote of a 'misfortune' and a 'mistake' and a 'regrettable incident.' When it mentioned the victims of the calamity, it was difficult to tell whom it meant, the dead or the killers. When the sentences were handed down, a cowardly campaign against the judge was begun...[61]
���� What was remarkable about the official Israeli attitude was that various authorities made efforts to lighten the killers' sentences. An appeal was brought before the Supreme Military Court, which rendered a judgment that the sentences were harsh and should be reduced. Thus Melinki's sentence was reduced to fourteen years, Dahan's to ten years, and Ofer's to nine years. The chief of staff then proposed to reduce Melinki's sentence to ten years, Kahan and Ofer's to eight years, and the rest of the killers' to four years each. The president of the state followed suit; he granted a 'partial pardon' to Melinki and Dahan and reduced their sentences to five years each. [62] Finally it was the turn of the 'Committee for the Release of Prisoners,' which ordered the remission of a third of the prison sentences of all those convicted. Thus, the last man was released at the beginning of 1960; about three and a half years after the massacre. They reportedly did not spend the time in prison but were held in a sanatorium in Jerusalem.
���� Moreover, in September 1960 the municipality of Rmle engaged Gabriel Dahan, convicted of killing forty-three Arabs in one hour, as officer for Arab affairs. Melinki, ten years after the event, felt no embarrassment about boasting of his services to Israel in the field of security, both before and after the massacre. [63]
���� But the Kafr Kassim affair would not go away. Particular concern was aroused by the part played by Brigadier Yshishkar Shadmi, the man under whose command Melinki's unit had operated. Shadmi was not originally brought to trial and the part he played became known only after the military court had rendered its judgment. During the trial, public indignation was aroused by certain comments Brigadier Shadmi had made during his briefing concerning the imposition of the curfew, particularly his replies to the officer who asked what was to happen to people returning from work: 'I don't want any sentimentality' and 'Allah have mercy on them.' In its judgment, the military court (presided over by Dr. Benjamin Halevy, president of the District Court in Jerusalem, who was on loan to the army for the trial) stated indisputably that Shadmi was responsible to a greater degree than any of the others. This put the Israeli authorities in an embarrassing situation. They were forced to bring Shadmi to trial, with the knowledge that in self-defense he would reveal the instructions he must have received from his immediate superiors, including Major General Zvi Tsur, commander of the Central Area, and Moshe Dayan, army chief of staff. The military court found the following in assessing Shadmi's role in the massacre of Kafr Kassim:
���� 'The defendant Melinki, when he gave his orders to his unit, was not acting on his own initiative or according to his own judgment. He was obeying orders. It was not he who initiated the imposition of the curfew; either as a curfew or as regards the manner of its enforcement. He only passed on the order he had received from his responsible commander, Brigadier Shadmi...There can be no doubt that the order given by Melinki was only one link in a chain of firm orders given in detail by the brigade commander. The orders given by Melinki were the direct result of the placing of a Frontier Guard unit under
the orders of the brigade of the Israel Army commanded by Brigadier Shadmi and of the assignment to that unit of a task in accordance with the wishes of the brigade commander and with the direct order he gave in connection with the curfew and the way in which it was to be carried out.
���� Shadmi not only entrusted Melinki with the 'task'; he also informed him of the 'method' by which the curfew was to be enforced. The method ...was defined, as stipulated by the brigade commander, as one of 'stringent severity' and 'decisive policy,' the enforcement of the curfew by firing rather than by arrests. We are satisfied that the 'method' prepared by Melinki before the bloody incidents at Kafr Kassim, as a summary of the orders of the brigade commander and for this purpose of including it in the orders to be given to the units ('No villager shall leave his home during the hours of curfew'; 'Anyone leaving his home will be killed'; 'There will be no arrests') was a true reflection of the order given by the brigade commander. There was no misunderstanding by Melinki as to how the curfew was to be enforced, as decided by the brigade commander, and the harsh distinction made in the order given by the unit commander. Melinki, between villagers in their homes, who were to come to no harm, and persons out of doors, to whom the principle of shooting was to be applicable in its full severity, derived from the order given by the brigade commander, Shadmi. The unit commander's statement that, 'It would be better that several people should be killed' was derived directly from the statement of the brigade commander to the effect that 'It is better to get rid of some in this way' (his words being accompanied by a gesture with his hand as described by Melinki) 'than to have the complications of arrests.'...Our conclusion is that the method of enforcing the curfew, as decided by Melinki in his orders (before the questions and answers), corresponded in all important aspects with the methods of enforcing the curfew stipulated in the order given by the brigade commander. It was Brigadier Shadmi who initiated and ordered, in a manner that could not be disobeyed, the enforcement of the illegal instructions; it was he who ordered the shooting of citizens as a way of enforcing the curfew, and Melinki, in submitting to the orders of his commander, was only transmitting these instructions to his subordinates.' [64]
���� This is a very clear indictment of Shadmi, and when it was published it aroused several demands that he be brought to trial. Opposing the trial was a group led by officials of Shadmi's own party, Achdut Haavoda, who warned of the consequences of such action. A week after the court decision, an article appeared in the party's daily newspaper signed by a 'Hebrew prisoner,' the nom de plume of Knesset member Moshe Carmel, one of Achdut Haavoda's leaders and then Minister of Transportation.
���� It is essential that we should ask whether the ultimate responsibility was Shadmi's and his alone. A brigadier commanding a brigade in the Israel Army who is charged with the task of supervising an area of operations does not act in accordance with his own personal opinions; he is restricted to a framework of plans, orders, and instructions drawn up somewhere and imposed on him by the authority of a higher command. And in as much as the court has disclosed the facts to the people at large, the people have the right to know, and insist on knowing, what orders and instructions were given to Brigadier Shadmi by those responsible for him, in accordance with which orders he acted, and then gave his own more detailed orders on the conditions as he saw them, and in the field in which he had experience, and also from whom he received his orders.
���� If it is indeed found that the orders given by Brigadier Shadmi, whether oral or written, were a cause of the tragedy that took place, the following questions must be asked: Were these orders incompatible or compatible (italics in the original) with the order he received? It is on this basis that the problem must be considered.' [65]
���� The warning behind these words is clear. If Shadmi were brought to trial it would lead to the exposure of the role of his superiors, who no doubt briefed him and gave him the instructions which led to the massacre. But the authorities soon found a way out. Shadmi was hurried into court, but there was a change in the formation of the court. Justice Halevy had stepped down. The second court tried Shadmi rapidly, found him guilty of a 'technical error,' and sentenced him to a reprimand and a fine of one Israeli piaster. (Since then 'Shadmi's piaster' has become proverbial among the Arabs in Israel). And so the curtain was lowered on the massacre at Kafr Kassim." [66]
September 11, 1956: Approximately one Israel battalion crossed the demarcation line and blew up the Khir-bat ar Rahwah police post and an empty school building in the same area, killing 5 Jordan policemen and 10 Jordan soldiers. Part of this force laid an ambush approximately 5 kilometers inside Jordan along the Hebron-Beersheba rod and killed 56 Jordanian soldiers, wounded 3 Jordanian soldiers and damaged 3 Jordanian vehicles.
September 13, 1956:� Israeli forces� destroyed a police post and school at Gharandal. Nine Jordanian policemen and two Jordanian civilians were killed.
September 25-26, 1956: Israeli forces attacked Sharafi police post near Husan village. The police post was completely demolished. Also a school building in Wadi Fukin village was blown up. Thirty-seven Jordanian soldiers, two of whom were not seen by the United Nations observers, and two Jordanian civilians were killed and eleven Jordanians wounded. Also a major attack was launched against the Jordanian territory in the area of Husan where twenty-five Jordanians were killed including a seventy-year-old civilian and a twelve-year-old girl; six others were wounded including a seven-year-old girl.
October 1, 1956: The Israeli army launched a major unprovoked and premeditated military attack against the Jordanian front villages of Qalqiliya, Kh. Sufin, Dablah, and En Nabi Ilyas. The attack began at 10:00 p.m., and ended at 4:30 a.m., the following day upon orders from General E.L.M. Burns, Chief of Staff of the Truce Supervision Organization. The Israeli attacking force used heavy arms and war equipment including bombing airplanes. Twenty-five Jordanian soldiers and national guards were killed and thirteen wounded. The Jordanian police post of Qalqiliya was demolished and the villages were shelled.
October 11, 1956: According to the statement which the Jordanian officer in charge of the Qalqiliya police post made to the United Nations military observers a large Israeli force, travelling in about 30 vehicles, approached the police post from a northerly direction at about 19:30 GMT. (The police post is approximately one kilometer north of the village of Qulqiliya and approximately 500 meters south and 800 meters east of the demarcation line). On arrival, the Israeli forces attacked the post with small arms and automatic weapons. At 19:50 GMT intense artillery fire was opened on the post from west and north. The twenty policemen and the platoon of national guardsmen in the post then returned the fire. Under cover of artillery and small arms fire, the attacking force gained entry into the post, inflicting casualties among the defenders, some of whom managed to escape, including the officer in charge of the post. Some time after midnight, the police post was totally demolished by explosives. The shelling of the village of Qalqiliya, which had commenced earlier, continued until about 02:20 GMT.
October 25-26, 1956: Large Israeli regular army forces launched a major, unprovoked and premeditated attack against Jordanian territory in the area of Husan, 10 kilometers south of Jerusalem. Infantry, armored cars, half-tracks, artillery, bazookas and automatic weapons were used in this aggression against Jordan.
October 30, 1956: 103 inhabitant of Baqqara and Channame villages in the central sector of the demilitarized zone were forced by the Israel authorities to take refuge in Syria; they were forced at gun point to leave their homes and lands; their houses were burned and some of them were taken to Sha'b in Israeli territory. The Chief of Staff of Truce Supervision Organization was requested to intervene in order to permit the return of the inhabitants to their villages. United Nations observes were unable to carry out an investigation on the spot owing to the refusal of the Israeli authorities to let them enter the central sector of the demilitarized zone.
May 27, 1957: An Israeli destroyer emerging from the port of Elath in a southerly direction, cruised within the Saudi Arabian territorial waters. The same destroyer bombarded with light and heavy fire the coastal position near Taba. Two other Israeli destroyers, the same day, undertook similar aggressive acts in that locale. It should be pointed out that the locations of such aggressive acts engulf the traditional land and sea routes of Moslem pilgrims intending to perform their annual religious duties in the Holy Places in Saudi Arabia.
May 28, 1957: Two Israeli destroyers cruising from Elath opened light and heavy fire on the Al-Tur area. The bombardment lasted over an hour.
May 29, 1957: Just after sunset an Israeli destroyer with three motor boats violated the Saudi Arabian territorial waters in the Aqaba Gulf, subjecting Saudi coastal positions to powerful searchings. The same Israeli naval units opened light and heavy fire on the coastal area adjoining Al-Tur. The violation of Saudi Arabia's territorial waters by these Israeli units was repeated during the day time.
January 28, 1958: An Israeli military detachment, consisting of twenty-five soldiers and an armored vehicle, entered the northern demilitarized zone; this detachment opened fire on Arab peasants who were working their land and who were placed in a situation of legitimate self-defense.
March 24, 1958: The Israelis directed heavy fire from the direction of the Israel settlement of Dan on inhabitants and shepherds of the demilitarized zone. At the same time armed Israel formations, accompanied by agricultural machinery and surveying equipment, penetrated into and commenced work on Arab land of the village of Galbinieh, east of Huleh, and within the demilitarized zone.
March 26-27, 1958: During the night, an Israeli launch approached the eastern shores of Lake Tiberias and began firing on Arab land near the Elzaky Gulf.
February 4, 1959: An armed Israeli patrol composed of four soldiers crossed the international frontier between Palestine and Egypt south of Rafah and penetrated at least two kilometers inside the United Arab Republic territory (southern region). They attacked with their small arms fire a Bedouin camp. A woman, and her child, was killed another woman was seriously wounded.
February 17, 1959: Four citizens of the United Arab Republic were ambushed by an armed Israeli patrol inside United Arab Republic territory and four Egyptians were fired upon with small-arms fire; consequently, two were killed and one was wounded.
September 18, 1959: And on the days following a number of Bedouin estimated at about 350 of the Azazme Tribe, were expelled from the area under Israeli control across the international frontier into the territory of the United Arab Republic. Israel troops killed some Bedouin, burned their tents and took their property, as a result of which the Bedouin were compelled to flee into the territory of the United Arab Republic. Those actions were carried out in a harsh and cruel way, contrary to accepted humanitarian considerations. Firing by Israel troops resulted in the killing of one of the Bedouin on the territory of the United Arab Republic across the international frontier.
January 31, 1960: Israeli forces moved towards Arab farmers in the southern sector of the demilitarized zone north of Lake Tiberias. The farmers were accompanied by a United Nations observer. The Israeli forces opened fire on them.
1960‑1962: Israeli forces attacked Syrian villages on Lade Tiberias and brought death to hundreds of Arab civilians.
March 2, 1961: Two Israeli aircraft crossed the international frontier and penetrated into United Arab Republic air space. Further finds revealed that these two aircraft, having sighted a flock of livestock inside United Arab Republic territory, had flown at a very low altitude and machine gunned the grazing animals, killing and wounding a number of camels and donkeys.
March 16-17, 1962: Israeli armed forces carried out a mortar attack on the Arab village of Nuqueib. Then, forty Israeli armored launches opened fir with automatic weapons on the Syruian military post of El-Douga. Israeli artillery at Bouria (R235-200) launched a violent bombardment of the Syrian village of Squofiye. At about 05:00 hours, Israeli military aircraft bombarded the Syrian positions at El-Al, Fiq and Zaki; they bombarded the area of El-Hamma.
February 7, 1963: an Israeli gunboat approached the village of Al-Masadiah on the eastern shore of Lake Tiberias, kidnapped a Syrian citizen and stole a Syrian boat from the waters of the river Al-Masadiah, within Syrian territory. This action constitutes a violation of Section III of Annex IV and paragraphs 2 and 3 of article III of the Armistice Agreement.
July 2, 1964: Israeli forces opened fire on Arab farmers, using automatic weapons, along the Armistice Demarcation Line with a view to harassing them and preventing them from ploughing their land. At the same time, Israeli armed forces opened fire on a Syrian post.
August 5, 1964: Israeli armed forces estimated at one infantry platoon supported by automatic weapons attacked some Syrian posts across the Armistice Demarcation Line in the Ainmemoun sector. The attacking Israeli armed forces were encountered by Syrian outposts which were compelled to return the fire and to halt their advance. Furthermore, some elements of the attacking armed forces attempted to encircle the post and to strike from the rear, but Syrian armed forces entrusted with the protection of that sector frustrated this attempt and a heavy exchange of fire took place.
November 13, 1964: Evidence was given in Arabic and translated into English by the Syrian liaison officer, First Lieutenant Khourdaji. Witness: Antoine Gaber, Warrant Officer, aged 28 years, "I am not from Nukheila but have been here about two months. On November 13, 1964, at about 13:30 LT, I was in my room in the village, when I suddenly heard firing. This was from heavy machine guns. The firing quickly increased. On going outside I saw tanks on Tel-El-Qadi firing at our village; I think they were about 106 mm. calibre. Later, mortars were fired at the village and I noticed that Abbasieh village was being mortared. Abut half an hour before shooting started, at about 12:50 LT an Israeli aircraft flew around the area. I also noticed shelling of Tel Moughi, to the north of the village. Israel aircraft also fired machine guns at the village, knocking out one civilian car, and some civilians were evacuated to a hospital, and some of them were badly injured. The aircraft also fired three or four rockets and dropped bombs on the village and on Tel Moughi. The firing stopped at about 14:00. There was no firing from Nukheila after this time. The Israelis however continued firing from Sambaria Tel-El-Qadi and did not stop until 15:30."
March 17, 1965: An Israeli tank crossed the road located within Syrian territory to the north of Tel-el-Qadi in the northern sector under the protection of Israeli military elements entrenched in the hill. These elements opened automatic fire from their posts. Two Israel tanks also opened their fire on Syrian territory. One Syrian was killed an two others were seriously wounded. Two Syrian tractors and two bulldozers were destroyed.
May 22, 1965: An Israeli armored launch approached the eastern shore of Lake Tiberias, facing the village of El Koursi in Syrian territory and opened fir with heavy automatic weapons and mortars across the Armistice Demarcation Line and in the direction of Syrian positions.
May 27, 1965: An Israeli force crossed the Armistice Demarcation Line into Jordan and activated demolition charges against a house which was completely destroyed. Israeli forces demolished an inhabited home in Jordan and as a result of this act a man, a boy and a small girl were killed. A third house in Jordanian territory was cracked and extensively damaged by an explosive projectile. The Israeli force fired at a Jordanian routine patrol which found the Israeli force in Jordan's territory; a Jordanian soldier was wounded. This raid, committed by the Israeli forces against Jordanian civilian inhabitants and their properties, resulted in the death of two men and three children, the youngest being only four years old; and the wounding of two adults and three children, the youngest victim a two-year-old baby.
August 20, 1965: A collision took place between a taxicab driven by an Arab living in Israel and a motor scooter driven by a Jewish youth in the city of Ramle, 10 miles east of Jaffa-Tel-Aviv, which resulted in the death of the youth. Immediately after the funeral, a mob of more than 300 Jewish Israel toughs attacked the Arab quarter in Ramle with the intention of murdering the Arab inhabitants and destroying the whole Arab quarter. The magazine Newsweek, in its issue of September 6, 1965, described the horrible scene in the following words: "The mob, delirious with hate, swarmed towards the ghetto with clubs and stones in hand, shouting 'Kill them, kill them!' while behind the shuttered windows, families huddled in fear. It was the onslaught of the classic pogrom...except that the would-be lynchers were Jews...After the funeral of the dead boy, dozens of swaggering young Jewish toughs clustered together angrily in the center of Ramle. Suddenly, amid cries of 'Let's get the Arabs,' about 300 of the toughs; mostly teenagers charged through the streets toward the Arab quarter. In the market square outside the entrance to the Arab quarter, the mob ran into a wall of steel-helmeted police armed with riot-shields. The kids charged twice, then retreated to search for easier targets. They stoned an old man in Kaffiyeh head-dress almost to death and a young Arab returning from work was kicked into bloody pulp.
���� As the police reinforcements poured into town to protect the Arabs, the rioters scattered down side streets, breaking shop-windows, stoning and overturning cars and trucks. Before the police finally restored order, Ramle was a shambles and twelve had been severely beaten or knifed. 'For a time,' said one Polish-born Ramle Jew, 'I thought I was back in the ghetto. No angry gang of drunken goyim;' gentiles, 'was ever worse.'"
This horrible onslaught took place, despite the fact the Israeli police authorities knew beforehand what was to take place. A certain number of steel-helmeted police with riot-shields was standing by, but the number was by far inadequate and police reinforcements arrived too late to prevent the onslaught. The massacres of Deir Yasin, Kafr Qasem, Khan Yunis, and many others are still vivid in our minds. However, this repeated manifestation of Israeli hatred and love for the murder of Arabs is of alarming significance and should prompt the United Nations to take action immediately.
October 28-29, 1965: Israeli regular armed forces in uniform penetrated into Lebanese territory and carried out acts of sabotage in two different places. In the village of Houla the aggressors dynamited a house, which was completely destroyed, and an adjoining house was also destroyed, a woman being killed beneath the debris. Several nearby houses were damaged by the explosion. At Maiss ej Jabal a spring with its three cisterns was dynamited and completely destroyed: the water of the spring drained away and disappeared completely into the ground.
November 13, 1965: Israeli tanks and 105 mm recoilless guns opened heavy fire on the Syrian village of Nukheila; other heavy Israeli mortars shelled the Syrian villages of Nukheila, Abbasieh and Tel-Al-Azaziat. This was followed by Israeli aerial bombardment, where heavy and napalm bombs destroyed the following Syrian posts and villages: Nukheila, Mourhr Shebaa, Zaourra, Jabata-Al-Zeit and Bazaata.
April 29-30, 1966: Israeli armed forces crossed the Armistice Demarcation Line into Jordan and launched an unprovoked premeditated attack against the Jordanian village of Rafat and the Rujm el Madfa's police post, Hebron area, 3 km. inside Jordan. At approximately midnight Israeli military forces crossed the Armistice Demarcation Line into Jordan and launched a major unprovoked and premeditated attack against the civilian village of Tel el Arba'in, some 4 kilometers inside Jordan. At about the same time and date another Israeli force attacked the Jisr Sheikh Hussein police post by bombarding the building, using 105 and 106 mm recoilless guns and other weapons. This unprovoked and premedicated aggressive act by the Israeli forces against Jordanian civilians during the midnight time resulted in 11 civilians killed, three civilians wounded. The above mentioned persons were killed or wounded by fire directed against them by the attackers.
May 15, 1966: An Israeli military unit maneuvering close to the Jordanian village of Badrass directed its automatic fire on the said village, causing injury to 3 children, nine to ten years of age, wounding 2 of them critically. A similar provocation and act of aggression took place on March 1 in the same area, causing injuries to a number of children who were in their school building. The Israeli authorities at that time expressed their regret to the Mixed Armistice Commission, and promised to put a halt to such violations and injuries to innocent children. The incident of May 15, however, proves that the Israeli have no intention of abstaining from such provocations and violations.
July 15, 1966: A number of Israeli jet fighters and bombers violated the Syrian air space, shelled seven Syrian areas all situated in the site of Jordan river's development scheme, hit mechanical and engineering equipment, destroyed bulldozers with napalm bombs, wounded nine civilians and killed one woman.
1966: Squads of Israeli soldiers raided the Jordanian village of Sammu, they killed 18 civilians, wounded 100 others and demolished 130 houses including a school, a clinic and a mosque.
November 13, 1966: The Israeli armed forces crossed the armistice demarcation line in brigade strength, supported by a squadron of Mirage jets, heavy artillery, a large number of personnel carriers and more than twenty tanks. The objective of the invading force was to destroy Arab villages and hamlets south of Hebron.
The barbarous crimes committed between 1967 and 1987 against the population of the Gaza Strip on the order of the top Israeli political and military leaders were similar to the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed under the Nazi political and military leaders in Occupied Europe during World War II. More than 2,000 Palestinians of the Gaza Strip were murdered and more than 5,000 injured and maimed. More than 10,000 Palestinians of the Gaza Strip were either imprisoned or put in detention camps and tortured by the most brutal and inhumane methods. More than 1,000 houses were demolished. Collective fines were imposed and the economy of Gaza was destroyed. These crimes were committed under the Israeli leadership for the purpose of breaking the will and resistance to the occupiers and for emptying the Gaza Strip of its population.�
1967: The U.S.S. Liberty was deliberately attacked in International Waters as it monitored communications during the Six‑Day War. Israel used U.S.‑donated equipment to jam the ship's S.O.S., hoping to sink it and murder all aboard before word could get out. 34 sailors were butchered and 170 wounded in this blatant Act of War. The Liberty was part of the Sixth Fleet, a powerful group of men and ships paid for by U.S. Taxpayers to protect the Israeli's. What do the Jews think of our American Service Men, the descendants of the men who pulled their chestnuts out of the fire in World War II? Read the following for Just a sample of the many murders of American military, the Jews have committed.
Even though the United States, beguiled by Zionist propaganda and fearful of domestic political pressures by the Israeli lobby in the United States, has been the major supporter of Israel and has become an accessory to Israeli crimes by providing the financial backing and sinews of war used by the Israelis, Americans, and even American servicemen, are not exempt from Israeli-perpetrated massacres if the highest Israeli authorities consider them to be in the way of their objectives.
During the June 1967 war of aggression unleashed by Israel against Egypt, Jordan and Syria, it was vitally important to the Israeli leaders that their plan for aggression against the Arab countries should not be monitored. They were exceedingly upset at the presence of an American intelligence ship, the USS Liberty, in the Eastern Mediterranean monitoring communications traffic in the area.
According to CIA Intelligence Reports, General Moshe Dayan ordered the June 8, 1967, strafing by Israeli aircraft of the USS Liberty and the resultant massacre of her defenseless crew of American sailors. In the words of Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, United States Navy, "During this unprovoked attack, 34 U.S. Navy men were killed and 171 wounded."
���� The U.S.S. Liberty was deliberately attacked in International Waters as it monitored communications during the Six‑Day War. Israel used U.S.‑donated equipment to jam the ship's S.O.S., hoping to sink it and murder all aboard before word could get out. 34 sailors were butchered and 170 wounded in this blatant Act of War.
The Liberty was part of the Sixth Fleet, a powerful group of men and ships paid for by U.S. Taxpayers to protect the Israeli's. What do the Jews think of our American Service Men, the descendants of the men who pulled their chestnuts out of the fire in World War II? Read the following for Just a sample of the many murders of American military, the Jews have committed.
�������������������������������������������������������������������������� Israeli's Attempt to Sink the U.S.S. Liberty
An eyewitness report from the U.S.S. Liberty, by John Hrankowski: "June 8, 1967, was a bright, sunny day in international waters off Egypt. A breeze tracked our electronic‑laden vessel, the U.S.S. Liberty, cruising under orders of the U.S. Navy. As an engineer I was not on deck, but when several jets began buzzing us I bounded to the main deck. My shipmates waved, laughed, and joked. Among the planes was a Piper Cub, clearly marked with the Star of David. The plane flew so low and so slowly that we could see its camera turret as it snapped our picture. Over our communications equipment we could hear the aircraft identify our ship as the U.S.S. Liberty. These were our allies, our friends, the Israeli's. Several hours later, about 2 P.M., the jets returned and made five to seven passes over us, machine‑gunning and rocketing our lightly‑armed ship. More planes arrived, this time Mirage Jets, and loosed bursts of bullets and cannon fire as well as napalm into the ship.
���� In the initial attack, nine of my surprised comrades died, scores more were lying everywhere, wounded, horribly burned, moaning, dead or dying. I was seriously wounded by rocket shrapnel. This, however, was not the end of the two‑and‑one‑half hour ordeal. Israeli torpedo boats streaked toward our stricken ship and fired five torpedoes. One hit home, bringing violent death to 25 more American crew members. Preparing to abandon ship, some of my shipmates dropped rubber rafts into the sea. It seemed like a horrible, slow motion movie as we watched the(Israeli) Torpedo Boats Circle Back and
Fire Machine Guns at the Helpless Survivors on Deck and in the Rubber Rafts Already in the Sea. One curious torpedo boat skipper even picked up an empty raft ‑‑ perhaps to keep as a souvenir.
���� To prevent the Liberty from communicating with other vessels and navy communication centers, our radio was jammed. This, we later learned, could only have been accomplished by a 'Friendly' nation who knew our radio frequencies...For 19 (This report was published in The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs ‑‑ December, 1986) my shipmates and I have been trying to get out the truth about the attack that killed 34 Americans and wounded 171 others. All of us agree that The Attack Could Not Possibly Have Been A Mistake. The Israeli aircraft that came within 200 feet, the messages giving the ship's name, the two large U.S. Navy Flags billowing in the breeze, the big GTR‑5 stenciled on the bow; characters well known to friend and foe as a U.S. Navy designation, all clearly identified us.
���� For years our crew was puzzled, and incredulous, when Israeli authorities claimed our ship had been mistaken for an Egyptian freighter. Of it all I Believe it was no Coincidence that the Israeli Attack Took Place on June 8, and that the next day Israel invaded Syrian territory, capturing the Golan Heights, an area it still holds years later and which it now says it has annexed for permanent retention.
���� The Liberty was a navy electronic 'ferret' research vessel, listening to communications from both sides in the Six Day War...Very little of this information has ever reached the American public. Even Congress, importuned for decades by survivors to at least investigate the reasons behind the attack on a U.S. Military Vessel, up to now has refused to do so. After the attack, when the surviving crew members were still together aboard the ship, we were Officially Warned not to talk to Reporters. The Navy has Never been willing to release, even to us, a list of crew members so that we can mobilize them to tell our story...
���� I speak frequently in the upstate New York area, and I find people invariably shocked that they have been kept ignorant of this incident. The fact that the American public remains largely unaware of what happened at the hands of a so‑called ally proves that the press has failed to exercise its mandate to keep the American People informed. The American public will believe and support us, when they learn Americans like themselves who joined the Navy to serve their country, when we produce irrefutable evidence that the attack on June 8, 1967, could not have been an error. It was, in fact, an Attempt to Sink an American Ship that might have Alerted the World to an(Senseless and Murderous) Israeli Act of Aggression.
���� Americans should know the facts so they can judge the readability and reliability of a nation that wants us to believe it is 'our closest ally.' The American tax payers should know because they bought the planes, the boats, the bombs, rockets, torpedoes, and napalm that struck us. At one time we surviving crew members hoped official naval inquiries would elicit all the facts. But we have given up on that. Those inquires, we're convinced, were part and parcel of the American Government Coverup: Evidence was concealed, key crew witnesses were never interviewed; The Israeli Government's conclusions were never really queried or published...' I just cannot accept the explanation that the attack was a case of mistaken identity,' Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, said. 'I think, Without a Doubt, that those 34 men who were killed in the Sneak Attack on the Liberty were Killed(Murdered) Deliberately.'..."
Is it not strange that on June 8, 1967, Israeli Jews viciously attacked the American Ship U.S.S. Liberty, leaving 34 American Sailors dead and 171 injured, yet to this day the Jewish media has ignored it and American Congressmen have wittingly forgotten about it. The attack was deliberate, lasting almost 2 hours, and due to political orders the U.S. Military would not come to the aid of the U.S.S. Liberty.� General Dayan was a hero to the media in the United States. They never mentioned his complicity in such massacres as Kibya [67]. They swept under the rug his direct responsibility for the USS Liberty massacre. Even worse, the United States Government, for domestic political reasons, conducted a massive cover-up of the crime, making it an accessory after the fact to this slaughter of American servicemen. If the same criteria were used to investigate and try those responsible for the USS Liberty massacre as has been used on German and Japanese war criminals, the entire Israeli War Cabinet and General Staff would have been convicted for the crime. For his direct order of the massacre of defenseless sailors on an unarmed communications vessel sailing in neutral waters, General Dayan would have been hung, and then President of the United States Lyndon Johnson would have been sentenced to many years of incarceration in prison for obstructing justice in a criminal cover-up of the USS Liberty massacre.
������������������������������������������������������������������� President Johnson and The U.S.S Liberty Incident
The weekly newspaper "Christian News" is published by the Lutheran Church movement. In their issue of June 15, 1987, a very interesting article regarding the U.S.S. Liberty incident was published. The title of the article was "LBJ gave the order to let the USS Liberty sink and let all hands on board drown."
Some very important information was revealed in that article that is very relative to our survival today as a Christian Nation. The article revealed: "In a private interview of U.S.S. Liberty survivor Commander (Ret.) David Lewis, who was in command of the scientific mission of the ship which was the gathering and dissemination of intelligence data. He told me that the order to Abandon The USS Liberty and her crew to the attacking Israeli planes and Torpedo Boats came from President Lyndon B. Johnson. Two days after the rescue of the survivors, and after Commander Lewis had regained his eyesight, he was hit by an exploding torpedo ‑‑ Admiral and Commanding Officer of the Mediterranean Fleet Larry Geis called him into his quarters and said to him, 'Commander, we received your calls for help, and we attempted to send our planes to the rescue. But in the event that something happens to me, or if I am blamed for not answering your call for help, I want you to know exactly what happened. As soon as we received your radio call for help I deployed our fighter‑bomber planes and radioed the Pentagon of our action. A few minutes later I received a call from Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara ordering me to recall the planes because they were carrying nuclear arms. So I called them back. I immediately rearmed another squadron with conventional weapons, deployed it, and reported to the pentagon. A few minutes later I got another call from McNamara ordering me to recall these planes too. I was angry and mystified, and exercised my prerogative to go to the next highest level of authority so as to have McNamara's order reversed.
���� Seconds later President Lyndon Johnson was on the radiophone, and I made my case to him. I told him that the USS Liberty had been under attack for an hour, and had radioed for help, and that I had sent out a squadron of fighter‑bombers armed with conventional weapons to the rescue. Then the President said to me, 'I Don't Care If The Ship Sinks and Every Man On Board Drowns, we are not going to fight against our allies (Israel).'"
The article then discusses the holding of the 20th Anniversary reunion of the members of the USS Liberty Veterans Association in a Washington, D.C. hotel on 5, 6 and 7 June, 1987. The article then continues: "Besides us ordinary citizens and many other sympathizers and supporters at the banquet there were many retired naval officers, including three admirals, and a retired United States Ambassador. Admiral Thomas Moorer, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and former United States Ambassador to Egypt, Lucius Battle were the main speakers. Both told of their absolute belief that the one and one‑half hour air and sea attack by Israel was deliberate, that the official refusal to disclose all that is known about the attack is shameful, and that if the United States does not soon recognize that its interests are for the most part different from Israel's interests in the Middle East and in the world, there will be dire consequences. In our USS Liberty petition signing booth near the Vietnam Memori�al...twenty‑five hundred signatures have been collected. On Saturday, June 6, six of the USS Liberty survivors dropped by to add their signatures to the petition. While we were reminiscing another citizen identified himself as a member of AIPAC (American‑Israel Political Affairs Committee), and reminded us that AIPAC Controls the election or defeat of every member of Congress!"
As far as I know the "Only" so‑called national publication which is patriotic enough to print it was the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, in their September issue. Isn't that something, our enemies so the Jews say, or would have to believe so, is the only ones who respect our American Service Men enough to publicize, what should have been a National Event; but it was not because of the almost absolute control over our government that ZOG has at the present time. It is an article by Paul Findley who served in Congress from 1961 to 1982.�����
The USS Liberty Heroes Honored: "Thirty surviving crewmen of the USS Liberty, a US Navy reconnaissance ship nearly destroyed by Israeli forces 22 years ago (1967), gathered in Milwaukee the weekend of June 9‑11 for a reunion to recall that dreadful day and pay tribute to the 34 sailors Killed (Murdered) In the Assault. They have a lot to remember: The Liberty, an intelligence‑gathering ship, had only a pair of 50‑caliber machine guns for defense. But on the bright, clear afternoon of June 8, 1967, with its American Flag fluttering in a strong breeze, the ship came under a thundering, pitiless 75‑minute assault by air and sea forces. Israel, already victorious over Egypt and Jordan in the first three days of the Six‑Day War of June 1967, was planning a surprise ground offensive the next day against Syria (which for its part was calling a cease‑fire). The best explanation for what followed is that the Israelis feared the Liberty 'MIGHT' intercept messages revealing Israeli intentions, pass reports to Washington, and frustrate Israel's plans to scale and hold Syria's Golan Heights.
���� Whatever the motivation, the Liberty endured an assault so fierce and sustained that crew members were convinced that Israel wanted the ship and its entire crew destroyed. Who but the survivors can relive those awful moments, the cries of the wounded as lethal bursts of cannon fire swept the ship; the stench of burning flesh as napalm created instant infernos on the deck; the earsplitting thunder as a torpedo tore an immense hole in the ship's sides; decks made slippery with blood; the feeling of outrage as circling torpedo boats deliberately shot to pieces rubber life rafts launched in case the ship had to be abandoned.
���� Israel claimed the attack was a case of mistaken identity, apologized, and eventually paid reparations. President Lyndon Johnson, facing a crisis in Vietnam, accepted the apology warmly and did his best to keep from public knowledge the overwhelming conviction of crew members and their commanders, both the Navy and the National Security Agency, that the attack was deliberate. Why the cover‑up? For one thing, President Johnson feared publicity about the Liberty might alienate Jewish citizens he wanted to support the Vietnam war. Whatever the motivations, his cover‑up succeeded. Few Americans, even to this day, are aware of this tragedy, one of the worst in the Navy's peacetime history. As a consequence, the bravery of the Liberty crewmen has been little noted, and no Congressional investigation into the attack has occurred."
Although Minister of Defense General Moshe Dayan was principally responsible for the USS Liberty massacre, then Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol also shared responsibility. Because the USS Liberty was an intelligence monitoring vessel, it is also certain that Meier Amit, head of Mossad (Israeli Intelligence) in 1967, and General Aharon Yariv, then head of Military Intelligence, had to give clearance for the attack. General Yitzhak Rabin, had legal responsibility to ensure that Israeli aircraft did not fire upon neutral vessels in neutral waters.
General Mordekhai Hod, then Commander of the Israeli Air Force, and later president of Israeli Aircraft Industries, Ltd., also was legally responsible for the crime committed by his pilots, as were the pilots themselves for carrying out obviously unlawful orders to strafe an unarmed neutral vessel in international waters. The same criteria of judgment rendered on the German and Japanese war criminals of World War II would have held these as well as other Israeli political and military leaders individually responsible and accountable for their acts of omission and commission regarding the USS Liberty massacre.
Following are details on the massacre recounted by the distinguished former U.S. Congressman from Illinois, Paul Findley: "The day of the attack began in routine fashion, with the ship first proceeding slowly in an easterly direction in the eastern Mediterranean, later following the contour of the coastline westerly about fifteen miles off the Sinai Peninsula. On the mainland, Israeli forces were winning smashing victories in the third Arab-Israeli war in nineteen years. Israeli Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin, announcing that the Israelis had taken the entire Sinai and broken the blockade on the Strait of Tiran, declared: 'The Egyptians are defeated.' On the eastern front the Israelis had overcome Jordanian forces and captured most of the West Bank.
���� At 6 a.m. an airplane, identified by the Liberty crew as an Israeli Noratlas, circled the ship slowly and departed. This procedure was repeated periodically over an eight-hour period. At 9 a.m. a Jew appeared at a distance, then left. At 10 a.m. two rocket-armed jets circled the ship three times. They were close enough for their pilots to be observed through binoculars. The planes were unmarked. An hour later the Israeli Noratlas returned, flying not more than 200 feet directly above the Liberty and clearly marked with the Star of David. The ship's crew members and the pilot waved at each other. This plane returned every few minutes until 1 p.m. By then, the ship had changed course and was proceeding almost due west. At 2:00 p.m. all hell broke loose. Three Mirage fighter planes headed straight for the Liberty, their rockets taking out the forward machine guns and wrecking the ship's antennae. The Mirages were joined by Mystere fighters, which dropped napalm on the bridge and deck and repeatedly strafed the ship. The attack continued for over 20 minutes. In all, the ship sustained 821 holes in her sides and decks. Of these, more than 100 were rocket size. As the aircraft departed, three torpedo boats took over the attack, firing five torpedoes, one of which tore a 40-foot hole in the hull, killing 25 sailors. The ship was in flames, dead in the water, listing precariously, and taking water. The crew was ordered to prepare to abandon ship. As life-rafts were lowered into the water, the torpedo boats moved closer and shot them to pieces. One plane concentrated machine-gun fire on rafts still on deck as crew members there tried to extinguish the napalm fire. Petty Officer Charles Rowley declares, 'They didn't want anyone to live.'" [68]
Paul Findley continues: "At 3:15 p.m. the last shot was fired, leaving the vessel a combination morgue and hospital. The ship had no engines, no power, no rudder. Fearing further attack, Captain McGonagle, despite severe leg injuries, stayed at the bridge. An Israeli helicopter, its open bay door showing troops in battle gear and a machine gun mounted in an open doorway, passed close to the deck and then left. Other aircraft came and went during the next hour. Although U.S. air support never arrived, within fifteen minutes of the first attack and more than an hour before the first assault ended, fighter planes from the USS Saratoga were in the air ready for a rescue mission under orders 'to destroy or drive off any attackers.' The carrier was only 30 minutes away, and, with a squadron of fighter planes on deck ready for a routine operation, it was prepared to respond almost instantly. But the rescue never occurred. Without approval by Washington, the planes could not take aggressive action, even to rescue a U.S. ship confirmed to be under attack. Admiral Donald Engen, then captain of the America, the second U.S. carrier in the vicinity, later explained: 'President Johnson had very strict control. Even though we knew the Liberty was under attack, I couldn't just go and order a rescue.' The planes were hardly in the air when the voice of Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara was heard over Sixth Fleet radios: 'Tell the Sixth Fleet to get those aircraft back immediately.' They were to have no part in destroying or driving off the attackers.
���� Shortly after 3 p.m., nearly an hour after the Liberty's plea was first heard, The White House momentary approval to a rescue mission and planes from both carriers were launched. At almost precisely the same instant, the Israeli Government informed the U.S. naval attach� in Tel Aviv that its forces had 'erroneously attacked a U.S. ship' after mistaking it for an Egyptian vessel, and offered 'abject apologies.' With apology in hand, Johnson once again ordered U.S. aircraft back to their carriers." [69]
The cowardly and callous attempt by the Israeli air force to ensure that there would be no survivors to their crime constituted an offense in its own right. Lord Russell of Liverpool, who was legal adviser to the Commander-in-Chief in respect of all trials of German war criminals in the British Zone of Occupied Germany, reports a similar crime committed by German submarine U-i52's commander Kapitanleutnant Heinz Eck, who had ordered his crew to open fire on the rafts of the Greek vessel SS Peleus in 1943. "The commander and four members of his crew were tried by a British Military Court in Hamburg in October 1945 for being concerned in the killing of members of the crew of the Peleus by firing and throwing grenades at them. All were found guilty of the charge and the commander and three others sentenced to suffer death by shooting." [70] Details on CIA documents indicting the Israeli leadership for murder of the defenseless crew of the USS Liberty were uncovered through the painstaking research of James M. Ennes, Jr., an officer of the USS Liberty and an eyewitness to the massacre: "The CIA reported a conversation with a confidential Israeli source who strongly implied that the attack was no error. The message read in part: 'He said that 'you've got to remember that in this campaign there is neither time nor room for mistakes,' which was intended as an obtuse reference to the fact that Israel's forces knew what flag the Liberty was flying and exactly what the vessel was doing off the cost. (The source) implied that the ship's identity was known at least six hours before the attack but that Israeli headquarters was not sure as to how many people might have access to the information the Liberty was intercepting. He also implied that there was no certainty or control as to where the information was going and again reiterated that Israeli forces did not make mistakes in their campaign. He was emphatic in stating to me that they knew what kind of ship the USS Liberty was and what it was doing offshore. This report gains credibility when we recall that Israel did identify the ship six hours before the attack. Hence, the informant does indeed have access to inside information.
���� On November 9, 1967, a confidential source reported clearly and unequivocally that General Moshe Dayan ordered the attack. The message read: '(The source) commented on the sinking (sic) of the US Communications ship Liberty. They said that Dayan personally ordered the attack on the ship and that one of his generals adamantly opposed the action and said, 'This is pure murder.' One of the admirals who was present also disapproved the action, and it was he who ordered it stopped and not Dayan." [71]
June 5, 1967: Israeli committed its biggest, most treacherous and premeditated aggression against Egypt, Syria and Jordan. After destroying Arab aircraft on the ground in a lightening attack, Israeli forces invaded and occupied the rest of Palestine i.e., the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, the Syrian Golan Heights and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. In the first days of its aggression and in plain disregard of the truth, Israel fabricated a charge of aggression against its victims and presented it in a dramatic manner to the U.N. Security Council. Western media spread this fabricated story and the whole world sympathized with the supposed victim. In 1967 the Israeli's made a third ruthless blitzkrieg attack upon the Arabs. This time they deliberately destroyed three quarters of a million dollar's worth of church property.
The great deception practiced by Israel on the U.N. and the whole world is now completely discredited, the Israelis, therefore, changed their tactics and rely nowadays on the argument that, they were NOT attacked by Egypt, they were in danger of BEING attacked, and hence they resorted to a so‑called pre‑emptive strike. Alan Hart quotes a former Israeli Director of military intelligence as telling him "if Nasser had not given Israel the excuse to attack the Arabs, Israel would have invented a pretext for war within six or ten months" because its military planners had decided that the time had come to knock out vast amounts of mainly Soviet‑supplied Arab armor. Yitzhak Rabin, who as chief of staff planned this attack told Le Monde in February 1968, quite simply: "We knew that Nasser did not intend to attack."
The Period From June 5 to June 11, 1967: During their entry into the Gaza Strip the Israeli forces directed their artillery fire against the civilian population. As a result, many house in Gaza and Khan Yunis suffered extensive damage. The enemy fire was especially heavy against the refugee camp at Khan Yunis, the towns of Jabalia and Rafah and the refugee camp of Al-Maghazi.
On June 5, 1967: 23 houses were demolished during the shelling of the city of Rafah. At the refugee camp of Al Muaskar 45 rooms were destroyed and the ceilings of 62 rooms were smashed. UNRWA officials estimate the units destroyed at the refugee camp at Khan Yunis as 847. Many families occupying those units were killed.
Many of the inhabitants of Khan Yunis sought refugee in the woods near the city where they remained for five days without food and water. The Israeli forces destroyed an ambulance, killing its occupants, then broke into the hospital killing a number of patients and taking the rest as prisoners. The water reservoir at Khan Yunis was wantonly destroyed. Several hundred persons were murdered during those two days. At the Al-Muaskar refugee camp twelve houses were destroyed by shelling the camp on June 5. Eight persons were killed and fifteen were wounded. The refugee camp and the town of Jabalia were shelled for three hours on June 7,. More than three hundred units were destroyed and many families were killed.
The Israeli forces imposed a continuous curfew in all the Gaza Strip for seven days. During that period they fired at any person on sight. At Rafah on June 11 they took ten men from their homes and shot them because a mine had exploded under a military car. On June 10 Israeli soldiers demolished a whole block of units in the northern refugee camp at Rafah because a mine had exploded under a military car; 40 houses comprising 144 rooms were destroyed. 23 bodies were found under the rubble, mostly those of women and children, as well as of 4 men. A large number of persons died during the that period in the Gaza Strip; mass and individual murder. It is estimated that about four thousand civilians were murdered. The Israeli soldiers went on a looting campaign, breaking into commercial buildings and dwellings and taking everything they found in them.
The Period From June 11 to June 15, 1967: During this period the curfew was lifted only for four hours a day. In spite of that, terroristic acts and mass murder of civilians continued unabated. The occupying forces would encircle refugee camps, villages or city quarters, then order all males between sixteen and sixty to proceed to an open section in the area with their hands raised and order them to sit under the scorching sun all day long. The occupying forces would order civilians to hand over any firearms they had in their possession and warn them that their houses would be searched and that houses containing firearms would be blown up. The military forces would select a few houses at random; then destroy them. Later they would pick up several hundred men, claiming that they were soldiers, send them to a forced labor camp and then ship them to the Suez Canal Zone. All villages, refugee camps and city quarters were encircled starting from June 16. Certain areas were besieged more than once. Khan Yunis was besieged on June 17 and 21. More than two thousand young men were taken from that town, most of them teachers. From the Beach Camp the IDF took more than 800 men and from the Jabalia Camp 600 young men. More than 5,000 young men were forced out of the Strip by Israeli soldiers.
���� Terrorizing Refugee Camps During The Night: A new tactic followed the encirclement actions. Civilians were terrorized in order to force them to leave the Gaza Strip. Travel between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank of the Jordan was made possible and easy. This campaign of terror was concentrated against the refugee camps.
For one full week during the early part of August 1967, Israeli soldiers raided different sections of the Beach Camp at night. They ordered men to lie flat on their stomachs and started beating them. Other soldiers searched their homes, frightening women and children. As a result, two demonstrations by the refugees took place. A unit of Israeli soldiers attacked the Al-Mughazi refugee camp, in particular Block 2, beating the refugees while pretending that they were searching for firearms. On that night about 20 persons were taken into custody. On the night of June 19 Israeli soldiers attacked the refugee camp at Khan Yunis firing in all directions, claiming that nails had been scattered on the roads causing damage to their cars. The attack was concentrated on Block M. After completing their terrorist action the Israeli soldiers arrested 21 men. On August 29 another army force began breaking into the house and beating men, women and children. Similar actions took place in November. On November 19 an Israeli military force attacked the Nusairat refugee camp throwing explosives in the lanes, claiming that they were searching for mines. At the Jabalia refugee camp military raids took place almost every night.
April 12, 1967: Israeli forces crossed the armistice demarcation line into Jordan, south of Hebron. An Israeli helicopter crossed the line and landed in Jordan. Another Israeli helicopter was transporting Israeli forces from Israel across the line into Jordan, the general area of Kh. Tabban, south of Jordan. The Israeli forces while being in Jordan were engaged in a serious clash with armed Jordanian civilians who were in Jordan. As a result of this engagement, one armed Jordanian civilian was killed east of Kh. Tabban in Jordan. Another armed Jordanian was wounded and taken prisoner by the Israeli force in Israel, where he later died under unknown circumstances.
June 5, 1967: In a strafing attack by Israeli aircraft on a convoy of the Force immediately south of Khan Yunis on the road between Gaza and Rafah three Indian soldiers were killed and an unknown number were wounded. All vehicles in the convoy were painted white, as are all vehicles of the Force. Prior to this incident the Commander of the Force, as a result of Israeli artillery fire on two camps occupied by the Indian Contingent of the Force, had through the Chief of Staff UNTSO, requested the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces to give instructions that a strict cease fire would be observed in the vicinity of the installations and camps of the Force. At 12:30 GMT, the main camp of the Indian Battalion of the Force came under Israeli artillery fire which killed one officer and one soldier and wounded one officer and nine soldiers.
June 6, 1967: Israeli forces entered the three villages of Imwas, Yalu and Beit Nuba at 4:30 a.m., and called the inhabitants to assemble, after which they were ordered under threat to leave in the direction of Ramallah. They were joined on the road by people from the "second line" villages of Beit Liqya, Beit Sira and Beni Hareth. After three days they were told that they could go back but they were allowed to reach the "second line" villages only. Those who wanted to go on to Imwas, Yalu and Beit Nuba were turned back. They then returned to Ramallah and some of them went to the east bank.
June 11, 1967: The UN Special Representative visited Beit 'Awwa on August 11. The Arab mukhtar stated that Israeli troops entered the village on June 11 at 5:30 a.m. The inhabitants were then asked to take two loaves of bread each and to go to the hills surrounding the village. At 7:30 a.m., the Israeli troops started to demolish the houses with dynamite and bulldozers. Groves around the village were burnt. The belonging of the inhabitants were also burnt since they were unable to take them along. The population stayed in the hills for a week. They were then authorized to return by the military governor. Out of the original population of 2,500 some 300 had left for other areas. Also the following week, the Israeli Army destroyed 135 Arab houses and two mosques in Magharbah Quarter and evacuated 650 Arabs after they had been given three hours' notice.
June 14, 1967: While pursuing its aggressive policy, Israel has as recently as today, June 14, 1967, at 03:00 hours (local time), started to shell north of Suez, Ismailia, El Kantara and El Firdan. At 05:40 hours, they again opened fire at El Firdan, and as a result of this wanton aggression all along the Canal, twenty Egyptians died and thirty-six were wounded in Ismailia. In addition to this, a physician with his family, composed of his mother and his four children were killed in his car on the El Kantara road.
June 22, 1967: Israel has expelled today at 13:00, local time, through the cease-fire line El Kantara, 405 Palestinians by the end of the day and that they will expel several thousands more on the basis of 1,000 per day.
July 21, 1967: Anwar El-Khatib, Governor of Jerusalem, Dr. Daoud El-Husseini, a former member of Parliament, and Mr. Abdul Muhsen Abu-Maizer, a lawyer, and Mr. Ibrahim Bakir, another lawyer, were banished because of their refusal to accept the annexation of Jordanian Jerusalem.
July 26, 1967: Israeli armed forces arrested eight Jordanian citizens near Auja villages. After being searched and their possession confiscated, they were forcibly taken to the Hayek Bridge on the Jordan River, where they were brutally beaten with rifle butts and machine guns. According to Ali Hassan Ali Suleiman, an eye-witness and the only survivor, the victims were told to swim to the east bank. They were later thrown in the river and seven of them were shot in cold blood. Ali Hassan Ali Suleiman, escaped death by diving under the water and hiding behind a bush, is now undergoing medical treatment at Salt Hospital. At 17:35 hours (local time), the Israeli forces expelled eighty-five inhabitants of the west bank of Jordan by way of Mandasa and Um ash-Shurat Bridges. Having crossed the above mentioned bridges, the Israeli forces opened fire at them. Six of them were seriously wounded and were later treated at Salt Government Hospital In their testimony the expellees stated that they were detained at Jericho Prison where they were subject to various methods of intimidation and torture.
July 27, 1967: Dr. Subhi Ghousheh, a prominent citizen of Jerusalem, and his brother Amin, were arrested. They were charged with distribution of so-called "inflammatory leaflets." Two days later, five youths were arrested on suspicion of distributing leaflets urging the Arab population not to cooperate with the Israeli authorities. Fifty-seven inhabitants of the Gaza Strip sought refuge on the east bank of the Jordan after making their way via the occupied part of Jordan. In their testimony the refugees indicated that their exodus was prompted by the shortage of food and the inhuman treatment they were subjected to by the Israeli authorities.
July 31, 1967: Four prominent leaders in Arab Jerusalem, namely, Mr. Anwar El-Khatib, the Governor of Jerusalem, and former Ambassador to Cairo. Dr. Daoud Husseini, a former member of Parliament, Mr. Ibrahim Bakr, a lawyer, and Mr. Abd El-Muhsen Abu Mitzer, a lawyer, were detained and later banished to various parts of the Israeli occupied areas. Those four prominent citizens were among twenty Arab religious and secular leaders who signed a memorandum challenging the validity of Israeli annexation of the City of Jerusalem.
August 31, 1967: The occupying military forces imposed a curfew on the inhabitants of the village of 'Aqraba, Nablus District, and demolished a number of houses on the pretext that arms were found in the village, and subsequently they deported several young men to unknown places.
September 1967: The Israeli forces spread terror in the village of Qabatiyah, Jenin District, and deported a number of young men to unknown places. Several houses were demolished in Qabatiyah on the pretext that they served as hide outs for arms. This was not the first time that the Israeli occupation forces demolished houses in this village on the pretext that arms had been found in them.
September 4, 1967: Three Israeli naval units; two motor boats and a tug, attempted to force their passage through the Suez Canal at the Suez entrance Notwithstanding the warnings of the United Arab Republic authorities, the aforementioned vessels proceeded and simultaneously opened fire on positions in Port Tawfiq. Against such provocative acts and in the exercise of our right of elf defense, (the Egyptians) were compelled to return the firing.
General Odd Bull, Chief of Staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization in Palestine was immediately informed of the events. He subsequently ordered a cease fire which was only implemented temporarily. Shortly after, the Israeli forces resumed the firing on (Egyptian) positions in Shallufa and El Shatt and wantonly shelled the city of Zuez using artillery. (Egyptian) positions answered back the shelling. A further cease fire was proclaimed and enforced only after the intervention of the United Nations observers. As a result of this sneaky attempt and the inhuman attack against a populated city, 42 civilians were killed, and 161 were wounded, of which 14 are in serious conditions; 30 buildings were destroyed as well as 2 mosques and 2 hospitals. Furthermore, a Greek freighter with a cargo of cement, a dredger belonging to the Suez Canal Authority, as well as a motor boat belonging to the Eastern Petroleum Company, were sunk; an Indian ship was damaged and the tower of Port Tawfiq was demolished.
September 7, 1967: The Israeli forces of occupation started the systematic and complete destruction of another Syrian village of El-Hurriah using huge bulldozers to better complete the task.
September 12, 1967: Two Israeli planes flew over El Kantara West. When (Egyptian) artillery intervened, the two planes changed their course. This was followed by heavy firing on El Kantara West. At 12:05 hours (local time) a cease fire was arranged by the United Nations military observers. As a result of this attack two persons were killed and nine wounded, and seven houses were destroyed.
September 20, 1967: The Israelis opened fire on the city of Suez; the firing lasted for half an hour. Five civilians were killed, two houses were demolished and a fishing boat was sunk.
September 21, 1967: The Israelis opened fire on El Kantara West for two hours. Two civilians wee killed and twelve wounded. Also a mosque and buildings of social welfare were demolished.
September 29, 1967: The Israeli occupation forces opened fire and killed an Arab youth who was crossing the Jordan River heading for the west bank.
October 9, 1967: The Israeli occupying forces opened fire on Jordanian citizens trying to cross to the west bank at Umm Nakhleh, north of King Hussein Bridge. As a result, two young Arabs were killed a woman seriously wounded.
October 10, 1967: A Jordanian was shot dead while trying to cross back to the east bank after having seen his family on the west bank.
November 2, 1967: The Israeli occupying forces opened fire on two Jordanian citizens trying to cross to the west bank. One of them died of his wounds.
November 5, 1967: The Israeli occupying forces, using tanks and 106 mm cannons, again opened fire on civilian homes and on the Jordanian military forces at Abu Issa orange grove and at Tell Alarbayeen. At 06:45 hours, that same morning, the firing stopped at Abu Issa orange grove but continued intermittently at Al-Zamaliyah and Tell Alarbayeen. As a result, one Jordanian soldier was wounded and three civilian houses at Al-Zamaliyah demolished. Another house in the Abu Issa orange grove was damaged.
December 5, 1967: The Israeli occupation forces expelled 203 members of the peaceful Nuwaseirat tribe and forced them to cross to the east bank. On December 6, another ninety-one members of that same tribe underwent the same inhuman treatment and had to find refuge on the east bank.
December 20, 1967: Two prominent Arab leaders, Mr. Ibrahim Bakir and Mr. Kamal Nasser, were deported because of their refusal to cooperate with the Israeli authorities in changing the nature of things.
January 8, 1968: The Israelis employed jet aircraft and bombarded the villages: Marhabah, Kufr Asad, Deir abu Sa'id and Kufr Rakib. The jets flew over the area of Irbid. At 18:25 hours, firing was ceased. As a result of this criminal and unprovoked wide scale Israeli attack, one soldier and seven civilians, including a woman, were seriously injured.
January 11, 1968: 838 acres in the area adjacent to the Old City (of Jerusalem) were arbitrarily expropriated by the Israeli authorities to pave the way for the settlement of Jewish immigrants. This is the latest of a series of acts committed by Israeli to alter fundamentally the physical, geographical and historical features of Arab Jerusalem. These acts unfold step by step their well prepared scheme for the suppression of all Arab national feeling and opposition to Israel domination.
January 25, 1968: The Israeli forces opened fire, using light and medium machine guns, on Jordanian positions situated south of King Hussein Bridge. Fire was returned in self-defense. At 16:15 hours, the Israeli armed forces resumed fire using artillery and 106 mm guns. Fire was returned in self-defense. The exchange of fire lasted until 17:10 hours. One Jordanian soldier was wounded.
January 30, 1968: The Israeli armed forces opened fire, using medium machine guns on the Jordanian village of Al Baqurah on the east bank of the Jordan. Twenty-five shells of 4.2 inch calibre hit the village of Al Baqurah. The shelling lasted ten minutes. As a result of this wanton and lawless attack against the civilian inhabitants of this village, a child and a civilian were seriously injured. The latter died of his wounds; three houses were damaged.
February 8, 1968: The Israeli armed forces started an intensive shelling with repeated attacks using tanks, artillery, 106 mm and various war weapons. The shelling started first on (Jordanian) front posts in Saidiya and Musidra, situated at a distance of 10 kilometers north of Damiya Bridge. Later on, the shelling was particularly concentrated against the refugee camp of Karameh and the villages of Kurayima, Nmuaddi and Damiya. The shelling stopped at 18:25 hours local time. As a result of this unprovoked and atrocious act of aggression, seventeen persons were killed: five children, five women, six men and a thirteen-year-old girl. Sixty were wounded: thirteen children, twenty women and twenty-seven men; all of them were refugees. Some of them were seriously injured.
February 11, 1968: The Israeli armed forces opened fire, using light and medium machine-guns on the Jordanian position in the vicinity of Al Majami' Bridge. At 12:00 hours local time, of that same day, fire was resumed on that area. 106 mm guns were used. The Israeli armed forces began shelling Al Jumrock and Al Mashroo areas near the Al Majami' Bridge. Fire was returned in self-defense. As a result of this deliberate and unprovoked attack, a Jordanian soldier was injured.
February 15, 1968: Israel invaded PLO bases in Karamah, on the eastern bank of the River Jordan with helicopter‑borne troops and tanks. Three hundred commandos fought off 1,500 Israeli soldiers and force them to retreat. The battle lasted all day and into the evening. Although the village was totally destroyed, the Palestinian defenders repelled the Israelis and inflicted heavy casualties among the invaders. By the Israeli account, they lost 28 soldiers and 90 were wounded.
March 7, 1968: Mr. Rouhi El-Khatib, Mayor of Jerusalem, was arbitrarily deported by the Israeli authorities. Mr. El-Khatib was forced by the Israeli forces to cross King Hussein Bridge to the east bank of Jordan. At 12:30 hours local time, Israeli armed forces opened fire from mortar guns on the villages of Adasiyah and Madraj. Fire lasted for ten minutes. As a result of this wanton attack, seven civilians were killed, including five children; two houses were completely destroyed.
March 9, 1968: Israeli armed forces resumed fire from mortar guns and artillery on the same village (Khirbat Wadi El Yabis). Fire lasted for five minutes. At 13:00 hours local time, fire was resumed from mortar guns and artillery on the northern part of Mashari' Road. Fire lasted for fifteen minutes. As a result of this premedicated and unprovoked attack, four civilians were killed and three other civilians, including a woman, were seriously injured.
April 8, 1968: In the area south of the Dead Sea, a car belonging to the Jordanian Manganese Company and carrying seven employees of this company was blown up by an anti-vehicle mine plated by the Israelis before their retreat. Four of the passengers were killed and two seriously wounded. It was discovered that the Israelis have planted the area between the village of Dana and the manganese site with anti-vehicle mines.
April 11, 1968: A military ration car was blown up by an anti-vehicle Israeli mine in the area 1,200 meters east of the River Jordan and seven kilometers north of King Hussein Bridge. One officer was killed and the driver wounded. At 10:00 hours local time on the same day, a mine was the cause of severe injuries to an officer and a soldier. At 07:25 hours local time, the Israeli forces opened fire from medium machine-guns on Jordanian farmers working in an area east of Makhadit al-Kattaf, east of Shunah Shamaliyyah. As a result a civilian truck being loaded with bananas was burned.
May 12, 1968: At midnight, heavy fire erupted in the Manara settlement on the Israeli side of the Lebanon-Israeli armistice demarcation lines. The Manara settlement is situated opposite the Lebanese village, Houle. At 12:45 a.m. on Sunday, May 12, 1968, the Israelis shelled Houle continuously for fifteen minutes. They hit the village with fifty mortar shells killing one woman and injuring another woman and child; one house was demolished, many others heavily damaged and livestock was destroyed.
June 4, 1968: Every building in Shuneh appears to have suffered hits from shelling and air strafing. Antipersonnel bombs landed, throwing steel fragments in all directions. They caused casualties here and in the larger city of Irbid, about eight miles to the east. In their attacks, the Israelis used phosphorus shells to burn the crops. The Israeli forces also launched an attack against the concentration of civilians on the east bank of the Jordan. In the city of Irbid and its environs alone, thirty-four Jordanians were killed and 135 injured. This indiscriminate shelling and bombing in which land-to-land rockets and anti-personnel bombs were used against the civilian population, many of whom were rendered refugees for the second and third time, constitutes an unprecedented act of lawlessness bordering on genocide. This attack must be a refinement on the old Israeli doctrine of "reprisals" in order to achieve peace and tranquility by exterminating the civilian population.
June 14, 1968: At midnight, a group of the Israeli armed forces crossed the borders of Lebanon near the village of Houle. They shelled the village of Meiss ej Jebel with thirty mortar shells. As a result of this shelling, four civilians were wounded and ten houses were destroyed; two of the civilians, a man and a woman, are in a very critical condition.
June 29, 1968: The Israeli army bulldozed the Syrian village Al Dabbussia.
July 1, 1968: The Israeli army bulldozed the Syrian village Al Jurnia. Only the water reservoir in that village was left standing.
July 8, 1968: The Israeli armed forces opened fire, fromt he occupied eastern bank of the Suez Canal, on the city of Suez. The shelling was concentrated on the densely populated district of Al Arba'in, a western suburb of the city of Suez. This unprovoked aggressive action by the Israelis caused heavy casualties among the civilian population, as well as severe damage to civilian properties. The result of this promiscuous and barbaric shelling, which did not spare women and children, amounted to forty-six killed and sixty-seven wounded. Forty-two houses, one church, two mosques and one child welfare center were completely destroyed. Moreover, twenty-five house, one hospital and the railway station were partially destroyed.
July 24, 1968: Israeli forces opened machine-gun fire from Khirbit Al Duwear west of Al Himma on Jordanian posts. Fire was returned and exchanged until 16:10 hours. One Jordanian soldier was wounded and there were three Israeli casualties.
July 28, 1968: The Israeli authorities carried the Gaza refugees in buses and attempted to force them to cross King Hussein Bridge to the east bank of Jordan. Consequently, Jordanian authorities closed the bridge and halted every entrance to the east bank.
July 29, 1968: The Israeli authorities attempted to enforce the crossing of three busloads of refugees escorted by an Israel military force. Again, Jordanian posts on the bridge foiled the attempt. As a result, the Israeli forces opened fire on Jordanian observation posts. Firing lasted twenty minutes.
August 20, 1968: Israeli forces opened fire on Jordanian civilian centers in Wadi El Yabis in the northern area of the Jordan Valley, using medium-range artillery. Israeli shelling continued for fifteen minutes, causing the death of three civilians and the injury of twenty, some of whom were seriously wounded.
August 21, 1968: Israeli forces opened fire on Manshiya area. Fire was returned and exchanged sporadically until 07:15 hours. One Jordanian was killed and another wounded. At 00:00 hours local time, Israeli forces opened fir on Tel El-Arba'in village using medium machine-guns and followed by tank guns and field artillery. Fire and artillery were returned and exchanged until 00:50 hours. One Jordanian soldier was wounded.
August 24, 1968: Israeli forces opened fire on Manshiya area using medium machine guns and 81 mm mortar guns. Fire was returned in self-defense and exchanged until 10:00 hours. One Jordanian soldier was killed and three were wounded.
August 25, 1968: Israeli armed forces shelled the villages of As Sama, Marhaba, Harawiah, Tel al-Arba'in, Kufur Asaad, Um Quis, Al Makhaba Al Tihta, Al Baqoura, and Al Manshiya, all in the northern part of the Jordan Valley, using tanks and medium and heavy artillery. As a result of this treacherous Israeli attack, three Jordanians were seriously injured. A school was destroyed in the village of Um Quis. A mosque was destroyed in the village of Kufur Asaad. The East Ghor Irrigation Canal was destroyed in the area of Waqas. A number of houses were destroyed in every one of the villages subjected to the Israeli shelling.
September 2, 1968: An Israeli armored personnel carrier opened machine gun fire across both the Israeli cease fire position and the Syrian cease fire position towards Syrian military positions situated in the area of Om Lucos villages. As a result of the shooting, two Syrian soldiers were killed and one wounded. Fire was not returned.
September 7, 1968: Israeli forces ambushed Jordanians and opened fire on them, killing one.
September 8, 1968: Israelis opened fire on Baqoruah village. Fire was returned and stopped at 22:55 hours. One Jordanian farmer was wounded.
September 13, 1968: Israeli forces opened fir on Manshya area using medium machine guns and mortar artillery. Fire was returned in self defense. One Jordanian was killed.
September 16, 1968: Israeli soldiers murdered in cold blood and with premeditation the unarmed Judge Shawqi A. El-Farra, of Khan Yunis, the Gaza Strip.
September 17, 1968: Israeli forces shelled the area of Kureima. Fire was returned and exchanged until 22:45 hours. Kureima schools was seriously damaged. At 06:55 hours local time, Israeli armed forces situated on the Syrian Golan heights, shelled the city of Irbid. One Jordanian, his wife and their child were seriously wounded. The man later died. Two houses were seriously damaged.
September 26, 1968: An anti-vehicle Israeli mine on a road south of Karameh, exploded under a tractor and an attached vehicle. The driver was killed. Twelve were injured, two of them seriously.
October 25, 1968: Four Arab personalities were unjustly subjected to expulsion without charge or trial. The occupation authorities thus obviously discarded the right of the individual to live in his own home, a right which is confirmed by all international laws and conventions.
October 27, 1968: Israeli armed forces shelled the Lebanese village of Almajydiah with about one hundred mortar shells from the village of Alabasyiah inside Syrian territories occupied by the Israeli armed forces. As a result of this shelling, two Lebanese soldiers were injured and three houses were damaged and a number of livestock were destroyed.
December 1, 1968: Israeli armed forces embarked on a concerted attack using machine-guns, tanks, artillery and military aircraft against centers of civilian population in the northern part of the Jordan Valley. Simultaneously they attacked, deep inside Jordanian territory, in the south, aiming at means of communication and civilians in utter disregard for the Armistice Agreement. Six Saudi Arabian civilian trucks were destroyed, two Saudi Arabian civilians killed and three others injured. A fourth civilian, a Jordanian, was wounded. Immediately thereafter, Israeli armed units landed, in the same area, from helicopters covered by Israeli jet fighters. The city of Irbid in Jordan was subjected to heavy shelling for ten minutes. A child and a civilian were wounded and a house destroyed.
December 3, 1968: Israeli armed forces shelled the Jordanian villages of Kum, Kufur Asad and Samma from the Israeli occupied Syrian heights. Their shelling soon spread to cover the whole northern part of the Jordan Valley. At 01:07 hours of that same day, the city of Irbid was heavily shelled, and the village of Kufur Asad was bombed for more than half an hour by waves of Israel military aircraft. In this village alone fifteen civilians were killed and seventeen others seriously wounded, most of them elderly people, women and children. Forty houses were destroyed.
December 12, 1968: Israeli armed forces opened fire on the area of Um Al-Shurat. One Jordanian was wounded. At 14:35 hours local time, Israeli forces shelled the area of King Hussein Bridge and Um Al-Shurat, using mortar and medium artillery. In the village of Shunah, two Jordanian citizens were killed (one was in his seventies); nine were injured, among them one woman and two children; several buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged, such as the mosque, the post office, and the municipal building; four civilian cars were also destroyed.
December 15, 1968: Israeli forces heavily shelled centers of civilians in Ghor Al Safi. Shelling was at 23:25 hours. One woman was killed and two seriously wounded. A child and two other civilians were wounded. Two houses were destroyed. Israeli forces shelled civilian centers in the area of El-Safi south of the Dead Sea, using field artillery. Shelling lasted until 23:25 hours. One Jordanian was killed and five seriously injured (a child, two women and two men).
December 17, 1968: Israeli jet fighters bombed farms near Shuna Shamaliyah, using missiles and napalm bombs. Crops and installations were destroyed.
December 19, 1968: Israeli army units opened fire on Jordanian positions south of Damya Bridge. One Jordanian was killed.
December 20, 1968: Four Israeli Skyhawk aircraft bombed and strafed the village of Addasiyah. Napalm bombs were used. Two houses were destroyed and another damaged.
December 29, 1968: Israeli military forces opened fire from heavy artillery and indiscriminately shelled the following areas for four hours: Al Shunah Al-Janoubiyyah, Um Ash-Shurat and the King Hussein bridge. As a result of this lawless wanton attack, two civilians were killed and nine others were wounded, including a woman and a child. The Israeli indiscriminate shelling caused severe damage to a mosque, to the Municipality Building, the Post Office and the local market. Four civilian cars were destroyed. The Chairman of the Israel-Lebanon Mixed Armistice Commission received the following complaint from the Lebanese delegation: "On Saturday December 28, 1968 at 21:30 hours local time (19:30 GMT) Israeli heliborn troops in a flagrant act of aggression at the Beirut International Airport destroyed 13 civilian aircraft. Request a one-sided inquiry immediately." United Nations military observers to conduct inquiry departed Israel-Lebanon Mixed Armistice Commission oat 08:00 hours GMT on December 19. In a discussion with chief operations officer of UNTSO, and assistant Israeli liaison officer stated that 14 aircraft were destroyed or damaged; 7 of these owned by Lebanon and 7 by other Arab countries. Of the 14, 9 were jet aircraft and 5 were reported to be propeller aircraft.
December 31, 1968: Israeli helicopters, covered by two jet fighters, strafed a security police car in the Gharandal area. As a result, three policemen were killed and two injured and the car was destroyed. At 14:00 hours, two Israeli helicopters, covered by a Mystere jet, flew over that same area.
January 1, 1969: Israeli helicopters, covered by a jet fighter strafed Jordanians in the Gharandal area. As a result, one soldier and two civilians were killed. At the same time, two Israeli jet fighters flew over Ma'an area.
January 6, 1969: Israeli forces shelled the village of El Safi south of the Dead Sea for twenty minutes, using field artillery. An Israeli helicopter was sent tot he village and strafed the civilians. At 16:25 hours, Israeli shelling was resumed for five minutes, followed by helicopter strafing. As a result of the Israeli attack, four persons were killed, among them a child, and six were sounded. All the casualties were civilians from the village.
February 3, 1969: Israeli jet fighters bombed the area south of Manshiya on the East Bank with napalm. As a result, crops were damaged. Israeli helicopters, covered by two jet fighters, strafed Bedouin in the Petra area. As a result, two woman were killed. A man and a child were seriously injured.
February 11, 1969: Israeli armed forces shelled the villages of Safi and Fefah south of the Dead Sea, using mortar and field artillery for thirty minutes. Israeli jet fighters and a helicopter raided Ghor Al-Safi and bombed the area for ninety minutes, using napalm bombs. As a result, six Jordanian soldiers were killed and ten others wounded, and property was heavily damaged. At 12:30 hours local time, eight Israeli jet fighters and two helicopters attacked Jordanian positions in Ghor el Safi and Fiefeh, using napalm bombs. The bombing and strafing continued for ninety minutes. As a result, six soldiers were killed, and ten others wounded. Sixteen military vehicles were destroyed or damaged. One building was damaged.
February 14, 1969: Israeli jet fighters bombed the area of Kattaf west of Shuna Shamaliyah until 07:45 hours. The bombing and strafing were resumed at 08:30 hours and napalm bombs were also used. As a result, crops were seriously damaged.
February 16, 1969: Israeli jets bombed and strafed various civilian centers deep in Jordanian territory. Napalm, rockets and machine guns were used. As a result, three civilians were killed and seven others wounded, one seriously. Five cars and a house were destroyed. In these attacks against Jordanian farmers and villagers, the Israelis resorted once again to the use of napalm bombs.
February 23, 1969: Israeli half-tracks crossed the Armistice line in the Gharandal area in Wadi Araba. Jordanian forces exchanged fire. Seven Israeli jet fighters rocketed and strafed the area intermittently for one hour and twenty minutes. As a result, two soldiers were wounded and the police station building damaged. A number of the Israeli attackers were hit and three of their half-tracks damaged.
February 25, 1969: Israeli Mystere jet aircraft rocketed and strafed the villages of Nushan and Um Tutah for half an hour. The raid was resumed at 09:05 hours, using napalm bombs. As a result, crops were destroyed.
February 26, 1969: Israeli occupation forces set fire to the Syrian village of Khisfine.
February 29, 1969: Israeli bombers, escorted by Israeli fighters, launched air attacks on deliberately selected civilian targets situated in the suburb and district of the capital, Damascus. Rockets and bombs hit Al-Hameh, Zebdani and Maysaloun. In Al-Hameh a number of houses and a washing-machine factory were destroyed; in Zebdani a youth summer camp was devastated and in Maysaloun a custom-police station was demolished. Eight private cars on the Beirut-Damascus road were not spared, among which was that of the Ambassador of the Hungarian People's Republic to Syria. To add cruelty to their attack and increase the number of casualties, the Israeli aircraft dropped time bombs which actually exploded at subsequent intervals. The ensuing massacre engulfed with its cruelty exclusively civilian victims. At least fifteen persons died, including a number of women and children and a nurse of Lebanese nationality. The wounded, too, included women and children and the number of these, so far, has reached forty.
1969: The Israelis distinguished themselves by committing a horrible crime, in retaliation of attrition war across the Suez Canal, Israeli war planes raided an Egyptian school "Bahr al Baker" in southern Egypt killing 75 children and wounding over 100.
March 1, 1969: Israeli jet aircraft bombed and strafed the area south of Sheikh Hussein bridge using rockets.
March 15, 1969: Israeli jet fighters bombed and strafed the villages of Shunah Al-Shamaliyah, Waqqas and Zamaliyah for fifteen minutes, using rockets and machine guns. As a result, two farmers were killed and nine others wounded. Two civilian cars were destroyed and five others and a tractor damaged. Farms were badly damaged.
March 17, 1969: Israeli jet fighters bombed and strafed the Addasiyah area near the capital Amman. Again, rockets, napalm and machine guns were used. At 09:10 hours local time, two other Israeli jet fighters raided the areas of Manshiyah and Shunah Al-Shamaliyah in the north. The Israelis bombed and strafed these areas intermittently until 09:30 hours, using rockets and machine guns. As a result, one civilian was seriously wounded, two cars were destroyed and crops badly damaged.
March 26, 1969: Israeli jet fighters brutally attacked Jordanian villages and civilian centers in the area of Es Salt. At 14:30 hours local time, Israeli jets attacked rest houses and winter resorts in Ein Hzar, one kilometer from Es Salt City. These resorts are frequently visited by civilian citizens. The main roads connecting the villages around Es Salt City and the city itself were also raided, bombed and strafed. 17 civilians were killed and 25 wounded, three of them seriously. Among those killed was an entire family from the Kuloob tribe, two students walking on their way back from school and a 12-year old boy. Many of the casualties were elderly women and children. Six houses and a number of trucks were destroyed.
March 29, 1969: Israeli soldiers fired flares to light the area in the buffer zone. On 30 March at about 17:00 local time, these Israeli soldiers opened fire at Syrian shepherds in the buffer zone, causing the wounding of a shepherd called Zeidan, who was seen later captured by the Israeli soldiers.
March 31, 1969: Israeli bulldozers were observed demolishing houses in the occupied Syrian village of Aboukhbit. At about 14:05 hours local time, an Israeli bulldozer was observed demolishing houses in the suburbs of the occupied town of Kuneitra.
April 4, 1969: Israeli forces opened fire with artillery and tanks against Suez, Port Tawfik and El-Shat. (Egyptian) forces in the southern part of the Suez Canal sector were compelled to return the fire. It is to be noted that in these premeditated attacks the Israeli occupying forces were concentrating their shelling against the harbor of Suez. At 13:15 local time, a cease-fire was arranged by the United Nations military observers. As a result of this wanton attack, apart from the destruction of civilian installations and damage to an oil tanker, several civilians have lost their lives.
April 7, 1969: Three Israeli bulldozers were observed demolishing the houses of the occupied Syrian village of Tell Esseqi.
April 8, 1969: Israeli fighter bombers attacked the Jordanian port of Aqaga. As a result, eight civilians were killed and nine wounded. A church, a school and twelve other houses were destroyed. Three Israeli bulldozers were observed demolishing the houses of the occupied Syrian village of Khan El-Joukhadar, west of Joukhadar village.
April 20, 1969: Israeli forces opened fire with medium machine guns, tanks and heavy mortars on the villages of Adasiyyah, Baqourah and Tel-El-Arbaeen. At 09:15 hours local time, the area of Tel-El-Arbaeen was subjected to shelling from field artillery. At 11:40 hours local time Israeli forces in the occupied Syrian heights extended their attack and shelled the areas of Kufor Asad and Saham. At the same time, two Israeli jets bombed the village of Az-Zemal; injuring a soldier and destroying three civilian cars.
April 22, 1969: Israeli jets bombed the village of Al-Mazar in the south and the village of Muthalath Ishtafaina in the north as well as the suburbs of the city of Irbid. Israeli bombing and strafing went on for more than two hours. As a result of these Israeli attacks, 5 civilians were killed and ten wounded in the north, and 5 soldiers killed and 20 wounded in the south. Property and civilian installations were badly damaged.
April 27, 1969: Israeli bulldozer was observed demolishing houses in the Syrian village of Aache. The materials derived from the ruins of these houses are used by the Israeli occupying forces to build an Israeli settlement very close to the aforementioned village.
April 29, 1969: Israeli Skyhawks bombarded and strafed the areas of TelSherbeil and Wadi Yabis, using rockets and machine guns. As a result, four civilians were killed and twelve houses were badly damaged. On the same day and at 22:00 hours, Israeli forces heavily shelled Shuna Shamalyyah, using tank and mortar artillery.
May 11, 1969: Israeli occupying forces resorted to their premeditated attacks along the Suez Canal sector. At 10:30 hours local time, Israeli shelling started against Kantara, Elkab, Eltina and Kilometer 10. At 12:15 hours local time, the Israeli firing was extended to Port Said and directed against houses. As a result, one civilian was killed and nine civilians were wounded.
May 19, 1969: Israeli jet fighters bombed and strafed the Karameh and Kuraimeh areas with rockets and machine gun fire. Bombing lasted intermittently until 12:20 hours. The objects of this bombing were civilian areas and agricultural equipment. As a result, a civilian was killed and five others were injured. A civilian truck was destroyed and three others were damaged.
May 21, 1969: Two Israeli companies, one consisting of tanks and the other of armored infantry, supported by jet fighters and helicopters, crossed the Armistice demarcation line south of the Dead Sea and attacked the villages of Safi and Feifa. As a result of this wanton Israeli attack, according to information received casualties and damage to property in the village of Feifa were as follows: Fatimah Awad Salamah, a 9 year old girl, was killed and five persons are missing. Twenty houses, a school, a post office building and a grocery were destroyed. Five Bedouin tents and their contents were burned. A tractor was looted. In the village of Safi, two soldiers were sounded and five houses destroyed.
May 22, 1969: Israeli jet fighters bombed and strafed Dar alla using rockets and machine guns for fifteen minutes. As a result, one civilian was killed and six wounded. Five houses and a civilian car were destroyed, and parts of the East Ghor Canal were damaged.
May 28, 1969: Israeli jet fighters bombed and strafed Kuraimeh Village in the north using rockets and machine guns for twenty-five minutes. As a result, four civilians were wounded, one of whom was a child, two houses and the village police station were destroyed.
June 14, 1969: The Fakhriyya Corner which is attached to Al Aqsa Mosque, together with 14 buildings owned by the religious endowment, Waqf, were demolished by the Israeli forces, and their inhabitants, numbering 80 persons, were expelled.
June 18, 1969: Two squadrons of Israeli jets bombed, strafed, fired rockets and dropped napalm over the ares of Damya Bridge, Maghtas (Baptismal Site), Karamah, Kuriemah, Prince Abdullah Bridge, Muthalath Al-Masri and the village of Ira. Israeli forces opened fire on Jordanian positions in the areas of Maghtas and Prince Abdullah Bridge, using tanks and artillery. Israeli forces resumed their shelling, extending it to the areas of Um-Nakhlah, Mindassa, King Hussein Bridge and Damya Bridge until 19:10. As a result of these deliberate Israeli attacks, which the Israeli pilots boastfully reported as "good hits" and in which all kinds of destructive weapons including napalm were used, nine soldiers wee killed and twenty-three wounded.
June 22, 1969: Waves of Israeli jets raided several areas in the East Bank of Jordan. At 10:50 hours local time two Israeli jets bombed and strafed the area of Ghor El-Safi, using rockets and machine guns. As a result two soldiers were wounded. At 11:30 an Israeli jet fighter intermittently attacked the village of Al-Aynah using rockets and machine guns. The raid continued for one hour. As a result one civilian was killed and four others wounded. At 15:50 two Israeli jet fighters attacked a civilian car on the desert road near El-Hasa. Two civilians were wounded. At 16:55 two Israeli jets attacked Ein Al-Bayda near the town of Tafila. As a result five civilians were wounded and two civilian cars damaged. At 14:30 Israeli jets attacked the area of Beir Mathkhour in Wadi Arabah. Two soldiers were wounded and two vehicles destroyed. At 17:50 and until 18:55 six Israeli jet fighters attacked the Zamalya area in the northern part of the Jordan valley. Two soldiers were wounded and two houses destroyed. The above premeditated and indiscriminate raids, carried out by the Israeli Air Force, have resulted in the death of one civilian and the injury of seventeen, six of whom are soldiers.
June 25, 1969: The Israeli army opened fir on Jordanian positions in Adsiyya and Baqura areas using medium machine guns and tanks artillery. Two Israeli jet fighters strafed the Adasiyya area. Later two jets were traversing over the capital, Amman. Ten Israeli jet fighters were sent to bomb and strafe the areas of Tel El-Arbain, Sheikh Muath and Al-Jumruk in the northern part of the Jordan Valley using rockets and machine guns. As a result of these Israeli attacks eleven Jordanian soldiers were killed and six others seriously wounded. In Tel El-Arbain one house was destroyed.
June 26, 1969: Four Israeli jets bombed the areas of Maghtas and Shahadat in the south using rockets. As a result, then houses belonging to the farmers in Shahadat were destroyed. One the same day, four Israeli jets bombed and strafed the area of Karn in the north using rockets and machine guns. As a result, four soldiers were killed and three injured.
June 30, 1969: Two Israeli jets bombed and strafed the Waqqas area in the north, using rockets and machine guns.
July 1, 1969: Five Israeli jets bombed and strafed the areas of Shuneh Aljanoubia and Wadi Shuaib using rockets and machine guns. Anti-aircraft fire was used against the Israeli aircraft. As a result, a solider was killed and a farmer injured. Also, six Israeli jet fighters bombed and strafed the village of Arjan in the Irbid district using rockets and machine guns. As a result, one civilian was killed and three others injured.
July 15, 1969: Israeli forces opened fire on the Um-Qais area using medium machine guns and tanks. Fire was returned and exchanged intermittently. As a result, two civilians, including a woman, were injured. One house was damaged.
August 6, 1969: Two civilians were killed and seven injured in the village of Malka and Ibdar. Seven houses were destroyed.
August 1969: An Israeli set fire to one of the most sacred Islamic shrines. Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, causing extensive damage to it. This crime plunged over one billion Muslims throughout the world into the deepest anguish.
August 10, 1969: Four Israeli Mystere jet fighters bombed and strafed Adasiyah area in the northern part of the Jordan Valley. Four more Israeli Vautour bombers bombed the East Ghor Canal using various kinds of bombs. Two Israeli Mystere jet fighters flew over the area of Shaq El-Barid.
August 11, 1969: Unites of the Israeli Air Force consisting of ten Vautour bombers and six Mirage jet planes raided civilian villages in southern Lebanon, near the border, for twenty-five minutes, using napalm bombs, rockets and machine guns. The attack resulted in seven casualties among the civilian Lebanese population, four of whom were killed and three seriously injured. Of those killed, was a woman who suffered burns inflicted by napalm.
August 25, 1969: Israeli jets attacked Ein Nimrah in the north. Four civilians were killed and seven others injured. Due to the extensive use of napalm bombs the crops were almost totally destroyed.
September 3, 1969: Units of the Israeli Air Force consisting of twelve Mystere and a number of mirage jet planes raided the Arkoub area in southern Lebanon for twenty-five minutes using napalm bombs and machine-guns. At 1:00 p.m., six Israeli Jet planes launched another attack on the same villages for fifteen minutes using napalm bombs. Two Lebanese civilians were seriously wounded as a result of this attack.
September 4, 1969: Two Israeli Super Frelon helicopters penetrated the air space of southern Lebanon and landed troops of the Israeli Armed Forces at the village of Halta in the region of Hasbaya. The raiders attacked civilian population and properties. The attack resulted in one civilian Lebanese being killed and two wounded. Three houses were destroyed.
September 5, 1969: Unites of the Israeli air force consisting of twenty jet planes attacked the villages of Al-Khourba, Al-Mary, Halta and Douhairajat, situated in southern Lebanon. The attack lasted one hour. Napalm bombs were used. The Israeli planes were met by anti-aircraft artillery and one of them received a direct hit and exploded on Lebanese territory south of the village of Teybeh.
October 3, 1969: A detachment of the Israeli armed forces crossed the Lebanese border from the Syrian occupied territory east of the Hasbani river penetrating for two kilometers within Lebanese territory; it reached the farm villages of Al-Dhyrjat and Tal-Almary and blew up five house therein. Concurrently, an Israeli helicopter landed armed troops in the village of Aytaroun north east of Bent Jibail, one kilometer and a half inside Lebanese Territory. The troops attacked Aytaroun and fired indiscriminately at the innocent civilian population; three civilians were kidnapped and four others were wounded, among them, two women.
October 12, 1969: Farmer in the Jordan valley were the subject of Israeli snipers. One farmer was fatally wounded in the area of Tall al Arba'in.
October 26, 1969: Israeli fighter bombers attacked one of the suburbs of Amman, the capital, near the University of Jordan. Eight civilians were injured, among them a woman.
November 9, 1969: A house in the village of Baqurah was the subject of Israeli infiltration. One farmer was killed and two women injured in this attack.
November 13, 1969: An Israeli patrol stealthily attacked the village of Bani Noem and Makhadit Sudrat, dynamited and destroyed six houses and kidnapped two farmers. In one of the houses blown up 76 sheep were killed.
November 17, 1969: Israeli soldiers with helicopters kidnapped three Jordanian civilians: from the area sough west of Maien.
November 24, 1969: An Israeli patrol crossed the Armistice Line in Ghor Fefah sough of the Dead Sea. The patrol attacked six Jordanian shepherds, killed four and kidnapped a fifth. The sixth shepherd escaped; the Israeli patrol also killed five camels.
December 3, 1969: About forty members of the Ad Hoc Committee for the Jewish Defense entered the premises of the Permanent Mission of Syria to the United Nations and staged a "sit-in" for one and half hours. The policeman posted to guard the Syrian Mission called in other policemen to help him get them off the premises. Two farmers from the village of Waqqas were wounded by Israeli snipers. Israel's aim is to bring to a stand still all Jordanian life in the valley.
December 6, 1969: Two Israeli torpedo boats intercepted the Japanese ship Shinkai-Maru heading toward the Jordanian port of Aqaba. Later on, the Israeli boats shot at the ship in spite of Israel's knowledge of the identity of the ship and its commercial cargo. The Japanese ship, fortunately, was able to reach its destiny without damage. Also, two Israeli jet fighters attacked the area of Al Rayhanat, south of Masharee in the northern part of the Jordan Valley using rockets. As a result one girl, fourteen years old, was killed and two civilians were wounded. Three houses were damage.
December 8, 1969: Israeli forces in the occupied Syrian Heights shelled the city of Irbid using heavy artillery of 130 mm guns. As a result of this attack, one woman and a man were killed and six civilians, four of whom were women, were seriously injured. Three houses were badly damaged.
December 21, 1969: Waves of Israeli fighter bombers raided the villages of Kufr Asad, Sama and Izmal in the district of the city of Irbid over three hours using rockets, bombs and machine guns. As a result, six soldiers were killed and nineteen others wounded.
Five civilians, among them a seven-year old boy, were seriously wounded. Seven houses in the village of Sama were destroyed. Also, the Israeli army in the occupied Syrian Heights shelled the city of Irbid using heavy artillery of 130 mm guns. The shelling went on for one hour. As a result, ten civilians were wounded and a girl, four years old, was killed. Several houses and buildings were damaged.
December 31, 1969: Eight Israeli planes attacked the villages of Kufr Asad, Zahar, Dauqara and Sum in the district of Irbid for 35 minutes using rockets and various kinds of bombs. As a result 11 civilians were killed, six of whom were children between two and seven years old and three of whom were women. Twelve civilians were wounded, some seriously. Eight houses were either destroyed or damaged.
January 1-2, 1970: Israeli jets strafed the villages of Rayhanah, Wadi Yabis and Waqqas in the northern part of the Jordan Valley. One child was killed and three civilians wounded, one of them a woman.
January 3, 1970: Units of the Israeli regular armed forces crossed the Lebanese border at the Kfar Kela area and kidnapped 11 Lebanese civilians. At the same time other units of the Israeli regular armed forces crossed the Lebanese border in the Tall en Nahas area. They kidnapped 10 Lebanese soldiers and destroyed a guard house.
January 8, 1969: Israeli military planes raided the region of Al Aarqoub in southern Lebanon and in successive waves bombed the area of Rachaiya el Foukhar, Kfar Chouba, Kfar Hamam, Hebbariye and Ain Qenya.
January 14, 1970: Two Israeli helicopter strafed a heard of camel in Fefah, south of the Dead Sea. The shepherd and eight of his camels were killed. The next day and in the same area of Wadi Araba an Israeli patrol crossed the armistice demarcation line to kill 60 camels.
January 16, 1970: Four Israeli jets attacked the villages of Deir Alla and Wadi Yabis for 25 minutes using machine guns and rockets. Three civilians were killed and another five wounded; three cars were destroyed.
January 18, 1970: Israeli forces opened up mortar fire on Jordanian farmers in Tall-As-Sukkar in the northern part of the Jordan valley. As a result, four farmers were killed and six wounded, among them a woman.
January 20, 1970: An Israeli battalion with armored carriers and tanks supported by Israeli military aircraft crossed the Armistice Demarcation Line south of the Dead Sea in the area of Ghores Safi and Wadi Feif. A battle ensued with the Jordanian forces and until 09:00 of the next day. At 07:30 hours local time, the Israeli Air Force bombed and strafed military as well as civilian targets and centers in the area. The Israeli ground forces were able to enter the villages of Safe, Fefah and Wadi el Hasa and destroyed house. Also the civilian targets were in the south. In Ghor Es-Safi two Israeli jets strafed and bombed the village of An Namirah, killing one civilian and wounding another three, two of them women.
January 25, 1970: Israeli armed forces shelled the village of Aita edh Chaab, in southern Lebanon, with 120 mm mortar shells. As a result two Lebanese civilians were killed and one civilian and one soldier were wounded. Twelve houses and a tractor were damaged. These repeated and premeditated murderous acts have created an intolerable situation for the Lebanese civilian population in southern Lebanon, disrupting their peaceful life and subjecting them to constant terror. Furthermore, they demonstrate Israel's well-calculated policy of fomenting disorder, sustaining and increasing tension and systematically widening the area of conflict, thus endangering further the peace of the Middle East. Such a reckless policy based on arrogant military power is in defiance of international law and morality and of relevant United Nations resolutions. The Israeli air force committed a further treacherous act of aggression by attacking the United Arab Republic unarmed civilian vessel Shadwan. This 300-ton vessel belongs to the United Arab Company for Maritime Provisions and is registered as a part of the United Arab Republic Merchant Marine and the Civilian Maritime Registry of the United Arab Republic. At the time when Israeli aircraft opened fir on this unarmed civilian vessel, the vessel was sailing southward in the Red Sea, at a distance of 20 kilometers from the Egyptian town of Ghardaka and more than 50 kilometers from the Shadwan Island which has itself witnessed, on January 22, 1970, an earlier act of Israeli aggression. The vessel was hit, six members of its crew, all civilians, were wounded and the vessel had, later, to be tugged to shore.
February 12, 1970: The world-wide wave of outrage and indignation caused by the criminal and barbaric attacks carried out by Israeli Phantom jet planes against the National Metal Products Factory at Abu Zaabal in the United Arab Republic has revealed the sense of shock and dismay of the international community at Israel's disregard of the basic norms and elementary rules of international conduct. In their premeditated aggression, the Israeli Phantoms, using rockets and napalm bombs, caused a heavy loss of life among civilian workers, which has reached by now 80 persons killed and a greater number of workers wounded.
February 27, 1970: An Israeli patrol consisting of seven soldiers crossed the Lebanese border and kidnapped four Lebanese shepherds who were tending their herds near the village of Rmaich, inside Lebanese territory. This premeditated, unjustified and unprovoked act of aggression by Israel against Lebanon is aimed at disrupting the peaceful life of the Lebanese civilian population in southern Lebanon and subjecting them to constant terror. This latest act of aggression by Israel constitutes a flagrant violation of the Lebanon-Israel Armistice Agreement and of the provisions of the United Nations Charter. It is further aimed at creating a situation fraught with extreme danger, threatening the security and infringing the sovereignty of Lebanon. These Israeli act of aggression are in line with their expansionist designs.
March 7, 1970: The Israeli armed forces crossed the Lebanese border and attacked the village of Edh Chaab. They killed a Lebanese army sergeant, kidnapped two civilians, and wounded one. They blew up five houses and destroyed one tractor.��
March 12, 1970: Israeli forces invaded part of South Lebanon known as "Fatah‑Land" killing a number of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians.
March 16� 1970: Israeli artillery shelled the heights situated between Rachayya-Al-Fakhar and Kafrhamam. One house and some fields used for agriculture were damaged.
March 17, 1970: Israeli forces shelled with mortars the villages of Blida, Baiss-Al-Jabal and Aitaroun. One civilian was killed, six others were wounded.
March 27, 1970: Four Israeli jets attacked areas northwest of Karak. Two were killed and five sounded.
April� 2, 1970: The Israeli air force and army initiated an attack against Syria. The Syrian air force and ground army took action in self-defense. The battle lasted until 4 p.m., local time. This attack was acknowledged officially by Radio Israel. The New York Times, April 3, 1970 reported: "An Israeli military commentator, Elad Peled, a former general, said on the state radio tonight that today's action could mark the start of a long and bloody war of attrition with Syria, or a return to relative tranquillity on the border." Typical of Israeli treachery, 16 Syrian soldiers, including 4 officers, were killed. Thirty-seven other Syrian soldiers were wounded. The Israeli attack was not confined to military targets; Syrian towns and villages were also bombed, resulting in the killing of a number of innocent civilians, including women and children, and the destruction of houses; thus adding to the already long and mounting list of Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity.
April� 8, 1970: Israeli Phantom jets attacked a primary school (the Bahr Al Bakr School) in the village of Houssaneya in Sharkia Province, 80 kilometers north of Cairo, murdering 31 school children and wounding another 36; the attack also resulted in the killing and wounding of other civilians.
May 5, 1970: Four waves of Israeli jets attacked the road between Kuraymah and Shunah Esh Shamaliyah. Four civilians were wounded. Two cars were destroyed and one damaged.
May 15, 1970: Israeli occupying forces shelled the villages of Deir Abu Said and Malka from the Syrian Heights. Two girls, 10 and 3 years old, were wounded; a house and a car were destroyed. Later the same villages were shelled; a woman was killed and another civilian wounded and a house was damaged.
May 18, 1970: Waves of Skyhawks attacked the villages of Um Qays and Zamal using rockets and bombs; after an hour Israeli Phantoms were sent to the same area. One woman and a man were killed and two, including a child, were wounded; twelve houses were destroyed.
May 22, 1970: Israeli artillery began a massive shelling of the Lebanese villages of Yaround, Blida, Aitroun and Bennt Jbail, situated in ought eastern Lebanon. Preliminary reports indicated that 20 persons were killed and 40 others wounded. The victims included a large number of women and children. In addition, 150 houses were destroyed or damaged.
May 25, 1970: Israeli forces clashed on Lebanese territory with a Lebanese patrol, killing one Lebanese officer and one soldier and wounding six other soldiers. Also Israeli helicopters crossed the Armistice Demarcation line in Wadi Sabrah south of the Dead Sea and strafed a herd of camels. Thirty five camels were killed and their shepherd was slightly wounded.
June 1, 1970: Israeli forces shelled the town of Irbid from the occupied Syrian heights, using artillery for more than 10 minutes. The village of Al Ish and farms around it, in Irbid district were shelled from the Syrian Heights. Five hundred dunums of trees and 80 dunums of corn were burned.
June 3, 1970: Waves of Israeli fighter bombers attacked the villages of Shuna Shamaliyyah and Kuraimah and the road connecting them, using rockets and machine guns. As a result of Israeli strafing and bombing two children, a boy and a girl, were killed. Nine other civilians were wounded, among them two children. Nine civilian cars and a tractor on the road were destroyed and a bridge on the East Ghor Irrigation Canal was damaged. This Israeli attack aiming at civilians and civilian targets happened two days after the killing of a child and the serious wounding of five others between the ages of three months and twelve years. Six others, among them two women, were also wounded.
June 6, 1970: Israeli helicopters attacked a Bedouin camp near Aqaba. One civilian was killed and a 6 year old child was wounded; three tents were burned and a number of sheep killed.
June 8, 1970: 21 person from different towns and villages of the occupied West Bank of Jordan and Gaza were expelled at gunpoint by the Israeli occupying forces. Israeli helicopters and half track armored vehicles chased them across the Armistice Demarcation Line in Wadi Araba south of the Dead Sea. Their expulsions followed months of arbitrary detention, imprisonment and torture. From the list of names expelled; some of whom were elderly men in their seventies, the policy of terror and colonization of the occupying Power becomes clear. This policy follows a systematic pattern of armed aggression; occupation; destruction of Arab villages, quarters in cities and villages; as in the case of Jerusalem and Halhoul, and houses; expulsion of Arab inhabitants and their leaders; confiscation of Arab property which is used for the establishment of Israeli and Jewish settlements coupled with Jewish Zionist.
June 14, 1970: Israeli patrols carried by helicopters blew up a house west of Es Slat and then kidnapped a teacher, Ali Al Arayda and a farmer, Nayef Suleiman.
June 30, 1970: Two Israeli jets attacked and strafed a civilian bus carrying villagers on the main road leading to the village of Masharee in the northern part of the Jordan Valley. As a result of this murderous attack, two of the passengers were killed and thirteen others, including a woman and a six year old child, were wounded, some seriously.
July 7, 1970: Israeli jets heavily attacked the village of Kufr Awan and the suburbs of Irbid; 8 were killed and 13 were seriously wounded.
July 10, 1970: Israeli jets attacked the village of Kufr Awa and the suburbs of the town of Irbid in the north, using rockets and heavy machine guns for over 15 minutes. As a result of this Israeli attack against centers of civilians, 7 were killed, and 27 wounded, some seriously.
July 12, 1970: Dr. Ahmad Ali Khalaf, a psychiatrist from Behtlehem, was expelled after over a month of arbitrary imprisonment and brutal torture.
July 13, 1970: A mine exploded under a vehicle wounding two Jordanians in the area of Al Makhnak.
July 15, 1970: Two Israeli jets attacked the village of Esh-Shunah Ash-Shamilyah in the northern part of the Jordan Valley. The jets strafed the market place which is the center of the village where farmers do their daily transactions. The raid continued intermittently for one hour. 13 farmers were wounded, some seriously. Two trucks, belonging to the farmers, were destroyed and another damaged.
July 19, 1970: Israeli jets attacked the villages of Arjan in the Ajloun area and Eun Jumla, Dubein, Jarrash Al Majdel and As Sukhnah. One farmer was killed and two others were wounded; crops were burned and property badly damaged.
July 28, 1970: An Israeli patrol crossed the river Jordan to the East Bank near Tel Es Sukar, and laid mines in the main road. In the next day the mines exploded under two civilian cars; twelve persons were wounded.
July 29, 1970: Israeli jets attacked the villages of Arjan in the Ajloun area and Ein Jumla, Dubein, Jarrash Al Majdel and As Sukhnah; one farmer was killed and two others wounded; crops were burned and property badly damaged.
August 1, 1970: The Israeli occupying authorities destroyed a large number of low cost houses east of the El Kuneitra City and forced the inhabitants to cross to Syria.
August 2, 1970: Israeli tanks opened a barrage of artillery aiming at the Coptic Convent and other neighboring converts, in the area near the Baptism Site, west of the River Jordan. The heavy artillery continued for one and a half hours. As a result, part of the Coptic Convent, including its main dome, were destroyed. Other properties in the area, including farms and crops, were damaged. This new irresponsible Israeli act adds to a long list of Israeli violations against holy shrines, religious, educational and medical institutions as well as freedom of worship and education.
August 13, 1970: 20 houses were demolished in the occupied village of El Rafid, by the Israelis.
August 28, 1970: Israeli jets raided the areas of Deir Alla and Khirbat Sbeera in the Jordan Valley, using rockets and machine guns; two civilians were killed and six people were wounded, including three soldiers. Later on in the day Israeli jets attacked the area of Deir Alla for more than ten minutes.
October 19, 1970: The Israelis opened fire at 14:15 local time on shepherds living east of El Kuneitra, killing one of them; and took away 324 sheep and 81 goats.
December 13, 1970: The Israelis completely bulldozed the two villages of Ain Aisha and Jwezeh.
December 28, 1970: Two helicopters of the Israeli Air Force landed in two successive operations a company of Israeli troops in the village of Yatir in Southern Lebanon. The Israeli troops attacked the village killing an old Lebanese man in his sixties and a girl thirteen years old. Two other Lebanese civilians were wounded. Four houses were destroyed and twenty-two others were damaged.
January 14, 1971: Before midnight, five Israeli helicopters landed armed units in the Lebanese coastal village of Sarafand situated forty-three kilometers north of the Lebanese-Israeli border and fifteen kilometers south of the town of Saida. As a result of the Israeli aggressive action undertaken in the village, two Lebanese civilians were wounded, one house was destroyed, and two other houses were damaged.
February 1, 1971: An Israeli patrol crossed the Lebanese border to the village of Al Khyam and opened fire on the village. At the same time, another Israeli patrol crossed the border to the village of Kafr Kala. It blew up two houses and abducted to the Israeli territory two civilians, who were released the following day.
February 16, 1971: The Israeli occupying authorities bulldozed all new houses at El Kuneitra City and pulled out the doors and windows of big buildings in that city, including those of the military hospital of the Golan.
March 11, 1971: Two Israeli bulldozers razed to the ground all houses north of the military hospital in the occupied city El Kuneitra.
March 18, 1971: Twelve persons were expelled through Wadi Araba, south of the Dead Sea.
April 5, 1971: An Israeli patrol crossed the Lebanese border to the village of Duhayra in the region of Sour and blew up three houses. Another Israeli patrol crossed the Lebanese border to the village of Maiss ej Jabal in the region of Marjayoun and blew up three houses and destroyed property.
April 20, 1971: Sixteen persons were deported through Ghor Es Safi.
June 4, 1971: Israeli armed forces crossed the Lebanese border and blew up one house in the village of Yaroun.
June 5, 1971: Israeli armed forces shelled the village of Ramya with mortars, killing one civilian.
June 7, 1971: Israeli forces crossed the Lebanese border and blew up two houses and one car in the village of Ramya.
June 17, 1971: Israeli forces fired at the villages of Albustan and Alzalluta from the heights of Almanarah; two houses were damaged. On the same day they fired at the village of Yaroun and at its military post.
June 20, 1971: The Israelis fired at the valley of Alsalhani, shelled the valley with artillery and crossed the border to the valley and fired at the village of Mazra'ah Alsalhani, killing a number of cattle.
June 21, 1971: Israeli forces crossed into Lebanese territory and reached the village of Yaroun; where they made the villagers leave their homes and then destroyed five houses.
August 9, 1971: Israeli artillery shelled intermittently the heights and valleys surrounding the villages of Hebbariye and Rashaya Al Fakhar and their outskirts, in the region of Hasbaya.
September 2, 1971: An Israeli armed force penetrated five kilometers into Lebanese territory in the direction of the village of Kfar Hamam in the southeastern part of Lebanon. At the same time, Israeli artillery shelled the areas surrounding the villages of Kfar Hamam and Rashaya Al Fakhar for 15 minutes from points beyond the Lebanese borders. Later the Israeli artillery renewed it shelling of the same areas and Israeli forces took two Lebanese civilians captive; six houses were destroyed and extensive damage was incurred upon the crops.
September 18, 1971: Israeli forces directed large calibre machine gun fire at the village of Ramia, in the south eastern part of Lebanon, causing the death of two civilians, a farmer and his wife. On the same day, a Lebanese civilian from he village of Ramia was abducted by the Israeli forces.
January 11, 1972: More than 100 Israeli soldiers penetrated into Lebanese territory as far as the village of Kfar Hamam where they proceeded to destroy two houses. At the same time, Israeli artillery shelled the village of Rachayya al Fakhar, killing one Lebanese woman, wounding her husband and destroying three houses.
January 13, 1972: A detachment of Israeli commandos entered the village of Kafra, which is located nine kilometers within Lebanese territory. They attacked the village with mortar shells, destroyed four houses and then withdrew.
April 17, 1972: The United Press International news agency reported from Tel Aviv that an Israeli military communiqu� said that Israeli troops had fired on Egyptian prisoners of war on Tuesday night killing one of them. The communiqu� also said, according to the UPI report, that troops had fired into the prisoners and that one of the prisoners had been shot in the head and had later died of his wounds.
June 23, 1972: Two Israeli forces jet aircraft flying north-north-east to south-south-west were observed south-south-west of OP and recrossed the armistice demarcation line south-south-west of OP. Also, four Israeli Forces Phantoms had dropped five bombs on Dir el Assyr, killing 10, 12 wounded and four houses destroyed. Also, four Israeli Phantom jet aircraft attacked with bombs the Lebanese region of Dir el Assyr causing the death of 20 Lebanese civilians, injuring 18 others and damaging 25 house.
September 6, 1972: Israeli armed forces launched a massive land and air attack against southern Lebanon. The land forces were composed of two infantry and armored brigades, which penetrated to a depth of about 25 kilometers inside Lebanese territory. Twenty-four Israeli airplanes participated in the initial assault followed by subsequent waves of Israeli bombers. The invading forces followed two axes, the first based on Adayseh, Al Taybeh, and Al Qantara, and the second on Bint Jbail, Aynata, Beit Yahum, Tibnin, and Majdal Selm. From these towns, the Israeli forces panned in different directions. Lebanese military positions in Al Taybeh, Al Qantara, near the bridge of Al Khardaleh and at Tal loubieh, were both bombed from the air and attacked by the land forces. Over 15 towns and villages were also bombed and attacked. A camp of Palestinian refugees in the vicinity of Al Nabatiyeh, was bombed. The Israeli air force used napalm bombs on localities on Mount Al Jarmak. The Lebanese armed forces engaged the invading Israeli forces. The preliminary reports indicate that 61 Lebanese soldiers were either killed or wounded. Lebanese military equipment was either destroyed or heavily damaged. The bridge of Al Khardaleh on the Litani River was destroyed. Many roads in the invading areas were blown up.
September 8, 1972: 24 Israeli military aircraft carried out a raid against the communities of Rachayya el Wadi, al Rafid and Mukhayyan Nahr el Bared, in Lebanese territory. The above mentioned communities were indiscriminately bombarded with rockets and strafed by the aircraft. Preliminary information gathered following this act of aggression fixes the losses at: (a) Twelve Lebanese Palestinian civilians killed, including 10 children, one man and one woman. Seven brothers and sisters were among the children; (b) thirty four Lebanese Palestinian civilians wounded, among them 15 children. The age of the children ranged between 8 and 15 years; (c) Two Lebanese civilians reported missing. One of the two is the father of the seven brothers and sisters who were killed.
September 8, 1972: Without any apparent cause or reason, Israeli Phantoms bombed Palestinian targets in Lebanon and Syria in a series of raids killing hundreds of civilians. This action was explained by the Israeli prime minister the next day, who in the Knesset, that "Israel had now adopted a new policy to strike at the terrorist organizations where ever we can reach them."
October 15, 1972: Israeli aircraft bombed four places in Lebanon: Bakifa, in the south-eastern region; the Nahr-Sainik region to the south of Sidon; Bourghoulye to the south of the river Kasmiyye; and Deir Ashayer, in the south-east near the Lebanese-Syrian border. Three Lebanese civilians were seriously wounded. Several Palestinians were killed and many were wounded. Dwellings suffered severe damage. Telephone, electricity and water systems were damaged, particularly in the Mediterranean region of Tyre and Sidon.
October 30, 1972: Israeli air squadrons bombed four residential areas, situated on the north-east edge of the capital. Damascus. There were many casualties, including a number of women and children.
November 21, 1972: The Israeli air force carried out a number of raids against the villages of Nawa, Hara and Kalaat-Bani-Maarouf. It destroyed one mosque, two schools and many houses and killed 10 civilians and wounded 13 more, including women and children.
December 27, 1972: Israeli aircraft carried out a raid in the southern part of Syria, killing a number of civilians.
December 31, 1971: The Israeli air force attacked a civilian area in the central region of Syria and inflicted a number of civilian casualties, including women and children.
January 8, 1973: Israeli aircraft made attacks, dropping up to 40 rockets or bombs, and that well over 80 civilians (men, women, and children) were killed. Over 20 houses were completely destroyed. The Israelis attacked a village, including the school, many times and that 30 civilians were killed and more than 50 were wounded. Later Israeli aircraft attacked the village and rockets were dropped and 6 civilians were killed and 10 wounded.
February 11, 1973: In the holiest Moslem shrine in occupied Jerusalem, for which the Israeli authorities are directly responsible, one of the major interior walls of the Mosque collapsed. This wall, which is over two meters wide and situated at the southeastern side of the Mosque, separates the Mosque of Omar from the Tomb of the Forty. It was in this same spot nearly four years ago, in August 1969, that certain perpetrators deliberately set fire to the Al Aqsa Mosque in a suspicious set of circumstances causing substantial damage to this holiest of Islamic shrines.
February 21, 1973: Israel landed commando units on the coasts of the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli. They attacked two Palestinian refugees camps, dynamited several houses and buildings, some over the heads of their occupants, killing 35 refugees and wounding a similar number. On this same day Israeli aircraft shot down a peaceful Libyan Civil Boeing 727 airliner, murdering 106 innocent passengers. This brazenly criminal act was perpetrated over the then illegally occupied Egyptian territory of Sinai. The airliner was in distress, and Israel's leaders, not caring about its civilian passengers of many different nationalities, had their fighters shoot it down. The decision to shoot down this Libyan airliner in distress was made by then Chief of Staff of the IDF General David Elazar, acting on erroneous intelligence data supplied by Mossad and cleared with Military Intelligence. Then Head of Mossad, General Zvi Zamir, and Head of Military Intelligence, General Eli Zeira, share General Elazar's responsibility for the brutal massacre of these innocent civilian airline passengers.
The responsibility of then Minister of Defense General Moshe Dayan and then Prime Minister Golda Meir in this crime is also clear and established. The following is from the United Nations Security Council Documents in an account of the Libyan Boeing 727 airliner massacre sent by the Ambassador of Egypt: "Upon urgent instructions from my Government and in view of the seriousness of the situation arising from the most brazenly criminal act perpetrated by Israeli fighters over the occupied Egyptian territory of Sinai against a Libyan civil Boeing 727 airliner in distress and carrying civilian passengers of different nationalities, I would like to bring the following points to your attention, as well as to the attention of the members of the Security Council.
���� On 21 February, 1973, a Libyan airliner proceeding on a scheduled flight from Benghazi to Cairo deviated from its original course wing to navigational difficulties as well as to bad weather conditions. The airliner, therefore, accidentally overflew the occupied Egyptian territory of Sinai. Thereupon the civil aircraft was intercepted by four Israeli fighters and, in spite of the fact that the aircraft was unmistakably civilian, the Israeli fighters, upon direct instructions, cleared with the highest authorities in Israel, treacherously and without warning attacked the airliner with cannon fire and missiles while it was heading west. This flagrant premeditated and barbaric act of aggression resulted in the crash of the civil aircraft and caused the death of 106 helpless and defenseless victims.
���� It is worthwhile to note that the aircraft deviated into Sinai, which is illegally occupied by Israel, in defiance of the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations and the numerous resolutions of the world Organization. Had Israel respected and implemented its obligations under the Charter and the United Nations resolutions, the said massacre would have been avoided and the innocent lives would have been spared.
���� The Egyptian Government considers the Israeli act of shooting down a civilian aircraft to be another aggression carried by Israel to new heights, as well as a crime committed in cold blood against a civil air transport vehicle, and, as such, it is a flagrant and serious threat to the safety of international aviation. The Egyptian Government draws attention to the fact that Israel is callously engaged in a premeditated campaign of massacre and mass killings in the occupied Arab territories in particular and in the region in general. The recent unprovoked aggression against Lebanon which resulted in the killing of tens of civilians is a case in point. It occurred on 21 February, the day that the horrible crime against the civil aircraft occurred. Other official Israeli terrorist operations in the Middle East need not be enumerated in this respect. It is a matter of criminal record and common indignation."
March 9, 1973: The Israeli occupation authorities killed three Palestinians who happened to be in a house belonging to Mr. Rashed Musmar in the Gaza strip.
March 11, 1973: The Israeli occupation authorities blew up Mr. Busmar's house. The occupying forces had killed three civilians and arrested 20 others in the Gaza strip
April 10, 1973: Israeli commando units with the help of some Lebanese collaborators stormed into a residential quarter in East Beirut and killed three PLO leaders: Yusef Al Najjar, Kamal Adwan and Kamal Nasser.
June 9, 1973: Two Israeli forces soldiers penetrated to a distance of approximately 200 meters into Lebanese territory in the vicinity of Birket El Naccar and forcibly took to Israel-occupied territory a Lebanese.
July 7, 1973: An Israeli Forces patrol boat captured five Lebanese fishermen in Lebanese territorial waters very close to the coast.
August 10, 1973: A Middle East Airlines Caravelle chartered by Iraqi Airways was intercepted by two Israeli military aircraft upon take-off from Beirut International Airport on a scheduled flight to Baghdad, and forced to land at an Israeli military base. There were 83 persons of different nationalities on board, including seven crew-members. The passengers and crew were forced at gunpoint to leave the hijacked airline after it landed at the Israeli military airfield, were manhandled and subjected to hours of interrogation and detention.
August 15, 1973: An Israeli forces patrol penetrated 500 meters into Lebanese territory in the region of Chebaa and abducted a Lebanese shepherd.
September 8, 1973: One Israeli forces patrol boat penetrated Lebanese territorial waters to a distance of approximately one Kilometer off Naqoura and fired on a Lebanese fishing boat, forcing it towards Israel. On the same day the Lebanese boat and crew were released and returned to Lebanese waters.
October 9, 1973: The Israeli Air Force invaded Lebanon's air space and bombed and destroyed the radar installation situation on the Barouk mountain in central Lebanon, 18 miles east of Beirut. Nine Lebanese soldiers manning the installations were wounded. The radar station was in effect inoperative and under repair.
October 20-21, 1973: Several rounds of mortar fire coming from Israeli territory fell in Lebanese regions of Kfar Kela, Ramiye and Markaba causing severe damage to four civilian houses and destroying one hut.
October 24, 1973: Several rounds of mortar and artillery fire coming from Israeli territory fell on the Lebanese villages of Aadeisse, Yaroun, Marouhaine, Tair Harfa and Rachaiya El Foukhar; casualties and damage to material were reported. Israeli armed forces captured 44 civilians from the governorate of Suez and Ismailia, in their fields, in their homes or on the Suez-Cairo road. These civilians were transferred to a camp used by the Israeli authorities to assemble captive civilians. The young people were then moved to the eastern bank of the Suez Canal where they were confined in prisons in Sinai and Gaza. Some of these were returned to the west bank of the Canal. The Israeli forces searched the confined civilians, seized their personal belongings, identification papers, land property leases and agricultural contracts. The Israeli forces further exhibited the confined civilians to press correspondents and photographers, alleging that they were Egyptian soldiers. The Israeli forces imprisoned 11 police-firemen at the fire department of the fertilizer plant, at the police station of this plant, at the Ataqa police division of the Suez Governorate and at the Ismailia police center. These firemen were released, in the vicinity of an Egyptian military unit, after their identification cards and personal belongings had bee confiscated. The Israeli armed forces captured all the personnel of the police unit, totalling 23 policemen and sergeants, stationed at the fertilizer plant. Some of the police personnel are still detained by the Israeli armed forces.
October 25, 1973: Several rounds of mortar fire coming from Israeli territory fell on the Lebanese regions of Hanine and Abou Chach. Casualties and damage were reported. Several rounds of mortar and artillery fire coming from Israeli territory fell on the Lebanese regions of Bent Jbail Tiri, and Ain Ebel. Casualties and damage reported. In the afternoon Israeli forces opened fire on the Greek oil tanker Mimismids in Mat Sidi Asadat south of Suez. The tanker caught fire. This incident took place during the time of the cease-fire and the ship was sailing under a neutral flag.
October 27, 1973: Forcing Syrian prisoners of war to march ahead of the Israeli forces attacking Mount Hermon, in order to guide them through minefields, thus exposing the Syrian prisoners of war to death, as the explosion of mines would kill them first. This information was relayed by the special correspondent of a French daily, Le Monde, on October 27, 1973, as testified by an Israeli soldier who took part in this attack. The least that could be said about this despicable act is that it is indescribable in its inhumanity.
October 30, 1973: The Israeli military forces expelled the civilian population from the towns and villages of Goneifa, Fayed, Kebrit, Abu Sultan, Ein Ussim and Serapium; arrested 600 civilians and put them in a camp in Abu Sultan; fired at the livestock in that whole area; destroyed the shopping centers in Fayed and Fanara.
November 3, 1973: Israeli troops rounded up the inhabitants of the villages of El-Ganein and Amer in the governorate of Suez, 298 persons in all, blindfolded them and forced them to evacuate their homes and fields and move to the nearest Egyptian military position.
November 21, 1973: A heard of goats belonging to a Lebanese citizen while at 1.5 kilometers south-east of Kfar Chouba was fired at by automatic weapon fire coming from Israeli territory, which caused the death of 50 goats. Several mortar rounds coming from Israel territory fell in the Lebanese region of Rachaya El Foukhar. Material damage was reported.
November 22, 1973: Israeli forces fired two artillery shells in the direction of the Chairman of the Israel-Syrian Mixed Armistice Commission (ISMAC), Colonel Svenson, who was at the time accompanied by the Chairman of the Syrian delegation� to ISMAC. One of the artillery shells landed approximately 100 meters from the party. This was the third time that personnel from UNTSO were exposed to Israeli fire while performing their duty, and this has happened despite the fact that UNTSO officers use cars that carry the United Nations flag and the United Nations emblem, which are clearly visible.
March 8, 1974: Artillery fire from Israeli territory fell in the vicinity of El Majidiye, Rachaiya El Foukhar, El Hebbariye, El Fardis, Kfar Chouba, and Ghandouriye, causing injury to a Lebanese woman. Thirty goats were killed and material damage was reported.
March 12, 1974: The Chairman of the Supreme Muslim Council in Jerusalem, Sheikh Al Muhtasib, sent a telegram to the occupation authorities which read as follows: "A serious crack has occurred in the building of the historical Jawhariyah School which is situated at the western side of Al-Haram Al-Sharif as a result of the excavations which, the Israeli occupation authorities, have been undertaking underneath the building. We had warned earlier of the consequences of the excavation conducted by the Israeli Ministry of Religious Affairs in the Holy City of Jerusalem. We demand an immediate halt to these destructive excavations, and repair for the structure of the historical Jawhariyah School, and the restoration of the character and construction of the area below and around these structures..." These illegal excavations in and around Al-Haram Al-Sharif area, could ultimately cause the collapse and the destruction of several religious and historical buildings, including four mosques and five old and famous gates of Al-Haram Al-Sharif, moreover, the 3,000 persons who live in this area would eventually be rendered homeless.
March 19, 1974: Israeli artillery once more launched an attack, shelling the village of Durbol, which is heavily populated and is situated behind the Syrian defense lines. Neither in the village nor in its environs is there any military or defense establishment or center. During the shelling, a number of innocent civilians were killed or wounded. Several houses were destroyed. A United Nations observation post was damaged and two UNTSO observers were wounded. In addition, a Syrian Liaison officer was wounded.
1974: Israeli air‑borne commando units attacked Beirut airport and destroyed 13 Lebanese civilian aircraft on the ground. In the same year, Israeli planes intercepted a civilian Syrian aircraft and forced it to land at Lydda (Lod) airport on suspicion that it was carrying a Palestinian commando leader. Christian shrines in Jerusalem were subjected to several acts of aggression and robbery. This included damaging the church of the Holy Sepulchre, burying 4 other Christian centers, and stealing the diamond Crown of the Virgin Mary (And not a peep from so‑called American Ministers!).
March 26, 1974: Rounds of artillery and rocket fire exploded at the northern outskirts and central area of the village of El Harra. They also stated that the shelling destroyed a cafe in the northern outskirts of the village, killing seven men and two women, and damaged a house in the same area, killing two children. Another house in the village was damaged by an unexploded rocket which they said had later been removed by military engineers.
April 6, 1974: Israeli forces opened artillery fire, from 23 different positions. The Israeli air force unleashed three raids against the Syrian defense positions, two of which took place before noon and one in the after noon. The villages of Durbol and Arnah were exposed to Israeli artillery fire resulting in the destruction of several houses. Several shells fell very close to United Nations observer posts.
April 8, 1974: Israeli forces opened artillery fire against the zone in which United Nations Observation Post No. 38 is situated; the Post was hit by several shells; the Syrian Liaison officer was seriously wounded; a living-quarter trailer and a United Nations vehicle were destroyed. As the observation Post was clearly visible to the naked eye from the Israeli positions, and as the nearest Syrian military position was situated at a distance of 900 meters, the shelling of the Observation Post shows that the Israeli fire was deliberate and intentional.
April 12-13, 1974: During the night Israeli forces commandos infiltrated into Lebanese territory and completely demolished a number of houses in the villages of Ed Dhaira, Yarine, Ett Taibe, Mhaibib, Blida and Aitaroun. They also caused an unknown number of deaths and kidnapped several persons and carried them into Israel. Artillery fire coming from Israeli territory fell in the vicinity of Abou Qamha, El Khuerbe, Chebaa, Mimes, Kfar Ez Zait and El Khaloua. Material damage was reported and 200 goats killed. Israeli forces opened artillery fire on the Syrian village of Saassa causing injuries to five civilians in the village. One round of artillery fire had impacted on the center of the village square wounding five children and causing damage to the shops and houses surrounding the square. On child was seen in the local hospital.
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April 18, 1974: Israeli forces artillery fire and aircraft rockets impacted in the village of Qalaat Jendal destroying three houses and wounding eight civilians. Israeli air forces launched a missile attack on the village of Qalaat Jendal. Eight civilians were wounded and three houses were destroyed in the shelling.
April 25, 1974: Israeli forces artillery fire and aircraft rockets impacted in the village of Qalaat Jendal destroying three houses and wounding eight civilians.
April 27, 1974: Israeli military positions bombarded the region of the village of Rime and the village of Durbol itself. One civilian was seriously wounded as a result of the Israeli aggression.
April 30, 1974: Intermittent artillery fire from Israel territory fell in the vicinity of Naqoura, 2 kilometers north-east of El Majidiye, Rachaiya El Foukhar, and El Hebbariye, causing injury to a Lebanese soldier and also material damage.
May 2, 1974: Intermittent artillery and automatic weapons fire from Israel territory and rockets launched from Israeli territory and rockets launched from Israeli forces aircraft; injuring four military personnel and two civilians, killing 15 goats and causing material damage.
May 13, 1974: Israeli forces aircraft attacked the village with bombs; and resulted in four persons were killed and six wounded. One boy was seen with shrapnel wounds and in a state of shock. Israeli artillery bombarded the Damascus Deraa-Amman road. That act of aggression killed one girl and seriously wounded several civilians.
May 15, 1974: Israeli artillery shelled the villages of Mabay, severely wounding two children.
May 16, 1974: The Israeli Air Force attacked in two major raids several Lebanese towns, village and Palestinian refugee camps run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, situated in the areas of Al-Nabatieh, Ain Al-Helweh near Sidon, Rachaya Al-Foukhar, Al-Koraybi, Mahrounnah and Maaroufieh, situated near Beirut. The planes bombed and strafed several populated and defenseless locations, raining death and destruction. It has not been possible to determine the final count of casualties and the extent of damage. However, it is known that the number of persons killed is over 40 and that of the wounded over 180. There were many missing persons. Israeli artillery shelled the villages of Bzaqeesam and Beyt-Tyma, killing one civilian citizen, wounding several others and destroying a number of houses.
May 19, 1974: Four Israeli warships fired on the Rachidiye camp; killing 7 persons and wounding 35 others.
May 21, 1974: The village of Ain Qenia and its surroundings were subjected to rocket and bombs by two Israeli forces jet aircraft, causing death to three Lebanese children and injury to 33 others, the blasting and destruction of several houses and other material damage.
May 23, 1974: The village of Bqaaseem was shelled, resulting in the wounding of villagers and damage to house. Six villagers who had apparently been wounded by shell fragments; stated they had been sounded by artillery fire that fell in village. The military observers saw several houses that had been damaged by recent shelling.
May 28, 1974: The village of Kfar Haour was shelled by artillery, resulting in injuries to five civilians in an underground shelter. The same day a farm storehouse had been damaged by artillery shelling. One female villager with minor wounds on her head, face and arm stated that she had been wounded by a shell explosion.
June 19, 1974: Following the withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the village of Hadhar, a detachment of the Israeli army returned to the village and seized three Syrian citizens. The operation, while being carried out, was witnessed by the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). All of the detained Syrian citizens were held by the Israelis.
June 20, 1974: Israeli forces aircraft attacked with rockets and bombs three camps. Several persons were reported killed or wounded. Destruction of several buildings by blasts and various damage were also reported.
July 8, 1974: Israeli naval forces attacked the commercial ports of Sour (Tyre) and Sarafand, destroying 29 fishing boats.
July 9, 1974: Israeli naval forces attacked the commercial port of Saida (Sidon), wounding one civilian and destroying 10 fishing boats.
July 18, 1974: Israeli forces penetrated into Lebanese territory in Boustane village, exploded three houses with dynamite and kidnapped two Lebanese from the village.
August 16, 1974: A detachment of Israeli soldiers crossed the disengagement line at the district of Majdal Shams, and detained Mr. Hayel Abou Saleh, a Syrian who worked as a civil guard. The incident, which obviously constitutes a serious and flagrant violation of the Agreement on Disengagement between Israeli and Syrian Forces signed in Geneva on May 31, 1974, was witnessed by the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).
September 1, 1974: An Israeli forces patrol entered the village of Aita Ech Chaab and abducted a Lebanese citizen.
September 3, 1974: An Israeli forces patrol penetrated into Lebanese territory, posted itself on the main road at AMR 16932783, near the village of Staichiye, searched passing vehicles, took mail from a civilian vehicle, abducted a Lebanese citizen from the village of Ed Dhaira and then withdrew under cover of artillery fire.
October 5, 1974: Israeli forces artillery fire fell in the vicinity of Blida, causing death to 3 Lebanese and injury to 12 others, as well as material damage in that area.
November 11, 1974: Bombs fell in a field where a Lebanese family of 20 was working, killing three instantly and wounding a fourth who died later.
November 12, 1974: Israeli forces soldiers entered two houses located between Yarine and Dheira, evacuated all occupants, blew up one of the houses and kidnapped three Lebanese from the houses.
November 13, 1974: Israeli forces entered the village of Blida and destroyed its only bakery and the home of a widow with seven daughters.
November 14, 1974: A helicopter-borne Israeli force penetrated into Lebanese territory in the village of Srobbine, blew up three houses with dynamite and caused injury to a Lebanese citizen, death to livestock and material damage. Israeli gunboats landed a patrol near the town of Sarbine and blew up three houses. One person was injured.
November 30, 1974: Israeli forces jet aircraft attacked with bombs and rockets in the vicinity of Kafra, causing destruction of one house and damage to material and cultivation.
December 12, 1974: The town of Nabatiye had been shelled by artillery. Six persons had been wounded by artillery fire. The military observers saw two children in the Nabatiye Hospital who had recently received serious shrapnel wounds. They also saw five houses partially destroyed, several houses damaged and three civilian vehicles damaged by artillery.
December 31, 1974: Israeli forces soldiers entered the village of Yaroun and destroyed 10 houses with explosives and abducted three men from the village. He also stated that a child had been injured by the explosions and taken to a nearby hospital. The military observers saw 10 houses which had recently been destroyed by explosives.
1975‑1980: Israeli's intelligence service, the Mossad, distinguished itself by feats of terrorist actions that killed a number of Arab and Palestinian diplomats, scientists and journalists such as the PLO representatives in London, Rome, Paris and Brussels, prominent Palestinian journalist and writer Ghassan Kanafani and the Egyptian nuclear scientist Dr. Al Mashad.
January 1, 1975: An Israeli force penetrated Lebanese territory and entered the village of Ett Taibe, exploded one house with dynamite and caused death to four Lebanese citizens, injury to another and material damage.
January 11-17, 1975: Israel launched vicious attacks on the Lebanese village of Kfar Shouba, situated in southern Lebanon, with heavy, concentrated artillery and mortar shelling. It was transformed into a deserted village; Israeli armed units crossed the border four times during the period and contributed their criminal share of destruction. 90 houses were completely demolished and 76 others were seriously damaged and can no longer be inhabited. In fact, of this once-thriving village, only 26 houses remain habitable. Furthermore, the Israelis blew up the roads and a bridge leading to the village, as well as several irrigation canals. In this latest manifestation of Israeli terrorism, 11 Lebanese villagers were wounded and six others kidnapped by Israeli soldiers.
January 12, 1975: An Israeli detachment penetrated Lebanese territory in the vicinity of Halta, where it destroyed four houses and caused other material damage, and Kfar Shouba, where it destroyed one house, causing injury to two women.
March 21, 1975: The Israeli navy stopped on the high seas an Egyptian fishing boat called Nasr-El-Suez at a point opposite Ras Bakr in the Red Sea. The Israeli nave confiscated quantities of the fish on the boat as well as the personal belongings of its crew, before permitting the fishing boat to continue its trip. Later, however, this same boat was stopped on the high seas and fired on by another Israeli boat when the fisherman resisted arrest; the Egyptian fishermen were seriously wounded. The Israeli navy forced the to proceed to the port of El Tor where, later in the evening, Ahmed Salama Hilal died of his wounds. The Israeli authorities later released the four other fishermen after they had been interrogated by Israeli intelligence for four days. These crimina acts of piracy on the high seas on the part of the Israelis increase tension, endanger human lives and are condemnable and punishable according to international law and conventions.
May 17, 1975: 81 mm mortar shells, fired by Israeli artillery at the town of Aitaroun in southern Lebanon during attacks, exploded and caused the death of nine children at play, whose ages ranged between four and twelve years. In addition, three other children were seriously injured.
May 25, 1975: Israeli artillery fire and rockets and bombs from Israeli jet aircraft fell in the vicinity of Aazziye, Aita Ez Zoutt and other locations in Lebanese territory, wounding three soldiers and causing damage to material and cultivation.
June 15, 1975: A large formation of Israeli war planes raided the village of Kfar Shouba and its vicinity for 20 minutes. Later another formation of four military aircraft raided Kfar Chouba eith bombs and missiles for 10 minutes. One person was killed, three wounded and two were missing and many houses were destroyed.
July 6-7, 1975: During the night Israeli artillery shelled a number of villages in southern Lebanon along a wide front. One woman was killed at El-Aadaisseh, two persons were wounded, three homes were destroyed and heavy damage was inflicted on other property.
July 23, 1975: Israeli forces crossed the southern Lebanese border in the vicinity of the villages of Kfar Kala and Wadi Houra, where they demolished two houses and kidnapped seven persons. Two persons were wounded and 29 houses were damaged. On the same day Israeli soldiers fired their automatic weapons at a vehicle on a road within the Lebanese frontier between El-Aadaisseh and Kfar Kala and wounded three passengers. Later on in the day the Israelis fired two explosive shells, hitting the eastern entrance of the village of Ain Ibl. Two deaths and seven wounded.
August 4, 1975: Israeli forces artillery fired on� Tyre, causing the death of four Lebanese army officers and the wounding of a fifth.�
August 5, 1975: Israeli forces launched a land, sea and air attack on the town of Tyre (Sour). The attack was supported by Israeli artillery which shelled the town and its surrounding fields, and the Palestinian refugee camp of El-Bass. Four Lebanese officers were killed and a fifth was wounded when their barracks were hit by a shell fired by the Israeli forces. Two civilians were killed and a third wounded. Fifteen houses were destroyed and two motor vehicles were damages. On the same day the Israeli air force bombarded and strafed the southern Lebanese village. Five civilians were killed, 10 were wounded and considerable damage was done to the fields in the area.
August 20, 1975: Israeli forces jet aircraft attacked with bombs and rockets the Lebanese villages of Ham and Maaraboune, causing casualties and material damage. 4 Lebanese were killed and 19 wounded. Four Israeli aircraft raided the Lebanese villages of Ham and Ma'raboun in the district of Baalbek. Three innocent Lebanese were killed and 15 others wounded. Nine other homes were destroyed.
September 2, 1975: Israeli force jet aircraft attacked with bombs and rockets, the village of Abour Qamah, causing material damage and the town of El Bourghliye, causing the death of two person, injury to eight others and material damage.
September 3, 1975: Israeli forces jet aircraft attacked with rockets and bombs the Lebanese coastal towns of El Bourghliye and El Qasmiye, causing casualties of two children, the wounding of eight citizens and material damage.�
September 11, 1975: Six Israeli jets bombed the region of Burghuliyeh, two Lebanese children were killed and six others, including four children, were wounded. Two houses were destroyed and heavy damage was done to the fields in the area.
October 15, 1975: An Israeli APC opened MG fire across "A" line, killing a woman and a man.
November 27, 1975: Israeli forces penetrated Lebanese territory in the vicinity of Kfar Kela, dynamited one house and fired automatic weapons, causing the death of one Lebanese, wounding another and causing other material damage.
December 2, 1975: Israeli jet aircraft attacked several targets within Lebanese territory in the vicinity of Nabatiye and Tripoli, causing both Lebanese and Palestinian civilian casualties and material damage.
February 10-22, 1975: The magistrate's ruling sparked a wave of violent demonstrations in most major West Bank towns and in East Jerusalem. Violent demonstration - hear riots; over the Temple Mount are to protect the decisions of the Jerusalem magistrate. The confrontation reached a climax when, as a result of Nazi-like interrogation and torture at the hands of Major Shlomo Aharon, the Zionist intelligence officer in charge, four Palestinians died in the Nablus goal. Two other Palestinians were killed in an indiscriminate attack by planes, artillery and tanks on the villages of Hiwara and Burqa. This attack was followed by mass arrests of the residents of these villages and the imposition on them of arbitrary curfews.
April 17, 1976: Zionist demonstrators, carrying guns and mortars, and with the protection of the Israeli army, initiated a march through the occupied West Bank in order to demonstrate their support of the Israeli Government's policy of territorial expansion and establishment of Jewish settlements. The march sparked counter-demonstrations of protest on the part of the Palestinian inhabitants of the area and, in clashes between them and Zionist troops, a number of Palestinians were brutally murdered by Israeli troops and many more were wounded.
May 1, 1976: Zionist troops opened fire into a crowd of unarmed Palestinian demonstrators who were manifesting their unalterable opposition to the continuing illegal occupation of their lands and homes and to the imminence of additional Jewish settlements. One Palestinian was killed; several others were badly injured.
May 3, 1977: The Israeli military forces of occupation opened fire on Palestinian demonstrators in the town of Qabatya and killed a 15-year-old boy and a 55-year-old woman.
November 5, 1977: Israeli warships sank a fishing boat inside Lebanese territorial waters near the border village of An-Naqourah; three Lebanese fisherman drowned.
November 8, 1977: Israeli gunners shelled the town of Tyre and its suburbs as well as several villages in the Western sector of South Lebanon. The worst number of casualties inflicted was in the village of Majdel Zoun, where 10 people were killed and 20 wounded, all of whom were Lebanese. The area also sustained enormous material damage.
November 9, 1977: Israeli war planes raided several villages; 60 dead were uncovered and 120 others injured, all Lebanese civilians.
August 20, 1978: Israel committed another act of State terrorism. It sent its warplanes on a mission of death and destruction directed against innocent Palestinian refugees of the town of Damour and the Burj Al-Barajnah refugee camp; both in the Republic of Lebanon. 4 were killed and 25 wounded.
December 11, 1978: Israeli forces of occupation ordered the fencing-off around 1,200 dunums of built-up land in the municipality of Beit Sahour (Sheperds' Field).
December 20, 1978: Eight Israeli warplanes fired rockets on the refugee camp of Bourjesh-Shimaly east of Tyre, resulting in the destruction of a number of dwellings. Five persons suffered injuries as a result of the raid. Zahr al Burj was raided. One innocent civilian was killed and three others, including an infant, were wounded. The refugee camp al Wasta Qasmiyah was raided, resulting in the death of a woman, serious injuries to three others.
December 21, 1978: Israeli artillery shelled the Lebanese army unit stationed at Kaoukaba. It also shelled the Hasbani river basin and the surrounding areas. As a result of this shelling, 1 person was killed and 4 were wounded.
January 30, 1979: Israeli forces demolished the homes of eight Palestinian families in Nablus and in Abu-Dis, a suburb of Jerusalem. In line with their usual practice, the terrorists ordered residents out of their homes and, after denying them time to gather and remove their belongings, blew up the eight houses, reducing them to rubble. On the same day, the Israeli authorities made known their intention to deport the Palestinian student, who was served with an expulsion order.
March 12, 1979: A military checkpoint was set up on the Bir Zeit-Ramallah road. The soldiers turned back by the use of force people who were coming to Bir Zeit from Ramallah. The student body of the university held a meeting at the meeting hall to discuss the events surrounding the visit of President Carter. After the demonstrations ended the Israeli soldiers opened fire on a number of people standing in one of the main streets of Bir Zeit, hitting four of them in the back.
April 10, 1979: The Israeli Air Force carried out raids on the towns of Damour and Tyre, killing three children and a woman and wounding three men in Damour, and killing one civilian and wounding four others in Tyre. Several houses were destroyed.
April 22, 1979: Israeli naval and air forces raided the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr El-Bared in north Lebanon. Four residents were killed and ten wounded and several houses were destroyed in the one and one-half hour long bombardment.
April 24, 1979: Israeli air force bombarded locations around Tyre. This attack on innocent civilians is definitely a premedicated criminal act committed under instruction of the Israeli government by Menachem Begin, who has vowed that "a Jewish child's blood will not be spilt with impunity," and who persists in spilling the blood of Palestinian and other Arab children; a continuation of his criminal attack on Deir Yassin in 1948, when he and his gang murdered in cold blood 254 men, women and children in what constitutes one of the first steps in the genocide of the Palestinian people.
May 6, 1979: Four Israeli warplanes raided the Palestinian refugee camp at Nahr al Bared near Tripoli for a period of 15 minutes. One infant and five other civilians were killed and 10 others were wounded.
May 7, 1979: The Israeli military authorities closed the secondary school in Behtlehem. It is critical to mention that this act is only one in a series of provocative and repressive actions by the Israeli military authorities since the beginning of the month. Israeli troops using tear-gas closed the university and informed the Acting President that they were not optimistic that the university would be reopened. On the same day, Israeli troops surrounded the allied campus of Bethlehem University and closed it.
May 23, 1979: The Israeli air force raided the towns of Haret El-Naame, Damour, Aichiye and Rihan. Civilians were killed and injured, among them children and women, and material damages were extensive. Israeli naval vessels launched an attack against the city of Tyre and the neighboring area, resulting in the killing of at least two civilians and the wounding of many others. There was also extensive material damage to property and residential areas.
June 4, 1979: Israeli occupation authorities demolished the home of Itaf Ahmad Yusuf in the town of Al-Jariah, near Ramullah. She was accused of resisting Israeli occupation. Four other houses were sealed off and their owners arrested on the pretext of resisting Israeli occupation.
June 6, 1979: Six Israeli aircraft raided the village of Habboush and 20 houses were damaged.
June 24, 1979: The Israeli air force carried out a series of attacks on civilian targets which resulted in 20 casualties, most of them women and children.
July 22, 1979: Israeli aircraft raided the towns of Al-Damour and Na'ameh, on the road between Beirut and Sidon, six consecutive times. Casualties, all civilian, according to preliminary reports were 8 killed, including 3 women and 1 child, and 19 wounded.
December 8, 1979: Israeli radio announced that an Islamic building had collapsed; because of heavy rainfall, reported the Israelis. However, two days later, the Arabic newspapers Al-Sha'b and Al-Fajr, issued at Jerusalem, gave a different version of the incident. They revealed that the main reason of the collapse of this building was the excavations carried out by the Israeli authorities underneath it and under the surrounding areas.
1980: There were so many incidents of murder and mayhem in 1980 it is not possible to list in this short report.
1981: Putting their so‑called pre‑emptive policy in action, Israeli warplanes raided and destroyed a peaceful Iraqi nuclear reactor near Baghdad.
June 6, 1982: The Israeli armed forces invaded Lebanon. Less than two weeks after its election, the New Menachem Begin government unleashed the first blow in its war to liquidate the PLO in Lebanon.
June 1982: Israeli forced launched their savage invasion of Lebanon. As a result of this invasion a great number of refugee camps, Lebanese towns and villages were destroyed. Israeli warplanes launched eight raids on Palestinian targets in South Lebanon and Beirut, killing nearly one thousand people and wounding many others. "The past few days of activities on the northern border followed five weeks of quiet. It is not know what triggered Israeli's Friday afternoon raid." Outraged by Israel's onslaught and the cruel destruction of Beirut, Jewish journalist Jacobo Timmerman called Begin "unbalanced" a "terrorist" and "a disgrace to the people." He accused Sharon of helping to make Israel "the Prussia of the Middle East."
1982: The Massacres of Sabra and Shatila Camps by the Israelis! The massacres, the King David Hotel, the Semiramis Hotel, Deir Yassin, Dawayma, Kibya, Kafr Kassem, the USS Liberty and the Libyan Boeing 727 Airliner; practically pale into insignificance compared the carnage perpetrated at the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian Refugee Camps in Beirut, Lebanon, during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
The mass murder of more than 2,750 men, women and children (according to a body count taken in the camps by the International Committee of the Red Cross on September 23, 1982) whose only "crime" was to be homeless exiles from their native land; by the Phalangist puppets of the Israelis has been studied exhaustively. The Israelis ordered the Phalangist Military forces to conduct the genocide attack against helpless Palestinians.
The studies disclose that any rational person would place responsibility on the Israelis for inspiring the massacres. Without question it has been established that the Israelis bear responsibility for the killings. The principal war criminal bearing legal responsibility for the massacres is the then Israeli Minister of Defense, General Ariel Sharon, the perpetrator of the Kibya Massacre nearly thirty years before. He was aided and abetted in this criminal responsibility by the Foreign Minister of Israel, Yitshak Shamir, who previously had criminal responsibility associated with the Deir Yassin Massacre and other massacres and the assassination of United Nations Representative Count Bernadotte. Responsibility was shared by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, guilty of war crime atrocities in both the King David Hotel Massacre in 1946 and that of Deir Yassin and other massacres. Three senior Israeli Generals were found to have Command Responsibility for the Sabra and Shatila war crime. Chief of Staff General Rafael Eitan, Commanding General of the North Command, General Amir Drori, and the Field Commander for the IDF division occupying West Beirut, Brigadier General Amos Yaron, were all found guilty of criminal responsibility related to the Sabra and Shatila massacre.
Issue No. 107 of "Military Law Review," the official legal periodical of the U.S. Department of Defense issued by the Department of the Army, published an exhaustive 118 page analysis by Lieutenant Commander Weston D. Burnett, Judge Advocate General's Corps., United States Navy, on the Israeli responsibility for the massacre. In his study, entitled "Command Responsibility and a Case Study of the Criminal Responsibility of Israeli Military Commanders for the Pogrom at Shatila and Sabra," Commander Burnett concluded: "The screams of the victims at Dubno, My Lai and Sabra and Shatila should never be forgotten. IN assessing the blame for such atrocities, command responsibility must play a key role. [72] The verdict, established by all the precedents established in the history of warfare and by the International War Crimes Tribunals after World War II, can only be guilty in regard to the Israelis. The following is a day-by-day, hour-by-hour chronology of the events surrounding the Sabra and Shatila massacre." [73]
September 13: The last French contingent of the multinational peacekeeping force departed Lebanon. 5:10 p.m. Prime Minister Begin and Defense Minister Sharon, without Cabinet consultation, decided to implement "Operation Iron Brain," which includes the occupation of West Beirut in order to "prevent dangerous developments and to preserve tranquility and order."
September 14: A bomb blast kills president-elect Bashir Gemayel with 50-60 colleagues in Phalangist headquarters in East Beirut. 350 members of rival Phalangist factions arrested by the SKS, the Kitaeb (Phalange) security service. Before the announcement of Gemayel's death is officially made, Begin and Sharon, set in action "Operation Iron Brain"; it involves the occupation of West Beirut.
���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Conclusion
Systematic analysis of nine massacres; the King David Hotel in 1946, the Semiramis Hotel in 1948, Deir Yassin in 1948, Dawayma in 1948, Kibya in 1953, Kafr Kassin in 1956, the USS Liberty in 1967, the Libyan Boeing 727 Airliner in 1973, and Sabra and Shatila in 1982, indicates the presence of a pattern:
�� 1). These war crimes were not isolated incidents erratically performed by fringe groups of military units which had lost their coherence, but instead were����������� conducted for predetermined objectives;
�� 2). Each massacre was planned in advance for a political rather than a military purpose;
�� 3). Each massacre was conducted for psychological terroristic impact not solely related to the massacre itself;
�� 4). Each massacre was conducted under the auspices of a well-defined chain of command descending from a political authority to a terroristic organization���������� or military structure;
�� 5). The individuals who were the actual war criminals were never conscripts, but voluntary leaders sharing Zionist ideological fervor; and
�� 6). Regardless of political party affiliations, those individuals with proven guilt in war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, such as Ben-Gurion,���������� Dayan, Begin, Shamir, Rabin, Sharon and Peres, seem to have ensured political dominance in Israel by individuals who were guilty of these crimes in������������ their past. This would seem to indicate a criminal conspiracy to ensure those guilty of war crimes against humanity and genocide would never be brought���������� to justice.
July 17, 1982: U.S. supplied F‑4 and F‑5 jets swooped low over Beirut in 4 passes, bombing the densely‑populated Fakahani district. Five tall apartment buildings were destroyed, 200 people were killed and 800 wounded. Forty percent of the victims were small children, and one of the survivors was an unborn baby pulled by doctors from the dead mother's womb. Israel's then Chief‑of‑staff Rafael Eitan announced on Israeli Radio that civilian causalities were unimportant and that the Arab causalities suffered as of the July 17 attack did not yet constitute the Israeli "final solution."
September 1982: Israeli raids and bombardments continued during the weeks following the raid on Beirut in July. It was the beginning of the invasion of Beirut; after which an 80 days war led by Ariel Sharon, (then War Minister of Israel) resulted in the destruction of much of Beirut, killing and wounding thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese civilians. It was during this invasion that the massacre of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps was committed. Where over 2,500 Palestinian women, children and elderly people were slaughtered in cold blood. Even the Israeli high court held a number of the Israeli military officers, including Sharon, responsible.
October 1982: Israeli terrorists bombed the houses, cars and offices of three elected Palestinian mayors on the West Bank, Nablus, Ramallah and Al Beireh.
1984: Israeli warships and gunboats intercepted merchant ships on the high seas off the coast of Lebanon and kidnapped a number of Palestinians.
1985: Israeli planes raided and destroyed the PLO headquarters in Tunis.
April 1988: Israeli commando units stormed into the house of Khalil Al Wazir, in Tunis. Al Wazir who was the most senior PLO military commander and believed to be in charge of the Intifada, was murdered while sleeping.
February and March 1989: Israeli F‑16 planes pounded Palestinian targets in Lebanon's Shouf Mountains, Damour and the Beka's valley with a series of raids killing a numbers of civilians, including 15 school children in Damour.
April 14, 1989: Israeli border guards and settlers attacked the peaceful and unarmed village of Nahalin near Bethlehem. Eight Palestinians were massacred for no reason and over 50 were injured.
Could this sort of actions by the Jews be the reason they have been run out of every country on earth, except the United States and there is not much doubt that some day America will realize just how much the Jews despise and loth them; and they too will rise up and drive them out. Expulsions of Jews from Host Nations: 1). A.D. 250, Carthage; 2). 415, Alexandria; 3). 554, Diocese of Clement (France); 4). 561, Diocese of Uzzes (France); 5). 612, Visigoth Spain; 6). 642, Visigoth Empire; 7). 855, Italy; 8). 876, Sens; 9). 1012, Mayence; 10). 1181, France; 11). 1290, England; 12). 1306, France; 13). 1348, Switzerland; 14). 1349, Hielbronn (Germany); 15). 1349, Hungary; 16). 1388, Strasbourg; 17). 1394, Germany; 18). 1394, France; 19). 1422, Austria; 20). 1424, Fribourg & Zurich; 21). 1426, Cologne; 22). 1432, Savory; 23). 1438, Mainz; 24). 1439, Augsburg; 25). 1446, Bavaria; 26). 1453, Franconis; 27). 1453, Breslau; 28). 1454, Wurzburg; 29). 1485, Vincenza (Italy); 30). 1492, Spain; 31). 1495, Lithuania; 32). 1497, Portugal; 33). 1499, Germany; 34). 1514, Strasbourg; 35). 1519, Regensburg; 36). 1540, Naples; 37). 1542, Bohemia; 38). 1550, Genoa; 39). 1551, Bavaria; 40). 1555, Pesaro; 41). 1559, Austria; 42). 1561, Prague; 43). 1567, Wurzburg, Genoese Republic; 44). 1569, Papal States; 45). 1571, Brandenburg; 46). 1582, Netherlands; 47). 1593, Brandenburg, Austria; 48). 1597, Cremona, Pavia & Lodi; 49). 1614, Frankfort; 50). 1615, Worms; 51). 1619, Kiev; 52). 1649, Ukraine; 53). 1654, LittleRussia; 54). 1656, Lithuania; 55). 1669, Oran (North Africa); 56). 1670, Vienna; 57). 1712, Sandomir; 58). 1727, Russia; 59). 1738, Wurtemburg; 60). 1740, LittleRussia; 61). 1744, Bohemia; 62). 1744, Livonia; 63). 1745, Moravia; 64). 1753, Kovad (Lithuania); 65). 1761, Bordeaux; 66). 1772, Jews deported to the Pale of Settlement (Russia); 67). 1775, Warsaw; 68). 1789, Alace; 69). 1804, Villages in Russia; 70). 1808, Villages & Countrysides (Russia); 71). 1815, Lubeck & Bremen; 72). 1815, Franconia, Swabia & Bavaria; 73). 1820, Bremes; 74). 1843, Russian Border Austria & Prussia; 75). 1862, Area in the U.S. under Grant's Jurisdiction; 76). 1866, Galatz, Romania; 77). 1919, Bavaria (foreign born Jews); 78). 1938-45, Nazi Controlled Areas; 79). 1948, Arab Countries.
The United Nations has time and again rebuked Israel for the violations of the laws of war and conquered territory. Time and again the U.N. commission on human rights has declared the actions of Israel in the occupied territories violate human rights and "constitute war crimes." They specify Israel's acts in the deportation. The decisive motivation for the settlement policy, given to the world, is based upon the so‑called "historic‑right" of the Jewish nation.
The basis for this belief, is in the permanent Jewish ties to "Eretz Israel" (the land of Israel), is the divine promise of God. No wonder that Menachem Begin called the territories "liberated" not "occupied." Addressing a crowd at Kadoum Settlement, manned by Ghoush Emunim, Begin said: "Judea and Samaria are Israeli land, belonging to the Jewish people, settlement is right and we have a duty to continue to fulfill that right and duty."
In addition to this supposed "historical right" the security argument forms the second important pillar of legitimacy for the Jewish settlements. According to the conception of Israeli politicians, the state still has no final "secure" border capable of defense. The new defense village settlements should help secure existing and possible future borders, in that they serve as the first military bulwark against possible Arab attacks.
Equally significant (to the settlements which have established an irrevocable condition) have been intimations from official quarters that Israel is planning to retain at least most, if not all, of the territories seized in 1967. This intention was clearly illustrated in a speech made by Mordechai Zippori, Israeli minister of energy, on October 10, 1982. The occasion was the opening ceremony of Inav, a new settlement, established on land seized from the villagers of Anabta, near Tulkarem.
Christians around the world have been deceived by their Judeo-Christian teachers that the Jews have a rightful claim to Palestine because it belongs to the descendants of the ancient Israelites. And stupidly await an attack on that little bastard country known today as Israel. But those who have studied history, know that the Russians have already invaded Palestine and conquered it! For the Jews that control Palestine today are the descendants of the Russian Khazars and are not the descendants of Abraham in any way. We know for two reasons that the Jews in Palestine today are not the rightful owners.
�� 1). The Jews who control Palestine today are the descendants of the Khazars and can be proven by reading the following books: Under the heading of "A brief History of the Terms for Jew" in the 1980 Jewish Almanac is the following: "Strictly speaking it is incorrect to call an Ancient Israelite a 'Jew' or to call a Contemporary Jew an Israelite or a Hebrew." [74]
The World Book omits any reference to the Jews, but under the word Semite it states: "Semite...Semites are those who speak Semitic languages. In this sense the ancient Hebrews, Assyrians, Phoenicians, and Cartaginians were Semites. The Arabs and some Ethiopians are modern Semitic‑speaking people. Modern Jews are often called Semites, but this name properly applies only to those who use the Hebrew Language. The Jews were once a sub‑type of the Mediterranean race, but they have mixed with other peoples until the name 'Jew' has lost all Racial Meaning."
The History of the Jewish Khazars, by D.M. Dunlop, pp. 4-15; Benjamin Freeman, Facts Are Facts; Encyclopedia Americana (1985); Encyclopedia Britannica (15th edition); Academic American Encyclopedia (1985); Encyclopedia Americana (1985); The Jewish Encyclopedia; The Encyclopedia Judaica (1972); The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia; The Bible relates that the Khazar (Ashkenaz) Jews were/are the sons of Japheth not Shem: "Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood. The sons of Japheth...the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz..." [75] So the Bible verifies that the Ashkenaz Jews [Khazars] are not the descendants of Shem and cannot be Semite.
The American People's Encyclopedia for 1954 at 15‑292; Academic American Encyclopedia, Deluxe Library Edition, Volume 12, page 66; The New Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume 6, page 836; Collier's Encyclopedia, Volume 14, page 65; New Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIII, page 173; The Cadillac Modern Encyclopedia, page 822; The Jewish Encyclopedia for 1925; The Jewish author, Arthur Koestler, In his 1976 best seller The Thirteenth Tribe; The Outline of History; Jewish author Alfred M. Lilienthal, in The Zionist Connection II, pages 759‑768; Antiquities of the Jews, by Josephus, Book 13, ch. 9, sec. 1; Israel in Bible Prophecy; Palestine is Coming; The Conquest of A Continent, by Madison Grant, pp. 224-225; The Iron Curtain Over America, By John Beaty, pp. 15-16. And there are many more but space prohibits.�����������������������������������������������������
The Israeli Massacre of Palestinians
����������������������� March 6‑16, 2002
More than 200 Palestinians were slaughtered between March 6 and March 16 by the Israeli
Occupation Army. 40 Palestinians were killed on March 8 alone. The Jewish‑dominated
media has not given any memorable name to that bloody massacre of Palestinians because,
according to Jewish law, Jewish blood is worth more.
Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg, head of the Kever Yossev Yeshiva (school of Talmud) in Nablus
stated, "The blood of the Jewish people is loved by the Lord; it is therefore redder and their
life is preferable." This is the U.S. media's position too. NBC News described the Israeli
army's mass murder in Ramallah and the other refugee camps from March 6‑16 as "Israeli
patrols."
The bloody massacre of Palestinians in early March has already been forgotten. The blood
of those Arab civilians murdered by Jewish soldiers is not "red enough" for the US media to
commemorate. Only Jewish casualties are truly mourned and memorialized. This is Talmudic
racism in action, and it breeds rage. On this page we have attempted to preserve salient
photographs and facts pertaining to this horrible onslaught of Israeli state terrorism,
amounting both to collective punishment of the entire Palestinian people and low intensity
genocide.
������������������������������� April 13
���������������������� Massacre Coverup Continues
The massacre in Jenin ended on April 11, but the Israeli Army continues to bar the outside
world from the scene of the carnage. Before Ali Khatib left Jenin on April 11th, he saw
dump‑trucks filled with the remains of the Palestinian houses bulldozed by the Israelis. Inside
those houses, the Palestinian father of eight said, were dead Palestinians. Inside the trucks,
mixed in with the rubble and the concrete, were their remains. "There were ten or fifteen
trucks," he said. "After the Israelis bulldozed the houses, they scooped everything up. Then
they drove away." One man spoke of receiving a call on his cell phone on April 11 from a
Palestinian family trapped beneath the rubble of his bulldozed home inside the camp. On
April 12 the family's phone went dead. On the morning of April 12, Israeli Army General
Ron Kitrey confessed in a brief moment of candor: "very likely several hundred Palestinians
were killed." His statement has since been withdrawn and "clarified" by the Israeli army. A
combination of an Israeli ban on the media and the clever method the Israelis have devised
for disposing of the bodies of hundreds of their victims, almost guarantees there will be no
holocaust‑like photos of mounds of Palestinian cadavers. The Palestinian people are so
much rubbish in the view of the Americans and Israelis. It is fitting therefore that their
remains should be disposed of in this anonymous and secretive manner, "mixed in with the
rubble" of a demolished refugee camp. In this way the always media‑savy Israelis spare
themselves the kind of opprobrium their minions in media, government and education forever
heap on the Germans.
������������������������������� April 12
���������������������� The "Incidental" Palestinians
Palestinians say that the United States has written off Palestinian civilian casualties as
incidental: "You foreigners make much of Israeli civilian deaths,' said Bashir Abu Walid, a
neighbor of Manal Sofran, a woman who was shot to death by Israeli soldiers April 10.
'Every Israeli death is a big event. But we are just statistics. Because an Israeli soldier does
it, it is not terrorism. Why not?"
Manal Sofran, a Palestinian housewife, was shot twice in the head by Israeli soldiers in
Ramallah on April 10, while calling her husband Sami and their four children to come in from
the garden of their three‑story apartment building. She leaned out from the window. She
spied five soldiers by a nearby wall, the neighbors recalled, and feared they might shoot at
moving objects. 'She was right,' said Tom Kay, one of the neighbors. 'But she was the
object, and it was clear the soldiers could see her.' Her last words were 'Oh, Sami,' said
grieving relatives who received visitors at a wake today. Israeli soldiers enforce a strict
curfew, to the point where a Palestinian mother or child who sticks his or her head out a
window risks losing it.
Palestinians cite examples of the kind of attacks Ramallah residents believe exemplify the
Israelis wanton killing of civilians‑‑people who were shot the week of April 8‑‑‑one died in
a taxi after delivering a female relative to Ramallah Hospital to give birth. Soldiers shot
another in the chest as he stood in front of his home; a third was killed trying to drive
relatives out of Ramallah to their home villages; a Palestinian paraplegic in a wheelchair was
shot.
Ramallah city hall was ransacked and its second floor burned. Deeds, tax receipts, building
permits and other documents important to governing a city disappeared. The possibility that
deeds were destroyed is particularly important in an area where successive Israeli
governments have confiscated property on the grounds that the owner possessed no
documents. 'You will have to kill every one of us,' shouted Umm Khaled Yahya, an old
woman in a scarf who shouted at Israeli soldiers for 10 minutes without letup.
����� Israelis shelter bloodiest battlefield from eyes of media and aid groups
������������������������ "...countless dead bodies"
"Israeli troops continued their strenuous efforts to prevent independent witnesses entering
the bloodiest battlefield.... With Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, arriving in
Jerusalem last night the soldiers blocked the United Nations, the Red Cross and the media
from entering the 'closed military area' (Jenin)...Some journalists were detained. One had his
press card ripped up. Footage filmed by a television cameraman was confiscated. The few
pictures that did emerge from the camp showed scenes of devastation. Refugees leaving the
northern West Bank city talked of misery, horror and death inside the camp which formerly
housed 13,000 residents. They spoke of 'countless dead bodies' and men being executed at
close range...An international group representing the UN, the Red Cross and the Norwegian
Government, who were given assurances by the Israeli Defense Force that they would be
allowed inside the camp, were turned away. Their cars were illegally searched and their
cameras confiscated...one member of the group said... 'I asked one commander what
exactly it is that they want to hide as I have never known of UN people not being allowed in
before.' There are still several thousand people inside the camp, with no communication with
the outside world....Latest reports from refugees include stories of executions of civilians and
bulldozers piling dead bodies into a pit. The city is destroyed, damaged even more than
other West Bank cities...In a white villa in Yaomu, a village outside of Jenin, hundreds of
refugees have arrived in the past few days, white‑faced, tearful, and clutching cheap plastic
suitcases. Inside are remnants of their pitiful lives. Most of the residents of Jenin camp are
children and grandchildren of those Palestinians who lost their properties after the war of
independence and as a result, they know no other way of life than the squalor and poverty
of a refugee camp. Now they are refugees once again, this time from the teeming camp that
they call home."
�������������������� ‑‑TheTimes (London), April 12, 2002
��� Israeli Army Brig Gen Ron Kitrey admitted that "hundreds" had been killed in Jenin.
���������� ‑‑"Breaking News," The Times (London), April 12, 2002 16:08
������������������������� Israeli Terror in Jenin
�������������� Tanks and bulldozers attacked inhabitated homes
��������������� Palestinian civilians were used as human shields
"Israel's fiercest assault of its 2‑week‑old West Bank operation dealt systematic destruction
and random death to civilians as well as fighters in this militant Palestinian stronghold (Jenin),
according to displaced residents of the camp and relief workers in Jenin...the Israelis fired
on unarmed civilians, used them as human shields and obstructed medical workers trying to
save the wounded. One camp resident, Ali Ramile, a 40‑year‑old truck driver, said he
watched Israeli soldiers kill seven or eight disarmed Palestinian fighters execution‑style and
dump several loads of bodies in a mass grave within 100 yards of his home...interviews with
more than a dozen Palestinians from the Jenin camp indicated a heavy loss of civilian life
there. Nearly everyone interviewed said they had watched neighbors die from Israeli shelling
or sniper fire, or at least seen bodies in the street....
"Ten days ago, we hoped someone could do something to save the refugee camp, but now
the camp is gone,' said Dr. Ziad Ayaseh, the hospital's director. Israeli missiles took out
several water tanks on the roof, threatening the hospital's water supply, he said. The army
siege blocked fuel supplies that power the hospital's generator‑‑the only source of electric
power. The staff pharmacologist and urologist were slightly wounded by apparently stray
army gunfire. A 16‑year‑old boy was shot dead Thursday on a street in Jenin, half an hour
after the army had lifted a curfew to allow the city's residents to move about for the first time
in five days, hospital officials say. A 52‑year‑old woman wounded Monday inside her home
in the refugee camp bled to death before relatives could get her to the hospital Thursday,
they said. Sameh Abazeineh, an aide to Jenin's mayor, said his 70‑year‑old neighbor died
waving his arms in the air in a futile effort to stop an Israeli bulldozer from destroying his
home in the camp. Other residents reported seeing a tank round kill a neighbor who was
recharging his cellular phone with his car battery and finding the body of a mentally disabled
neighbor who had been shot and run over by a tank. Riad Ghaleb, a 28‑year‑old produce
merchant, said the Israelis targeted his entire camp neighborhood...Helicopter gunships fired
on rows of densely packed homes, killing two young boys in their home, he charged. 'After
that, I saw five bulldozers and three tanks come in,' said Ghaleb, who walked out of the
camp into central Jenin on Thursday. 'Now there are no more houses in my neighborhood.
It's all a big highway now.'..
"News agency reporters Thursday (April 11) managed to tour a small corner of the camp,
which had been off limits to journalists during eight days of combat. They saw widespread
devastation‑‑homes flattened by bulldozers, walls blackened by fire and the streets chewed
up by armored vehicles... Roughly one‑third of Jenin's 40,000 people lived in cinder‑block
houses on the refugee camp's narrow streets. The army used bulldozers to knock down
homes and clear the way for its tanks...One bulldozer also wreaked destruction in the center
of Jenin as it moved behind a tank along Old Castle Street toward the refugee camp. Just
before Ahmed and Bassam Fashafsheh's stone home, the street narrowed and the tank
couldn't squeeze by. Issam Fashafsheh, a relative, said he watched early this week as the
tank fired ...into the house, backed up and moved aside so the bulldozer could advance.
The bulldozer knocked in the wall of the living room, killing the middle‑aged couple and their
9‑year‑old son, Samira.
"When Israeli troops entered the camp on foot to search homes for armed militants, they
sent captive Palestinian men ahead of them at gunpoint to knock on the doors or break
through the walls. The army has acknowledged the practice, saying it discourages armed
resistance. Ali Mustafa Sireh, 42, said he was working as such a door‑to‑door human shield
in the refugee camp when, at the 10th house, he was shot in the knee by Israeli snipers who
apparently did not see his captors. At that point, he said, the Israelis abandoned him, and it
took four days for relatives to get him to the hospital.
"But few experiences capture the terror of the assault like that told by Khadra Samara, 33,
whose husband, Hisham, 40, is the Al Razi hospital's cook. She first noticed a tank outside
her home at 11 p.m. Sunday (April 7), she said. At 11:30, it knocked down the front gate.
'We screamed and lighted candles to make the Israelis aware that people were in the house,'
she said, but the tank kept coming. It fired a missile into the second and third floors, she
said, causing a bright flash, shattering the windows and sending all 15 people in the home to
the ground floor. The demolition halted until 5 a.m., when the household was awakened by
the sound of a bulldozer outside. It slammed into the front of the house, crashing into a large
bedroom in which the family had been sleeping, she said. Houses in the camp abut each
other, so Samara and her relatives hammered a hole in a side wall and broke in next door,
where her sister‑in‑law's family lives. Less than an hour later, she said, that house came
under attack, and 30 people crawled through to the next house in line, which had been
abandoned. That refuge stood up until 3 p.m. Monday, when it fell after a three‑hour
bulldozer assault, she said. 'We moved from the bedroom to the bathroom to the
kitchen‑‑wherever we thought was safest,' Samara said. 'The children started vomiting. I
phoned the hospital. My husband said to leave the camp immediately. I demanded an
ambulance. He said the Israelis won't let one through.' It took them five more hours to talk
their way through Israeli checkpoints and reach the hospital, waving white prayer scarves
and dodging stun grenades from helicopters that followed them."
������������������������� ‑‑L.A. Times, April 12
������������������� Trails of Destruction, Tales of Loss
"There is the Fashafsheh family. According to their relatives, the mother, father and
9‑year‑old son were killed when an Israeli tank fired a shell through their living room in
downtown Jenin and an Israeli bulldozer plowed into the thick walls of their home, smashing
it down on top of them. There is Rina Zayyed, 15, who said she was struck in the chest by a
bullet as she sat at home with her father and brother. An Israeli helicopter gunship opened
fire on a man in the street below who was recharging a cell phone with his car battery, she
recounted, and a fragment hit her....'There are uncountable numbers of houses that have
been destroyed,' said Riad Ghaleb, 28, a produce seller from the camp. 'When you see
them, you go crazy. The helicopter fired so many rockets at our neighborhood because
three soldiers were killed there in a house near where I live.'
...Shortly after 10 a.m. (April 11) an Israeli tank opened fire with its heavy machine gun on a
13‑year‑old Palestinian boy, Fares Einad Zaben...The boy was hit in the chest and
died...On Old Castle Street, where the Fashafsheh family lived, their corner house, with its
walls three feet thick, was a wreck, half of it shorn away and turned to rubble. In the crater
that was once the family's living room, the stench of death hung in the air. About 9 a.m. one
day last weekend, an Israeli tank fired a shell into the house without warning, according to
neighbors. Then an Israeli armored bulldozer pulverized the wall, possibly to clear a passage
for the tank to pass. Ahmad Fashafsheh, 50, his wife, Sameera, and their son Hisham were
killed. Two other sons, 11 and 13, were hurt. Issam Fashafsheh, a relative who lives across
the street, watched the scene. 'I heard the kids screaming, then the bulldozer came and
started destroying the house,' he said. 'They were entombed under the wall in their living
room where they sat.' Neighbors dug the corpses out of the rubble and covered them with a
white sheet...At 2:30 p.m. (April 11), an Israeli armored vehicle drove through town, firing
bursts from its heavy machine gun. There was no sound of return fire.
After curfew, perhaps the only functioning institution in Jenin was the little Razi Hospital, just
south of the town center. Lacking water and short on diesel fuel to power its generator, the
30‑bed hospital struggled to meet basic needs....Two doctors were hit by gunfire in an
upstairs room...the family of a 52‑year‑old Palestinian woman arrived with her corpse. The
woman had been shot in the face and chest by helicopter gunships, her family said; they
needed a death certificate.
Khadra Samara, 33, the wife of the hospital cook, said she was inside her home on Rawabi
Street in the refugee camp about 11:30 Sunday night when an Israeli bulldozer approached
and tore through the front gate and began slamming into the house. 'We started screaming
and lighting lamps and candles so they'd know someone was inside,' she said. 'We were 15
women and children...But as we screamed, a missile was fired at the house, destroying the
second and third floors. The whole house shook, there was a flash of light, and all the
windows were blown out...before dawn Monday (April 8) it (the Israeli bulldozer) smashed
into the house again, shaking the cinder‑block walls of the bedroom where the children were
sleeping. 'The top of the wall started to give, and I started grabbing the kids and hauling
them away from there,' she said. "They destroyed the house with everything in it'... Samara
tried to get out the front door, but found it was blocked by rubble. She handed the children
through a side window into a neighbor's house. 'I was so furious I wanted to make a suicide
bomb and use it on them,' she said. 'I picked up a cylinder of cooking gas to carry with me
so I could blow it up. I was so scared I was screaming. I thought I was going to die. When I
picked up the cylinder my daughter said, 'Mom, don't do it! For God's sake don't do it!'
The second house provided little respite. An hour after they took refuge there, the bulldozer
came again. They fled to a third house; it came under attack from missiles fired by helicopter
gunships. From 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. we ran from bedroom to bathroom to kitchen, wherever
we thought was safest to go."
�������� ��������������Washington Post, April 12, 2002
������������������������������� April 11
�� More than 5,000 Palestinians are interned in Israeli concentration camps as of
�������������������������������� today
Bethlehem: Franciscan Father David Jaeger, spokesman for the Custodians of the Holy
Sites, said that the Israelis have cut off electricity and water to the part of the church
controlled by his order. "The situation is dire," he said. "We have been unable to persuade
the Israeli government to restore water." The NY Times of April 12 reports: "A day after an
Armenian monk was shot, apparently by an Israeli sniper, priests living inside said they were
well aware of the danger. When Greek Orthodox monks leave their monastery to enter the
church, they must cross an open‑air courtyard inside the complex, Father Parthenios said.
The younger monks do not allow the eldest one ‑ a slow‑moving 82‑year‑old ‑ to make the
journey because they fear he could be shot by Israeli snipers. When the younger monks
make the trip, they rush."
Jenin: Peter Hansen, the director of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said in
a statement that Israeli tanks and bulldozers had intensified their destruction of houses in the
refugee camps here. CBS News reported on its April 11 evening news broadcast that
Israelis are concealing the bodies of their Palestinian murder victims by bulldozing them into
mass graves in Jenin so they will not be used as part of "Arab propaganda." The Israeli
Army denied all such charges. "It was difficult to assess the claims and counterclaims,
because Israeli forces were still turning journalists away from Jenin today (April 11)." NY
Times, April 12.
�� Palestinian children in the al‑Amari refugee camp react to news of the Israeli
����������������� �massacre of their family, April 11, 2002
Nablus: A five‑hour Israeli attack here took place April 11, involving rockets, helicopter
cannons and tank shells. As dawn came, the deadly barrage halted and Israeli army
loudspeakers announced in Arabic to Palestinian men, "Put your hands up and come out.
Otherwise we will kill all your women and children." Palestinian men walked out of the
al‑Ein refugee camp, obeying Israeli orders to either submit to a round‑up or have their
families killed. Watched by their children, as the men, aged 16 to 45, were humilated by
Israeli troops, their hands in plastic manacles within the sights of tank machineguns. Holding
their identity cards, the men waited to be herded into to the makeshift concentration camps
established by the Israelis for more than 5,000 Palestinian males, some of whom will be
tortured and other shot. As in other West Bank towns and camps, reports of beatings and
executions of Palestinian prisoners were widespread, as Palestinian children were forced to
drink sewage and piles of Palestinian corpses were seen being cleared by bulldozers. On the
other side of the street here in the al‑Ein refugee camp, Palestinian wives and mothers
screamed that their homes had been devastated and families wiped out by the
bombardment. "They hit my house with a rocket and we had ten children inside!" wailed one
Palestinian mother.
In the Arab World: Across the Arab world ‑ where TV news footage of Ariel Sharon's
unleashing of state terror has been a good deal more graphic than what we have seen on our
own screens ‑ millions have demonstrated their fury at what is taking place, while their
western‑backed rulers have turned their guns on the streets, killing and injuring protesters
from Bahrain to Egypt.
�������������������� �����������April 10
������� Excerpts from Binyamin Netanyahu's Speech to the US Congress
�� "...it is only a matter of time before suicide bombers will terrorize your cities."
�Israeli leader Binyamin Netanyahu gives the U.S. Congress their marching orders,
����������������������� Capitol Hill, April 10, 2002
"I am concerned that the State of Israel, that has for decades bravely manned the front lines
against terror, is being pressed to back down...unintentional loss of Palestinian life...is the
tragic but unavoidable consequence of legitimate warfare. No one, of course, would dare
suggest that the United States was the guilty party in World War II because German
casualties, which included millions of civilians, were 20 times higher than American
casualties. So, too, only a twisted and corrupt logic would paint America and Britain as the
aggressors in the current war, because Afghan casualties are reported to have well
exceeded the death toll of September 11...what has destabilized the region is not Israeli
action...but rather the constant pressure exerted on Israel to show restraint...it is only a
matter of time before suicide bombers will terrorize your cities." ‑‑Former Israeli prime
minister Binyamin Netanyahu, now Sharon's emissary to the US Congress, Capitol Hill,
April 10, 2002
�"...let Israel finish the job." Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D‑N.Y.), L.A. Times, April 10, 2002
Jenin: "There is no massacre there (in Jenin)," said Sharon's head liar, Raanan Gissin. "The
dead are armed men who were fighting to the death."
"Reports from the (Jenin) camp, home to 15,000 refugees living on less than half a square
mile, told of civilians fleeing in panic, of heavy shelling and homes in flames. The dead
included civilians and fighters, residents said." L.A. Times, April 10, 2002
The army descended on the camp (Jenin) last Thursday (April 4), bulldozing houses on its
perimeters to clear a path for its tanks, and hacking through the walls with sledgehammers to
form tunnels for ground troops. 'They came with giant sledgehammers, and they destroyed
the walls from one side to the other, said a metal worker who lives in the camp...The
soldiers then hauled men out of the captured homes, beat them, bound their hands and
blindfolded them, stripped them to their underwear, and shipped them off...They beat my
brother ‑ 100 times they hit him with their batons, on his shoulders, his stomach and his
back." ‑The Guardian (U.K.), April 10, 2002. "My mother and brother were shot by
helicopter gunships and were bleeding to death and could not be saved." ‑Abdullah, 26 year
old Palestinian witness in Jenin, quoted by The Times of London, April 10, 2002. Omar abu
Rashid, a Jenin businessman whose house overlooks the camp from half a mile away, said
he saw five bulldozers demolish several hundred of the camp's 2,000 to 2,500
homes."...about 500 Palestinians had been killed in Jenin and in Nablus..." L.A. Times, April
11, 2002.
Today, April 10, Israeli tanks and helicopters shelled, bombed and strafed helpless
Palestinian civilians in the Al Ain refugee camp, outside Nablus, destroying homes and
killing more than a dozen people thus far. Yet the Jewish supremacist headlines in the media
of the West today are: "Bus Bomb Kills Eight Israelis. " It was the same story yesterday,
when the deaths of 13 Israeli soldiers made the front page headlines throughout the West,
while the killings of scores of Palestinians in Jenin was reported as an after‑thought: "...it is
difficult to escape the notion that many in the media, Jews and non‑Jews alike, lean to the
view that Arab life is cheap."‑‑Robert Scheer, columnist, L.A. Times, April 9.
Israelis Raze Historic Casbah in Nablus: From one end of what had been the ancient
casbah to the other, the residents of Nablus searched through the rubble that had been their
homes and cried for help because one relative or another was buried in it. "I have two aunts
still underneath," cried Bashar Fratiekeh, pointing to a pile of rocks. "The whole house
collapsed on us. It was 200 years old!" After four days of Israeli bombing and shelling, the
casbah, as the centuries‑old architectural treasure at the center of Nablus is known, has
been utterly destroyed by Israeli barbarians. Palestinian survivors wander dazed through the
ruined streets, recounted indiscriminate bombing by helicopter gunships and fighter jets firing
volley after volley into the densely packed civilian residences in the casbah. They bombed all
the night," said Muhammad Abu Hatham, 52, a shopkeeper. "There were many killed this
morning (April 10)." One exoticword was on Palestinian lips. Children, pointing to the
collapsed walls of their homes cried: "Apache, Apache!" The Israeli Army had used
American‑made Apache helicopters furnished by US taxpayers, to fire missiles and
automatic weapons into their homes. "They killed my son right in front of my eyes," said
Mahmoud Abdel Zallul, pointing to a bloodstained patch of dirt at his feet. "He was a
peaceful person."
�� Palestinian youths sit atop the rubble that was once their house, surveying the
� destruction wrought by Israeli bombardment of civilian centers in the West Bank
���������������������� city of Nablus, April 11, 2002
The moonscape that is now the casbah is not unique to Nablus. The devastation in civilian
areas inflicted by Israeli tanks, bulldozers, helicopters and jet fighters has created an eerie
moonscape of ruin from Bethlehem to Jenin. The images are unforgettable: blocks of
storefronts smashed by rampaging tanks in Tulkarm, broken pipes gushing precious water,
flattened cars in fields of shattered glass, electricity poles snapped like sticks, solitary walls
where homes formerly stood, immense holes where Israeli bombs pierced office buildings.
April 10, the awesome D‑9 Israeli bulldozers attacked Jenin, erasing whole stretches of
densely crowded concrete apartment houses. The extent of the latest Jewish spasm of
destruction in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Tulkarm, Qalqilya, Nablus and Jenin is massive and
unprecedented. The Gaza airport is laced with deep trenches, the nascent Palestinian
seaport is destroyed. "In 1999 we were building new infrastructure, roads, apartments, a
seaport, strategic projects," said Muhammad Shtayyeh, the director of the Palestinian
Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction, PECDAR, talking of development
that was now gone with Sharon's fiery wind.The infrastructure of life itself and of any future
Palestinian state ‑ roads, schools, electricity pylons, water pipes, telephone lines ‑ has been
eradicated by the Zionists. The weeping of the Palestinian mothers and children, the piles of
corpses of little boys and girls and infants are grim testimony to a calamitous Israeli terror
which "terror fighter" Bush funds, and which‑‑ throughout the Easter weekend and up until
April 2‑‑ he publicly extolled.
In Bethlehem on April 10, an Israeli sniper shot a monk, Armin Sinanian, 22, at the
Church of the Nativity. The Israeli liars told their typical Talmudic lies, accusing Palestinians
of gunning him down, but late April 10 Israeli military officials said in a statement that the
Israeli sniper may have"accidentally" shot the monk. Finally, on April 11, in the face of
mounting evidence, "...a senior Israeli military official said that an Armenian monk who was
seriously wounded in the besieged Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem had apparently been
shot by an Israeli soldier." (The Guardian, April 11, 2002).
Supremacy breeds segregation: "Israel must establish physical barriers separating the
main Palestinian population centers from Israeli towns and cities."‑Binyamin Netanyahu,
former Israeli prime minister, Jerusalem Post, April 11, 2002. Along with Jewish supremacy
comes the imposition of racial segregation in the "only democracy in the Middle East." In
Palestinian areas near new "buffer zones," Sharon's plan calls for including dozens of
Palestinian hamlets within Israeli areas of control. The communities would be annexed.
About 400,000 Palestinians would fall under permanent Israeli jurisdiction. One vulnerable
town is Baka Gharbiya, along the border with the West Bank. Palestinians there regard
segregation glumly. Even before the current Israeli onslaught starting March 29, the town's
streets were virtually empty. Baka Gharbiya is cut off not only from "Israel," but from the
rest of the West Bank too, by Israeli ditches and army checkpoints. Israelis have created
special entry permits for Palestinians who want to travel there from other parts of the West
Bank. Only Jewish settlers pass freely through Baka.
Israelis living close to Palestinians have greeted segregation with enthusiasm. Bat Hefer is an
Israeli city of 6,000 residents, near Palestinian Tulkarm. Bat Hefer is a pioneer in racial
segregation. Bat Hefer first put up a wall in 1995 to keep Palestinians out. Lately, it
extended and raised its wall, upgrading it with electrical wire and video. It is about a mile
long. It cost almost $2 million. Nahum Itkovitz, head of the regional Israeli council, claimed
credit for building the wall. "I believe separation is the best way to give quiet to Israelis in the
middle of the country. It's too easy for Palestinians to come over. We won't need a wall in
the fields. We'll need only electric fences and alarms."
Segregation of the Palestinians has a long history. Soon after the 1967 conquest of the
Palestinian West Bank, Israeli officials drew up plans to settle Jews on the edge of the West
Bank, creating walls between the West Bank and Jordan, to the east, and between the West
Bank and Israeli land, to the west. So while leading Jewish activists in America are
responsible for court orders ending racial segregation between blacks and whites; and
opposing effective immigration controls in America, in the Holy Israeli State, the Master
Race enforces segregation with a vigor that would astound even George Wallace. But that
can't be racist or hateful, because anything the Master Race does is terrific and to say
otherwise is " rabid anti‑semitism."
Question: Do Israeli attacks in March and April of 2002 on Palestinian villages,
ghettos and camps conform to the definition of war crimes under international law?
Reply: Yes. First and most obviously because these attacks have resulted in the mass
murder of non‑combatants. Second, because they constitute invasion and occupation of the
land of the Palestinians. Thirdly, because they represent collective punishment of the
Palestinian people as a whole, rather than a police function of using detection to locate and
arrest specific terrorist suspects. International law, codified in the Geneva Convention,
severely restricts armies from involving civilian populations in military actions. But the Israeli
view is that every Palestinian is "Amalek," a member of the nation which, in the Old
Testament, God called on the Israelites to exterminate, "man, woman, and suckling child."
The Israeli Army chaplain Shmuel Derlich has openly labeled the Palestinian people as
Amalek, as have dozens of other influential Israeli rabbis.
In this context, let us take, by way of illustration, what is happening in Bethlehem. On April 4
Jiha Abu Ajour, a young Arab mother, gave birth to her first child in her home in the
Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem. The newborn had breathing problems, but the Israeli
Army refused to allow ambulances to enter the refugee camp. Hours later an ambulance
finally came to bring the baby to the hospital, where he died soon after. Later that night,
under a curfew and the threat of snipers, relatives of the baby boy sneaked out of the camp
to a nearby cemetery to bury him.
When the Israeli Army invaded Bethlehem it placed the entire civilian population under
siege. This is tantamount to putting the entire population of Harlem under siege because
black terrorists are planting bombs in Manhattan. The world would never tolerate it. But due
to the sub‑human, "Amalek" status of Palestinians, they can be treated in this manner with
impunity, while the world preoccupies itself with moaning over the ghosts of the Nazi
"Holocaust."
The people in Dheisheh refugee camp are short of water, food and milk for their children.
Those who are fortunate enough to have stashed supplies prior to the Israeli invasion now
hunker in crowded rooms away from windows exposed to Israeli gunfire. Those who have
no food wait in desperation for Red Cross workers to supply them. Israeli tanks and
soldiers raid the streets, and shots are fired in all directions. A safe corner in a Palestinian
home today can be a deathbed tomorrow. Palestinian civilians cannot step outside for fear
of being shot by an Israeli sniper. Human beings are not treated in this manner. Amalek is.
Collective punishment of an entire population is not only a racist Jewish war crime, it is
insane. A Palestinian Catholic priest interviewed on American TV April 9, said that before
the latest Israeli rampage beginning March 29, there were about 15 Palestinian suicide
bombers. "After this," he said as he waved his arm over acres of destruction and piles of
dead bodies, "there will be 1500."
������������������������������� April 9
�"We will continue until we make this camp (Jenin) submit.' ‑Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Eitan, chief
��� of the Israeli army central command, in a briefing for reporters in Jerusalem, April 9.
Jenin refugee camp used to be a poor but peaceful community of 13,000 on a West
Bank hillside overlooking a fertile plain. But five days of relentless bombardment
by Israeli tanks and helicopter gunships have left large parts of it in ruins and
Palestinians bleeding to death in its alleys for lack of medical care. The army has
now seized control of most of the camp and is butchering its residents. Residents who have
fled to safe havens outside say decomposing bodies litter its narrow alleys. They spoke of
seeing wounded Palestinians moaning for help. The Jewish army is using bulldozers to crush
homes, with families still inside them, in Jenin's Al Hawashin neighborhood.
At least 200 Palestinians are reported as having been killed in Jenin alone, but the headline
on the front page of today's edition of the New York Times reads, "13 Israeli Soldiers are
Killed." Jewish blood is redder and their life is preferable, says leading Rabbi Yitzhak
Ginsburg and the U.S. media concurs. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, who affiliates
with the Lubavitcher Jewish supremacist hate group, said today that "...Arab responsibilities
are to stop what he said was news media incitement of hatred against Jews." (NY Times,
April 9, 2002).
The U.S. proxy, Saudi Arabia, on April 9 saved the U.S. from the consequences of its own
support for Israeli genocide. Crude oil prices fell almost 3 percent after Saudi Arabia said it
would ensure that consuming nations had enough oil to cover any losses caused by a 30‑day
halt in exports by Iraq. Iraq called the halt to protest the Israeli genocide. The oil boycott hit
the genocide‑supporters where it hurts, in their pocketbooks, since they have no conscience
when it comes to otherwise contentedly watching Palestinian mothers and children shot to
death by state terrorists. But the Saudis have rescued Bush and the American
economy‑‑temporarily anyway.
� April 9, 2002: Israeli troops take a break from their mass murder of Palestinian
�� women and children to mark "Holocaust Remembrance Day" on April 9, with
�ceremonies around the country for the "Six Million" Jews "killed by the Nazis."
The "Holocaust" is the justification used repeatedly by Jewish spokesmen to justify the killing
of Palestinian civilians: "The world stood by while Jews were slaughtered in 'The Holocaust.'
Today, the Israelis say they will do whatever it takes to ensure the security of a Jewish
state."
The security of the Judaic racial‑religious national state is the prime purpose of "Holocaust"
propaganda. Nazi war crimes against Jews in the past are the Jewish excuse for Israeli war
crimes against Palestinians now. Implicit in this monstrous and homicidal equation is the
superiority of Jewish lives over non‑Jewish ones, as decreed by the racist rabbis and their
hate‑filled Talmud, Judaism's holiest book.
�Body of Khalid Jarour, 23, a Palestinian killed by Israeli troops in Bethlehem, April
����������������� �����������������9
������ The sister of Khalid Jarour holds Khalid's daughter during his burial
������������������������������� April 8
��� The Bethlehem Church Fire and the Talmudic Injunction to Lie
���� Smoke billows from the left side of the Church of the Nativity complex in
��� Bethlehem, April 8. Israelis opened fire on the sacred site, causing the blaze
Objective observers of the Israeli scene have long noted the distinct Israeli penchant for
lying, the more outrageous the better. This heritage of lies is, sad to say, of religious origin.
The Talmud, Judaism's holiest book, decrees: "Jews may use lies ('subterfuge') to
circumvent a Gentile" (Baba Kamma 113a).
We observe this institutionalized lying in a disturbing case in Bethlehem April 8 where Israeli
soldiers started a blaze in the Basilica of St Catherine, adjacent to the Church of the
Nativity. Israelis lie and say their "troops are under orders not to fire at holy places" such as
the Church of the Nativity, which is revered as the birthplace of Jesus Christ. Palestinians
fleeing shoot‑on‑sight Israeli tanks and snipers have found haven in the church complex for
nearly a week, along with a group of monks and nuns.
To explain the fire, this is the grostesque cover story Jewish propagandists are distributing to
the media: "Palestinian gunmen provoked a fire which broke out near the Church of the
Nativity on Monday (April 8). Gunmen opened fire from a belltower, wounding two Israeli
border policemen in a nearby rooftop look‑out, an army officer told Reuters news agency.
He said the Israelis returned fire and a smoke grenade started the blaze in a second‑floor
meeting hall overlooking the Basilica of St Catherine, adjacent to the Church of the Nativity.
One Palestinian gunman was shot dead in the battle. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said today
that his soldiers would not 'defile the holiness of the site."
Now, here is the truth: Israeli soldiers tried to storm the building by a roof, opening fire and
throwing stun grenades into the church compound. That ignited a fire in the church. So it was
Israeli soldiers who started the fire. The Franciscan pastor inside the church, Father Amjad
Sabbara, told the BBC that the Palestinian man killed by the Israelis was not shooting at
them but had been trying to douse the flames. The Israeli soldiers killed him because he was
trying to extinguish the flames and save the church. After the Palestinian was murdered, the
blaze burned for an hour before Israeli forces allowed firefighters access to extinguish it,
destroying altar cloths and ceremonial cups and damaging mosaics inside the Basilica of St
Catherine. The exterior of the Church of the Nativity has been scarred by Israeli gunfire. A
spokesman for Catholic monks in the Holy Land testified that Israeli soldiers were guilty of
an "indescribable act of barbarity." Israelis had broken their international obligations and
risked "long‑term and incalculable" consequences, Father David Jaeger said. Christian
clerics from Jerusalem were prevented by Israelis from entering Bethlehem on April 8 to
investigate.
The Israeli liars however, received an important buttress for their tale. The NY Times, in its
April 9 edition, in an article by Joel Brinkley, upheld the Israeli army's propaganda lies about
what happened in Bethlehem April 8. Brinkley wrote: "In Bethlehem, Israeli troops
exchanged fire on Monday with Palestinian gunmen holed up in the Church of the Nativity,
said to be the birthplace of Jesus, scarring the exterior of the ancient building." Brinkley
made absolutely no mention of what Christian clerics at the scene had said about the attack,
but relied solely on the Jewish government's "version" of events in Bethlehem. Thus, in the
"newspaper of record," which is a bastion of perpetual publication of "Nazi Holocaust" fare,
the Israeli sacrilege against the Bethlehem church will look like a measured response to
provocative gunfire from Palestinians inside the church. If this had been a revered synagogue
that had come under fire from an Arab army, then the attack would enter the universal
human rights calendar of eternal mourning and commemoration, and the N.Y. Times would
give it front page attention, along with hand‑wringing rhetoric about the "rising tide of
anti‑semitic violence." The rising tide of Israeli anti‑Christian violence is, of course, not an
issue for the Zionist‑owned "newspaper of record."
Another example of Jewish lying is in the realm of human shields. The Israelis grab
Palestinians and hide behind them as they raid Palestinian areas. Palestinian Kamal Taleb
testified that on April 6 Israeli soldiers ordered residents at gunpoint to walk in front of
Jewish troops as the soldiers raided homes. A neighbor also testified that they were ordered
to enter several homes to shield the soldiers from gunfire or booby traps. The Israeli army
lamely denies that their soldiers use Palestinians as human shields. Here is the transparent lie
they tell: The Israeli army acknowledges they have "on occasion ordered Palestinians to
'guide' them in their searches. Sometimes they take them to bring them to the next house, not
to shield them," the Jewish army spokesman said. "Guide them." Ha! What liars, just like
their father (John 8:44).
Yossi Kelin Halevi, a columnist for the L.A. Times wrote on April 8: " ...mainline churches
continue to ignore Israeli fears and offer simplistic judgments..It is time for mainline churches
to reconsider their anti‑Israel bias, which undermines the credibility of Jewish proponents of
dialogue and jeopardizes our historic reconciliation...in their obsessive attacks on Israel,
some churches are inadvertently reawakening old anti‑Semitic instincts that, since the
Holocaust, much of Christianity has tried to uproot. For example, an Episcopalian church in
Scotland, seeking to express solidarity with the Palestinians, has just unveiled a painting
showing a crucified Jesus flanked by Roman and Israeli soldiers."
�Medical workers examine the bodies of four Palestinians who were slaughtered by
������������������ Israeli soldiers in Nablus, April 8, 2002
�Israeli soldiers in Palestinian territories can operate with impunity. There's no accountability.
� There's no investigation. ‑ Jessica Montell, executive director of the human rights group
������������ B'Tselem, quoted in the Washington Post, April 8, p. A10.
Jenin refugee camp heavily bombed: Israeli forces have demolished Palestinian homes in
densely populated Jenin, including several with families still inside them. Palestinian civilians
who spoke by telephone reported U.S. made Apache attack helicopters continuously
hovering overhead. "Since 7 a.m., I have been counting about 40 rockets being shot on
refugee camps," said Najeh Jarrar, a college professor who was cowering with his wife and
childin their home. "We don't know where the bullets will fall."
����������������������������� Media Watch
������������������ Feigned Ignorance: Mathews and Fleishcer
�Chris Mathews, host of TV's "Hardball," feigning ignorance, asked the following question,
�April 7, of his Palestinian guest: "Has there ever been any civilian who was ever deliberately
������������������������ killed by the Israeli Army?"
� Mathews' ludicrous "amnesia" is reminiscent of an exchange during a White House Press
�� Briefing with Ari Fleischer on April 3, 2002. Reporter Russell Mokhiber's question to
� Fleischer : The other day, when you were asked why you don't condemn Israeli killing of
�innocent Palestinians ‑‑ as terrorism, why the President doesn't condemn it as terrorism ‑‑
�you (Fleischer) said, "Well when a Palestinian blows himself up in a cafeteria, he's intending
�to kill innocents. But as for Israel, there are times when in military operations, innocent lives
������������������������������� are lost."
�A number of human rights groups, including B'Teselem, have documented how Israel targets
�� Palestinian civilians. Most recently, a 21‑year Palestinian American, Suraida Saleh, on
Friday (March 29), was shot down (dead) in Ramallah. She was, by the way, born a couple
�� of blocks from here at GW hospital. She was a passenger in a car. Her husband was
� driving. Her husband is a journalist. A group of Israeli undercover agents... they're called
�Mustarabeem ‑‑ were at the intersection, and just opened fire on the car. If that fact pattern
���������� is correct, why doesn't the President condemn that as terrorism?
���������������� American Mother Shot Dead By Israeli Soldiers
������������������������������� April 7
Israeli forces pounded the Palestinian cities of Nablus and Jenin today. Tank shelling and
helicopter missile attacks on Palestinian civlians in the refugee camp in Jenin also continued
today for the fifth straight day:
"You see them as you come down the last mountain before the city of Jenin, a swarm of
Apache helicopters hanging low over the city. Then you hear it: the dull intermittent roar of
the Apaches' heavy machine guns firing directly into the houses of Jenin camp. Israeli
commanders have said that there has been substantial loss of life on the 'other side'... An
hour or so earlier we had been stopped on another route into the city by Israeli soldiers
preparing to go and fight at Jenin camp. They told us they had come from fighting in the city
of Tulkaram and had been at the Qabatiya junction, close to the city, fighting for the past
two days. We ask a young Israeli soldier why is he fighting here, on Palestinian land. He
thinks for a moment. 'The problem,' he says, 'is that there is not enough room in this small
country for two peoples. It is a trial of strength that we are winning."
Columnist Can't Empathize with Palestinian Victims Because His Great‑Grandmother
was Killed by the Nazis: "As a self‑proclaimed humanist, I ought to recoil in horror from
the thought of tanks rumbling through a city, anybody's city. My head should hang in sorrow
at televised images of street fighting in Bethlehem and Ramallah. When an army fights in
heavily populated quarters, no matter how just its cause, the guilty and the innocent die side
by side. Yet for me, when it comes to the confrontation between Israel and the Palestinians,
such considerations are outweighed by one simple historical fact. My great‑grandmother
was murdered in the Treblinka extermination camp." ‑Ron Grossman, staff writer, Chicago
Tribune, April 7, 2002
������������������������������� April 6
����������� "Wanton destruction" inflicted on Palestinian Population
������������������������� Mass Murder in Jenin
��� " ...opinion polls showed 72% of Israelis supported a 'wide‑scale war' in the West
����������������� Bank."‑‑The Guardian, (U.K.) April 6, 2002
�Pathologists examine the body of a six‑year‑old Palestinian girl, Somaeah Hassan,
� who was killed by Israeli soldiers in the Rafah refugee camp, in the Gaza ghetto,
�April 6, 2002. Israeli soldiers pummeled the refugee camp, killing this six‑year‑old
�� Palestinian child, a 21‑year‑old civilian and wounding six others, including four
������������������������� Palestinian schoolgirls.
�� Palestinian mourners carry the body of 13‑year old Palestinian Rubin Achtour,
� April 6, 2002 in the Al‑Fawar refugee camp south of the town of Hebron. The boy
������ was killed by the Israeli army during an assault on his refugee camp
Israeli assaults on Palestinian civilians today, in densely populated refugee camps in the West
Bank have resulted in "heavy loss of life in the northern town of Jenin." Residents of the Jenin
refugee camp said a "massacre" was taking place today, April 6. The bodies of at least 30
Palestinian civilians have been found thus far in Jenin alone.
Al Razi hospital, just outside the Jenin camp, Dr. Ziad Ayaseh said hundreds of phone calls
had come in saying there were dead and wounded lying on the street. The hospital also got a
call from a woman giving birth and asking for help. But the staff could do nothing and the
baby died. A wounded man, shot in the hand and stomach was brought to the hospital, he
said, and dropped about four yards from the front door. But Israeli soldiers in a tank parked
nearby would not let them bring the man inside, and after several hours he bled to death, Dr.
Ayaseh said in a telephone interview.
Officials from the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees stated that the agency's
staff are reporting "wanton destruction" of Palestinian infrastructure across the West Bank,
including roads, water pipes and the electricity supply. There have also been reports of
looting by Israeli soldiers carrying out house to house assaults.
The United Nations children's agency Unicef says it has been unable to deliver crucial aid to
the Palestinian communities in the West Bank over the past five days. A representative of
Save the Children in the West Bank says one of the major problems is that the humanitarian
efforts are hampered by Israeli soldiers. "... there is no respect for the humanitarian
missions," Marie‑Louise Weighill said from the West Bank. "The Israeli Defense Forces are
not allowing any humanitarian agencies to operate in areas under their control."
Adam Shapiro, a US citizen in Ramallah testified: "I've seen tanks roll straight over cars and
destroy walls for no apparent reason. Many homes and building are shot through with bullet
and shell holes," he said. The Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem, says, "We do have
confirmed reports of a private hospital being shelled," B'Tselem spokesman Leore Yavne
said.
A priest in Bethlehem says his church and others all over Bethlehem are being used as
sanctuaries by local families fleeing Israeli tanks and soldiers. Father Magdi Siryani said his
own Church of Our Lady Fatima was housing about 25 people. "Dozens and dozens of
churches are full of people who just fled this terror," said Father Siryani. "People are
terrorized, they are panicking outside. The only place to go, the last resort, is the churches."
In Nablus, as a journalist's car passed by on the empty streets, a woman cried through the
bars of her apartment window, "I have a six‑month old baby with asthma. I don't know
what to do."
������������������������������� April 5
�Palestinian doctors in a hospital in Hebron, treat eight‑year‑old Palestinian Ahmed
Srayer, who was severely burned in an attack by an Israeli helicopter gunship, April
������������������������������� 5, 2002
�� An Israeli army stun grenade explodes next to a TV cameraman attempting to
����������������� report events in Ramallah, April 5, 2002
At least 36 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army today in the cities of Nablus, Tubas
and Jenin. Most were killed as Israeli tanks and U.S. made Apache helicopter gunships
shelled and rocketed the refugee camps and the casbah. At least three Palestinian women
and two Palestinian children are known to be among the dead.
The deadliest Israeli attacks April 5 were in Nablus and Jenin. Apache attack helicopters
launched rocket attacks repeatedly on downtown Nablus. The Jewish onslaught increased in
the evening and continued for most of the night. Houses in the casbah and in the teeming
Balata refugee camp were sprayed with heavy machine‑gun fire by the Israeli army.
Israeli troops in armored personnel carriers assaulted the home of the mayor of Nablus,
Ghassan Shaka, around 3 a.m. April 5. They strip‑searched eight men and three women
present before taking the men away blindfolded. The mayor was in Jordan at the time, but
his family was home. Jewish soldiers ransacked the house."They were yelling: 'Get out! Get
out! Don't wear any clothes,' " the mayor's wife, Halimeh, said in an interview, her hands still
shaking hours after the incident. "They were kicking us in our backs. They made us kneel
down on the ground with our faces to the wall and our hands behind our heads, and they
kicked us."
US envoy Anthony Zinni met Yasser Arafat in Arafat's office, now reduced by the Israelis to
barbed wire‑ringed mounds of rubble. Israeli roops threw stun grenades, fired rubber bullets
and rammed the vehicles of journalists trying to report Zinni's arrival. The journalists were
forced to flee. Ranaan Gissin, Sharon's spokesman, said Israelis wanted little attention
drawn to the event.
In Bethlehem today, reporters tried to get to Bethlehem's Manger Square, where
Palestinians have sought sanctuary in the Church of the Nativity. Several hundred yards from
the square, Israeli troops opened fire on the reporters, hitting a television cameraman from
France in the leg. "If you don't like it, we don't care," said Lt. Col. Olivier Rafowicz, an
Israeli army spokesman. Jewish attacks on reporters are nothing new. Last month Italian
reporter Raffaele Ciriello, 42, killed in Ramallah by machine‑gun fire from an Israeli tank.
Israeli reporters generally maintain a cooperative relationship with army censors in order to
improve Zionism's image worldwide. In March, Israeli Channel 2 was allowed to
accompany the army on a raid in a Palestinian refugee camp near Bethlehem. The footage
was recorded as part of an arrangement with top military officers by which the Israeli army's
public relations office would, prior to broadscast, censor images it found offensive. Instead,
Channel 2 broadcast the images uncensored. Israeli troops were shown using explosives to
blow down the door to a family's house, fatally wounding a young Palestinian mother. She
died in front of her husband and small children. At one point in the filming, an Israeli soldier
turned to the camera and stated, "I don't know what we're doing here. Purification, maybe
‑‑ apparently it's dirty here."
The human rights group B'Tselem today charged the Israeli army with the torture of
Palestinians at the Ofer concentration camp near Ramallah. One Palestinian released from
Ofer, Kamal abu Khadijeh, who works for Coca‑Cola in Ramallah, testified that detainees
who are Palestinian policemen are tortured the most by the Israelis. Khadijeh was grabbed
from his home by soldiers March 30, handcuffed, blindfolded and interned in the Israeli
concentration camp at Ofer.
Torture of Palestinians by Israelis has a shameful and savage history. In September of 1999
the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that torture of Palestinians was permissible "in emergencies
in which civilian lives are at stake."
On the medical front, in Ramallah city alone, Israeli troops have invaded Palestinian hospitals
three times, ransacking operating rooms and medical supplies. The International Committee
of the Red Cross announced April 5 that it was reducing operations in Palestine to "a strict
minimum" after Red Cross staff and medics were attacked by Jewish soldiers. Red Cross
staff were threatened at gunpoint by Israelis in Bethlehem and shot at in Nablus and
Ramallah by the Israeli army. Ambulances were crushed by Israeli tanks in Tulkarm. The
Red Cross leadership issued the following statement: "This behavior is totally unacceptable,
for it jeopardizes not only the lifesaving work of emergency medical services, but also the
ICRC's humanitarian mission."
������������������������������� April 4
� "More than 1,000 prisoners have now been taken away by the Israelis and except for a
���� dozen or so, no one knows where they have been taken or if they are alive." The
��������������������� Independent (U.K.), April 4, 2002
�Israelis Inflict Hell on the Civilian Populations of Ramallah, Nablus and Bethlehem
In Ramallah, whose population has been under Israeli tanks and guns for a week, the water
is running out because the electric system that drives the pumps is destroyed. In a third of
the town, the electricity itself is out. Ali Hamouda, director of the local electricity district,
said, "There are no less than five or six electricity poles damaged every day by Israeli tanks."
Rita Giacammen, a public health worker, said an emergency Palestinian utilities crew went
out April 4 to try and repair Ramallah's water pump system, but were harassed by Israeli
troops and turned back. They tried a second time and were bound and gagged and taken
away by the Israeli army.
Nearly every car that was parked on the street when the Israelis blitzkrieged into Ramallah
early on March 29 has been run over by a tank and flattened. Buildings that used to house
Palestinian institutions in this city of 160,000 are now wrecked.
All of the stores are closed and shuttered. Food is running out. Salwa Daibis said she won't
try to go to the store even if the curfew is lifted again, as it was for a few hours April 2,
because, she said, she saw a 14‑year‑old Palestinian teenager shot by an Israeli soldier
April 2. She said, "I don't want to die for a piece of bread."
The censorship the Israelis have imposed on journalists makes it difficult to report the
collective punishment of an entire population. The Jews have declared Ramallah a closed
military zone, meaning reporters are banned. A new list of media‑ban zones issued by the
Jewish government includes every city and town the Israeli army has invaded since March
29.
"What we see is destruction all over," Dr. Jiha Mashal said. Dr. Mashal's own family was
kept with three other families, totaling 24 people, in a small basement apartment for five
days. On April 4, 230,000 Palestinians are without water.
The Israeli army assaulted Nablus, April 4, 2002, with the Palestinian population of the
crowded city coming under withering artillery and helicopter attack. Three refugee camps
were bombarded using more than 100 tanks in an attack that lasted all day. Palestinian
residents reported that buildings around them exploded in a cascade of shrapnel as Israeli
helicopter gunships provided by the United States fired at homes.
The Israelis have been targeting the facilities that support the basic needs of the Palestinians
since the latest invasion began March 29. April 4 was no different, with the Israeli army
destroying the Nablus city water tanks with machine‑gun fire. Medical workers are also
targets. In Bethlehem, doctors resorted to sneaking wounded Palestinians under piles of the
dead because ambulances were being stopped or their movements restricted by the Israelis.
In Nablus, Doctors said that one Palestinian medic was forced to hide under his ambulance
for hours when he came under fire from Israeli soldiers, who have sealed off Nablus. At the
city's's hospital, Dr. Husam Al‑Johari, said: "Ambulances are not reaching the injured so the
injured are not reaching the hospital."
One of the town's obstetricians, Dr. Salwa Najjab, has had to deliver babies over the
telephone because she and her patients are not allowed to travel by the Israeli military. "It is
very difficult to travel around," she said. "I haven't been able to reach my clinic since last
Friday. I have been told they (Jews) have destroyed the doors but I don't know what has
happened to the files."
She said that one expectant mother encountered more problems when sent to the Red
Crescent Maternity Hospital in El Bireh, only to discover Israeli soldiers arresting Palestinian
doctors and nurses. Hospital staff said that the soldiers kidnapped two doctors, two nurses
and a medic, who were handcuffed and blindfolded. "They went into the surgery room, the
delivery room and even the intensive care unit for premature births," Dr Nader Ayesh said.
"Hospital doors were knocked down with heavy sledgehammers."
In Jenin, Samer al Ahmad, a resident, said: "They (the Israelis) have been shelling since this
morning. The Apaches (U.S. helicopter gunships) have been shooting and shelling. Most of
the action is against the (refugee) camps. There is fire and smoke coming out of them..." TV
camermen are not allowed to film in Palestinian cities under attack and reporters who
attempt to photograph the latest Israeli holocaust against the Palestinians have had grenades
thrown at them.
In Bethlehem, Greek Orthodox priests have stayed by their own free will in the Church of
the Nativity, the church on Manger Square. The priests were providing humanitatian care to
nine wounded Palestinians and sharing supplies of coffee and snacks with the Palestinians, a
priest said in a telephone interview.
"They are agitated and nervous, but they respect us very much," said a young priest from
Canada, who called himself Father Parthenius. "The Christians among the Palestinians are
joining us in prayer. There is shooting outside. We heard two tank shells fired today."
Israelis say the Palestinians are abusing the churches by seeking sanctuary. The priests in the
Church of the Nativity don't regard themselves as hostages. They say they are complying
with the ancient custom of furnishing sanctuary. "We'll never ask them (Palestinians) to
leave," the priest said of the Palestinians. "To make war is easy. In order to make peace, we
must all pray together."
The priests said they were more concerned about the long‑suffering Palestinian people of
Bethlehem than about the fate of the church buildings. "The dignity of human beings is more
important than the historical center," commented Father Maron Laham, rector of the
Catholic seminary in Bethlehem.
A Palestinian Christian, Samir Ibrahim, who had been the bell ringer at the Church of the
Nativity for three decades, was shot to death by Israeli soldiers early in the morning of April
4 while walking to the Church.
Two Palestinians bled to death April 3 in the Fawagrah neighborhood, because ambulances
couldn't reach them through streets filled with Israeli sniper fire. As a little girl watched,
Palestinian Abdel Kader's agony ended on the kitchen floor of a family whose members
were strangers to him.
Kader was wounded by Israeli troops in the street during the Israeli onslaught April 2. The
family of Fatheyeh Mousa, carried Kader into its ground‑floor apartment, a poor hovel in a
small courtyard. "He was from a refugee camp in Jordan," said Issam Isis, sitting next to the
deceased. "He was here visiting relatitions. Her family tried to tend to Kader with the help of
instructions from doctors at the hospital, which is just a few minutes away.
"He has been bleeding here since the morning," Mousa said. "Today he told us, 'I'm dying,
I'm going to die soon.' He kept bleeding from a hole in his waist. We tried to find any kind
of medicine to help him. We don't know who he is, but we feel as if he was family. We feel
as if we have lost a loved one."
Mousa let loose a tirade of curses against Israelis. Her home and the adjoining courtyard
reverberated with the wails of enraged Palestinian women, some of whom also shouted
anti‑American sentiments.
� An Israeli cop beats a human rights activist, part of a contingent who tried to to
� deliver food and medical supplies to besieged Palestinian civilians in Ramallah,
������������������ �������������April 3
������������������������������� April 3
�"...President (Bush) has made clear that he regards the Israeli operation in the West Bank as
����������������� broadly justified..." N.Y. Times, April 3, 2002
�A Palestinian survivor, Sami Abda, sits next to the bodies of his brother Jacoub, 37,
�and his mother Sumaya, 64, after they were shot to death in their Bethlehem home
��������������������� by Israeli soldiers, April 2, 2002
In Bethlehem in the Church of the Nativity, April 3, Israeli forces blocked attempts to
deliver food and medicine to the church, where about 200 people ‑ among them several
priests, nuns and Palestinian civilians and policemen ‑ were trapped. Ten of those inside
have been wounded, including one in critical condition. Israeli tanks are stationed at the edge
of Manger Square, where the church is located, and Israeli troops occupy the municipality
building overlooking the square.
��������� Jews gas Arab civilians and medics, Ramallah, April 3, 2002
The United Nations said a convoy bringing food to the besieged city of Ramallah on April 3
was shot at by Israeli marauders. A U.N. staff member accompanying the humanitarian aid
trucks was arrested. A U.N. spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said that the agency organizing the
food deliveries, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East,
planned to protest the shootings and the arrest.
� April 3, 2002: The body of Hamzeh Abu Ramoz is carried by family members and
�villagers in the Palestinian town of Hebron. Ramoz was shot and killed in cold blood
����������������������� by Israeli soldiers, April 2.
On April 3 in Jenin, a Palestinian man and woman and a 13‑year‑old boy were killed by the
Israeli army.
������������������������������� April 2
�A Palestinian girl reacts to the news that the Jews murdered her father; Ramallah,
����������������������������� April 2, 2002
The Israeli Army attacked the area around Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity on
April 2. US‑made Israeli helicopter gunships, backed by F‑16 fighter jets, hovered over
Manger Square machine‑gunning Palestinians near Jesus' traditional birth site. Some ten
Palestinians were killed in the onslaught, including an 80‑year‑old man. At the nearby Santa
Maria Convent in downtown Bethlehem run by the Salesians, an order of nuns, a Palestinian
mother and her son were also killed: 64‑year‑old Samieh Abdeh and her 38‑year‑old son
Khaled, were wounded by Israeli fire, then bled to death after Israelis prevented
ambulances from reaching them. A reporter for al‑Jazeera satellite television, Majdi
Benoura, was shot in the neck by Israelis as he was photographing the Israeli assault on
Bethlehem from the roof of a hotel.
Israeli forces have invaded Bethlehem, which has a population of 150,000 Palestinian
civilians, several times in the past 18 months. During an Israeli assault in October, 2001 the
Church of the Nativity was hit by bullets. Holy Family Church in Bethlehem has also been
shelled by the Israelis, as recently as March 15, 2002.
In an April 2 appeal to President Bush, the pastors of all the Christian churches in Jerusalem
asked him to "stop immediately the inhuman tragedy" taking place as a result of the latest
Israeli rampage in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. About 100 priests and Franciscan
brothers also marched from Jerusalem's walled Old City to the official residence of Ariel
Sharon, demanding an end to the Israeli attacks on Bethlehem.
In Ramallah,Widad Sufran, a a 56‑year‑old hard‑of‑hearing Palestinian grandmother had
gone to the hospital in the morning to have a cast removed from her leg. That done, she
began to hobble home on her cane. An Israeli sniper from a nearby building shot her down
about 50 yards from the hospital's entrance, according to doctors who witnessed the
shooting, including Dr. Hosni Atari. The ambulance crew that tried to reach her was also
shot at by the Israelis. Israeli soldiers prevented medics from treating her and she died.
Medical workers also found the bodies of two Palestinian males summarily executed by the
Israeli army as part of the army's "selection process," Ayoub Musallam, 40, and
Mohammed Mahroum, 32. In the Gaza ghetto, gunfire from an Israeli guard tower killed a
13‑year‑old Palestinian boy near Rafah.
The Israeli government on April 2 banned journalists Leileh Odeh and Bassam Azawi of
Abu Dhabi Television news from reporting any longer in Palestine, after the pair broadcast a
report on March 31 investigating the summary execution of a group of young Palestinian
men in Ramallah by the Israeli army. The Israelis charged that the TV reporters had showed
"utter disregard" for Israeli military censorship rules.
The Brussels‑based International Federation of Journalists on April 2 criticized Palestinian
reporters for their graphic coverage of Israeli marauders and Israeli atrocities against
civilians. The group demanded that the Palestinian media tone down its reporting to conform
to the wounded sensibilities of the Israelis, who are known to be extremely sensitive
concerning reporting of Israeli army war crimes, even as Zionists worldwide lobby for ever
more intensive and graphic coverage of more than half century old "Nazi war crimes."
���� April 2, 2002: Relatives mourn for one of the dozens of Palestinian males
�� summarily executed by Israeli forces as part of the Jewish army's "selection"
�������������������������� process in Ramallah
In the northern Palestinian ghetto of Tulkarm, Israeli soldiers ordered terrified residents to
stay indoors or be shot. As in Ramallah, the Israeli army in Tulkarm and Kalkilya was
rounding up young men for "selection"‑‑some to be interned, others summarily shot. Israeli
troops shot dead a man aged 42 who had been "selected" near Bala'a, north of Tulkarm.
Two Palestinian civilians were also killed near Tulkarm, by Israeli "settlers," also on April 2.
�Victims of low‑intensity genocide are buried: Relatives and medics inter the bodies of
�21 Palestinians in mass graves, in Ramallah, April 2. The twenty‑one represent a fraction of
���������� those Palestinians massacred by the Israeli army since March 29.
Israeli helicopters bombed and Israeli tanks shelled the headquarters of Palestinian
Preventive Security outside Ramallah early April 2, engulfing it in flames and killing
many of the Palestinians inside. By daybreak, the flames had ebbed, leaving two of the
buildings in the compound smoldering, blackened wrecks, one with a shattered roof. Holes
were visible in the walls of several other buildings in the compound. Eyewitnesses said Israeli
soldiers used 60 Palestinian civilians as human shields in front of the tanks before the attack.
The Israeli army banned reporters from the scene.
In the center of Ramallah, Israeli soldiers used vehicle‑mounted anti‑aircraft guns to
pulverize the facades of buildings packed with residents. Israeli soldiers broke down the
doors of homes in Ramallah and Qalqilya, Palestinians said. In the West Bank, the army
moved in force late on April 1 night into the Palestinian cities of Bethlehem and Tulkarm with
dozens of tanks, armored personnel carriers and armored bulldozers backed by infantry.
Residents are running out of food and water.
An 11‑year‑old Palestinian boy was killed by gunfire from Israeli soldiers as he played near
a market in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian hospital officials said. In Ramallah, nearly all
the dead over the course of the incursion ‑‑ at least 25, by Palestinian count ‑‑ have been
men in their 20s and 30s. At Ramallah Hospital, the city's main medical center, doctors
pulled open the metal doors of the morgue to display bloodied bodies of young Palestinian
males, wrapped in sheets, and said they had not been allowed to transport them out for
burial.
������������������������������� April 1
� Israeli Troops Shoot at Human Rights Activists and TV Cameramen
��� Australian woman is prepared for surgery after being shot by Israeli soldier
BEIT JALA, West Bank (Compiled from Wire Services, April 1, 2002) ‑ Seven foreign
peace activists and a television cameraman were wounded Monday when an Israeli soldier
fired at the ground in front of them, officials and witnesses said. About 100 demonstrators,
Palestinian and foreign, were marching through the center of the West Bank town of Beit
Jala behind a sign saying ``We want peace not war,'' witnesses said.
As they approached an Israeli armored personnel carrier, a soldier in the carrier fired
several shots at them. Medical officials said a Palestinian and seven foreigners were hurt.
They included two Americans, two Britons, and one each from Australia, Japan and France.
The Palestinian, who was wounded in the leg, was a cameraman covering the march for the
Associated Press, colleagues said.
An Israeli soldier also kicked and pushed a Reuters cameraman and fired one shot over his
head while the cameraman was covering the demonstration.
The director of Beit Jala hospital, Peter Qumri, said one woman from Austrlia was
undergoing surgery to remove a bullet wound from her abdomen and was in a satisfactory
condition. The Australian woman was hit in the abdoment, along with six others.
A witness from Beit Jala, who gave his name only as Fouad, said: ``We were just marching
in front of the tank and far away from our position they began to shoot live ammunition on
the international (demonstrators). "The marchers raised their hands in a peaceful way and
they started shooting immediately,'' he said. "Six or seven people were brought to the
hospital.''
Groups of foreign peace activists are in the West Bank to show solidarity with Palestinians
after Israeli forces sent troops and tanks Friday to besiege Palestinian President Yasser
Arafat's headquarters in the city of Ramallah. The army said earlier Monday that troops had
stopped 50 foreigners, mostly Italians, from entering Ramallah, where they had planned to
join others who reached Arafat's office Sunday.
The group, calling itself Grassroots International Protection for the Palestinian People, wants
to shield Arafat from Israeli troops who have taken over most of his compound. Israeli
police said the army had handed over 10 French human rights activists to their custody
pending their expulsion from Israeli territority.
������������������������������ March 31
����������������������� Easter Sunday Onslaught
������������������������ by Michael A. Hoffman II
It is difficult to experience Resurrection Sunday with any kind of joy or sit down to the
traditional repast with any kind of relish when, as I write these words, Palestinian males are
being summarily executed all over Ramallah by the Israeli army.
Many words will be written about this low intensity genocide but they are all futile if they fail
to go to the root of the crisis ‑‑ the religion of Judaism's institutionalized, racist contempt for
gentiles as documented in this reporter's book, Judaism's Strange Gods.
Also, today a bombshell was dropped in England by Lord Ian Gilmour, Britain's former
Secretary of State for Defense. Writing in today's (March 31) edition of The Observer,
Lord Gilmour stated, "Ariel Sharon has never wanted peace with the Palestinians and never
will ‑ he only wants their surrender and expulsion."
How true! And how seldom is this horrible truth articulated by any official interviewed in the
US media, especially on television. Gilmour might have tacked on one final addendum:
Sharon does not want peace, he seeks Palestinian surrender, expulsion AND extermination.
This extermination is what Bush, the US Senate and pundits applaud, the de facto
extermination of Palestinians by low intensity‑‑ but weekly‑‑ murders. This holocaust of
Palestinians can be applauded by those who have sat through hundreds of hours of
"Holocaust" movies and "Holocaust" classroom studies because Palestinians are viewed
through a Talmudic lens, as sub‑humans. They're not Jews, so genocide against them simply
doesn't register.
You may read Lord Gilmour's incisive article, "Let there be justice for all, Mr Bush" at:
http://www.observer.co.uk/worldview/story/0,11581,676774,00.html
Here now follows my own summary of news about the absolutely horrible butchery in
Palestine. My dispatches include information obtained in phone calls directly to witnesses on
the ground in Palestine.
Palestinian official Gibriel Rjoub said that Israeli soldiers in Ramallah executed thirty
Palestinian men on Easter Sunday, March 31. Eyewitnesses say that mass killing by Jews is
taking place in various parts of the city. Bahij Abdullah, 61, owner of a Ramallah hardware
store, said: "They (Israelis) are shooting at everything that moves."
������������� Some will be interned, others summarily executed
Collective punishment of the whole population: Palestinian males, hands tied behind
�their backs, under Israeli guns, March 31, 2002. Some will be shot, other interned
����������������������������� and tortured.
������������������������ Grim Selection Process
� During this operation, Palestinian males have been divided into two groups by the Israeli
army: one group is selected to be interned and another group of males is selected to be shot.
�Nidal Abdullah, 17, was one of those detained by the Israeli army. "They called everybody
�out of the houses," he said. "Any male from age of 16 to 45. Then they sat us all down in a
�field." The group was split up, and some 150 were held overnight. During his internment, the
�� youth said, "sometimes they would call a person outside and hit him a little, smack him
����������������������� around...slap him in the face."
�Dead Palestinian civilian is carried away from lineup after being summarily shot by
�� Israeli soldiers, March 31, 2002. Other Palestinians awaiting selection huddle
��������������������������� against the wall.
Al Nazer hospital in Ramallah, a maternity hospital, is under Israeli fire. Many wounded
around the hospital. Medical workers are denied access to the wounded.
�� Zionists Killers Must Operate in Secret: City of Ramallah Declared "Closed
��������������������������� Military Zone"
The Israeli army announced March 31 it will forcibly remove European human rights
activists and news reporters from the Palestinian city of Ramallah. The Jewish army has
declared the Palestinian city of Ramallah "a closed military zone" in the hope that their
soldiers can slaughter the population without undue publicity.
The Israeli army has taken over the Ramallah offices of foreign news organizations, including
Reuters, expelling the journalists. The Israeli killers have a lot to hide and the ban on the
media is necessary before completely unrestrained Jewish butchery can be implemented
against Palestinian civilians.
�� Israeli soldier prevents TV news crew from entering Ramallah, April 1, 2002
The Foreign Press Association (FPA) protested against the Israeli army's command. "The
media must be allowed to cover this major story. We call upon the Israeli government to
allow free and independent coverage of the operation in Palestinian Authority areas,'' the
FPA said in a statement. At least two journalists, including Anthony Shadid of the Boston
Globe and Carlos Handal of Abu Dhabi TV, have been shot by Israeli soldiers in Ramallah
since March 29. Shadid was shot in the shoulder March 31. Handal was shot in the face
March 29.
Two Palestinian men have been assassinated by Israelis in the village of Saida in the West
Bank.
Israeli forces invaded the Palestinian town of Beit Jala. Heavy shelling and firing is reported
in this predominantly Christian town. Muslims and Christians have jointly gone to the streets
fighting the advancing Israeli tanks.
The town of Bethlehem is also under fire as Israeli troops are attacking it from two
directions. On every corner of Ramallah Israeli tanks are positioned. The devastation that
these tanks have wrought inside the Palestinians' most attractive city has to be seen to be
believed. Roads have been dynamited or torn up by tanks. Buildings are burned and
shattered. Everywhere there is rubble, spent ammunition and broken glass.
Hossam Sharkawi and Mohamed Awad, two senior officials in the Palestinian Red Cross
reported Israelis had arrested five medics and ambulance drivers. "They have them
blindfolded and handcuffed. I cannot understand what the Israelis are thinking. They also
used one of our ambulances today as a human shield. They sandwiched it inside a convoy."
Israeli troops also forced wounded Palestinians out of four Palestinian ambulances and used
them as human shields in Ramallah.
����������������������� French Mission of Mercy
A delegation from the Palestinian solidarity movement courageously marched to Arafat's
office amid Israeli gunfire. They were led by Jos� Bov�, the French farmer and
anti‑globalization leader. Bov� and his colleagues marched through the ruins of devastated
Ramallah, even as Israeli soldiers opened fire. With hands above their heads, and carrying
palm fronds as Easter symbols of peace, they approached Arafat's compound with two
columns of heavily armed Israeli infantry threatening from behind. Bov� marched through the
besieged town with a small group of fellow humanitarians, bearing a tray of medicines for
those injured inside Arafat's offices. (Some of the activists were subsequently arrested by
the Israelis and are, as of this writing, in jail).
�������� Israeli Soldiers Broadcast Pornography on Seized TV Stations
Pornographic movies were broadcast by Israeli troops who have taken over Palestinian
television stations in Ramallah. The offices of local television and radio stations were
occupied by Jewish soldiers a few hours after tanks and hundreds of troops stormed the
town. The soldiers started broadcasting the porn clips ‑‑ considered extremely offensive by
most Palestinians ‑‑ intermittently in the afternoon from the Al‑Watan, Ammwaj, and
Al‑Sharaq stations.
"The pornographic movies started on Al‑Watan television at around 3:30 pm," one
34‑year‑old Palestinian mother said. "I have six children at home, they have nowhere to go
with what is going on here and can't even watch TV," she said angrily. A 52‑year‑old
mother of three children complained about "the deliberate psychological damage caused by
these broadcasts". "I am furious, these are the people who are shooting at us that also play
this disgusting trick on us," she said. "We are desperate for news and constantly flipping
channels and get these terrible pictures instead," adding that videos of the intifada were also
shown backwards with "ideal terrorism" written in red across the screen.
�������� "...we must encircle the main Palestinian population centers..."
��������������� ‑‑Binyamin Netanyahu, Jerusalem Post, March 29
������������������������������ March 30
�� Eight Palestinians Killed In Israeli Assault on Arafat's Ramallah Office: Mass
���������������� Round‑up of Palestinian Males in Ramallah
������������������������ by Michael A. Hoffman II
5 Palestinian policemen have been murdered in cold blood by Israeli soldiers since March
29. The policemen were found shot in the back of the head at close‑range, execution‑style,
on the third floor of the Cairo‑Amman bank at midnight on Friday, March 29 during the
Israeli rampage in the Palestinian city of Ramallah .Five men were put to death by the
Israelis, each with a single coup de grace administered to the head or throat.
Maher Shalabi, bureau chief of Abu Dhabi television in Ramallah, was in his office in the
same building. "I believe this was an execution." Hassan Asfour, a senior Palestinian
negotiator, added: 'They were executed in cold blood. This is a clear example of the
collective execution policy adopted by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people."
� Three of five Palestinian policemen summarily executed by Israeli soldiers. The
���� five victims were Khaled Awad 33, Ismail Zaid 56, Said Abdelrahman 60,
��������������� Abdelrahman Abdallah 58 and Omar Musa, 54
Two of Arafat's bodyguards and a Palestinian intelligence officer have also been killed since
March 29.
Here's how liars at my former employer, the Associated Press, falsified the murders of the
Palestinian policemen to make it appear as though they died in a gun battle:
"Near the center of Ramallah, the bodies of five armed Palestinians, some in police uniform,
were found Saturday in a six‑story building. The Israeli army said they were killed a day
earlier in a firefight that left two soldiers wounded."
‑‑End quote from Associated Press dispatch, "Arafat Remains Confined in Office" March
30, 2002. The preceding AP dispatch gives only the Israeli account, and it withholds
information about wounds at the back of the policemen's heads at close range.
������� Another view of the Israeli massacre of the Palestinian policemen
Shimon Peres, the Israeli foreign minister, said in a telephone interview that "Arafat's
compound is being guarded so he won't be hit." But Yasir Abed Rabbo, the Palestinian
communications director, dismissed the Israeli minister's claim. "He is a liar," Mr. Abed
Rabbo said. "They are all liars."
Israeli tanks and troops are rampaging throughout Ramallah, demanding over loudspeakers
for all Palestinian boys and men ages 15 to 45 to come out for "questioning." 500 have been
kidnapped by the Israelis thus far and dragged away, bound and gagged for torture, and in
some cases, mass murder.
The round‑up is particularly ominous in light of Israeli killings from March 7 to March 16, in
which more than 150 Palestinian males between the ages of 15 and 45 were shot to death.
On March 8 alone, Israeli troops shot and killed 40 Palestinians. Journalists have been
expelled from Ramallah so that this low intensity Israeli genocide against the Palestinian
people can proceed without publicity. Such inhuman tactics breed rage and evermore
fanatical resistance to the Master Race.
[1] Malachi 1:4.
[2] Herbert Adams Gibbons, Zionism and the World Peace, Century Magazine January, 1919, pp. 368-378.
[3] Translation from Russian, On the Eve of Regeneration, by I. Eberlin, pp. 129-130, Berlin, 1920.
[4] Pamphlet, The International Socialist congresses, Speeches and Resolutions on India. For private circulation only. Published by the Indian Nationalist Committee. Date and place of publication not given, p. 9.
[5] Blackwood's Magazine, August, 1920, p. 264, article entitled Mr. Montagu as Viceroy.
[6] London Times, August 4, 1920.
[7] Quoted from the Sinn Feiner, September 4, 1920.
[8] On the Eave of Regeneration, I. Eberlin, pp. 132-135.
[9] Livia Rokach, Israel's Sacred Terrorism (Belmont, Mass.: Association of Arab American University Graduates Press, 1986, Preface, p. xvii.
[10] Liva Rokach, Israel's Sacred Terrorism, p. 3.
[11] Matti Shavitt, On the Wings of Eagles: The Story of Arik Sharon (Tel Aviv: Olive Books, 1972), p. 39.
[12] Uzi Benziman, Sharon: An Israeli Ceasar (New York:Adama Books, 1985), p. 42.
[13] Matti Shavitt, On the Wings of Eagles: The Story of Arik Sharon, p. 40.
[14] Matti Shavitt, On the Wings of Eagles: The Story of Arik Sharon, p. 44.
[15] Matti Shavitt, On the Wings of Eagles: The Story of Arik Sharon, p. 41.
[16] Uzi Benziman, Sharon: An Israeli Ceasar, pp. 57-58.
[17] Uzi Benziman, Sharon: An Israeli Ceasar, p. 47.
[18] Uzi Benziman, Sharon: An Israeli Ceasar, pp. 46.
[19] Uzi Benziman, Sharon: An Israeli Ceasar, pp. 48-49.
[20] Uzi Benziman, Sharon: An Israeli Ceasar, pp. 49-50.
[21] Uzi Benziman, Sharon: An Israeli Ceasar, p. 51.
[22] Uzi Benziman, Sharon: An Israeli Ceasar, p. 52.
[23] Livia Rokach, Israel's Sacred Terrorism, p. 12.
[24] Livia Rokach, Israel's Sacred Terrorism, p. 13.
[25] Livia Rokach, Israel's Sacred Terrorism, p. 13.
[26] Livia Rokach, Israel's Sacred Terrorism, p. 13-14.
[27] Livia Rokach, Israel's Sacred Terrorism, p. 14.
[28] Michael Bar-Zohar, Ben-Gurion, A Biography (New York:Adama Books, 1978), p. 206.
[29] Uzi Benziman, Sharon: An Israeli Ceasar, p. 52.
[30] Gunther Rothenberg, The Anatomy of the Israeli Army (London:B.T. Batsford, Ltd., 1979), p. 92.
[31] Yitshaq Ben-Ami, Years of Wrath, Days of Glory (New York: Speller, 1982), p. 377.
[32] War Office Document 261/562, Public Record Office, London.
[33] Hansard, House of Commons Debates, volume 425, pp. 1877-1878.
[34] Dan Kurzman, Genesis 1948 (New York: New American Library, 1972), p. 181.
[35] Dan Kurzman, Genesis 1948, p. 181.
[36] Davar, June 9, 1979.
[37] United Nations Security Council Official Records, Supplements 1948, Document S/740.
[38] Colonial Office Document 537;3855, Public Record Office, London.
[39] The Israeli Army in the Middle East Wars 1948-1973 (London: Osprey Publishing), p. 31.
[40] I.L. Kenen, All My Causes, p. 60.
[41] United Nations Security Council Official Records, Supplements 1953, Document S/3113.
[42] United Nations Security Council Official Records, 1953, October 19, 1953.
[43] United Nations Security Council Official Records, 1953, October 26, 1953.
[44] United Nations Security Council Official Records, Resolutions 1953, S/3139/Rev. 2.
[45] The Sign, December 1953.
[46] Tension, Terror and Blood in the Holy Land, pp. 127-128.
[47] Livia Rockach, Israel's Sacred Terrorism (Belmont, Mass.: Association of Arab American University Graduates Press, 1986), pp. 13-14.
[48] Kol Haam, December 19, 1956, p. 1.
[49] Judgments of the District Courts of Israel 17, pp. 99-101, Military Attorney General v. Major Melinki et al, File 3/57, District Court of Israel Defense Army, Central Command, as cited in Sabri Jiryis. The Arabs in Israel (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1976), pp. 140-141.
[50] Judgments of the District Courts of Israel 17, p. 101 (Jiryis, The Arabs in Israel, p. 141).
[51] Judgments of the District Courts of Israel 17, pp. 99-101, Military Attorney General v. Major Melinki et al, File 3/57, District Court of Israel Defense Army, Central Command, as cited in Sabri Jiryis, The Arabs in Israel, p. 142).
[52] Judgments of the District Courts of Israel 17, p. 102, Military Attorney General v. Major Melinki et al, File 3/57, District Court of Israel Defense Army, Central Command, as cited in Sabri Jiryis, The Arabs in Israel, p. 142.
[53] Judgments of the District Courts of Israel 17, p. 104, Military Attorney General v. Major Melinki et al, File 3/57, District Court of Israel Defense Army, Central Command, as cited in Sabri Jiryis, The Arabs in Israel, p. 142-143.
[54] Judgments of the District Courts of Israel 17, p. 106, Military Attorney General v. Major Melinki et al, File 3/57, District Court of Israel Defense Army, Central Command, as cited in Sabri Jiryis, The Arabs in Israel, p. 143-144.
[55] Judgments of the District Courts of Israel 17, p. 108-110, Military Attorney General v. Major Melinki et al, File 3/57, District Court of Israel Defense Army, Central Command, as cited in Sabri Jiryis, The Arabs in Israel, p. 144-145.
[56] Judgments of the District Courts of Israel 17, p. 111, Military Attorney General v. Major Melinki et al, File 3/57, District Court of Israel Defense Army, Central Command, as cited in Sabri Jiryis, The Arabs in Israel, p. 145-146.
[57] Judgments of the District Courts of Israel 17, p. 114-115, Military Attorney General v. Major Melinki et al, File 3/57, District Court of Israel Defense Army, Central Command, as cited in Sabri Jiryis, The Arabs in Israel, p. 146-147.
[58] Judgments of the District Courts of Israel 17, p. 117-118, Military Attorney General v. Major Melinki et al, File 3/57, District Court of Israel Defense Army, Central Command, as cited in Sabri Jiryis, The Arabs in Israel, p. 147.
[59] Davar, December 7, 1956, cited in Jiryis, p. 148.
[60] Knesset Debates, December 12, 1956, p. 462, cited in Jiryis, p. 148.
[61] Ner, August-October 1959, Boaz Evron; and Ha'aretz, 18 November 1959, as cited in Jiryis, pp. 148-149.
[62] Knesset Debates, 10 February 1960, p. 603, Shimon Peres, deputy minister of defense, answering questions, as cited in Jiryis, p. 150.
[63] Yediot Aharanot, 27 April, 1967, cited in Jiryis, p. 150.
[64] Judgments of the District Courts of Israel 17, p. 208, cited in Jiryis, pp. 151-152.
[65] Lamerhav, 24 October 1958, as cited in Jiryis, pp. 152-153.
[66] Sabri Jiryis, The Arabs in Israel, p. 153.
[67] The Massacre of Kibya: The Massacre of Kibya on October 14, 1953, was a continuation of such brutal, inhuman massacres as the King David Hotel, Semiramis Hotel and Deir Yassin. But it was also a watershed in one of the most sinister grand designs in military history, a deliberate turning of an entire officer corps into a cabal with shared personal guilt for vicious war crimes.
���� The Nazis organized a separate all-volunteer army under Heinrich Himmler, the Waffen SS. The SS was responsible for the majority of the German war atrocities comparable to those committed by the Zionists. In 1953, Ben-Gurion established an SS equivalent in the Zahal, designated as Commando Unit 101. This all-volunteer unit was responsible for the Kibya massacre and was given exemption from the rules of war as if the Geneva Convention never existed. The first, and only, commander of Commando Unit 101 was Ariel Sharon, the single person most responsible years later for the notorious Sabra and Shatila massacre in Beirut, Lebanon.
�� ��The guilt of Commando Unit 101 was in the most sinister fashion extended first to the Israeli Airborne forces, and subsequently to the entire career officer corps of the Israeli Army. Sharon maneuvered the resignation of the professional commander of the Israeli paratroops, Yehuda Harari, and amalgamated the paratroops along with Commando Unit 101 into Unit 202 of the Israeli Army.
���� The professionalism of the Israeli Airborne troops was thus destroyed, turning all Israeli paratroopers, not just the participants in the Kabya Massacre, into common criminals and murderers of innocent men, women and children. The Zionists, having destroyed the professionalism of their own Airborne Force, proceeded to destroy the professionalism of the entire Officer Crops of the Israeli Defense Forces. No senior officer of the IDF could gain promotion without prior service in the paratroops, and all paratroopers shared in war crimes guilt through assignments given them to murder civilians and to commit other acts illegal under the Geneva Convention.
���� According to an authoritative survey of the Israeli Army; "The silver parachute 'jump-wings' are worn by almost all Zahal officers, as it is normally a required qualification." (The Israeli Army in the Middle East Wars 1948-1973 (London: Osprey Publishing). p. 31).
���� The Government of Israel at the time claimed that the Kibya Massacre was performed by "civilian Jewish settlers." But the historical record shows that it was sanctioned by acting Prime Minister Moshe Sharrett, and was planned by Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon, the Chief of the General Staff Mordecai Maklef, and the Chief of Operations, General Moshe Dayan, in concert with vacationing Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion.
���� Despite the Israeli Government's attempt at cover-up, word spread of their responsibility for the Kibya Massacre and Ariel Sharon's role ultimately came out in connection with this crime. No less a Zionist figure than I.L. Kenen, the founding father of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), the official Israeli lobby in the United States, revealed in his Memoirs: "I was on my way home on the subway, headed for Riverdale, when I heard a brief news flash in the World Telegram disclosing that 66 Arabs had been killed at Kibya as Israelis sought to avenge the slaughter of an Israeli family. I did not know until years later that the raid was ordered by Ariel Sharon, the Israeli commander who led the invasion of Lebanon in 1982." (I.L. Kenen, All My Causes, p. 60).
���� At 9:30 p.m., on Wednesday, October 14, 1953, Israeli troops attacked the border Jordanian village of Kibya, Northwest of Jerusalem. Seven hundred regular Israeli troops participated in the attack in which mortars, machine guns, rifles and explosives were used. Forty-two houses as well as the school and the mosque of the village were dynamited. Every man, woman and child found by the criminal attackers was killed; all in all, seventy-five innocent villagers were murdered in cold blood that night. Later, the attackers turned their fire on the cattle, killing 22 cows. The attack was the bloodiest and most brutal Zionist crimes since the infamous Deir Yassin massacre of 1948. (Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem, pp. 272-273).
[68] Paul Findley, They Dare to Speak Out (Westport: Lawrence Hill, 1985), pp. 166-168.