I find myself wondering how many of our present day leaders, President Obama in particular, are aware of what happened in Palestine that became Israel on 10 March 65 years ago today.
On that day in 1948, two months before Israel’s unilateral declaration of independence in defiance of the will of the organized international community as it then was at the UN, Zionism’s in-Palestine political and military leaders met in Tel Aviv to formally adopt PLAN DALET, the blueprint with operational military orders for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
They did not and never would refer to the crime they authorised as ethnic cleansing. Their euphemism for it was “transfer”.
As noted in an excellent anniversary briefing paper by IMEU (the American-founded Institute for Middle East Understanding), from the earliest days of modern political Zionism its advocates grappled with the problem of creating a Jewish majority state in a part of the world where Palestinian Arabs were the overwhelming majority of the population.
The earliest insider information we have on Zionism’s thinking is from the diary of Theodor Herzl, the founding father of Zionism’s colonial-like enterprise. He wrote:
“We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country… expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.”
Those words were committed to paper by Herzl in 1895 but they were not published (in other words they were suppressed) until 1962.
By August 1937 “transfer” was a discreet but hot topic for discussion at the 20th Zionist Congress in Zurich, Switzerland. All in attendance were aware that the process of dispossessing the Palestinian peasants (the fellahin) mainly by purchasing land from absentee owners had been underway for years. Referring to this David Ben-Gurion, who would become Israel’s first prime minister, said:
“You are no doubt aware of the (Jewish National Fund’s) activity in this respect. Now a transfer of a completely different scope will have to be carried out. In many parts of the country new settlement will not be possible without transferring the Arab fellahin…Jewish power (in Palestine), which grows steadily, will also increase our possibilities to carry out this transfer on a large scale.”
A year later Ben-Gurion told a meeting of the Jewish Agency that he supported compulsory transfer. He added:
“I don’t see anything immoral in it.”
In my view that’s a most revealing statement. It tells us – does it not? – that Ben-Gurion, the Zionist state’s founding father, was a man with no sense of what was morally right and wrong.
Joseph Weitz was the director of the Jewish National Fund’s Lands Department which was responsible for acquiring the land for Zionism’s enterprise in Palestine. One of his diary entries for December 1940 reads as follows:
“There is no way besides transferring the Arabs from here to the neighbouring countries, and to transfer all of them, save perhaps for (the Arabs of) Bethlehem, Nazareth and Old Jerusalem. Not one village must be left, not one (Bedouin) tribe. And only after this transfer will the country be able to absorb millions of our brothers and the Jewish problem will cease to exist. There is no other solution.”
Plan Dalet called for:
“Mounting operations against enemy population centres located inside or near our defensive system in order to prevent them from being used as bases by an active armed force. These operations can be divided into the following categories:
“Destruction of villages – setting fire to, blowing up, and planting mines in the debris – especially those population centres which are difficult to control continuously.
“Mounting search and control operations according to the following guidelines: encirclement of the village and conducting a search inside it. In the event of resistance, the armed force must be destroyed and the population must be expelled outside the borders of the state.”
Before the Zionist state declared itself to be in existence on 14 May 1948, more than 200 Palestinian villages had already been emptied and about 175,000 Palestinians were already refugees. Some had fled in fear; others were expelled by Zionist forces.
The prime fear factor was the slaughter by Zionist terrorists of more than 100 Palestinian men, women and children at Deir Yassin near Jerusalem. As Arthur Koestler was to write, the “bloodbath” at Deir Yassin was “the psychologically decisive factor in the spectacular exodus of the Arabs from the Holy Land and the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem.”
It was, however, Menachem Begin, Zionism’s terror master and subsequently prime minister, who provided the most vivid description of how well the slaughter at Deir Yassin served Zionism’s cause. In his book The Revolt, he wrote:
“Panic overwhelmed the Arabs of Eretz Israel. Kolonia village, which had previously repulsed every attack of the Haganah (the underground Jewish military organization that became the Israeli Army), was evacuated overnight and fell without further fighting. Beit-Iksa was also evacuated. These two places overlooked the road and their fall, together with the capture of Kastel by the Haganah, made it possible to keep open the road to Jerusalem. In the rest of the country, too, the Arabs began to flee in terror, even before they clashed with Jewish forces… The legend of Deir Yassin helped us in particular in the saving of Tiberias and the conquest of Haifa… All the Jewish forces proceeded to advance through Haifa like a knife through butter. The Arabs began fleeing in panic, shouting ‘Deir Yassin!’”
Three decades later, in an article for The American Zionist, Mordechai Nisan of the Truman Research Centre of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem expressed his concern about the failure to understand the major significance of terrorism in the struggle for Jewish sovereignty. He wrote: “Without terror it is unlikely that Jewish independence would have been achieved when it was.”
After the Zionist state declared itself to be in existence, its government set up an unofficial body known as the “Transfer Committee”. Its job was to oversee the destruction of Palestinian towns and villages and/or their repopulation with Jews. The purpose of this Zionist strategy was to prevent dispossessed Palestinians returning to their homes.
By 1949 more than 400 Palestinian towns and villages had been systematically destroyed or taken over by Israeli Jews; and at least 750,000 Palestinians were refugees, dispossessed of their land, their homes and their rights.
In his book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Ilan Pappe, Israel’s leading “revisionist” (meaning honest) historian, documents in detail Zionism’s systematic reign of terror which, from December 1947 to January 1949, included 31 massacres. (Deir Yassin was only the first). In a videoed conversation with me in 2008, which can be viewed in the Hart of the Matter series on my site (www.alanhart.net), Ilan said this:
“Probably more surprising than anything else was not the silence of the world as Zionist ethnic cleansing was taking place in Palestine, but the silence of the Jews in Palestine. They knew what had happened to Jews in Nazi Europe, and some might even have seen it for themselves, yet they had no scruples in doing almost the same thing to the Palestinians.”
On this 65th anniversary of the authorization of the ethnic cleaning of Palestine, the questions I would like to see put to our leaders today, President Obama in particular, are the following:
Are you aware of Plan Dalet?
If not, why not?
If you are aware of it, could it not said be said that your refusal to call and hold Zionism to account for its crimes makes you (and your predecessors) complicit in those crimes by default?
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I am curious to know what Israeli children's schoolbooks say about Plan Dalet. Probably nothing - which is why so many Israelis smugly crow about their "War of Independence" while not knowing a thing about the truth. I have met some zionists who completely deny giving any credibility to Ilan Pappe, without having read his book or seen the results of his research. Ironically, Pappe's sources for the detailed narrative he provides about Plan Dalet and other horrors in his book come from archived materials inside Israel.
Sorry but Deir Yassin was april 9.
Has anyone made a documentary in English, Hebrew or Arabic about Plan Dalet and has it been broadcast on Western/Israeli TV if that is not a daft question? If so, I don't recall seeing it but then I have a lousy memory. If not, perhaps it is time to make such a documentary?
The audio-visual medium is so much more effective than the written word. You know the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words...
It might include interviews with survivors of Plan Dalet/Nackba (before they die of old age) as well as with historians and academics like Pappe.
If Israeli text books don't mention Plan Dalet or the Nackba, then a documentary would a good way to correct this failure.
There is an emerging Web technology that looks promising as a means of circumventing the stranglehold of the Western establishment on TV and film distribution. The peer to peer technology Bittorrent Live is a video streaming platform that uses the Bittorrent peer to peer protocol to make it possible to reach mass audiences via the Web by using the bandwidth of all the viewers to cut down the bandwidth costs of the broadcaster. It does not need the the infrastructure of traditional broadcasting. The developer Bram Cohen's aim is to "kill TV" by making it obsolete. Even the BBC has been investigating it.
It lowers the entry barriers to small broadcasters with small budgets. See:
http://live.bittorrent.com/
http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/13/bittorrent-live/
https://torrentfreak.com/p2p-next-introduces-live-bittorrent-streaming-080718/
http://gigaom.com/2012/02/13/bram-cohen-kill-tv/
@Chris - probably not. The zionist-controlled film industry would never allow it.
I will never understand...it wasn't Arabs/Palestinians who killed 6 million Jews, so why are they being exposed to the same treatment Jews received from Nazis?
Vera the 6 million Jews killed is a 100% lie only about 500,000 died from all causes in WW2, not one Jew was ever gassed
They're not, @Vera. For one thing, they would all be dead by now. And there is no Dr. Mengele experimenting on Palestinians, although the treatment the Israelis give to sick and hunger striking Palestinian prisoners is terrible. within a generation, hatred o the Arabs was so ingrained into the Israeli psyche that their dehumanization has become the norm.
Maryam and Chris. I don't know if a documentary has been has been made about Plan Dalet, but two films, one Palestinian and the other Iraeli - "Gatekeepers" are worth seeing:
Nice piece by Avnery. I haven't seen "5 Broken Cameras", but I did get to see "Gatekeepers" when it was shown on French TV (Arte) the other night. As a film it didn't have much artistic content, but as a documentary of the history of Israeli violence against the Palestinians, it was extremely powerful. As Avnery says, it was testimony from former heads of Shin Bet, with a lot of newsreel coverage of the events they were speaking about winding through the interviews. I don't know Avnery's reasoning about why they did or did not win is accurate but, prize or not, this documentary deserves to seen by anyone who may have doubts. I would like to think that the Israeli propaganda is coming unwound, and that things might change for the better, but with the USA 100% supportive of the Zionist state, I don't have high hopes. Just witness Joe Biden's performance at the recent AIPAC meeting!
Ich auch bin ein Bil'iner!
G
WEEKEND EDITION MARCH 8-10, 2013
Ich bin ein Bil’iner!
“5 Broken Cameras” Strange Trip to the Oscars
by URI AVNERY
As for a Zionist Dr. Mangele -- in this case against Jews, not Palestinians! -- you may want to check this article by Barry Chamish (he himself a Zionist)
"Zionists Poisoned/Radiated
100k Jewish Children"
Zionists Poisoned/Radiated 100,000 Sefardi Jewish Children
By Barry Chamish
8-17-5
http://rense.com/general67/radd.htm
When will there every be peace and prosperity for the Palestine??? I have had it with these fucking zionists and there ethnic cleansing,!! These people are the scum of the earth and need to be stopped
@ Gene -
You shoulda linked man!
Here's Avnery's piece on "5 Broken Cameras":
http://palestinechronicle.com/5-broken-cameras-ich-bin-ein-biliner/
And here's the movie, in full and for free:
http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/the-movie-that-should-make-every-decent-israeli-ashamed-of-being-israeli-in-full/
Hi!
Is it right that the maccarcre was 9 of April and not 9 of march?
Leif Erik
Thank you Alan for raising my awareness of this most critical issue. Strange how I never learned this history in HS, college or through our American mainstream media. I will no longer be reading or listening to Thomas Friedman of the NYTimes.
There evil: past history and present history will destroy this so called state one day. Their destroying of Palestine Muslim grave yard's now in Jerusalem. Has sets another precedent. In the world it is also richest to destroy Jewish grave yards, wear ever there's found, a better use for land.
We wear baited in to the Zio Wars in the middle east. Now our returning Finest are returning home and need our, Americanizing Dollars to help them first.
Our Senate and Congress need to be told to totally $ fund and repair of our Veterans lives first. Before funding any Foreign Aid. "Totally Take of Our Veterans First".
Ronald Douglas Kennedy
I would like to call of action to find a director to make a documentary about Plan Dalet. The name that comes to mind is Oliver Stone. Lets reach out to him.
The minutes of a meeting of the Jewish Agency Executive on 12 June 1938 records a chilling statement made by David Ben-Gurion:
“I am for compulsory transfer; I do not see anything immoral in it”.
Ben-Gurion, an ardent Zionist was a migrant from Poland where he was born in 1886. Since his arrival in Palestine as a 20-year old, Ben-Gurion was destined to be heralded as not only the founder of the State of Israel and its first prime minister, but also as the mastermind of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
In his Diary, an entry on 12 July 1937, Ben-Gurion records writing to his son that the only course of action open to Zionism was: “The Arabs will have to go”. What was needed was an opportune moment for making it happen, as Israeli historian and senior academic Ilan Pappe observes in his awesome study The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.
Pappe describes Ben-Gurion as short of stature, with a large shock of white hair swept backwards and invariably dressed in khaki uniform.
In order to make sense of the current politics of Israel, which under the right-wing leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu remains adamant in denying Palestinian rights, its significant to grasp the malicious intent on the part of his predecessors. Zionist leaders such as Ben-Gurion developed and implemented concrete actions to empty Palestine of its natives. Its equally useful to recollect that in the period between 1919 to 1933 after 35,000 more Zionists immigrated to Palestine, Jewish hold of the land constituted less than 3% while their population stood at 12%.
It means that at the time the League of Nations approved Britain’s Mandate for Palestine in 1922, population figures reflected on a British census of Palestine reveals: 78% Muslim, 11% Jewish, 9.6% Christian, total population 757,182.
Historical facts, which chronicle the injustice committed against indigenous Palestinians by Jewish migrants, have unfortunately been relegated to mere footnotes.
Yet these footnotes reveal much despite efforts by Israel and its supporters to banish them from memory.
A further chilling message is the one attributed to Zionist leader Jabotinsky who wrote in 1939 that “…… the Arabs must make room for the Jews in Eretz Israel. If it was possible to transfer the Baltic peoples, it is also possible to move the Palestinian Arabs”.
So, the drive for an exclusivist Jewish State that resulted in the Naqba or catastrophe was entrenched in Zionist ideology decades ago.
Thus, the massacre of Deir Yassin resulted from a blueprint for ethnic cleansing known as Plan Dalet. Pappe’s study of the terrible tragedy of April 9, 1948 when Jewish forces occupied and killed inhabitants of this pastoral village shows a pattern of calculated moves to cleanse the area.
“As they burst into the village, the Jewish soldiers sprayed the houses with machine-gun fire, killing many of the inhabitants. The remaining villagers were then gathered in one place and murdered in cold blood, their bodies abused while a number of the women were raped and then killed”.
According to Plan Dalet, the Jewish army was to forcibly evict Palestinians from their homes and land using various prescribed strategies: large-scale intimidation; laying siege to and bombarding population centres; setting fire to homes, properties and goods; expulsion; demolition; and finally planting mines among the rubble to prevent any of the expelled inhabitants from returning.
http://rehmat1.com/2009/04/14/plan-dalet-and-palestinian-holocaust/
[...] Read more.. http://www.alanhart.net/the-green-light-for-zionisms-ethnic-cleansing-of-palestine/#more-2320 [...]
Palestinians and Arabs must study this issue. Jews felt unsecured and were frightened after 1300 years of protection by Muslim state untill the defeat of ottomans 1917. Prior to this date and after this date no body was responsible to the security and stability of Jews, Christians, and Muslims particularly in that Holly Land. The Jews then thought of Zionism to protect them selves from scary Arabs,Muslims,Christians,Europeans,and Russians.
These people became scary to eachother up to now so what would they have done to Jews!!!!!!???? Beleive it or not. We need frankness to help solving the problem.
[...] The green light for Zionism’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine (alanhart.net) [...]
@Gene, two IOF soldiers are suing Emad Burnat, the Palestinian director of "Five Broken Cameras," for "incitement." What chutzpah.
I'm curious about any of those who criticizes Israel to open their mouths against what I call Arab antisemitism.
Of course, I can sit and wait.
For a fact, is well known that what happened was simply a population transfer. If we punish Israel for his actions in the 48' war, then we must punish the others as well. And I don't see anybody here promoting that ideia. Only Israel is in your mindset.
Second, nobody here is interested to remebember that more jews were expellled from Arab countries than palestinians. And they left much more wealth behind. Of course not, they were jews. The scum of the earth, for you. Years before, a Austrian corporal tried to "free" the world of the jews. I believe, if all of you could, you all would support the Fuhrer actions.
Third, never remember that the "palestinians" never existed. Only, after the defeat of the Six-day War, the arabs remided thatm inf fact, the palestinian exists. Before that, even for the PLO, the main goal was the destruction of Israel and throwing the jews to the sea, not making a palestinian state. Syria, Egypt or Jordan would take care of them.
Fourth, never remember the occupation of Gaza and West Bank between 1948 and 1967 by Egypt and Jordan.
Of coure, the israeli occupation of the West bank should end (Gaza is no more occupied). No questions about that. But I don´t see Alan and others ever ask the Palis that they must recognize Israel. And everybody knows that peace can only comes with a sharing of the territory by both states (2 states solution). Other solutions are bound to fail.
If the palis want a palestinian state, then they must recognize that making war against the jews ir pure and simply not an option. To win, what the palis must do is make peace. Show to the world that Hamas is not welcome in Palestine. Show the world that suicide bombings are a thing from the past. Show love to your jew neighbours.
@ Maryam
"And there is no Dr. Mengele experimenting on Palestinians,"
Oh there was. His name is Dr. Yehuda Hiss.
@LGF Lizard, how long did it take you to graduate from hasbara class?
I've wondered before when reading this site if we would one day get a Zionist 'troll' and here he is:LGF Lizard. It's interesting how such hasbarists always use the same arguments. I wonder if you could quote us some sources about all these Jews who were expelled from arab countries, Mr Lizard.
Then there is this ridiculous idea that Palestine did not exist, which I'm tired of hearing. It was under the rule of the Ottomans for many generations, but was not given the official name of Palestine by the UN? And that is more important, is it, than the fact that this people have lived and worked in the land for generations?
Nobody on this site will make anti-semitic comments, so your tirade about the Jews being 'the scum of the earth to you', and you mention of Hitler, are just a depeate attempt to justify the terrorist tactics of Ben Gurion and co when you can't find any rational argument.
[...] The green light for Zionism’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine [...]
[...] with both eyes closed. Hate away.... enjoy..... Two words for you; 'Plan Dalet'. Read and enjoy. http://www.alanhart.net/the-green-li...-of-palestine/ Reply With [...]