Mural depicting Basel al-Araj. Photo: The New York War Crimes/File photo.
By Safarjal Press – May 15, 2025
What follows is the first English translation, by Alex Jreisat, of the Palestinian revolutionary intellectual and martyr Basel al-Araj’s essay Al-dhakirah al-jarīhah lil-nakbah (“The Wounded Memory of the Nakba”), which explores political questions of memory during and after catastrophe through unflinching portraits of several geographies that faced Zionist annihilation campaigns from 1947 to 1949, including Tantura, Deir Yassin, and al-Dawayima. The study then presents three narrative themes focused on the tools of extermination during the Nakba: extermination by incineration in al-Tira, by biological warfare in Akka, and by death march in al-Lidd and al-Ramleh. While the work below is harrowing and brutal, it is a fitting rejoinder to any who believe the destruction of Palestinian life to have begun with the al-Aqsa Flood operation. This text was prepared as part of the effort to translate and publish the works of al-Araj collected in the 2018 book of essays Wajadtu ajwibati (I Have Found My Answers). The project came about in consultation with al-Araj’s family and comrades, and will be published in 2026 as a free electronic book as well as a print book by the recently established publishing house Safarjal Press (Instagram: @safarjalpress).
The word, “Nakba,” summons in memory that momentous event that befell the Arabs in 1948. When Constantin Zureiq used the term for the first time, he was both accurate and justified in his description of this event. The Nakba left an enduring, paradigm-shifting impact beyond its immediate occurrence to the events that followed. The Nakba is a lasting event that began before 1948 and whose effects and actions have never ended despite the armistice decision. The settler-colonial replacement projects are not a momentary event (a war or a battle), but rather an ongoing structural process that seeks to replace one society with another.
Palestinians created two types of memories around the Nakba, which is considered a persisting embodiment of the Palestinian tragedy. One is in terms of subject matter and the other of individuals and the collective. Regarding subject matter, Palestinians have developed a wounded memory that entails the crimes perpetrated by the enemy against their people, as well as the magnitude of the loss they’ve suffered. Additionally, there’s a memory of heroism and sacrifice that includes the heroic acts carried out by the Arabs and their few supporters from among the free peoples of the world in defense of their land and nation.
From another perspective, three types of memory and narrative around the Nakba were born among the Palestinians: individual narratives carried by those who lived through the Nakba and passed down to their descendants, which then coalesce into a “group” memory. The sum of these “group” memories forms a single “collective” memory.
Thus:
Maurice Halbwachs distinguished between group and collective memory. To him, group memory is the memory which involves a specific group in society, whereas collective memory is that memory which unites the memories of various groups. That is, it is essentially a collection of group memories (Zayid 2013: 27).
The student of Palestinian oral history about the Nakba will note that it starts with discussions about life in the village/city before displacement, often portraying Palestine as paradise lost or the heaven that Palestinians were deprived of. However, the same narrative does not exclude talk about the poverty, hardship, and toil that Palestinians suffered before the Nakba due to the economic and social structure and oppressive colonial policies. Salih Abd al-Jawad considers this issue from the angle of real feelings in the magnitude of loss, which also intersects with the topic of responsibility for the loss and defeat. Palestinians do not hesitate to hold the whole world responsible for their tragedy, while even blaming themselves and also devaluing their own resistance, and engaging in self-flagellation due to the sense of the scale of loss that they suffered.
The first generation of refugees carried a heterogeneous memory of the homeland and village, combining both misery and bliss. However, the following generations supplanted narratives of misery and poverty with the narrative of supposed joy in the lost nation, drawing an image of Palestine that was not entirely accurate.
Even after 67 years, Palestinians still carry their villages and cities in the diaspora, be it in the names of their sons and daughters, the signs of their shops, or even by preserving the remnants of the original social structure of the Palestinian village. The refugees took up residence in the camps, every village in its own part of the camp, as did each clan and family. They carried their heritage, practices, and traditions with them to their diaspora, even if that heritage was exposed to a kind of acculturation or cross-pollination with other villages and cities.
This exploratory study examines the immediate aspect of the Palestinians’ wounded memory around the Nakba. Compiling the wounds which the Nakba has left on Palestinians is challenging for three reasons. The first is because it is a lasting and interminable event. The second is because every group and every individual carry wounds within themselves that make them difficult to process and compartmentalize. Thirdly, all talk about Palestine and its pre-Nakba being carries a pain and wound in its folds. We will not be enumerating the economic, social, and cultural losses for Palestinian society, and will instead only address the immediate wounded memory. The wounded memory of Palestinians around the Nakba speaks to the direct actions of the enemy against them. It is divided into the events of the war, the tools of the extermination and massacres, the impetus for the exodus, and the long path to the camps and the pain and suffering it brought.
The Nakba brought about the loss of 78% of the area of Mandatory Palestine, the destruction and ethnic cleansing of 531 Palestinian villages and cities, the displacement of 805,076 Palestinians, and “the perpetration of 35 documented massacres, though the actual count surpassed 100” (Abu Sitta). In addition, there were also 16,721 martyrs from among those who had fought alongside the Palestinians and whose names, count, locations or dates of their martyrdom, or village names were known (al-Arif 1958: 9).
The study presents several biographies of place and narrative themes, where place is the focal point of the story. Autobiographies are absent from this research due to the subject matter of the study’s contents, as the event was far too significant to be reduced to the biography of an individual. Hence, the individuals mentioned in the study presented themselves only as eyewitnesses to the Nakba, surpassing the individual in its narrative.
The study provides one narrative theme centered on massacres, detailing three biographies of place biographies: Tantura, Deir Yassin, and al-Dawayima. Additionally, it presents three narrative themes focused on the tools of extermination: extermination by incineration in al-Tira, extermination by biological warfare in Akka, and extermination by death march in al-Lidd and al-Ramleh.
The Balance of Power Between the Arabs and the Zionist Movement
On the eve of the war, Zionist forces numbered 50,000 well-armed fighters, supported by air and sea, as well as units of tanks and artillery. In contrast, they faced no more than 7,000 fighters from quasi-formal Palestinian groups, who were poorly equipped and lacked structure and hierarchical leadership. In addition, there were 3,000 Arab volunteers, along with dozens of Germans, Turks, Pakistanis, Yugoslavs, and Africans, and a small number of Brits. After May 15th, the number of Zionist fighters increased to 80,000 soldiers, while another 50,000 Arab soldiers entered Palestine.
Two militant groups operated on the fringes of the Zionist military force: the Irgun, which broke away from the Haganah in 1931 and was led by Menachem Begin, and the Stern gang, which splintered from the Irgun in 1940. There were also Zionist commando units that were established in 1941 under the name Palmach.
Phases in the Development of Zionist Strategy during the Nakba
During the first ten days after the partition decision, Zionist actions were marked by revenge attacks against Palestinians. However, by 10 December 1947, Zionist actions shifted towards a systematic campaign of intimidation. The campaign began with a series of well-coordinated threats. Haganah groups distributed pamphlets threatening villages against cooperating with the Arab Liberation Army. Special units stormed the villages and searched for volunteers, randomly opening fire without hesitation upon encountering any resistance. This operation, known as “Violent Surveillance,” aimed to enter unarmed and undefended villages at nightfall, staying for several hours and killing whomever exited their home in an effort to demonstrate strength, enforce discipline, exact revenge, and instill panic.
On 17 December 1947, the Zionist “Consultancy” Board convened and decided to intensify operations, transitioning to a new phase that encompassed the destruction of villages and the expulsion of their inhabitants. Haifa was selected to be the target.
There were 75,000 Arabs in Haifa, alongside 20,000 Zionists. The Jews took up residence in the Hadar neighborhood, settling Haifa’s mountain top and leaving the Arab neighborhoods at the foothills of Mount Karmel. The Zionists rolled barrels filled with explosives and iron balls down towards the topographically lower Arab neighborhoods. They poured oil mixed with gasoline on these neighborhoods, turning any Palestinians who tried to extinguish the flames into targets mowed down by the Zionist machine guns. They also rigged cars with explosives, and detonated them in the city’s Arab neighborhoods, in addition to lobbing bombs onto Arab gatherings. At the same time, a decision was made to attempt the destruction and depopulation of a village. The targeted village was Balad al-Shaykh. The assault took place on 31 December 1947, resulting in the martyrdom of 60 Palestinians, but the cleansing plan was unsuccessful. This coincided with the demolition and depopulation of an entire neighborhood in Haifa, followed by the destruction of the neighboring village of Hawassa and the cleansing of 5,000 Palestinians.
These attacks were also accompanied by demolition operations in other cities, such as the destruction of the Saray building in Yaffa and the Semiramis Hotel in Jerusalem. Zionist assaults of this sort continued until February. Under the name Operation Lamed He, operations in February took on a strategic dimension, primarily in an attempt to link the cleansing and genocide operations with the idea of connecting logistical communication lines between the main Zionist congregations. Caesarea and two surrounding villages were chosen as targets, and on February 5th, the decision was made to occupy these villages, expel their populations, and destroy them. The enemy succeeded in occupying Caesarea and expelling its Palestinian population on 15 February 1948, making it the first village from which the enemy successfully displaced its inhabitants during the Nakba.
In early March, Plan Dalet (Yehoshua Plan) was approved as the main plan for ethnic cleansing. This plan divided Palestine into several regions and split the Haganah forces into 12 brigades. Each brigade leader was given a list of villages, which the brigades were responsible for destroying and displacing their inhabitants, with specific dates for each operation.
The first operation in the Dalet Plan was Operation Nachshon, which targeted villages located along the road between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, beginning on April 1st. By April 8th, the village of al-Qastal had fallen and Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni was martyred. The infamous massacre of Deir Yassin took place the next day. After the massacre, Zionist forces proceeded to destroy and expel the Palestinians from the cities. Tabariyya was the first city targeted in Plan Dalet, followed by Haifa, then Safad, with intensifying attacks on Jerusalem. By May, Akka and Beisan were attacked. Yaffa was occupied on 13 May 1948, two days before the British withdrawal from Palestine.
On the eve of the declaration of the establishment of the enemy entity, the operations of killing, displacement, and destruction became more systematic. One of the largest and cruelest massacres took place in the village of Tantura on May 22nd.
The period between June and September saw an escalation in events, two truces, and several military operations. One such operation, Operation Palm Tree (Dekel), targeted Majdal, Nazareth, and some pockets of resistance in the villages of the Galilee. This was followed by Operation Policeman (Shoter), during which Tirat Haifa, Kafr Lam, and ‘Ayn Hawd south of Haifa were occupied. Operation Danny followed with the occupation of al-Lidd and al-Ramleh. By October, Plan Dalet had nearly completed its mission with Operation Hiram, which targeted Wadi Ara, securing the occupation of the rest of the Upper Galilee. By November, military operations had moved to southern Palestine to occupy the Negev and Gaza and expel the Egyptian army. This operation continued until March 1949, and this period witnessed the al-Dawayima Massacre (Cohen 2007, adapted).
The Zionist Massacres
Historians differ on the number of massacres that occurred during the Nakba. Salman Abu Sitta mentions 34 documented massacres and suggests the true number is over 100, while Dr. Khalid al-Safi refers to 110 documented massacres according to the Zionist archives. Others cite around 50 massacres. It is clear that the discrepancy in the number of massacres is not about whether they occurred, but rather in what qualifies an event as a massacre, as there is no universally agreed-upon legal or academic definition, and these definitions vary from one legal source to another (‘Ali 2009: 12).
The most notorious Zionist massacres during the Nakba are al-‘Abbasiyya (al-Yahudiya) and al-Khisas; Sheikh Bureik and Balad al-Shaykh; Mansurat al-Khayt, al-Tira, Sa’sa’, al-Husayniyya, Deir Yassin, Qalunya, al-Lujjun, Nasir al-Din, and Tel Levinsky; Hawsha, Haifa, Rama, al-Khayriyya, and Ayn al-Zaytun; Beit al-Khuri, Arab Subeih, Khubbayza, Burayr, Abu Shushah, Beit Daras, Tantura, Jimzu, and the Dahmash Mosque Massacre in al-Lidd; and al-Muthallath, al-Dawayima, Aylabon, Salha, al-Bi’na, Deir Asad, Abu Zurayq, Majd al-Kurum, Umm al-Shawf, al-Sifsaf and the Jiz Massacre.
The Tantura Massacre
Tantura falls 24 kilometers south of Haifa, directly on the coast, perched on a small hill “25 meters above sea-level.” It had a train station and, according to the 1945 census, was inhabited by 1,490 Arabs across 202 households. It had a school for both boys and girls, and the village subsisted on agriculture and fishing.
On May 22nd and 23rd, the 33rd battalion of the Haganah (the 3rd Battalion of the Alexandroni Brigade) attacked the village (al-Khalidi 1998: 106-108).
On May 15th, Jewish intelligence officers offered surrender to the population of Tantura. However, the villagers refused the offer. On the night of May 22nd, the village was attacked from four directions, and this departed from the campaigns of all previous operations where attacks were conducted from three directions, tactically leaving the fourth as an exit for the expulsion of the inhabitants. The residents were gathered on the coast, where the men were separated from the women and children (Pappé 2007: 145).
Fawzi Mahmud Ahmad Tanji offers his testimony:
They gathered us near the beach. The men on one side and the women on another. Boys and young men older than twelve were placed with the men, and those younger were placed with the women. After that, they picked out seven to ten men and brought them to a place close to the village mosque. They shot them there. Then they returned and led another group and so on, until the number reached close to ninety individuals. A group of soldiers accompanied each group, while some of the villagers stood and watched what was happening. Afterwards, they took all who remained to the village cemetery and stood them there. They planned to shoot everyone. At that point, about fifty to sixty individuals from Kibbutz Zikhron Ya’akov arrived. When they saw what was happening, several of their senior officials intervened. They stopped the massacre and said, ‘Enough…’
He adds:
These soldiers, the looks of whose faces I will never forget as long as I live, seemed to me like angels of death. As I stood there, I was certain these were the final moments of my life, and that they would come at any moment to take and shoot me too. I don’t know why they did to us what the Germans did to them…
Abu Khalid, a 74-year-old man who resides today in the city of Tulkarm, suddenly began sobbing and said: “It would have been better if I had died there so I wouldn’t have to carry this story with me up to today” (Theodore Katz, interview).
The testimonies and studies are in dispute on determining the number of martyrs of this massacre. However, the lowest estimate was 90 martyrs and the highest was 250. The martyrs were forced to dig their own graves with their hands before they were killed.
The Deir Yassin Massacre
This massacre took place on 9 April 1948 in the village of Deir Yassin, located west of Jerusalem. It was carried out by two Zionist gangs: the Irgun (under the command of Menahem Begin, the later prime minister of Israel), and Stern Lehi (which was headed by Yitzhak Shamir (who succeeded Begin for the prime ministry). This massacre occurred two weeks after the signing of a peace agreement, which had been requested by the leaders of the neighboring Jewish settlements and agreed upon by the villagers of Deir Yassin.
Many of the village’s inhabitants were victims of this massacre, including children, the elderly, women, and young men. The victim toll of the massacre is disputed; Arab and Palestinian sources state that there were between 250 and 360 victims killed, whereas Western sources claim the toll did not exceed 107.
In 1948, many journalists who were able to cover the Deir Yassin Massacre agreed that the number of killed reached 254 villagers. The Deir Yassin Massacre is considered one of the few events where both Arab and Jewish sides had an interest in increasing the casualty count. From the Arab perspective, a higher death toll would negatively affect the British view of the Jews according to Zionist leadership assessments. From the Jewish perspective, a high number of massacre casualties would intimidate other Arab villages, prompting their voluntary displacement without exerting Jewish effort.
At dawn on 9 April 1948, Irgun forces entered from the east and south of the village, while Stern forces entered from the north, besieging the village from all sides except the western road. This strategy was designed to catch the villagers by surprise while they were asleep.
The assault initially met resistance, resulting in four deaths and 40 injuries among the Zionist attackers. According to the report of French writer Patrick Mercillon:
The attackers had not engaged in such battles before. It was easier for them to throw bombs in the middle of crowded markets than to attack a village that could defend itself… For that reason, they were not able to advance in the face of this fierce fighting.
To counter the resilience of the villagers, the attackers sought backup from the Palmach forces stationed at a military encampment near Jerusalem. These forces, in turn, shelled the village with mortar fire to facilitate the attackers’ mission. By noon, the village was completely devoid of any resistance. Consequently, the Stern and Irgun forces decided—according to Mercillon—to employ the method they knew best: dynamite. Thus, they overtook the village by blowing up the houses one by one.
After they ran out of explosives, they began “‘cleaning’ the area of the last elements of resistance by way of bombs and machine guns. They fired at everything that moved inside the houses, be they men, women, children, or the elderly.” They stood dozens of villagers against the walls and shot them. The killings continued over the course of two days (Yasir 2009: 40).
The Zionist forces carried out deliberate operations of mutilation (torture, assault, amputation of limbs, and the killing of pregnant women while betting on the gender of the fetuses). 53 children were thrown alive over the old village walls. 25 men were rounded up in buses to be paraded around Jerusalem in a victory procession similar to that of ancient Roman armies, before being executed by firing squad.
The bodies were thrown in the village cistern and its hatch was securely locked to conceal the evidence of the crime. According to Mercillon:
Within minutes, in the face of unprecedented resistance, the men and women of the Irgun and Stern, who had once been young people with high ideals, transformed into “butchers,” cruelly and coldly killing just as the soldiers of the Nazi forces had.
The Zionist military organizations prevented the Red Cross delegate, Jacques de Rainier, from entering the village for more than a day. Meanwhile, members of the Haganah occupying the village meticulously collected other bodies and blew them up to deceive the representatives of international organizations and suggest that the victims had perished during armed clashes (the Red Cross delegate eventually found the bodies that had been thrown in the cistern) (al-Khalidi 2007: 619-620).1,2
The al-Dawayima Massacre
On 29 October 1948, some soldiers of the Stern and Irgun gangs besieged the village of al-Dawayima while others stormed it. They did this while the villagers were at the markets or in their homes as was the norm on Fridays, and while no one—neither from the Arab resistance nor the forces of the Arab armies that were fighting in Palestine—was in the village. Many fighting-age village men were killed without any military necessity. There was no force defending the village, nor any sources of resistance activity or weapons caches to be feared (al-Khalidi 1998: 160-161).
The massacre was followed by a massive exodus of the population from the area, in fear for their lives. Once the town was occupied, the gangs rounded up between 80 to 100 women and children. The Zionists bashed the heads of the children in with batons until there wasn’t a single household in the town without a fatality. Women and elderly men were confined inside homes, deprived of water and food. When a demolitions expert was brought in and refused to demolish two houses with elderly villagers still inside, a soldier volunteered and proceeded to demolish many houses, burying the occupants alive.
Reports on the massacre leaked, as well as the Zionists’ assault on some of the caves where the residents had taken refuge, lining up about 500 Arabs in a single row and killing them with machine gun fire. After news of the massacre spread, a sham investigation was conducted with some members of the battalion that assaulted the town. The report concluded that the villagers had attacked nearby Jewish settlements and assisted in the attack on Gush Etzion.
An Israeli soldier confirmed that the 89th Battalion was composed of former terrorists from the Irgun and Stern gangs, emphasizing that the massacre was perpetrated by leaders and intellectuals who had become despicable criminals. The Israeli leaders obstructed visits to the town by United Nations observers. After numerous requests, the Belgian adjutant Van Wassenhove and his team were permitted to visit the village. They observed smoke rising from the houses, which was to conceal the rotting corpses in the village. Wassenhove remarked on this, “I smelled a peculiar odor as if bones were burning inside.” When the Belgian adjutant asked why the houses were being blown up, the Israeli officer replied that the houses contained poisonous vermin, so they were being demolished.
The Israeli Minister of Agriculture at the time, Aharon Cizling, commented in front of the Israeli cabinet: “I feel that the things that are going on are hurting my soul, the soul of my family and all of us here … Jews too have behaved like Nazis, and I feel my entire being has been shaken.”
Documented Testimonials on the Massacre
After the Zionist gangs stormed the village and perpetrated the aforementioned acts, we present a collection of documented testimonies from the mouths of several Jewish military men and politicians in Israel, which emerged in the years following the massacre in the village of al-Dawayima. These testimonies shed light on further details about what happened in the village.
One soldier bragged to his colleagues, “I raped an Arab woman before I shot her,” corroborating what the researcher Ahmad al-‘Adarbah put forth in his book, Qariyat al-Dawayimah (The Village of al-Dawayima).3 Another soldier stated that he forced a woman from the nursery to move bodies before killing her and her child. Others took three girls in their military vehicle; they were found on the outskirts of the village, “raped and killed.”
Corroborating testimony from the village mukhtar, some soldiers from the Zionist Irgun gang fired on a child breastfeeding from his mother. The bullet pierced his head and the mother’s chest, killing them both while the child was still suckling her breast, with milk dribbling from the corners of his mouth.
After these crimes, the remaining unarmed villagers were terrified and took refuge in the village mosque, which was considered the final sanctuary and was known as “al-Zawiyah Mosque.” It was the main place where the villagers gathered according to Isma’il Abu Rayyan, one of the men of al-Dawayima, in his book also titled Qariyat al-Dawayimah. The mosque was used as the site of congregation for clan members, the reception of guests and vagrants, and occasions such as funerals and weddings. It also served as an information center and was also frequented by poets and storytellers.
While the villagers took refuge in this mosque to avoid the threat of the Zionist gangs, the villagers were pursued and killed inside. It is estimated that 75 people were martyred within. Most of them were the elderly and disabled who were unable to flee on foot. After it was tightly sealed, the mosque was burned down with whoever was inside to prevent any potential wounded survivors from escaping and testifying about the crime. Some martyrs were buried in a hole near the mosque the villagers had previously dug out to expand the mosque; the rest of them were buried in a mass grave. No one escaped save for a single woman.
After that, the Zionist gangs bound the men they had captured with ropes and chains. The soldiers herded them like sheep and placed them in a house. The gangs deprived them of water and then used dynamite to demolish the house over the heads of those inside. The details of the massacre were revealed to Israeli newspapers in 1985 by the late Shaykh Hasan Mahmud Hadib, the former mukhtar of the village.4
International Testimonies on the Massacre
On 8 November, a team of United Nations inspectors reached the village, headed by the Belgian warrant officer Van Wassenhove in the company of Israeli soldiers. When one of the inspectors requested to enter the locked mosque, he was prevented with the excuse that the mosque is sacred to Muslims and it was not permissible for a non-Muslim to enter it.
However, the inspector saw smoke rising from the mosque, so he approached the window and smelled the odor of burning human bodies. When he asked about the reason that a house was being prepared for demolition, he was told: “The house contains poisonous vermin, so we are demolishing it” (Pappé 2007).
The United Nations team was not allowed to visit the south of the village, allegedly due to the presence of mines, claiming that the villagers had fled before the Israeli army arrived.
The Massacre’s Victims
Based on Arab, “United Nations,” and Israeli Occupation estimates, the number of martyrs from the al-Dawayima Massacre was between 700 and 1,000 Arab citizens, besides those who attempted to sneak back into the village to retrieve their belongings and food in the days following the massacre.
‘Nakba Never Ended, It Continues as We See Livestreamed in Gaza Today’
Akka: Biological Warfare during the Nakba
After the fall of Haifa on 22 April 1948, thousands of refugees flowed to Akka from Haifa, and it became overcrowded with its residents. Akka was still under British protection. In the first week of May, the Zionist forces began sieging the city, then they fired on it with barrages of mortar shells. The drinking water arrived at the city via an aqueduct that passed by the northern villages near al-Kabri, located 10 kilometers from Akka. The aqueduct was known as al-Basha Aqueduct in some places.
The path of the aqueduct to Akka lay across Zionist settlements, east and west of the farm which was about 6 kilometers from Akka. At some point of the aqueduct, the Zionists injected the waters with typhoid germs. Typhoid fever quickly spread among the population and British soldiers.
According to Red Cross report no. 82/GC, G3/1/G59, on 6 May 1948, Red Cross Delegate de Meuron travelled from Haifa to Akka in the company of Dr. Maclean, a health physician, to inspect the conditions of the refugees after the outbreak of typhoid among them.
The report stated that “the situation was dangerous, the outbreak of the disease prevailed among civilians and men of the military and police.” Brigadier Beveridge, chief of the military medical services, noted that this was the first instance of this epidemic in Palestine (notwithstanding the widespread conditions of exodus and distress among the population in Palestine). The report also expressed concerns about the epidemic spreading through the refugees heading to Lebanon. Initially, the report counted 70 civilian cases and 55 British cases, and that this is the minimum number of cases since many residents are afraid to report them (Pappé 2007).
On the same day, a comprehensive meeting was convened at the Lebanese Red Cross Hospital in Akka. Attendees included Brigadier Beveridge, Colonel Bonnet from the British Army, Dr. Maclean from the civilian medical services, de Meuron from the Red Cross, District Commissioner Mr. Kenyon, Akka Magistrate Mr. Hakim, and Drs. Dahan and al-Araj from the Lebanese Red Cross, along with municipal engineers and others. They concluded that the population of Akka had decreased from 25,000 to 8,000 (due to exodus) and 70 cases of typhoid infection had been discovered.
The meeting attendees decided that “the epidemic was water-borne,” and that there are many hidden cases and others dispersed in the villages. A vaccination campaign was launched for all residents. The city was sprayed with disinfectants, the water was sterilized, and all available hospitals and temporary facilities were prepared to receive patients. Additionally, resident movement was especially managed. The attendees also decided against using the aqueduct water, opting instead for the artesian wells and water from the agricultural station north of Akka.
General Stockwell in Haifa approved the Red Cross request to send a special airplane to Jerusalem to bring medicines. In a report dated 12 May, the Red Cross delegate mentioned that the situation had worsened, electricity was cut off from the city, and the absence of the mayor, who had traveled to Beirut, weakened local authority. Despite the Red Cross’s insistence, the municipality was unable to decontaminate the aqueduct water “which is the source of the epidemic.” The outcome of the epidemic was “residents were prevented from returning to their homes.”
In a report dated 13 May, the delegate referred to the lack of municipal authorities—especially in the absence of the mayor—from placing a limit for the inhabitants’ exodus from the city. He also lauded the physicians and nurses associated with the Lebanese Red Cross for their great humanitarian work. Dr. Dabbas and Ms. Baha’i had come from Yaffa to assist them.
In a 16 May report, the delegate described how the Haganah’s assault on the city intensified with artillery and mortar shells. Israeli vehicles with loudspeakers roamed the city, proclaiming, “You face surrender or suicide; we will exterminate you to the last man.” This led to the city’s fall, with some of its notables signing the surrender document.
Zionist terror began to prevail over the city. Every man, young and old, was imprisoned and considered a prisoner of war even if they were civilians. Looting was widespread in the city, and women and children roved about without shelter or food.
The Red Cross investigated the veracity of a rape incident of a young woman, committed by several Haganah soldiers in front of her family. A detailed report by Lieutenant Petit, the truce observer who visited the city after its fall, mentioned that the Jews had carried out organized looting of goods from homes for the use of new immigrants and to prevent the return of the original inhabitants.
The Red Cross also stated that the Jews had perpetrated a massacre in which 100 civilians were killed, specifically those of the new city who refused to flee to the old city per Israeli orders. It mentioned the story of Muhammad Fayiz Sufi as among those who refused to move. While Muhammad miraculously survived, three of his compatriots died after being forced to drink cyanide poison and then their bodies were thrown into the sea (Abu Sitta).
Rape
We do not possess precise numbers for cases of rape during the Nakba, despite some sources indicating that there were 18 documented cases. The sources that provide us with this information are the oral history of the refugees, as noted from testimonies of women from Tantura. There is also documentation by the United Nations and the Red Cross, which recorded cases of rape in Yaffa or the village of al-Shawka al-Tahta. The last source is the Zionist archives; even Ben Gurion recalled a rape incident in his memoirs (Cohen 2007: 236-237).
al-Tira Village: Extermination by Incineration
The village of al-Tira is located 7 kilometers to the south of Haifa, and it is the second largest village in the area (6,000 people in 1948) after Ijzim. Its residents planted grain and fruits. On account of the abundance of almond trees there, it was also known as Tirat al-Lawz (Tira of the Almonds).
The village faced several Jewish raids in the time from when the Partition Plan was announced and following the fall of Haifa. British forces assisted in evacuating some of the residents in stages. The village withstood the siege for a period of two months, like Ayn Ghazal, and remained an Arab enclave after the occupation of all surrounding areas until it fell on 16 July 1948, following an assault from land and sea. The forces of the Alexandroni Brigade entered it only two days before the proclamation of the second truce on 18 July.
From the testimony of surviving witnesses, the young fighters withdrew outside of the village. Only the elderly remained, who surrendered to the invading army. The Jews then transferred about thirty middle-aged individuals to Akka. Nothing was known about them (it was later made clear that they were sent to the prison). After some time, the Jews transferred some 300 people in twenty buses to the area of al-Lujjun. Every bus was accompanied by a group of Jewish guards carrying machine guns. Near the frontlines with the Iraqi forces, the guards expelled the people toward the Arab area, firing behind them with showers of bullets.
On 25 July 1948 (19 Ramadan), the Jews returned to the village, where there remained only the disabled and the elderly, some of them blind. They transferred the remaining villagers (about 60-80 people) on buses under Jewish guard comprising ten to fifteen individuals. They reached the area east of al-Lujjun at about 8 o’clock in the evening.
The buses stopped on Afula Road, near some new houses, some of which were recently destroyed. The Jews ordered the passengers to get off, for each to carry their belongings, and to sit in a circle about 200 meters from the main road in a harvested wheat field. They informed them that they are near the Arab lines.
The guards turned this group over to the Jewish guards from a nearby settlement (it turned out to be a police station occupied by Jews, and their hats resembled police hats). Thirst intensified among the villagers after a long day of travel during Ramadan, so they requested water to drink. They were told to wait, and after a bit the guards returned with gallon jugs of gasoline and poured it over the villagers sitting on their bundles and on the dry harvest around them. They lit it aflame, leaving them to burn and firing on them when some of them tried to flee.
Rahmah Ibrahim al-Haj reported in her testimony:
When we reached the east of al-Lujjun, the Jews said to get off the buses and for everyone to sit on their bundle of clothes in a circle. We were really thirsty and asked for water. The Jews said in Arabic to wait, and they left in the direction of the buses. They returned with each of them carrying a tank and began pouring its contents onto the bundles and on the disabled people. Then they lit them on fire and left.
I was younger and stronger than the rest, so when I smelled that the liquid was gasoline and not water, I fled from the far side of the fire. I ran and hid under a boulder until the morning. I could see the fire burning and the people were screaming and begging for help. In the morning, I went to the site of the fire. When my sight fell onto the charred bodies, I was gripped by terror and didn’t stay even a single moment to count them. I ran until I reached the village of Zalafa where I fell on the ground from terror and exhaustion. The villagers took care of me, then took me to Jenin (Abu Sitta, article).
Terror afflicted the villagers as the fire ate at them, and they didn’t know where to go in the darkness. Most of them were disabled due to old age, and some of them were blind. They started screaming and calling for help. As the Jews watched them, the guards were speaking Arabic and saying to them, “Mashallah.” Some of the villagers escaped and reported what happened.
It is not completely known how many survived that holocaust, because they dispersed after that. They took refuge in the refugee camps of Nablus, Irbid, Damascus, and Saida. The United Nations observers were able to record the testimony of 10 individuals of 15 who were believed to have survived. However, the number of those who were burned alive was 55 at the most (Abu Sitta).5
al-Lidd and al-Ramleh: The Death March
The term has appeared three times in history, each time associated with a genocide: the first was the march of the Moriscos to the Maghreb following their expulsion by the Inquisition, the second was the march of Native American tribes to the west of the Mississippi, and the third was the march of Jews to Nazi concentration camps.
Operation Danny brought on the displacement and extermination of the Palestinians in al-Lidd and al-Ramleh, where the operation started with airstrikes on al-Lidd. The strikes were followed by a direct assault on the city center. Due to the retreat of the Arab forces and the Arab Liberation Army, the men took cover in Damascus Mosque in downtown, armed with old rifles. After a few hours of fighting, they surrendered, and it was recorded that 426 children, men, and women were killed in the mosque.
On the following day, the enemy rounded up 50,000 Palestinians from al-Lidd and al-Ramleh and forced them to march eastward. They had forced them to do that during the hottest month of the year in the hottest areas. The journalist, Keith Wheeler, wrote in The Chicago Sun Times that he saw numerous bodies on the sides of the road. Kenneth Bailey wrote in the New York Herald Tribune that he saw the bodies of Arab men, women, and children strewn all throughout the road (Pappé 2007: 195-198).
Sources and References
1. al-Mawsuʿah al-Filastiniyyah
2. Zayid, Amal. Riwayat al-lajiʾin al-Filastiniyyin ʿabr al-Nakbah. Jamiʿat Bir Zayt, 2013.
3. al-ʿArif, ʿArif. Al-Nakbah wal-fardus al-mafqud. al-Juzʾ al-sadis, al-tubʿah al-ula. Dar al-Huda, 1958.
4. ʿAli, Yasir, al-Majazir al-Sahyuniyyah. Markaz al-zaytunah. Bayrut, 2009.
5. Al-Khalidi, Walid. Kay la nansa. Muʾasassat al-Dirasat al-Filastiniyyah. Bayrut, Tubʿah 2, 1998.
6. Pappé, Ilan. Ethnic Cleansing in Palestine. Institute for Palestinian Studies. First edition. Beirut, 2008.
7. Theodore Katz. Television interview on Aljazeera TV.
8. Abu Sitta, Salman. Dirasat Filastin wa Huquq al-Aradi al-Mughtasabah.
9. Sayigh, Rosemary. Istibʿad al-Nakbah al-Filastiniyyah min Dirasat al-Sadmah. Majallat al-Dirasat al-Filastiniyyah, al-ʿadad 99, 2014.
10. Abu Sitta, Salman. Haqq al-ʿAwdah. Ghazzah: al-Markaz al-Qawmi lil-Dirasat wal-Tawthiq, 1999.
11. Shabib, Samih, ed. Maʿna al-Nakbah 1948. Filastin: al-Markaz al-Filastini lil-Dirasat wal-Nashr wal-Iʿlam, 2006.
12. ʿAbd al-Jawad, Salih. 2006. “Li-Madha la Nastatiʿ Kitabat Tarikhina al-Muʿasir min dun Istikhdam al-Masadir al-Shafawiyyah?” fi “Nahu Siyaghat Riwayah Tarikhiyyah lil-Nakbah: Ishkaliyyat wa Tahaddayat.” Hayfa: al-Markaz al-ʿArabi lil-Dirasat al-Ijtimaʿiyyah al-Tatbiqiyyah, 2006.
13. Oral testimonies from the website, “Filastin al-Dhakirah.”
Endnotes
1 For reference, oral testimony on Deir Yassin. Website: “Filastin fi al-Dhakirah.”
2 Another oral testimony on Deir Yassin. Website: “Filastin fi al-Dhakirah.”
3 Details of the reports and testimonies of the soldiers are mentioned in the book.
4 Testimony of al-Shaykh Hasan Mahmud Hadib from the village of al-Dawayima
5 Testimony of ʿAbd al-Samad Abu Rashid from Tirat al-Karmal. 3:20:00.
