Sixty years after Deir Yassin

By Ronnie Kasrils, The Electronic Intifada, 8 April 2008

As a 10-year-old growing up in Johannesburg, I celebrated
Israel’s birth, 60 years ago. I unquestionably accepted
the dramatic accounts of so-called self-defensive actions
against Arab violence, to secure the Jewish state. The
type of indoctrination South African cartoonist Zapiro so
bitingly exposes in his work, raising the hackles of
scribes such as David Saks of the South African Jewish
Board of Deputies. When I became involved in our
liberation struggle, I became aware of the similarities
with the Palestinian cause in the dispossession of land
and birthright by expansionist settler occupation. I came
to see that the racial and colonial character of the two
conflicts provided greater comparisons than with any other
struggle. When Nelson Mandela stated that we know as South
Africans “that our freedom is incomplete without the
freedom of the Palestinians,” [1] he was not simply
talking to our Muslim community, who can be expected to
directly empathize, but to all South Africans precisely
because of our experience of racial and colonial
subjugation, and because we well understand the value of
international solidarity.

When I came to learn of the fate that befell the
Palestinians, I was shaken to the core and most
particularly when I read eye-witness accounts of a
massacre of Palestinian villagers that occurred a month
before Israel’s unilateral declaration of independence.
This was at Deir Yassin, a quiet village just outside
Jerusalem, which had the misfortune to lie by the road
from Tel Aviv. On 9 April 1948, 254 men, women and
children were butchered there by Zionist forces to secure
the road. Because this was one of the few such episodes
that received media attention in the West, the Zionist
leadership did not deny it, but sought to label it an
aberration by extremists. In fact, however, the atrocity
was part of a broader plan designed by the Zionist High
Command, led by Ben Gurion himself, which was aimed at the
ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the British mandate
territory and the seizure of as much land as possible for
the intended Jewish state.

There are many accounts that corroborate the orgy of death
at Deir Yassin, which went far beyond the Sharpville
massacre of 1960 that motivated me to join the African
National Congress. [2] My reaction was: if Sharpville had
appalled me, could I be indifferent to the suffering at
Deir Yassin?

Fahimi Zidan, a Palestinian child who survived by hiding
under his parents’ bodies, recalled: “The Jews ordered
[us] … to line up against the wall … started shooting
… all … were killed: my father … mother …
grandfather and grandmother … uncles and aunts and some
of their children … Halim Eid saw a man shoot a bullet
into the neck of my sister … who was … pregnant. Then
he cut her stomach open with a butcher’s knife … In
another house, Naaneh Khalil … saw a man take a …
sword and slash my neighbor …” [3]

One of the attacking force, a shocked Jewish soldier named
Meir Pa’el, reported to the head of his Haganah command:

“It was noon when the battle ended…Things had become
quiet, but the village had not surrendered. The Etzel
[Irgun] and Lehi [Stern] irregulars … started …
cleaning up operations … They fired with all the arms
they had, and threw explosives into the houses. They also
shot everyone they saw … the commanders made no attempt
to check the … slaughter. I … and a number of
inhabitants begged the commanders to give orders … to
stop shooting, but our efforts were unsuccessful … some
25 men had been brought out of the houses: they were
loaded into a … truck and led in a ‘victory parade’ …
through … Jerusalem [then] … taken to a … quarry …
and shot … The fighters … put the women and children
who were still alive on a truck and took them to the
Mandelbaum Gate.” [4]

A British officer, Richard Catling, reported:

“There is … no doubt that many sexual atrocities were
committed by the attacking Jews. Many young school girls
were raped and later slaughtered … Many infants were
also butchered and killed. I also saw one old woman …
who had been severely beaten about the head with rifle
butts …” [5]

Jacques de Reynier of the International Committee of the
Red Cross met the “cleaning up” team on his arrival at the
village:

“The gang … were young … men and women, armed to the
teeth … and [had] also cutlasses in their hands, most of
them still blood-stained. A beautiful young girl, with
criminal eyes, showed me hers still dripping with blood;
she displayed it like a trophy. This was the ‘cleaning up’
team, that was obviously performing its task very
conscientiously.”

He described the scene he encountered on entering the
homes:

“… amid disemboweled furniture … I found some bodies
… the ‘cleaning up’ had been done with machine-guns …
hand grenades … finished off with knives … I …
turned over … the bodies, and … found … a little
girl … mutilated by a hand grenade … everywhere it was
the same horrible sight … this gang was admirably
disciplined and only acted under orders.” [6]

The atrocity at Deir Yassin is reflective of what happened
elsewhere. Israeli historian Ilan Pappe has meticulously
recorded 31 massacres, from December 1947 to January 1949.
They attest to a systematic reign of terror, conducted to
induce the flight of Palestinians from the land of their
birth. As a result, nearly all Palestinian towns were
rapidly depopulated and 418 villages were systematically
destroyed.

As Israel’s first minister of agriculture, Aharon Cizling,
stated in a 17 November 1948 Cabinet meeting: “I often
disagree when the term Nazi was applied to the British …
even though the British committed Nazi crimes. But now
Jews too have behaved like Nazis and my entire being is
shaken.” [7] Despite these sentiments, Cizling agreed that
the crimes should be hidden, creating a lasting precedent.
That such barbarism was conducted by Jewish people a mere
three years after the Holocaust must have been too ghastly
to contemplate, as it would constitute a major
embarrassment for the state of Israel, held-up as a “light
unto nations;” hence the attempts to bury the truth behind
a veil of secrecy and disinformation. What better way to
silence enquiry than the all-encompassing alibi of
Israel’s right of self-defense, condoning the use of
disproportionate force and collective punishment against
any act of resistance.

Precisely because Israel was allowed to get away with such
crimes, it continued on its bloody path. According to Ilan
Pappe, “Fifteen minutes by car from Tel-Aviv University
lies the village of Kfar Qassim where, on 29 October 1956,
Israeli troops massacred 49 villagers returning from their
fields. Then there was Qibya in the 1950s, Samoa in the
1960s, the villages of the Galilee in 1976, Sabra and
Shatila in 1982, Kfar Qana in 1999, Wadi Ara in 2000 and
the Jenin Refugee Camp in 2002. And in addition there are
the numerous killings B’Tselem, Israel’s leading human
rights organization, keeps track of. There has never been
an end of Israel’s killings of Palestinians.” [8] The
slaughter of 1,500 Lebanese civilians in Israel’s
indiscriminate bombardment of that country in 2006; the
daily deaths in the Palestinian territories, the 120 in
Gaza in a week — including 63 on a single day — in March
2008, one third of whom were children, form part of the
same bloody thread that links Israel’s shameful past with
that of today.

Israel will soon mark the 60th anniversary of its
establishment. In so doing, Israelis and the Zionist
supporters would do well to acknowledge the reasons why,
for Palestinians and freedom-loving people throughout the
world, there will be no cause to celebrate. Indeed, it
will be a period of mourning and protest action; a time to
recall the countless victims that lie in Israel’s wake, as
epitomized by the suffering inflicted on the inhabitants
of Deir Yassin, the original site of which is ironically
located just a stone’s throw away from where the present
day Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, was built.

Unless Israel confronts the past, as so many have
attempted to do in South Africa, it will continue to be
viewed with revulsion and suspicion. Israelis will
continue to regard Arab life as worthless and will
continue to live by the sword and deceit, feigning
surprise when Palestinians violently respond. Without
dealing with the agony it has caused there can be no
healing and no solution. To do so is to create the basis
for all life to be cherished and for Palestinians and
Israelis to live in peace, with justice. By being aware of
the roots of the conflict, and pledging our solidarity, we
South Africans can do our bit to help bring about a just
solution and the freedom that Nelson Mandela referred to.
I believe that South Africans like Zapiro are doing just
that.

–
Ronnie Kasrils is South African Minister of Intelligence.

Endnotes:
[1] Nelson Mandela, International Day of
Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Pretoria, 4
December 1997.
[2] See Simha Flapan, The Birth of Israel,
Pantheon, 1988); David Hirst, The Gun and the Olive
Branch, Faber and Faber, 2003; Benny Morris, Birth of the
Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge
University Press, 2004); Ilan Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing
of Palestine, Oneworld Publications, 2006.
[3] David
Hirst, The Gun and the Olive Branch, Faber and Farber,
2003, p. 249-50.
[4] Yediot Aharonot, April 1972. This
letter only came to light with Pa’el’s consent in 1972.
David Hirst ibid p. 251.
[5] David Hirst, ibid and Report
of the Criminal Investigation Division, Palestine
Government, No. 179/110/17/GS, 13, 15, 16 April 1948.
Cited in David Hirst, p. 250.
[6] David Hirst ibid and
Jacques de Reynier, A Jèrusalem un Drapeau flottait sur la
Ligne de Feu, Editions de la Baconnière, Neuchâtel, 150,
p. 71-6 and Hirst ibid p. 252.
[7] Tom Segev, The First
Israelis, Owl Books, 1998, p. 26.
[8] Ilan Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Oneworld
Publications, 2006, p. 258.

–
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PS: Bir okur istegi uzerine 19 Nisan 2008′de ilave :

Ozetin Ozeti:

Kudus yakinlarindaki Deir Yassin koyunun 254 sakini Israil’in kurucusu Ben Gurion’un emirleri ile katledildi, bundan 60 yil once, kurulacak olan Yahudi Devleti icin Yahudi kontrolundeki topraklari genisletmek icin. Yazida bu katlimin ne kadar planli, ve sistematik olarak Yahudi genc erkek ve sevimli guzel genc kizlar tarafindan yapildigini, daha birac yasindaki cocuklarin dahi ne kadar barbaca katledildigini kurtulan bir cocuk gozleyen Ingiliz komutani ve bizzat yapan Isaril askerlerinin agzindan anlatiyor. Katliamlar suresince bk cok kadinin irzlarina gcilip sonra katledildigini de kaydediyor, gozlemci kayitlarindan detaylari ile.

Simdi Guney Afrika Istihbarat Bakani olan yazar Ronnie Kasrils, Deir Yassin’i in Guney Afrika’daki gosteri yapan siyahlarin katledildigi Sharperville katliamina benzetiyor; ama cok daha barbarca buluyor. Ve yillarca beyaz irkcilar tarafindan siyah Guney Afrikalilarin daha da kotu bir irkci isgal zulum altnda olan Filistinliler’in dramina karsi duyarsiz kalmasinin beklenemeyecegini soyluyor. Filistinlilerle en yakin empati kurma kaabilyetinin Guney Afrika’li siyahlarda oldugunu vurguluyor. Nelson Mandela’nin, beyaz yonetime son verildiginde dahi “Filistinliler ozgur olmadan bizim ozgurlugumuz tamamlanmis olmaz”
dedigini hatirlatiyor. Yazida bir Israil’li bakanin su sozlerin naklediyor Deir Yasin ile ilgili olarak

Israil’in ilk Tarim Bakani Aharon Cizling 17 Kasim 1948’deki kabine toplantisinda “Ingilizler de Nazi’lerinkine benzer curumler islemis olmasina ragmen Ingilizler icin Nazi teriminin kullanilmasina karsi cikarim. Ama simdi Yahudiler de Naziler gibi davrandila ve butun varligim sarsildi”. Yalniz bunu sotyleyen bakan bu curumlerin saklanmasin destekledi/ Boyle bir barbarizmin Holokost’tan sadece 3 yil sonra Yahudi halki tarafindan gerceklestrilmis olmasi Yahudi devleti icin utandirici olurdu.

Yazar Israil’in daha sonraki yillarda da benzeri pek cok katliamlar isledigini, ve dunyanin tepkisizligi sayesinde bu curumleri islemek icin yesil isik olrak gordugunu yaziyor.

Israil’e kendi gelecegi , dunyadaki Yahud imaji ve Ortadogu’da baris icin Israil’in de Guney Afrika’nin yaptigi gibi gecmis ile yuzlesmesini tavsiye ediyor.