The Historical Record of the Arab Exodus
In a May 23, 2011 Op-Ed in Ha’aretz Shlomo Avineri wrote that “despite decades of research, to this day no document or broadcast has been found confirming . . . … [any order] by the Arab leadership for the population to leave.” (The Op-Ed, which for some reason can no longer be found on Ha’aretz’s Web site, is available here.)
In an Op-Ed this weekend, historian Efraim Karsh responds:
This claim couldn’t be further from the truth. While most Palestinian Arabs needed little encouragement to take to the road, large numbers of them were driven from their homes by their own leaders and/or the “Arab Liberation Army” that had entered Palestine prior to the end of the Mandate, whether out of military considerations or in order to prevent them from becoming citizens of the prospective Jewish state. Of this there is an overwhelming and incontrovertible body of contemporary evidence – intelligence briefs, captured Arab documents, press reports, personal testimonies and memoirs, and so on and so forth. . . .
On April 18, the Haganah’s intelligence branch in Jerusalem reported a fresh general order to remove the women and children from all villages bordering Jewish localities. Twelve days later, its Haifa counterpart reported an ALA directive to evacuate all Arab villages between Tel Aviv and Haifa in anticipation of a new general offensive. In early May, as fighting intensified in the eastern Galilee, local Arabs were ordered to transfer all women and children from the Rosh Pina area, while in the Jerusalem sub-district, Transjordan’s Arab Legion ordered the emptying of scores of villages.
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