Shavit’s Lydda “Massacre” Reaches Israel
Ari Shavit
Ari Shavit has won enormous adulation among American Jews for his book, My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel, in which he movingly recounts the early years of struggle to establish Israel but which also alleges Jewish fighters committed a massacre in the town of Lydda during the 1948 War of Independence.
So striking was the Lydda story that The New Yorker excerpted a version of it as a stand-alone article — one critiqued by CAMERA for its inflammatory distortions and omissions.
CAMERA was hardly alone in challenging Shavit’s account. Scholar and President of Jerusalem’s Shalem College Martin Kramer deconstructed the implausible Lydda charges in a July 2014 Mosaic magazine article and now has presented much of this information to an audience of Israeli veterans of the 1948 war, including some who fought at Lydda.
Because Shavit’s book was published in English, most Israelis have been unaware of its massacre allegations. When Professor Kramer spoke to the veterans as part of a December 4 panel sponsored by the Galili Center for Defense Studies, the response to claims of a “revenge” atrocity against Lydda’s Arabs was shock and anger. Kramer recounts:
The reactions tumbled forth in immediate response to Shavit’s text. I heard gasps of disbelief and angry asides.
He reports the anguish of some of the audience:
At this point, none of them is up to challenging a well-connected media celebrity of Shavit’s caliber, and the persons specifically accused by him are gone. An elderly gentleman came up after my presentation and asked if I intended to publish my article in Hebrew. We ourselves can’t set the record straight anymore, he pleaded.
So, while Ari Shavit is reaping accolades across America for a book with shoddy, unsubstantiated charges of a Jewish atrocity, those who actually fought in the War of Independence hope their countrymen will come to understand one of their most celebrated journalists has gone abroad and defamed them all.
More from SNAPSHOTS
American Lutheran In Jerusalem Affirms that IDF Soldiers Are “Stormtroopers,” Backtracks
December 19, 2018
Rev. Carrie Ballenger Smith is a pastor at the Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem. She ministers to the English-speaking congregation that meets at the Lutheran church, which is located in the Old City of [...]
The Washington Post Ignores Antisemitic Attack in Los Angeles
November 29, 2018
The Washington Post has warned about a “rising tide of antisemitism.” But as CAMERA has highlighted, The Post’s coverage of antisemitism has frequently been selective and is often politicized. More recently, the newspaper even ignored [...]
Think Tank: Iran Was Closer to Building a Bomb Than Previously Thought
November 23, 2018
A Nov. 20, 2018 report by a Washington D.C.-based think tank, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) argues that Iran’s illegal nuclear weapons program was “more advanced than Western intelligence agencies and the [...]
AFP Headline Casts Palestinian Assailant as Victim
November 21, 2018
Agence France Presse yesterday published a throwback headline, bringing us back to the period almost two years ago in which media outlets serially produced headlines which depicted Palestinian attackers as the victims. The wire agency's [...]
More Hypocrisy and Anti-Semitism From Linda Sarsour
November 19, 2018
In an earlier CAMERA exposé, we pointed out the self-serving allegiances and disgraceful hypocrisy of Linda Sarsour (of Women's March fame). We demonstrated how she poses as a universal activist who embraces all marginalized people [...]
Small Steps: Improved NY Times Language on Target of Hamas Rockets
November 15, 2018
Earlier this week, we pointed out how a New York Times article about fighting between Israel and Hamas neglected to inform readers that Palestinian rockets were fired indiscriminately toward civilians in Israeli towns and cities. [...]
AP Avoids Calling Farrakhan Comments “Anti-Semitic”
November 9, 2018
For some mysterious reason, the Associated Press felt Louis Farrakhan's mutterings on international relations deserve close attention. "Louis Farrakhan, in Iran, warns Trump a Mideast war possible," a Associated Press headline announced, as if the [...]