Tantura expulsion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
The factual accuracy of part of this article is disputed. The dispute is about POV edits and opening 3 pages of propaganda on the same subject to push a political agenda and spread disinformation.
Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page before making changes.(June 2008) |
Tantura (Arabic:الطنطورة lit. Peak) was an Arab village with a population of 1,650 located 35 kilometres south of Haifa, within the area designated by the United Nations in the Partition Plan for the Jewish State. The village stood on a low limestone hill overlooking the shoreline of two small bays. The water was supplied from a well in the eastern part of the village. A road suitable for auto-mobiles led to Haifa Highway. The village was one of the most developed in the region. Some of the inhabitants were civil servants, working as policemen, custom officials and clerks at the Haifa Magistrates court. Some residents of Tantura were involved in the Arab Revolt, and three were killed a battle with the British near the village. In 1948, on the eve of the Israeli War of Independence, the wealthier families fled to the safety of Haifa. Approximately 1,200 remained in the village, continuing to tend their fields, orchards, and ply their trade as fishermen.[1]
Contents |
[edit] The Command Decisions
The Decision was made on 9 May 1948 to expel or subdue the villages of Kafr Saba, al-Tira, Qaqun, Qalansuwa and Tantura[2] And on the 11 May 1948 Ben-Gurion convened the “Consultancy” the outcome of the meeting is confirmed in a letter to commanders of the Haganah Brigades telling them that the Arab legion's offensive should not distract their troops from the principle tasks:
"‘the cleansing of Palestine remained the prime objective of Plan Dalet” [3]
[edit] The Attack and Aftermath
After the fall of Haifa on 22 April 1947 some of the villagers on the slopes of Mount Carmel had been involved in attacks on Jewish traffic on the main road to Haifa. Consequently the attention of the commanders of the Alexandroni Brigade was turned to reducing the Mount Carmel pocket, Tantura being strategically situated on the coast, and was thus chosen as the starting point of an offensive by the Alexandroni Brigade of the Haganah as part of the "Coastal Clearing Offensive" after 6 Month of the war. On the night of May 22-23, Tantura was attacked and occupied by the 33rd Battalion of the Alexandroni Brigade. The village was not given the option of surrender. The initial report spoke of dozens of villagers killed and 500 taken prisoner (300 adult males and 200 women and children).[4] Most of the village inhabitants fled to the nearby town of Fureidis and Arab League controlled territory in the Triangle region along the Green Line.[5] The women were taken to Fureidis. On May 31, Bechor Shitrit, the Minister of Minority Affairs of the provisional Government of Israel, sought permission to expel the refugee women from Fureidis due to The "Tantura evictees" possibly passing information to neighbouring unconquered villages, overcrowding and lack of sanitation. [6]
A Ministry official, Ya’akov Epstein of Zichron Yaakov, who submitted a report after visiting Tantura shortly after the operation, reported seeing bodies "in the (village) outskirts, in the streets, in the alleys, in village houses," but said nothing of a massacre. In 1998, Yihiya Yihiya published a book on Tantura recording the names of 52 dead.[7] However Benny Morris does record that there was an instance of a rape of a women in the village and that there is evidence that the Alexandroni troops executed POWs also the CGS to OC Alexandroni of 1 June complained of acts of sabotage (habala) after the occupation of the village, this may be a euphemistic reference to a massacre.[7]
The fall of the village was followed by looting as nearby settlers tried to make away with villagers property. The Haganah was able to recover "one carpet, one gramophone ...one basket with cucumbers, one goat", the area also became a health hazard due to the Human and animal corpses.[8]
[edit] See Also
- Tantura
- Tantura and the Katz controversy
- List of massacres committed prior to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
- List of massacres committed during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
- List of villages depopulated during the Arab-Israeli conflict
[edit] End Notes
- ^ Meron Benvenisti (2000) p.135
- ^ Benny Morris (2004) p.246; Summary meeting of the Arab Affairs Advisor in Netanya 9 May 1948 IDF 6127/49//109
- ^ Ilan Pappé (2006) p. 128.
- ^ Benny Morris (2004) p. 247 unsigned short report on Tantura Operation, IDFA 922/75//949, and ya’akov B.’, in the name of the deputy OC ‘A’ company ‘Report on Operation Namal’ 26 May 1948, IDFA 6647/49//13.
- ^ Haifa District: Al-Tantura Town Statistics and Facts Palestine Remembered
- ^ Benny Morris (2004). Shitrit to Ben-Gurion 31 May 1948 ISA MAM 302/48.
- ^ a b Benny Morris (2004) p 300-301
- ^ Benny Morris (2004) p. 247.
[edit] Bibliography
Benvenisti, Meron. (2000) “Sacred Landscape; The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948”. University of Californian Press ISBN 0-520-23422-7
Morris, Benny. (2004) "The Birth of the Palestinian Problem Revisited" Cambridge University Press ISBN 0-521-00967-7
Pappé, Ilan (2006); “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.” Oneworld Publication Limited. ISBN 13: 978-1-85168-467-0
|
|||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
