Israeli army veterans admit role in massacres of Palestinians in 1948
Middle East Monitor, Tuesday, 16 October 2012 15:05
Dozens
of Israeli army veterans have admitted their involvement in massacres
against Palestinian civilians in 1948, and acknowledged that Zionism
misled them and is a catastrophe for both Jews and Arabs. The details
have been revealed by the Yazkern organisation, which was founded in
2001 and seeks to unveil the truth and spread the Palestinian narrative
of the country's history among Israelis and convince them of Zionism's
false account. The organisation believes in a one-state solution and in
Palestinians' right to return to their land and homes.
Israeli
army veteran Amnon Neumann is 82 and from Haifa. He said that he was a
member of the Palmach, the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the
underground army of the Yeshuv Jewish community during the period of the
British Mandate of Palestine. Neumann joined the Palmach in 1946 after
he came to Palestine from Poland at the age of 16.
He
said that there were no real battles due to Palestinian poverty and
lack of organisation, training and arms. The official Israeli account of
that period claims that the displacement and killing of Palestinians
was the normal result of a war.
Mr.
Neumann admitted that he took part in displacing Palestinians from the
villages of Simism, Najd, Kawkaba, Burayr and other places which were
fully inhabited by their owners; this runs contrary to Zionist claims.
Confessing to his participation in the massacre that was committed
against the people of Burayr, Neumann noted that they had Czech-made
guns which they used to expel the local inhabitants towards the Gaza
Strip.
The
Haganah forces were surrounding the village on three sides, he recalls,
and firing in the air before entering and expelling its people
forcefully. The houses were burnt down, as per the orders the armed
forces had received. According to the veteran, he heard a confession by a
Haganah officer after the occupation of Burayr that he had shot a
Palestinian girl in the head after raping her. It was later revealed,
said Neumann, that the girl had indeed been raped.
Another
veteran, Arhamel Khnovitc, also 83 years old, now lives in the
settlement of Daghania. He confessed that he took part in the massacre
in the Dahmash Mosque in Al-Lydd in July 1948; he also took part in the
ethnic cleansing of the villages of Jamzu and Dan'el.
"I
headed to the mosque, as per an order from the command, and I kept my
ears and eyes open after I quietly opened the door,” said Khnovitc.
“Then I fired a Fiat missile, following orders. Many corpses flew and
got stuck to the walls due to the severity of the blast."
Benyamin
Eisht, 85, who lives in Bilhaym, said that he saw the Palestinian
survivors of Al-Lydd and Ramla after the massacre, walking in lines
toward Ramallah, with dead bodies scattered on the sides of the road.
The
testimony of 83-year-old Yitzhak Tishler, who lives in Mafsirt Tsyon,
confirms the accounts provided by other veterans who spoke of looting
houses and stores. He also said that he took part in the killing of
dozens of villagers in the village of Al-Sheikh near Haifa in revenge
for the Jewish workers who were killed in a quarrel near Rifyanry.
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