My Letter in the JPost Magaizne

Twisting the truth

Sir, - Seth Frantzman unfortunately limited his correct defensive response to anti-Zionist fabrications and purposeful misrepresentations by Ilan Pappe, et al. to the 1948 war only ("Ethnic cleansing in Palestine?" August 17). He more properly should have gone over to the offensive and pointed out that ethnic cleansing was a prime Arab instrument used against Jews for decades.

Examples of this include Tel Hai, wiped out in March 1920, its Jews killed and dispersed. In April 1920, Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter civilians were attacked. In May 1921, an attempt was made to depopulate Jaffa and Petah Tikva of its Jews, and Kfar Saba was set afire. In 1929, 133 Jews were killed within two weeks and Hebron was ethnically cleansed of its centuries-old Jewish population, as were Jenin, Shechem (Nablus), Tulkarm, Gaza, Hulda, Kfar Uriya, Ramat Rahel and a dozen other communities. In April, during just the first month of the 1936-1939 riots, over 7,000 Jews became refugees from their homes in Tel Aviv's southern neighborhoods.

The above list is incomplete but indicates the perversity of Arab propaganda and its Jewish sympathizers. Not only do they invent lies, they twist the truth to hide the deeds they themselves promoted.

YISRAEL MEDAD
Shiloh