I have in the past dealt with the issue of the presumed "better morality" of the Palmach pre-state defence units under the aegis of the left-wing socialist Zionist parties, Ahdut Ha'Avoda and HaShomer HaTzair. Their claim was always that the Irgun and the Lechi were but fascists and blackguards and roughnecks.
However, Palmach members also were involved in activities that today would land them in an international tribunal for 'war crimes'.
I blogged about the attack on an Arab village.
I also blogged about castrations of Arab rapists.
published in 1957 contains more instances which I will briefly summarize.
Starting on page 602 and continuing until 605, under the heading "Guerrilla Actions" or "Small-scale Combat", several anti-Arab reprisal attacks are described.
For example, in the autumn of 1943 (the actual time was March 1942), a three-man squad of Pluga Alef entered a Bedouin encampment near Waldheim (today's Alonei Abba)
to avenge the murder of Alexander Zaid. Zaïd was murdered on July 10, 1938 when ambushed by an Arab gang while on his way to meet members of kibbutz Alonim. The killer was Qassem Tabash, a Bedouin from the al-Hilaf tribe. He was killed in reprisal in front of some 20 of his fellow tribemen.
By the way, the Palmach eliminated two Germans at the Templar village there as well in 1948.
In February 1944, a squad from Pluga Alef were in the vicinity of Masada on a training trek. Near Ein Gedi, they were set upon by armed Beduoin brigands and, in defending themselves, killed two in an exchange of fire.
During the spring of 1945, the Palmach was involved in leading clandestine immigration overland from Lebanon. On occasion, they were set upon by Arab gang members who demanded, with threat of death, a payment as if a toll crossing. To halt this practice, members of Pluga Gimel disguised themselves as Arabs, crossed into Lebanon, engaged the gang members in conversation and then opened fire and killed several. This put an end to the attempts to threaten Jews coming into the homeland.
In the spring of 1947, Arab terror was resurrected. Two Jews were murdered in mid-May and the Palmach determined that a cafe in Fajja village, some 2 kilometers east of Petah Tikva, was a gang headquarters for members of the Arab Al-Suwerka tribe. It was subsequently attacked on May 21.
More on this incident here.
Another incident occured in August 1947 at the Cafe Hawai. Following a murderous robbery attempt, the Palmach and Hagan made a reprisal raid a week later:
On October 7, 1947, a Palmach unit set out on a reprisal raid against a murderous gang near Kfar Syrkin who had killed two Jews previously that week.
That evening, a Palmach squad set out to the orchards near Rosh Ha'Ayin to find the gang. In the battle, three gang members were killed, as well as a Jaffa prostitute who was spending the vening there, and one was wounded.
A few incidents happened in the fall on the Negev protecting the supply and transportation lines to the kibbutzim there.
As a result of the start of the Arab-Israel War of 1947-49, the situation only worsened.^
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