Who Attacked Fajja Village?

In a recent book, the responsibility for a deterioration in relations that eventually led to the outbreak of Arab-Jewish fighting that led to the War of Independence was placed on the Lechi. The author suggests a series of events in the late summer/early fall of 1947.

But what happened on the night of May 20, 1947 in the Arab village of Fajja (seems also spelled Fejja?

Fajja was located in east Petach Tikva, approximately in the area of the neighborhoods of Kiryat Eliezer Peri and Kiryat Alon today, west a David Remez Street at Kikar Hasas, near the Amal Aleph school:

Zochrot lists this:

a Palmach unit infiltrated the village on the pretext of apprehending thieves who had murdered two people in Petach Tiqwa. According to the History of the Haganah, shooting broke out when the unit approached the coffehouse were the thieves were allegedly hiding and two villagers were killed; “explosives experts stormed the coffehouse  under heavy covering fire, planted an explosive charege and ignited it.” The “Book of the Palmach” reports that the explosion was unnecessarily delayed and although the coffehosue was destroyed, no one was harmed.

The Palestine Post of May 22 includes this report: 

The Jewish fatality, Shlomo Miller, a Palmach member, was born in Givat HaShlosha. 

The description of the attack at an official memorial site reads:

In the spring of 1947, attacks and murders by armed Arab bands increased in the area of the Sharon moshavot...On May 18, 1947, armed Arabs, identified as gang members, were identified as concentrating near the camp of the Swarqi Arabs (Fajja village)...where police dogs had previously identified as a base for operations of the gangs. The Hagana decided to send out a unit in order to catch them. A gunfight ensued. Shlomo raced forward and was wounded in the head. Taken to Beilinson Hospital, he died on his wounds on 1 Sivan, May 20.

The Petach Tikva archives blog notes there began a series of Arab attacks that spring which wounded children and adults. Tzemach Halperin was murdered on the 19th. He was married with two children and lived at the Geula neighborhood of Sha'ariya and was attempting to defend his house from Arabs seeking to break in. Aaron Shvili from the Hasidof Qurter also was killed in an earlier incident and footprints led directly to Fajja. The cafe meeting place was attacked with guns and explosives and three Arabs were killed according to the testimony of Reuven Saperstein who took part in the reprisal raid. The Palmach site indicates that as the Arabs fled, Miller fired two warning shots in the air and then was struck by a bullet fired by an Arab.


A follow-up report:

On the background of the Nakba/Israel Archives matter, I found this interesting.


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