On The Haifa Situation 1947-1948

Haim Tivon's letter disputing claims of Israeli dirty operations:

Cleansing operation

During the five months of the campaign in Haifa in 1948 I fought in the city in the 22nd Battalion of the Carmeli Brigade, and took part in one of the two decisive and multi-casualty battles: the battle for Beit Khoury. Reading the article by Shai Fogelman, I wondered whether he was writing about the same event.

The article says almost nothing about the events of December 1947 - April 1948 in the city. The present-day reader is liable to get the wrong idea and think that this was a tranquil time which was spoiled only by the Haganah's "sudden" attack on the Arab neighborhoods in Operation Bi'ur Hametz [Operation Cleansing the Leaven] on April 21, 1948.

The truth is that those months were rife with terrorist acts and bloody attacks by the Arab forces, most of them against Haifa's Jewish citizens. The attack by the 22nd Battalion on April 21-22 and the conquest of the Arab neighborhoods was the decisive action in a campaign of a few months, involving the defense of the Jewish neighborhoods, the outskirts of the city and public transportation, as well as retaliatory operations in the wake of Arab attacks which did not discriminate between civilians and combatants.

During this period the 22nd Battalion alone lost 35 men and the Carmeli units another five. The guard corps lost 14 of its troops and thus the total number of Haganah fighters killed in the campaign for Haifa stood at 54. I don't know how many Jewish civilians were killed - or, more accurately, murdered. It is hardly the case that "the Jewish side sustained relatively few casualties," in Fogelman's scornful formulation.

The attempt to attribute the flight of most of Haifa's Arabs to the shelling of the Old City market with Davidkas is peculiar. After all, the Arabs who gathered in the market were already in the midst of their flight out of the city via the port. Fogelman himself writes that of approximately 62,500 Arabs in Haifa, 42,500 abandoned the city in the months that preceded the operation launched to conquer it, leaving only about 20,000. And this was even before the attack on the market!

Accordingly, it seems to me that Fogelman's attempt to inflate this shelling to mythic proportions that bear a historic influence on the history of Haifa in 1948 is not consistent with the historical facts, which in themselves are sad.

As one who wholeheartedly yearns for a good life together with Haifa's Arab residents, despite the burden of the past in which we fought each other, I regret what is said in the article - and all the more so because Haifa constitutes about the only example in our country of a place in which the two communities, Arabs and Jews, share a good and tranquil life together. Against this background, I am especially irritated by Fogelman's reliance on publications of the Im Tirtzu organization.

Haaretz is never an independent sole source for facts.

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And Just Who Was Blowing Up Arabs?

Attlee cabinet was split over Palestine

Rows between British leaders over the withdrawal of troops from Palestine at the end of the Mandate in May 1948 have been revealed in secret government papers. Files held by the National Archive in Kew, West London, show that as fighting between Jewish and Arab forces reached a peak in the run -up to Israel’s independence there was disarray in the government. Some politicians and military officials, desperate to dampen the violence, suggested giving the Jews early control of Tel Aviv.

Others, including Britain’s High Commissioner for Palestine, General Sir Alan Cunningham, urged delayed withdrawal from Jerusalem to safeguard the city. Both proposals were rejected.

...Confidential minutes revealed that there was a particularly bitter attack on the performance of the army by Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, following its failure to stop the Haganah — Israeli’s fledgling army — from seizing control of Haifa on April 23, 1948.

Mr Bevin said he felt “let down by the [British] army in Palestine” and deplored the “leaking” of information about the situation by the War Office

Protests from Viscount Montgomery were dismissed by Attlee, who said that “plain speaking is the order of the day in a confidential meeting”.

Mr Bevin pointed out that Haifa was the main embarkation point for British troops leaving Palestine. He said: “We should not have lost control over the perimeter of Haifa. This has allowed so many Arabs to have been driven out of the city.

“We had large forces there and it was a blow to British prestige that it appeared the Jews could do as they liked. Resolute action by the army had been needed.”

Viscount Montgomery denied the army had lost control of Haifa. It was a “big place and for some time troops there had been unsure of the date of withdrawal”.

The high command, he said, had urged withdrawal before the scheduled date of May 15.

Earlier, in a top secret cable to the cabinet, Sir Alan said: “I feel bound to say that if the Jews continue in their policy of blowing up innocent Arabs, as sponsored by the Haganah, the situation will worsen.

“I cannot say that we will not be able to extricate ourselves but it will become increasingly difficult.”

As for Jerusalem, he said, “I feel it cannot be left without protection. We should not leave it until some arrangement is made for the security of the city.”