Mondoweiss: ‘Ethnic cleansing’ becomes ‘No ethnic cleansing’ in Israeli history by Benny Morris

[Little Tich]

Source: Mondoweiss, by Jonathan Ofir

Winston Churchill quipped at the House of Commons in 1948, “For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all Parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history”.

Benny Morris is one Israeli historian who has definitely written about the history of Israel and Palestine in a way that made him an authoritative reference for many scholars and writers, particularly concerning the 1948 Nakba. In his pioneering role as a ‘new historian’, already in the late 1980’s, he scrutinized many declassified documents from and around 1948, and reached the conclusion that not only was there a “transfer” (as he quite systematically regards it), but that this “transfer” was “inevitable and inbuilt in Zionism – because it sought to transform a land which was ‘Arab’ into a Jewish state and a Jewish state could not have arisen without a major displacement of Arab population”. (In Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem)

That is a conclusion, an admission, of some magnitude. You don’t just go back on this one.

But, unbelievably, Morris does. At least he tries to.

Yesterday he writes in Haaretz, an article bluntly titled: “Israel conducted no ethnic cleansing in 1948.”

Read more: http://mondoweiss.net/2016/10/cleansing-becomes-israeli/

[Little Tich]

1. Israel Conducted No Ethnic Cleansing in 1948

Source: Haaretz, by Benny Morris Oct 10, 2016

Prof. Daniel Blatman distorts history when he says the new State of Israel, a country facing invading armies, carried out a policy of expelling the local Arabs.

At the bottom of his piece last week “Netanyahu, this is what ethnic cleansing really looks like,” Prof. Daniel Blatman is described as a “historian.” In that case, Blatman betrayed his profession when he attributed to me things I have never claimed and distorted the events of the 1948 war.

First, throughout the article Blatman ignores the basic fact that the Palestinians were the ones who started the war when they rejected the UN compromise plan and embarked on hostile acts in which 1,800 Jews were killed between November 1947 and mid-May 1948. (In that, by the way, the Jews differ from the Serbs, who started the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s and did in fact carry out ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and elsewhere).

Regarding the second stage of the 1948 war, Blatman claims that the Arab countries invaded prestate Israel in order to rescue their Palestinian brothers from the ethnic cleansing that the Jews had launched, and that most of them attacked the new State of Israel in order to do this. During this alleged cleansing “over 400,000” Arabs – who according to Blatman made up over half the Palestinian Arab population – were expelled from their homes and forced to flee by May 14. (Actually, there were about 1.2 million to 1.3 million Arabs in the country at the time.)

The real number of those who fled and were forced to flee was apparently smaller, but more importantly, the Arab countries attacked the State of Israel largely to harm it, if not to destroy it. The fact is, their leaders threatened to invade even before the UN resolution was passed on November 29, 1947, and before a single Arab had been uprooted from his home. And they continued to threaten an invasion in the following months, until May 1948.

Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.746676

Note: Haaretz Premium article, Google title for access.

[Nitram]

2. December 1947 – March 1948

Jewish reprisal operations were directed against villages and neighborhoods from which attacks against Jews were believed to have originated.7-76

The retaliations were more damaging than the provoking attack and included killing of armed and unarmed men, destruction of houses and sometimes expulsion of inhabitants. 7-76-125 The Zionist groups of Irgun and Lehi reverted to their 1937–1939 strategy of indiscriminate attacks by placing bombs and throwing grenades into crowded places such as bus stops, shopping centers and markets.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Palestinian_exodus

[shira]

3. Compared to Americans & Europeans in WW2, that was quite tame for those times.

Last edited Wed Oct 12, 2016, 12:09 PM - Edit history (1)

Considering 2/3 of Europe's Jews were wiped out, with no help from America.
The Palestinian leader of that time (Arafat's uncle) was an ally of Hitler who wanted all Jews killed.
It's a miracle Jews (many of whom were just out of death camps) survived the united Arab assault on Israel.

Of course the OP is about ethnic cleansing and you didn't bring anything that refutes Morris.

[Nitram]

4. If the goal was to kill, physically remove or scare Palestinians away from Israel, that is indeed...

...ethnic cleansing. And there is no need to deflect using examples of the sins of other countries. Sadly, there are many.

Simple Definition of Ethnic Cleansing by Merriam-Webster

"The practice of removing or killing people who belong to an ethnic group that is different from the ruling group in a country or region."


Full Definition of ethnic cleansing

: the expulsion, imprisonment, or killing of an ethnic minority by a dominant majority in order to achieve ethnic homogeneity.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/

[shira]

5. How do you know the goal was to remove or scare all Pal'ns from Israel?

You don't, do you?

[Nitram]

6. Um, shira, did you actually read the post you commented on earlier? I'll copy for you.

"...killing of armed and unarmed men, destruction of houses and sometimes expulsion of inhabitants. The Zionist groups of Irgun and Lehi reverted to their 1937–1939 strategy of indiscriminate attacks by placing bombs and throwing grenades into crowded places such as bus stops, shopping centers and markets."

Can you suggest another motive? Were those injured or killed by bombs and grenades in shopping centers guilty of a crime?

[shira]

7. Yes. What do you make of Benny Morris' recent article? n/t