Since the arrival of the first
Zionist to Palestine, hundreds of massacres have been
committed against unarmed Palestinian civilians in the
name of “Israel”, making this entity synonym to death
and destruction. One of the worst Zionist massacres
committed against Palestinians is the Deir Yasin
massacre. Defenceless Palestinian civilians were
tortured before being massacres and their bodies
mutilated. Women and children were raped, babies were
butchered and pregnant women were bayoneted. Deir Yassin,
a Palestinian village located at the outskirts of
Jerusalem, had a population of around 750 on the eve of
09.04.1948. The village was surrounded by 6 Zionist
colonies, the closest being Giv’at Sha’ul, and the
Zionist colonists had blocked the main access road
connecting Deir Yasin with Jerusalem, placing Deir Yasin
under an almost total blockade. To protect the village
from the attacks of the Zionists, the villagers of Deir
Yasin formed a local guard whose weaponry consisted only
of a few old rifles and very little ammunition. Because
the village was surrounded by several Zionists colonists,
was besieged and continuously threatened by them and
because the villagers had little means to protect
themselves, Deir Yasin agreed to a non-aggression pact
with the Zionist colonists just one month before the
massacre. Nevertheless, on 09.04.1948, and in a joint
operation coded “Operation Unity” the 3 terrorist gangs
Irgun, Lehi (Stern) and Haganah (later Zionist terrorist
army) attacked the peaceful village with the aim of
killing as many Palestinians as possible and to force
the rest out of their homes and lands. At 4:30 on Friday
morning, 09.04.1948, and while the villagers slept, the
Zionist terror gangs surrounded Deir Yasin. Palestinians
woke up to the sound of loud speakers ordering them to
leave the village, and the unsuspecting residents went
out of their homes to investigate the situation, and it
was then that the massacre began. The Irgun attacked the
village from the south east, Stern attacked it from the
east while the Haganah bombarded the village with
mortars. The Palestinian village guard tried to protect
the residents and to stop the Zionist gangs, they fought
heroically but with their meagre weaponry had little
chance against three fully armed terror gangs. The
Zionists opened fire at whoever tried escaping the
village, and then moved into the village and started
their “clean up”: they moved from one house to the other
raping women, slaughtering children and killing whoever
was inside with machine guns and knives. Whole families
were lined up against the wall and executed. Pregnant
women were bayoneted and the bodies of children were
mutilated. Money and jewellery were snatched from the
bodies of victims and other personal belongings were
stolen before houses were burnt. Of the 144 houses of
Deir Yasin, at least 15 were blown up over the heads of
their inhabitants by the Zionist terror gangs. British
interrogating officer, Deputy Inspector General Richard
Catling, confirmed that:
“The
recording of statements is hampered also by the
hysterical state of the women who often break down many
times whilst the statement is being recorded. There is,
however, no doubt that many sexual atrocities were
committed by the attacking Jews. Many young schoolgirls
were raped and later slaughtered. Old women were also
molested. One story is current concerning a case in
which a young girl was literally torn in two. Many
infants were also butchered and killed. I also saw one
old woman … who had been severely beaten about the head
with rifle butts. Women had bracelets torn from their
arms and rings from their fingers and parts of some of
the women’s ears were severed in order to remove
earrings.”[1]
During the
massacre; men, women, children and elderly were killed
in cold blood and in a gruesome way and hundreds were
wounded. The number of victims is disputed. Most sources
put the number of martyrs at 254, including 25 pregnant
women who were bayoneted and 52 children who were maimed
in front of their mothers before being beheaded and the
mothers slain.
“A chilling
account of the massacre is given by a Red Cross doctor
who arrived at the village on the second day and saw
himself – the mopping up – as one of the terrorists put
it to him. He says that the “mopping up” had been done
with machine guns, then grenades and finished off with
knives. Women’s bellies were cut open and babies were
butchered in the hands of their helpless mothers. Around
250 people were murdered in cold blood.[2] Of those 250
people, 25 pregnant women were bayoneted in their
abdomens while still alive. 52 children were maimed
under the eyes of their own mothers, and they were slain
and their heads cut off. Their mothers were in turn
massacred and their bodies mutilated. About 60 other
women and girls were also killed and their bodies
mutilated[3].
The UN and
the Red Cross, whose representatives were among the
first to enter the village after the massacre, confirm
that the number of the victims is in fact close to the
250 estimate. Other more recent sources name around 120
martyrs (see list of Martyrs), adding that the number of
victims was exaggerated by the Zionist terrorists to
spread fear amongst Palestinians everywhere. Ethnic
cleansing was one of the declared aims of the massacre,
and the atrocities committed at Deir Yasin were used to
force residents of other Palestinian villages to flee
for their lives out of fear of a similar destiny. After
the massacre, Zionist terrorist gangs went from one
Palestinian village to another, ordering Palestinians to
leave “or meet the fate of Dayr Yassin”[4]. They would
warn the residents in loud speakers: “The Jericho road
is still open, fly from Jerusalem before you are killed,
like those in Deir Yassin.”[5] During the expulsion of
the inhabitants of Ramleh and Lydd in July 1948, Sari
Nair from Ramleh recalled how they were kicked out of
their home by a Zionist soldier who told them to leave
“Otherwise you know what will happen. What happen at
Deir Yassin will happen to you.”[6]
In addition
to those butchered in their homes, 25 Palestinian men
were rounded up by the Zionist terrorists, loaded onto a
truck and paraded through Jerusalem in a sort of
“victory tour” before being executed at a nearby quarry
and buried in a mass grave. Also, eye witnesses reported
that around 150 women and children were paraded naked
through the Jewish neighbourhoods of Jerusalem. “The
marauders gathered the women and girls who were still
alive, and after removing all their clothes, put them in
open cars, driving them naked through the streets of the
Jewish section of Jerusalem, where they were subjected
to the mockery and insult of the onlookers. Many took
photographs of those women”[7] 55 children who survived
the massacre were left at the Mendelbaum gate. 6 of
these orphans went knocking on the door of Palestinian
Jerusalemite Hind Al-Husseini seeking shelter. After
hearing about the massacre, Al-Husseini went searching
for the other children and after finding them decided to
take care of them all. Her family gave her the mansion
of her grandfather Dar Al-Husseini (the Husseini house)
where she was born and which she renamed into Dar
Al-Tifl Al-Arabi (Home of the Arab Child). Hind
Al-Husseini dedicated her whole life to the orphans of
Deir Yasin and other Palestinian children.
When the
news of the massacre spread, the International Red Cross
Society requested permission for its representative
Jaques Reynier to enter the village and investigate the
matter. The Jewish Agency – which claimed it had nothing
to do with the massacre and publicly “condemned” it –
tried its best to prevent an investigation of the
massacre and delayed granting the permission 24 hours to
give the Zionist terrorists enough time to erase all
traces of the massacred (something the Zionist
government and its IOF have been doing since then after
every massacre: public condemnation followed by a
self-investigation that clears them of the massacre
while preventing an independent investigation). But the
evidence of the massacre was visible everywhere; it was
so horrific that all efforts to erase it failed. The
Zionists even tried to change the landmarks of the
village so the Red Cross representative would not find
the village’s cistern which they locked up. But Reynier
found it and testified to finding the maimed bodies and
parts of bodies of 150 women, children and elderly.
Other bodies were found under the rabble of the
destroyed homes, and many were scattered along the
streets of the village. Scores of bodies were also found
in the mass grave at the quarry. (below is the testimony
given by Jaques Reynier)
As the
massacre was taking place, both the British commander of
the Mandate ground troops and the Jewish Agency knew
about it but did nothing to stop it. But after the news
of the massacre spread and the horrific details of what
had happened were made public, both “denounced” the
massacre and denied any previous knowledge. Also the
Haganah, the armed forces of the Jewish Agency,
“condemned” the massacre and denied any connection or
knowledge of it. The leaders of the Haganah tried to
hide their role in the massacre and claimed they only
entered Deir Yasin after the massacre was over and
denied the claims of Irgun and Lehi that they were part
of the attack. These were enraged by the claims and
published a letter proving that the Haganah commander
was fully aware of the plan to attack Deir Yasin and
even approved it. The leader of Irgun, Menachim Begin,
“admitted on December 28, 1950, in a press interview in
New York, that the Deir Yassin incident had been carried
out in accordance with an agreement between the Irgun
and the Jewish Agency and the Haganah”[8]. In fact, the
attack on Deir Yasin was coded “Operation Unity” “to
demonstrate the unity between the official Zionist
leadership on the one hand and the two terrorist groups
on the other”[9]. According to “Plan Dalet”, Deir Yasin
was to be occupied together with other Palestinian
villages. “Plan Dalet” was the master military plan of
the Zionists and contained many sub-operations for the
systematic expulsion of as many Palestinians as possible
and grabbing as much Palestinian land as possible before
the British Mandate was over. It gave Zionist military
commanders and Zionist gangs a green light to massacre
and to expel Palestinians and destroy their villages and
towns. This Plan and its operations caused the ethnic
cleansing of 213 Palestinian localities (40% of all
Palestinian localities) and caused 413,794 Palestinians
refugees (54% of the Nakba refugees) making it the main
plan behind the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. It
started on 01.04.1948 and ended on 15.5.1948 and
consisted of 8 major military operations against
Palestinian communities, the first being “Operation
Nachshon”. This operation “was launched to carve out and
hold a corridor from Tel Aviv on the coast to Jerusalem
in the interior. This involved the occupation and
destruction of Arab villages in this corridor. The
massacre of Deir Yassin on April 10th was part of this
operation. By April 12th, the Zionists had expelled
about 15,000 Arab villagers from this corridor”[10].
Deir Yasin massacre was the first of at least another 17
massacres committed within the framework of “Plan
Dalet”. Only two days after Deir Yassin, on 12.04.1948,
Zionist terror units killed 12 residents of Khirbet
Nasir Al-Din (Tiberias area). The next day, Irgun and
Lehi Zionist terror gangs entered the village and killed
50 of its 90 residents, the remaining 40 managed to
escape before the whole village was destroyed. “Plan
Dalet” was carried out by the Zionist terrorists while
Palestine was still under British Mandate, meaning under
British protection, but the British army and government
did nothing to stop the Zionist terror attacks and
massacres against the Palestinians. Instead they
supported the Zionist terrorists by providing them with
weapons and military training. At the same time, they
denied Palestinians the possession of weapons leaving
most Palestinians defenceless.
During the
massacre, Deir Yasin was ethnically cleansed, wiped off
the Zionist map and later re-populated with Zionist
colonists. While its indigenous population were made
refugees who are till today scattered all over the
world, Zionist colonists from Poland, Rumania and
Slovakia were settled in the homes of the Palestinians.
The irony is that some of the old houses of Deir Yasin
became part of a Zionist mental hospital and these homes
which are the site of the slaughter of their inhabitants
later housed a number of Holocaust survivors suffering
from mental trauma. The Zionist terror militias that
committed the massacre were the Haganah, Irgun and Lehi.
These terrorist gangs got most of their financing from
the US, just like today, and in one case, the Lehi
(Stern) terror gang contacted Albert Einstein and asked
his help in raising money in the US. Einstein’s reply
came one day after the massacre of Deir Yasin: he
refused to help “calling the Stern Gang terrorists and
misled criminals”[11]. The Haganah, as the armed unit of
the Jewish Agency, was headed by the political leader of
the Jewish Agency David Ben-Gurion who became the first
prime minister of the Zionist entity. Irgun was headed
by Menachim Begin who became the 6th prime minister of
the Zionist entity. Lehi was headed by Yitzah Shamir who
became the 7th prime minister of the Zionist entity.
According to Menachim Begin: “The massacre was not only
justified, but there would not have been a state of
Israel without the victory at Deir Yassin.”[12] and
after the massacre, he sent the attackers of Deir Yasin:
“Accept congratulations on this splendid act of
conquest. Tell the soldiers you have made history in
Israel.” No one was ever punished for this and other
massacres. This entity that had been headed by one war
criminal after the other since its creation, and is
still headed by war criminals, blatantly keeps claiming
it seeks peace and is “only defending itself” when it
kills unarmed civilians whether in Palestine, Lebanon or
elsewhere. Deir Yasin was not an isolated incident.
Hundreds of massacres followed and the Jenin massacre
and the recent Gaza Genocide are only two examples of
the blood-thirsty Zionist nature.
Choosing
Deir Yasin as a target for this horrific massacre only
shows the nature of the Zionist entity: Deir Yasin was
known as a peaceful village and had prevented
Palestinian fighters from using its land to fight the
Zionist terrorists, in addition to the fact that it had
signed a non-aggression treaty with the Zionists. One
day before the massacre, the Palestinian leader
Abdel-Qader Al-Husseini had been killed while resisting
the Zionists in near-by Al-Qastal. He had waited in vain
for support from Arab armies who had betrayed him and
betrayed Palestine as they still do. Deir Yasin had
refused to assist Al-Husseini and the Palestinian
fighters. The village, surrounded by several Zionists
colonies maybe saw in signing the non-aggression pact
the only way to protect its inhabitants from the Zionist
terror. Nevertheless, the Zionists chose Deir Yasin as
the site for the massacre which was to be used as
example for all other Palestinian villages and towns.
The Zionists chose the people who signed a
“non-aggression” treaty and as a “thank you” massacred
them, raped their mothers and wives, paraded their
children naked before executing them. This should always
be a reminder and a warning for every Palestinian about
the nature of Zionists, and a warning to all those who
want to negotiate with Zionists or sign agreements with
them claiming the “Zionists want peace”. There is no
peace with this entity and there will never be peace as
long as there is Zionism. There can be no peace with an
entity that has ethnic cleansing as its official policy.
“Yosef Weitz, the Jewish administrator responsible for
Jewish colonization and member of the Jewish Agency’s
first Transfer Committee declared as early as 1940 that:
“Between ourselves it must be clear that there is no
room for both peoples together in this country. We shall
not achieve our goal of being an independent people with
the Arabs in this small country .The only solution is a
Palestine, at least Western Palestine (west of the
Jordan river) without Arabs And there is no other way
than to transfer the Arabs from here to the neighboring
countries, to transfer all of them; not one village, not
one tribe, should be left. Only after this transfer will
the country be able to absorb the millions of our own
brethren. There is no other way out.”[13] There can
never be peace with an entity that thrives on continuous
aggression, oppression, numerous massacres, the theft of
Palestinian and the Judaization of Palestine.
Deir Yasin
massacre is one of the most barbaric and horrific
massacres committed by the ZioNazis and remains one of
the many witnesses of Zionist barbarism and ZioNazi
behaviour. But most importantly; Deir Yasin must always
remain a warning and a reminder to every Palestinian, to
every Arab as the village that signed a “peace
agreement” with the Zionists and ended up being
ethnically cleansed, wiped off the map and its residents
either savagely massacred or made refugees.
Testimonies
of Palestinian witnesses[14]:
Um Mahmud
(born 1932): “We were inside the house. We heard
shooting outside. My mother woke us up. We knew the Jews
had attacked us. My cousin and his sister came running
and said the Jews were already in our garden. In the
meantime, fighting became heavier and we heard lots of
gunshots outside. A bomb was thrown at us and it
exploded close to where we were in the yard… My sister-
in-law did not want to leave. She was frightened. The
girl was two months old and the boy about three. I took
the two and my mother said we should go to my uncle’s
house. I saw how Hilweh Zeidan was killed, along with
her husband, her son, her brother and Khumayyes. Hilweh
Zeidan went out to collect the body of her husband. They
shot her and she fell over his body… I also saw Hayat
Bilbeissi, a nurse from Jerusalem serving in the
village, as she was shot before the house door of Musa
Hassan. The daughter of Abu El Abed was shot dead as she
held her niece, a baby. The baby was shot too… Whomever
tried to run away was shot dead.”
Abu Yousef
(born 1927): “…After the battle, the Jews took elderly
men and women and youths, including 4 of my cousins and
a nephew. They took them all. Women who had on them gold
and money, were stripped of their gold. After the Jews
removed their dead and wounded, they took the men to the
quarry and sprayed them all with bullets. …One woman had
her son taken some 40 to 60 meters away from where she
and the rest of the women stood by, and shot him dead.
Then they brought Jewish kids to throw stones at his
body. They later poured kerosene on his body and set it
ablaze while the women watched from a distance. We later
collected ourselves, & checked who was missing. At Jaffa
Gate in Jerusalem, we were gathered by the Arab Supreme
Committee. Each of us was looking for a son, a daughter,
a sister or a mother. All men were busy fighting.”
Fahima
Zeidan (born 1936): “The Jews ordered all our family to
line up against the wall and they started shooting us. I
was hit in the side, but most of us children were saved
because we hid behind our parents. The bullets hit my
sister Kadri (four) in the head, my sister Sameh (eight)
in the cheek, my brother Mohammed (seven) in the chest.
But all the others with us against the wall were killed:
my father, my mother, my grandfather and my grandmother,
my uncles and aunts and some of their children.”
Hanna
Khalil (born 1932): “I saw a man took a kind of sword
and slash my neighnor Jamila Habash from head to toe
then do the same thing on the steps to my house to my
cousin Fathi”
Safiyeh
Attiyah (born 1907): describes how she was come upon by
a man who suddenly opened up his trousers and pounced on
her. “I began screaming and wailing. But the women
around me were all meeting the same fate. After that
they tore off our clothes so that they could fondle our
breasts and our bodies with gestures too horrible to
describe.” … “Some of the men were so anxious to get our
earrings they ripped our ears to pull them off faster”
Mohammad
Jaber: “The Jews broke in, drove everybody outside, put
them against the wall and shot them. One of the women
was carrying a three month old baby.”
Halima Eid
(born 1918): describes what happened to her sister. “I
saw a soldier grabbing my sister, Saliha al-Halabi, who
was nine months pregnant. He pointed a machine gun at
her neck, then emptied its contents into her body. Then
he turned into a butcher, and grabbed a knife and ripped
open her stomach to take out the slaughtered child with
his iniquitous Nazi knife.”
Abu Hasan
(was 22 at the time): “The Jews went from house to house
and killed whoever was there. Most people fled to Ein
Karem. The way out through Giv’at Shaul had already been
blocked for a few months. The main attack came from the
direction of Giv’at Shaul. The young men of Dayr Yasin
were able initially to repulse it, and even damaged the
Etzel’s two vehicles. The attackers even suffered
casualties. Later the Jews attacked with greater force,
entered the village and carried out a massacre.”
Muhammad
Aref Sammour: testified before the British investigating
officers that the Jewish gangs: “ripped open the bellies
of all the women they found straight away with
bayonets”. They also took jewelry from their victims and
if those items did not come off easily: “they would cut
off the arm to take the bracelet or cut the finger to
get the ring.”
–
Abu Mahmud (born 1927): “I was in the village when the
Jews attacked. I and my colleagues were on the western
side of the village, opposite Al Qastal. We had our guns
on us. All villagers, mainly the youths, were ready for
whatever may happen after the Qastal battle was over. By
1630 on Thursday 8 April 1948, Abdul Qader Husseini was
killed as we were watching the battle from a distance.
After his death, we took precautionary measures in case
anything would happen: We guarded the village until 0230
the next morning when the Jews started entering the
village with the use of spot and search lights looking
for our fighters. The Jews closed on the village amid
exchanges of fire with us. Once they entered the village,
fighting became very heavy in the eastern side and later
it spread to other parts, to the quarry, to the village
center until it reached the western edge. The battle was
on three fronts, east, south and north. The Jews used
all sorts of automatic weapons, tanks, missiles, cannons.
They used to enter houses and kill women and children
indiscriminately. The youths in the village fought
bravely against them and the fighting continued until it
was around 1530 afternoon. We had no aid or support from
any party. They took about 40 prisoners from the village.
But after the battle was over, they took them to the
quarry where they shot them dead and threw their bodies
in the quarry. After they removed their dead and wounded,
they took the prisoners and killed them. They took the
elderly prisoners, women and men and took them out of
the village, yet they killed the youths. They called on
us to surrender, to throw our weapons and to save
ourselves. But we did not imagine them breaking into the
village. We expected the fighting to last one or two
hours, after which they would retreat. But they
continued the fighting (..). We had trenches. The Jews
filled one of those trenches with sand and rocks in
order for their tanks to cross. When we hit the tank, it
started firing from its machine-guns at our positions in
the western edge of the village. (..). I remember, from
what my uncle’s wife told me, that an uncle of mine, who
was a schoolmaster, had killed the commander of the
invading gangs on the staircase of one of the houses and
later he disappeared for three days. Then, they found
him with his mother, originally from Latakia in Syria,
they saw him with her, his name was Ribhi Atiyyeh. She
disguised him in women’s clothes to make sure that she
could get him out of the village. They identified that
he was a man, they opened fire and killed him. That is
what I heard from my uncle’s wife, but I did not see it
happening before my eyes.”
–
Statement
of Jacques de Reynier, Chief representative of the
International Committee of the Red Cross
[15]
“On
Saturday, April 10, in the afternoon, I received a
telephone call from the Arabs begging me to go at once
to Deir Yasin where the civilian population of the whole
village has just been massacred.
“I learned that the Irgun extremists hold this sector,
situated near Jerusalem. The Jewish Agency and the
Haganah’s General Headquarters say that they know
nothing about this matter and furthermore it is
impossible for anyone to penetrate an Irgun area.
“They advise me that I not become involved in this
matter as my mission will run the risk of being
permanently cut short if I go there. Not only can they
not help me but they also refuse all responsibility for
what will certainly happen to me. I answer that I intend
to go there at once, that the notorious Jewish Agency
exercises its authority over the territory in Jewish
hands and that the agency is responsible for my freedom
of action within the bounds of my mission.
“In fact, I do not know at all how to do it. Without
Jewish support it is impossible to reach that village.
After thinking I suddenly remember that a Jewish nurse
from a hospital here had made me take her telephone
number, saying with a strange look that if I ever were
in a difficult situation I could call her. On a chance I
call her late in the evening and tell her the situation.
She tells me to be in a predetermined location the
following day at 7 o’clock and to take in my car the
person who will be there
“The next
day on the hour and in the location upon which we agreed,
an individual in civilian clothes, but with pistols
stuffed in his pockets, jumps into my car and tells me
to drive without stopping. At my request, he agrees to
show me the road to Deir Yasin, but he admits not being
able to do to much more for me. We drive out of
Jerusalem, leave the main road and the last regular army
post and we turn in on a cross road. Very soon two
soldiers stop us. They look alarming with machine guns
in full view and larger cutlasses at the belt.
“I
recognize the uniform of those I am looking for. I must
leave the car and lend myself to bodily search. Then I
understand that I am a prisoner. All seems lost when a
very big fellow … jostles his friends, takes my hand …
He understands neither English nor French, but in German
we arrive at a perfect understanding. He tells me his
joy at seeing an ICRC delegate, for having been a
prisoner in a camp for Jews in Germany he owes his life
to nothing else but our intervention and three reprieves.
He says that I am more than a brother for him and that
he will do anything I ask. … We go to Deir Yasin.
“Having reached a ridge 500 meters from the village
which we see below, we must wait a long time for
permission to go ahead. The shooting from the Arab side
starts every time somebody tries to cross the road and
the Commander of the Irgun detachment does not seem
willing to relieve me. Finally he arrives, young,
distinguished, perfectly correct, but his eyes have a
strange, cruel, cold look. I explain my mission to him
which has nothing in common with that of a judge or
arbiter. I want to help the wounded and bring back the
dead
“Moreover,
the Jews have signed a pledge to respect the Geneva
Convention and my mission is therefore an official one.
This last statement provokes the anger of this officer
who asks me to consider once and for all that here it is
the Irgun who are in command and nobody else, not even
the Jewish Agency with which they have nothing in
common.
“My (guide) hearing the raised voices intervenes …
Suddenly the officer tells me I can act as I see fit but
on my own responsibility. He tells me the story of this
village populated by about 400 Arabs, disarmed since
always and living on good terms with the Jews who
encircled them. According to him, the Irgun arrived 24
hours previously and ordered by loudspeaker the whole
population to evacuate all the buildings and surrender.
There is a 15 minute delay in the execution of the
command. Some of the unhappy people came forward and
would have been taken prisoners and then turned loose
shortly afterwards toward the Arab lines. The rest did
not obey the order and suffered the fate they deserved.
But one must not exaggerate for there are only a few
dead who would be buried as soon as the `clean up’ of
the village is over. If I find a bodies, I can take them
with me, but there are certainly no wounded
“This tale
gives me cold chills. “I return to Jerusalem to find an
ambulance and a truck that I had alerted through the Red
Shield … I arrive with my convoy in the village and the
Arab fire ceases. The (Jewish) troops are in campaign
uniforms with helmets. All the young people and even the
adolescents, men and women, are armed to their teeth:
pistols, machine guns, grenades, and also big cutlasses,
most of them still bloody, that they hold in their hands.
A young girl with the eyes of a criminal, shows me hers
still dripping. She carries it around like a trophy.
This is the ‘clean up’ team which certainly has
accomplished its job very conscientiously.
“I try to enter a building. About 10 soldiers surround
me with machine guns aimed at me. An officer forbids me
to move from the spot. They are going to bring the dead
that are there, he says. I then get as furious as ever
before in my life and tell these criminals what I think
about the way they act, menacing them with the thunder I
can muster, then I roughly push aside those who surround
me and enter the building.
“The first room is dark, completely in disorder, and
empty. In the second, I find among smashed furniture
covers and all sorts of debris, some cold bodies. There
they have been cleaned up by machine guns then by
grenades. They have been finished by knives
“It is the
same thing in the next room, but just as I am leaving, I
hear something like a sigh. I search everywhere, move
some bodies and finally find a small foot which is still
warm. It is a little 10 year old girl, very injured by
grenade, but still alive. I want to take her with me but
the officer forbids it and blocks the door. I push him
aside and leave with my precious cargo protected by the
brave (guide).
“The loaded
ambulances leaves with orders to return as soon as
possible. And because these troops have not dared to
attack me directly, it is possible to continue.
“I give orders to load the bodies from this house on the
truck. Then I go on to the neighboring house and go on.
Everywhere I encounter the same terrible sight. I only
find two persons still alive, two women, one of whom is
an old grandmother, hidden behind the firewood where she
kept immobile for at least 24 hours.
“There were
400 persons in the village. About 50 had fled, three are
still alive, but the rest have been massacred on orders,
for as I have noticed, this troop is admirably
disciplined and acts only on command.
De Reynier
continues that he returns to Jerusalem where he
confronts the Jewish Agency and scolds them for not
exercising control over the 150 armed men and women
responsible for the massacre
“I then go
to see the Arabs. I say nothing about what I have seen,
but only that after a first quick visit to the spot
there seems to be several dead and I ask what I shall do
or where to bring them … they ask me to see that a
suitable burial be given them in a place which will be
recognizable later on. I pledge to do so and on my
return to Deir Yasin, I find the Irgun people in a very
bad mood. They try to stop me from approaching the
village and I understand when I see the number and above
all the state of the bodies which have been lined up on
the main street. I demand firmly that they proceed with
the burial and insist on helping them. After some
discussion, they begin actually to scoop out a big grave
in a small garden. It is impossible to verify the
identity of the dead, for they have no papers, but I
wrote accurately their descriptions with approximate
age.
“Two days
later, the Irgun had disappeared from the spot and the
Haganah had taken possession. We have discovered
different places where the bodies have been piled up
without either decency or respect in the open air.
“Back in my
office I received two gentleman in civilian clothes,
very well dressed who had waited for more than one hour.
It is the commander of the Irgun detachment and his aide.
They have prepared a text they ask me to sign. It is a
statement according to which I have been received
courteously by them, that I have obtained all the help
needed to accomplish my mission and I thank them for the
aide they gave me
“As I
hesitate, I begin to discuss the statement, and they
tell me that if I care for my life I should sign
immediately.” Calling the statement contrary to fact, de
Reynier refuses to sign. Several days later in Tel Aviv,
de Reynier says he was approached by the same two men
who asked the ICRC to assist some of their Irgun
soldiers.
–
Zionist
Statements[16]
“Former
Haganah officer, Col. Meir Pa’el, upon his retirement
from the Israeli army in 1972, made the following public
statement about Deir Yasin that was published by Yediot
Ahronot (April 4, 1972): “In the exchange that followed
four [Irgun] men were killed and a dozen were wounded …
by noon time the battle was over and the shooting had
ceased. Although there was calm, the village had not yet
surrendered. The Irgun and LEHI men came out of hiding
and began to `clean’ the houses. They shot whoever they
saw, women and children included, the commanders did not
try to stop the massacre …. I pleaded with the commander
to order his men to cease fire, but to no avail. In the
meantime, 25 Arabs had been loaded on a truck and driven
through Mahne Yehuda and Zichron Yousef (like prisoners
in a Roman `March of Triumph’). At the end of the drive,
they were taken to the quarry between Deir Yasin and
Giv’at Shaul, and murdered in cold blood … The
commanders also declined when asked to take their men
and bury the 254 Arab bodies. This unpleasant task was
performed by two Gadna units brought to the village from
Jerusalem.”
Zvi Ankori,
who commanded the Haganah unit that occupied Deir Yasin
after the massacre, gave this statement in 1982 about
the massacre, published by Davar on April 9, 1982: “I
went into 6 to 7 houses. I saw cut off genitalia and
women’s crushed stomaches. According to the shooting
signs on the bodies, it was direct murder.”
Dov Joseph,
one time Governor of the Israel sector of Jerusalem and
later Minister of Justice, called the Deir Yassin
massacre “deliberate and unprovoked attack.”
Arnold Toynbee described it as comparable to crimes
committed against the Jews by Nazis.”
“According
to Shai (Israeli Internal intelligence) commander Levy
reported on April 12, 1948 that the occupation of Deir
Yassin went as follows: “The occupation of the village
was carried with great cruelty. Whole families… women,
old people, children… were killed, and there were piles
of dead [in various places]. Some of the prisoners moved
to places of incarceration, including women and
children, were murdered viciously by their captors.”
“LHI [Stern Gang lead by Yitzhak Shamir] members tell of
the barbaric behavior [Hitnahagut barbarit in Hebrew] of
the IZL [Irgun gang lead by Menachim Begin] toward the
prisoners and the dead. They also relate that the IZL
men raped a number of [Palestinian] Arab girls and
murdered them afterwards (we don’t know if this
true).”The Shai operative who visited Deir Yassin hours
after the massacre, Mordechai Gichen, reported on April
10, 1948: Their [i.e., the IZL?] commander says that the
order was: to capture the adult males and to send the
women and children to Motza. In the afternoon [of April
9, 1948], the order was changed and became kill all
prisoners. . . . The adult males were taken to town in
trucks and paraded in the city, then taken back to the
[village] site and killed with rifle and machine-gun
fire. Before they were put on the trucks, the IZL and
LHI men searched the women, men, and Children [and] took
from them all the jewelry and STOLE their money. The
behavior toward them was especially barbaric [and
included] kicks, shoves with rifle butts, spitting, and
cursing (people from [the Western Jerusalem neighborhood
of] Giv’at Shaul took part in the torture).”
httpsa//
www.youtube.com/watch…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4YLmBvQ4XQ&nohtml5=False
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cpTx4r6cR0&nohtml5=False
–
Lest We
Forget: Names of Deir Yasin Martyrs
1 Isma’il
Shakir Mustafa (1 yr old)
2 Ahmad
Hussein Omar ‘Atiyah (4 yrs old)
3 Isma’il
Al-Haj Khalil (40 yrs old)
4 Ahmad
Hussein Ahmad Jabir (45 yrs old)
5 As’ad
Ridwan (75 yrs old)
6 Isma’il
Atiyah (95 yrs old)
7 Amnah
Hussein (80 yrs old)
8 Amnah Ali
Mustafa
9 Amnah
Al-Kobari
10 Basima
As’ad Ridwan (25 yrs old)
11 Jabir
Tawfiq Jabir Jaber (27 yrs old)
12 Jamil
Issa Eid (30 yrs old)
13 Jabir
Mustafa Jabir (75 yrs old)
14
Husniyyeh ‘Atiyah
15 Hilwa
Zeidan (50 yrs old)
16 Hasan
Ali Zeidan
17 Hassan
Ya’coub Mohammad Ali Farhan
18 Hussein
Ismail Mohammad Sammour
19 Khalil
Mustafa Jabir (35 yrs old)
20 Khadra
Al-Bituniyyah (60 yrs old)
21 Hayat
Al-Balbisi
22 Samia
Ali Mustafa (17 yrs old)
23 Salim
Mohammad Ismail (25 yrs old)
24 Su’ad
Ismail ‘Atiyah (21 yrs old)
25 Sa’id
Mohammad Ismail ‘Atiyah (7 yrs old)
26 Samiha
Ahmad Zahran (7 yrs old)
27 Sa’id
Mohammad Sa’id (15 yrs old)
28 Samih
Ahmad Zahran (9 yrs old)
29 Sammour
Khalil Ismail (11 yrs old)
30 Said
Musa Zahran
31 Shafiq
Musa Mustafa
32 Shafiq
Shakir Mustafa
33 Shafiqa
Musa Mustafa
34 Subhiya
Radwan (75 yrs old)
35 Safiyya
Mohammad Eid Al-Sheikh (70 yrs old)
36 Salhia
Mohammad Eid (20 yrs old)
37 Tharifa
Mohammad Ali Khalil (16 yrs old)
38 Isa
Ahmad Yousif (50 yrs old)
39 Abdel
Rahman Hussein Hamid (52 yrs old)
40 ‘Ayish
Khalil (70 yrs old)
41 Aziza
Ali Mustafa (17 yrs old)
42 Abdallah
Abdel Majid Sammour (23 yrs old)
43 Ali
Hasan Ali Zeidan (30 yrs old)
44 Ali
Mohammad Zahran
45 Ali
Hussein Ali (35 yrs old)
46 Ali
Al-Haj Khalil (30 yrs old)
47 ‘Aida
Ali Mustafa Al-‘Amouri (40 yrs old)
48 ‘Awni
Ismail ‘Atiyah (8 yrs old)
49 Ali
Abdel Rahim Hamid (10 yrs old)
50 Isa
Mohammad Eid (15 yrs old)
51 Omar
Ahmad Zahran
52 ‘Imran
Mohammad Ismail Atiyah
53 ‘Aziza
Misleh
54 Ali
Al-Khalili
55 Ali
Hussein Hasan Misleh
56 Yusra
Musa Mustafa
57 Yousif
Ahmad Alia
58 Fatima
Sammour (45 yrs old)
59 Fatima
Mohammad Eid Al-Malhia (70 yrs old)
60 Fatima
Jum’a Zahran (6 yrs old)
61 Fatima
Ismail Atiya
62 Fathi
Jum’a Zahran (2 yrs old)
63 Fouad
Al-Sheikh Khalil (12 yrs old)
64 Faris
Dweik (30 yrs old)
65 Faddiya
Ismail Sammour
66 Fathiya
Jum’a Zahran
67 Mahmoud
Ali Mustafa (17 yrs old)
68 Mahmoud
Mohammad Judeh (25 yrs old)
69 Mazien
Ahmad Ridwan (5 yrs old)
70 Mustafa
Ali Zeidan (9 yrs old)
71 Mohammad
Al-Haj ‘Ayish (25 yrs old)
72 Mohammad
Mahmoud Ismail Sammour (35 yrs old)
73 Mohammad
Ali Khalil (25 yrs old)
74 Mohammad
Ismail ‘Atiyah (50 yrs old)
75 Mohammad
Mahmoud Zahran (14 yrs old)
76 Mohammad
Musa Zahran (17 yrs old)
77 Mariam
Mohammad Atiya (10 yrs old)
78 Musa
Mohammad Ismail Atiya (13 yrs old)
79 Mohammad
Mahmoud Ismail Atiya (15 yrs old)
80 Mustafa
Mahmoud Mustafa Zeidan (11 yrs old)
81 Mohammad
Hussein Mohammad ‘Atiyah (2 yrs old)
82 Mohammad
Khalil Jabir (5 yrs old)
83 Mohammad
Ali Mustafa (50 yrs old)
84 Mohammad
Ali Misleh (55 yrs old)
85 Mohammad
Jouden Hamdan (66 yrs old)
86 Mahmoud
Mustafa Jabir (50 yrs old)
87 Mansour
Abdel Aziz Sammour (27 yrs old)
88 Mohammad
Ali Zahran
89 Mohammad
Musa Mustafa
90 Maysar
Musa Mustafa
91 Mohammad
Said Jaber
92 Musa
Ismail Sammour
93 Mohammad
Ali Mustafa Zeidan
94 Nijma
Ismail (100 yrs old)
95 Nathmi
Ahmad Zahran (2 yrs old)
96 Ruqayya
E’lian Ahmad Zahran (30 yrs old)
97 Ridwan
As’ad Ridwan (14 yrs old)
98 Zeinab
Jum’a Zahran (4 yrs old)
99 Zeinab
Mohammad ‘Atiyah (15 yrs old)
100 Ribhi
Mohammad Ismail ‘Atiyah (16 yrs old)
101 Rasmiya
Musa Zahran
102 Zeinab
Mohammad Musa Zahran
103 Tamam
Mohammad Ali Hasan (17 yrs old)
104 Tawfiq
Jabr (40 yrs old)
105 Watfa
Abed Mohammad Ali Hasan
106 Sara
Al-Kobariyya (40 yrs old)
107
Mohammad Zahran (65 yrs old)
108 ‘Aisha
Ridwan
109
Khaldiyya ‘Eid
110 Jamila
Hussein
111
Qadariyyah Zeidan (4 yrs old)
112 Z
eidan,
his wife, father and uncle
Quelle