Was Deir Yassin a massacre?

In modern history, two events have plagued Israel’s history the most.  One was Sabra and Shatilla, which we deal with in a different article, and the other was the Deir Yassin battle. 

Deir Yassin was not only a thorn in modern Israel’s history that often changes the way people see Israel, it is an event that has changed the course of the conflict forever. 

The battle was between the two renegade Jewish armies, Lehi and Irgun, and a village called Deir Yassin. After this battle, it was reported that Israeli soldiers massacred the villagers, including women and children. There were mentions of rapes and even mutilation. This news has trembled other Arab villages so much that it has become the reason why many Arabs have fled. That made this battle the most crucial battle in the initial Palestine Civil War and one of the most important in the entire Arab-Israel (independence) war.

Interestingly enough, my objective was very different when I started to write this article. I had accepted this battle to be the massacre everyone claimed it to be and a black mark in modern Israeli history. It was supposed to be part of my “war sucks” article, showing an example where the Jews did not have the ethical upper hand. It was about showing that it is simply impossible to get everything right in a defensive war against a population that wants you destroyed. And, don’t get me wrong, if you don’t want to get into the Mambo Jambo of a highly complex battle saturated with so much propaganda, the “war sucks” argument that we promote in the fundamentals is still valid.

 I would have left the topic alone without much research, but the mutilation and rape allegations seemed overboard to me. Plus, I needed to offer you, the reader, a little bit of Introduction, so I had to sink deeper into this conflict.  So first, I read Alan Dershowitz’s “The Case for Israel,” discussing this topic claiming there was no massacre. I was like, “Bah, this is just apologists from my team trying to prove that Israel never did anything wrong in the war.” 

Yet Dershowitz is known to lean more to the Left, where he often seemed comfortable criticizing Israel, so I thought I would sink deeper there. I found that Benny Morris, the famous Lefty New Historian, who at times was a heavy critic of the nation, was also not convinced that it was a massacre or, as he describes in other instances, “Unavoidable.” So now I needed to explore and question, How is it possible that the most famous massacre in Israel’s modern history never was a massacre? 

And by simply googling some of these keywords, I landed on a book Benny Morris helped with some of his research, called “The massacre that never was” by Prof. Eliezer Tauber.

I know what you are thinking.

“Here we go now; you found a professional spinner that will deny a well-documented massacre ever existed.”

But Tauber is not just every guy. As the founder of Bar-Ilan University’s Department of Middle Eastern Studies, he pushed through 100 pages of Arab, Israeli, and British sources. He reverse-engineered the entire battle of Deir Yassin, pointing out most of the people who fought, died, and where they were. He even got a chance to count how many guns they had. 

The original number of 250 death was totally inflated, considering that he went through 14 documents from hospitals and obituaries and confirmed 101 Arab deaths, of which 84 of them he was able to clearly trace the cause of death through their obituaries. This is not some opinion but a clear scientific process to find out what really happened.

These are his conclusions:

Deir Yassin was an Arab village near Jerusalem that had a pact with Jews not to attack Givat Shaul (a Jewish neighbor village).

This is a crucial point because even before any massacre discussions, the Jews are often questioned on why they were attacking Deir Yassin in the first place when they had a peace pact.

Interestingly enough, the Deir Yassin Villagers stuck to their part of their deal and did not attack Givat Shaul. Yet that didn’t stop them from attacking other Jewish villages in a joint attack with ‘Ain Karm (an Arab neighbor village). That’s what I call sticking to the agreement.

 

On top of that, Deir Yassin villagers provided the Arab irregular armies with food and supplies, while Jews in Jerusalem were starving.

Therefore, Deir Yassin wasn’t a peaceful village. It was a valid military target. Its takeover was important for:

1. to take supplies out of the hands of the enemy and send it to starving Jews in Jerusalem;
2. to stop Arab snipers from attacking Jewish neighborhoods.
3. To protect the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road.

Irgun and Lehi, two paramilitary groups and dissidents from Haganah, proposed to attack the village. They wanted to prove that they weren’t just guerrillas. Haganah provided them with weapons and let them carry out the operation.

Also, based on their intel, Irgun, and Lehi believed that Iraqi and Syrian irregulars were in the village. They ended up in collaborating in the nearby village of ‘Ayn Karm, so it was a reasonable concern.

Lehi brought an armored car with a loudspeaker to warn the villagers to surrender or flee to safety. Irgun also had a battery-powered loudspeaker to demand surrender before attacking. They also brought trucks to transport any Arab prisoners to eastern Jerusalem (to send them to Arab authorities).

While this Video consists of one of the survivors of Deir Yassin complaining about what the Jews did to his village, he does not deny that there was a loudspeaker warning them ahead to surrender.

 

If it’s not clear, people that go into Massacre mode, don’t just warn their victims in advance. Nor provide a transport vehicle for prisoners. Let’s continue with the details.

Irgun and Lehi were very inexperienced in urban warfare, and the battle was a mess.

The armored car with a loudspeaker they used to demand surrender fell on a trench dug by the Deir Yassin villagers against hostile vehicles. As soon as they started to alert the villagers to surrender or flee, the Arab combatants shot the car, and its occupants had to leave the vehicle. Some Arab villagers, however, heard the message and left.

They had no time to pursue civilians; they were busy taking cover from Arab snipers on the fortified rooftops, tending their wounded or trying to establish an escape route for those badly injured.

When they called an ambulance, it was under heavy Arab fire, the Arab snipers were even shooting injured Jewish soldiers that were evacuating.

So, unfortunately, the strategy to take the threat is to throw grenades against hostile buildings. This was not modern warfare with precision technology and the weapons they used were old and often got jammed. Back then, throwing grenades into buildings was a fair tactic to remove the danger. The explosion would often kill the combatants and their families under the debris, which clearly left very messy results.

From the Arab side, combatants in Deir Yassin were locals. 

There were Arab women who took an active part in the combat, some of them firing weapons, like Hilwa Zaydan Khalil. When Irgun captured Mahmud Salah’s house, they found a dead woman holding a rifle on the roof. However, it’s fair to say that most  Arab women did not take part in the battle.

Unfortunately, some male Arab combatants disguised themselves as women. In one of these instances, a group of Arab disguises as “women” were unveiled as men by a female Lehi fighter. In other words, it was inevitable that some women would die in that battle.

This was a real battle where people fought for their lives on both sides. 42 out of 120 jewish soldiers were injured, and five were killed. As usual, the Anti Israel marketing machine always have this need to sacrifice more Jewish life in order to legitimize a battle, but the Jewish Armies were fighting for their lives and needed to take desperate measures.

The method of attack was mainly “using explosives, hand grenades, and automatic fire when breaking into the buildings.” Most Arab non-combatants died because they failed to escape or surrender under combat circumstances.

Because we want to be as historically accurate as possible, there is one member of the Jewish rebellion that was guilty of a massacre-type activity. One Irgun soldier was mad because his friend had been heavily injured, and he discharged a semi-automatic gun against an Arab family who had already surrendered, killing 11. It was an embarrassment that was acknowledged by all parties involved. When the Deir Yassin survivors talk about lining up people to kill them, they are probably talking about this incident.

There was another ethically questionable action that could be interpreted as Jewish soldiers parading prisoners. The prisoners were tied up in the same truck used to distribute cash and jewelry through Jerusalem. It would definitely feel like a parade considering people were cheering and throwing cabbage at them. But to be clear, there was no big speech, music, or anything resembling what one would envision as a parade these days. Even more important, propagandists claim this was a drive to their execution. In reality, all prisoners were left at the office of Dr. Hussein Fakhri Al-Khalidi, Secretary of the Arab Higher Committee. Again, not actions that would come out of people that intend to massacre.

While it does make this document a bit long, we decided to list the 84 documented death so you can appreciate that Prof. Eliezer Tauber was not putzing around.

 

Name	Age	Circumstances of Death
1. ‘Alya, ‘Isa Ahmad Yusuf	50-55	Combatant. Injured by shrapnel. Died while being treated by Hayat al-Balabsa.
2. ‘Alya, Muhammad ‘Isa Ahmad	20
3. ‘Alya, Yusuf Ahmad Yusuf	58-62	His house served as an arms depot. His sons fired at Lehi’s force. Captured and killed.
4. ‘Atiyya, Amina Husayn al-Kawbariyya	80	Shot while running from a house to a house through the olive groves.
5. ‘Atiyya, ‘Ayisha Radwan	50-60	Shot.
6. ‘Atiyya, Isma’il	90-96	His house served as a defense position. Shot after slapped the face of one of Etzel’s forces who broke in.
7. ‘Atiyya, Mahmud Muhammad Isma’il	15-20	Combatant. Discovered Etzel’s force and hit one of them. Injured by a hand grenade. Fled to ‘Ayn Karm, returned and killed in exchange of fire.
8. ‘Atiyya, Muhammad Isma’il	45-50	Combatant. Fired at Etzel’s force. Injured by a hand grenade and later killed.
9. ‘Atiyya, Musa Muhammad Isma’il	13-16	Shot after attackers had broken into his sister’s house. Looked older than he was.
10. ‘Atiyya, Rubhi Isma’il	16-22	Combatant. Fired at Etzel’s force. Tried to escape disguised as a woman, was identified in Givat Shaul and shot.
11. ‘Atiyya, Sara al-Kawbariyya	35-45	Her house served as a defense position. Killed by a hand grenade when Etzel’s force broke in.
12. Balabsa, Hayat	18-23	Shot when treating the injuries of ‘Isa Ahmad ‘Alya.
13. Farhan, Hasan Ya’qub Muhammad ‘Ali
14. Hamdan, Mahmud Muhammad Jawda	24-25	Killed by a hand grenade at the side of a relative holding a rifle.
15. Hamdan, Muhammad Jawda	52-66	Killed by a hand grenade at the side of a relative holding a rifle.
16. Hamida, ‘Abd al-Rahman Husayn	52-54	Blind.
17. Hamida, ‘Ali ‘Abd al-Rahim	10
18. Hamida, ‘Ali Husayn ‘Ali	35-40
19. Hamida, Hamid ‘Abdallah	70
20. Hamida, Fatima Salih	50
21. ‘Id, ‘Ali Khalil	20-30	Combatant. Injured in battle and later taken by the attackers. One source says that he was killed in the quarries.
22. ‘Id, ‘Isa Muhammad ‘Isa	15-20	Combatant. Captured by the attackers. One source says that he was killed in the quarries.
23. ‘Id, Isma’il Muhammad Khalil	31-40	Combatant. Shot while firing from a foxhole he had prepared.
24. ‘Id, Isma’il Shakir Mustafa	1-6	Killed with his mother in their home
25. ‘Id, Jamil ‘Isa Muhammad	27-35	Combatant. Captured by the attackers and allegedly shot in the quarries. According to another version, he was killed in fighting.
26. ‘Id, Salihiyya Muhammad ‘Isa	20-24	Shot in her home.
27. Jabir, Ahmad Hasan	40-45
28. Jabir, Fu’ad Khalil	12-16	Killed in the arms of his mother.
29. Jabir, Jabir Mustafa	75-85	Paralyzed. Killed in his home.
30. Jabir, Jabr Tawfiq Jabr	23-27	Combatant. Captured by the attackers. One source says that he was shot in the quarries.
31. Jabir, Khalil Mustafa	35-38	Killed while searching for his children; according to another version, was shot in the quarries.
32. Jabir, Mahmud Mustafa	50-60	Blind.
33. Jabir, Muhammad Khalil Mustafa	5
34. Jabir, Sa’id Muhammad Sa’id	15-20
35. Jabir, Salim Muhammad Isma’il	25	Combatant. Killed in fighting; according to another version, was captured by the attackers and killed.
36. Jabir, Tawfiq Jabr	44-55	Killed while searching for his children; according to another version, he was shot in the quarries.
37. Khalil, ‘Ayish	55-58	Combatant. Killed while fighting near his home.
38. Khalil, Hilwa Zaydan	48-50	Killed while fighting near her home.
39. Khalil, Muhammad ‘Ali	25-26
40. Khalil, Muhammad ‘Ayish	23-25	Combatant. Killed while fighting near his home.
41. Khalil, Zarifa Muhammad ‘Ali	16	Shot.
42. Muslih, ‘Ali Husayn	38	Combatant. It was said that he was captured by the attackers.
43. Muslih, ‘Aziza	52	Killed in her home after her armed husband was killed.
44. Muslih, Muhammad ‘Ali Hasan	45-55	Combatant. Killed when trying to reach a firearm.
45. Muslih, Watfa Muhammad ‘Ali Hasan	15	Killed in her parents’ home after her armed father was killed.
46. Radwan, As’ad	75-85	Shot when assailing an attacker with his walking stick
47. Radwan, Muhammad As’ad		Combatant. Killed in fighting.
48. Radwan, Radwan As’ad	18	Combatant. Fired at Lehi’s loudspeaker car. Injured and then shot.
49. Radwan, Sabha	75-80
50. Radwan, ‘Umar Ahmad As’ad	2	Killed when he fell from his grandmother’s shoulders.
51. Sammur, ‘Abdallah ‘Abd al-Majid	22-24	Combatant. Tried to escape disguised as a woman, was identified and shot.
52. Sammur, Fiddiyya Isma’il al-Qaryutiyya	52-60	Killed in her home when the attackers broke in.
53. Sammur, Husayn Isma’il Muhammad	14-18	Killed in his grandfather’s home.
54. Sammur, Mansur ‘Abd al-‘Aziz	24-27	Combatant. Fought to keep the route to ‘Ayn Karm open.
55. Sammur, Muhammad Mahmud Isma’il	30-35	Combatant. Killed by a hand grenade holding a rifle.
56. Sammur, Musa Isma’il	40-50	Found near his home with amputated arms.
57. Sammur, Najma Isma’il	65
58. Sammur, Sammur Khalil Muhammad	11-12	Killed in his grandfather’s home
59. Sharif, ‘Abd al-Ra’uf Husayn	18	Shot in the bakery when the attackers broke in.
60. Sharif, Husayn	50-65	Shot in the bakery when the attackers broke in.
61. Zahran, ‘Ali Muhammad	25-30	Combatant. Killed during Lehi’s attack on the Zahran houses.
62. Zahran, Basma As’ad Radwan	23-25	Shot by a sub-machine gun when Lehi broke into her house.
63. Zahran, Fathi Jum’a	2-3	Killed during Lehi’s attack on the Zahran houses.
64. Zahran, Fathiyya Jum’a	girl	Killed during Lehi’s attack on the Zahran houses
65. Zahran, Fatima Isma’il ‘Atiyya	37-45	Killed during Lehi’s attack on the Zahran houses.
66. Zahran, Fatima Jum’a	6-8	Wounded during Lehi’s attack on the Zahran houses. Evacuated by de Reynier to a hospital and died two days later.
67. Zahran, Fatima Muhammad ‘Id	40-52	Shot by a sub-machine gun when Lehi broke into her daughter’s house.
68. Zahran, Hamda	50	Killed during Lehi’s attack on the Zahran houses.
69. Zahran, Muhammad	65-75	Was firing at Lehi’s forces when hit.
70. Zahran, Muhammad ‘Ali	2-8	Killed during Lehi’s attack on the Zahran houses.
71. Zahran, Muhammad Mahmud	14-18	Killed during Lehi’s attack on the Zahran houses.
72. Zahran, Muhammad Musa	17-22	Combatant. Fought Lehi’s force coming from the north
73. Zahran, Nazmi Ahmad	2	Killed during Lehi’s attack on the Zahran houses.
74. Zahran, Nazmiyya Ahmad	5-8	Killed during Lehi’s attack on the Zahran houses.
75. Zahran, Rasmiyya Jum’a	8 months	Burned to death during Lehi’s attack on the Zahran houses.
76. Zahran, Rasmiyya Musa	16-19	Killed during Lehi’s attack on the Zahran houses.
77. Zahran, Ruqya ‘Ilyan al-Subaniyya	30-35	Killed during Lehi’s attack on the Zahran houses.
78. Zahran, Safiyya Jum’a	3-6	Killed during Lehi’s attack on the Zahran houses.
79. Zahran, Sa’id Musa	7-11	Killed during Lehi’s attack on the Zahran houses.
80. Zahran, Samiha Ahmad	7-10	Killed during Lehi’s attack on the Zahran houses.
81. Zahran, Yusra Jum’a		Killed during Lehi’s attack on the Zahran houses.
82. Zahran, Zaynab Jum’a	4	Killed during Lehi’s attack on the Zahran houses.
83. Zahran, Zaynab Muhammad Husayn al-Malihiyya	18	Killed during Lehi’s attack on the Zahran houses.
84. Zahran, Zaynab Musa Muhammad	22	Killed during Lehi’s attack on the Zahran houses.
85. Zaydan, ‘Ali Hasan ‘Ali	25-30	Combatant. Killed in fighting holding a rifle.
86. Zaydan, Amina ‘Ali Mustafa	girl	Machine-gunned by Etzel fighter.
87. Zaydan, Amina al-Baytuniyya	65?
88. Zaydan, ‘Ayida al-‘Umuriyya	38-40	Machine-gunned by Etzel fighter.
89. Zaydan, ‘Aziza ‘Ali Mustafa	12-17	Machine-gunned by Etzel fighter.
90. Zaydan, Fatima Sammur	45	Shot when running to help her husband.
91. Zaydan, Hasan ‘Ali	48-50	Combatant. Continued firing from his position until shot to death.
92. Zaydan, Khudra al-Baytuniyya	52-60	Shot.
93. Zaydan, Mahmud ‘Ali Mustafa	17-22	Combatant. Machine-gunned by Etzel fighter.
94. Zaydan, Mustafa ‘Ali	70-72	Former bandsman. Shot.
95. Zaydan, Muyassar Musa Mustafa	2	Machine-gunned by Etzel fighter.
96. Zaydan, Ni’ma ‘Ali Mustafa	5 months	Machine-gunned by Etzel fighter.
97. Zaydan, Samiyya Musa Mustafa		Machine-gunned by Etzel fighter.
98. Zaydan, Shafiq Musa Mustafa	3	Machine-gunned by Etzel fighter.
99. Zaydan, Shafiqa Musa Mustafa	5	Machine-gunned by Etzel fighter.
100. Zaydan, Tamam Muhammad ‘Ali Hasan Muslih	23-24	Machine-gunned by Etzel fighter.
101. Zaydan, Yusra Musa Mustafa	8	Machine-gunned by Etzel fighter.

 

War is a mess; no one knows how everyone died. But from the 84 cases that were documented, 61 died clearly in battle circumstances; combatants and non-combatants shared the same space.

So here you have:

70% of the 1,000 inhabitants of Deir Yassin managed to escape the attack because the Jewish fighters had no reason to pursue them.

20% were taken prisoner and later released to the Arab Higher Committee’s hands, and 10% were killed.

In contrast, about 33% of the Jewish soldiers were injured, and 4% were killed.

When the battle ended, no one was being killed anymore, and everyone was released.

This alone should be proof of no massacre.

There was no reliable rape accounts either. 

The most famous accusation of rape in Deir Yassin is that of Safiyya ‘Atiyya, which become quite famous.

However, Naziha Radwan, another survivor of the Deir Yassin village, was at her side all the time. According to her, ‘Atiyya and her were under the custody of the Jewish forces the whole time, and she would have witnessed if a rape or something suspicious happened.

So, how did this battle become the biggest event that pretty much defined the entire war after, and how was it suddenly redefined as a massacre with women, children, mutilations, and rape victims. 

Well, that is where the interesting story really starts.

Unfortunately, as we see through history, the Jews are not always united and often are the instigators of the problem. 

In this case, the official Jewish Army, the Haganah, was not such a big fan of the 2 offshoots of more aggressive military groups Lechi and Irgun, and had every intention to discredit them.

Just to offer perspective, Later on, at the end of the war, Ben Gurion even decided to sink a ship with 16 Irgun Fighters. So the need to diminish the other Jewish armies was real.

Haganah officers Yaakov Weg, Mordechai Gicherman, and Meir Pa’il published a briefing booklet, distributed on 12 April 1948 by the intelligence officer of the Haganah’s operations branch, titled “The Lesson from Operation Deir Yassin”.

Interestingly enough, Meir Pa’il and Mordechai Gicherman only arrived after the scene, and Yaakov Weg, did not even consider the battle a massacre but clearly did not have the last say. The last say was given to Meir Pa’il Report, who later became a politician as part of an extreme left party (Moked).

To start, the booklet inflated the number of deaths from around 100 to 250. Just to be clear, this number came from Palestinian sources. It is based on Historian Walid Khalidi’s published work about Deir Yassin in 1999, taking account of 30 eyewitnesses where he counted 100 deaths. Plus, a very Palestinian University called Birzeit University reached a similar conclusion in 1986. The researchers Kana’na and Zaytawi counted 107 deaths. In 1956, ‘Arif al-‘Arif counted the Arabs killed in Deir Yassin as 110, based on survivor testimonies. So even Palestinian researchers confirmed the booklet inflated the number.

Unfortunately, this booklet somehow magically was leaked to the press, which also included the Arab press.

By the time the info reached Dr. Hussein Fakhri Al-Khalidi, Secretary of the Arab Higher Committee in Jerusalem. He took the already inflated content and turned it into full theatrical fiction. Al-Khalidi believed that if he dramatized this conflict more, he would gain more support from the Arab neighbors. So now we moved from Children and women getting killed, to adding rape and mutilation of bodies.

He told Hazem Nusseibeh, the Arabic news editor of the Palestine Broadcasting Service, to give the Deir Yassin affair the biggest propaganda cover possible and summoned the refugees from Deir Yassin arriving in Jerusalem to convince them to exaggerate their accounts of the affair. He told them: “We want you to say that the Jews slaughtered people, committed atrocities, raped, and stole gold.” 

For him, this was the only way to encourage the Arab armies to fight Israel and establish a Palestinian country. As expected, some of the refugees obeyed, sending telegrams to the Arab rulers and governments, and some of the refugees felt used as pawns and refused.

“We are forced to give a picture – not what is actually happening – but we had to exaggerate a little bit so that maybe the Arab countries would become enthusiastic to come and assist us”, Khalidi told Nusseibeh.

While Khalidi might have gotten support from other Arab countries, he also scared the living Daylight out of the neighboring villages and got them to flee from the land of Israel.

You can see some of the details in this short video:

While many aspects of the initial booklet were completely disproved, starting with the body count, Meir Pa’il has still been pushing the same narrative till his last interview in 2007.

And a new generation of propagandists, such as Daniel A. McGowan keeps pushing the Deir Yassin Massacre narrative to the next generations. BTW McGowan group is recognized as a Holocaust denier group, and he wrote the forward to Holocaust denier Germar Rudolf‘s Resistance is Obligatory. 

While in their minds, they probably feel that they have done something righteous, the actions of Dr. Hussein Fakhri Al-Khalidi, with the help of Meir Pa’il, have become the first action of the Anti-Israel Marketing Machine, which, as usual, not only made the Jews look bad, but hurt the Palestinians and pushed them into what they call today the Nakba.

Now I can appreciate that Dr. Tauber’s interpretation might not be everyone’s cup of tea and will not be accepted by many of my readers and their listeners. For all you know, Professor Tauber can simply be another spinner that used his resources to revise history. This is not unfair criticism. Yet at least most of us can accept that the other major sources during that war had some serious credibility challenges.

As I explained above, the original report from Haganah claimed that 250 died, more than double of reality, which diminishes the credibility of that document. Many Palestinian accounts claim that Dr. Hussein Fakhri Al-Khalidi wanted to exaggerate as much as possible for his own agenda.

So if you can’t agree with Tauber’s version, you must at least agree that there was no rape and mutilation and a maximum of 110 (Palestinians most conservative estimate) people died out of 1000. That’s about 10% and another 20% of released prisoners which questions any intent for massacring people. Also, there is no denying that Irgun and Lehi had real life-threatening opposition. In the transition of many articles on this site, I know many haters would reduce their claim if more Jews would die, but that’s clearly unreasonable. If you are in a war and have a legitimate threat, you do everything in your power to stop that threat.

The Arab combatants had plenty of rifles, weapons, and ammunition which they used to fight back, which means the Jews were fighting for their lives. Also, this battle was part of a war that, at that time, the Jews at times seemed like they were losing.

Yet in the end, If you and your listeners don’t believe anything that I’m saying. One argument is the king. War Sucks!!!! Too bad the Arabs started it and, till today, preventing it from ending.