(Times of Israel) Robert Werdine - Another momentous event shares the Palestinians' nakba anniversary: the fall of the Etzion Bloc in the early spring of 1948, where the consequences awaiting the Jews of Palestine, if defeated, were brought home to one and all. Besieged since January, the bloc was warned by the Arab mayor of Hebron that the local Arabs had resolved to "remove the Jews from the area in the event of the outbreak of hostilities." He warned them to "leave voluntarily...as in any event you will be removed by force." On May 4 an Arab Legion armored column attacked the bloc, and about 40 of the defenders were killed and wounded. On May 12, the Legion's 6th Battalion and thousands of local militia surrounded the bloc and attacked again, battering it with heavy artillery, and its armored cars slicing into the settlement of Kfar Etzion. Seeing the hopelessness of their situation, the 133 defenders (men and women) sought to surrender. The Arabs then told the prisoners to sit with their hands raised while a photographer snapped pictures. Then they opened fire on the prisoners. After slaughtering all but four of the 133 prisoners, the militiamen and Legionnaires looted and razed all of the houses and buildings of Kfar Etzion. According to historian Benny Morris, after the pan-Arab invasion on May 15, Arab armies similarly looted and razed all of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City, as well as Jewish settlements such as Beit Ha'arava, Neve Ya'akov, Atarot, Masada, Sha'ar Hagolan, Yad Mordechai, Nitzanim, and Kfar Darom. The frankly expulsionist ambitions of the Arab forces during the war has received scant attention from today's nakba-day protesters. Had the Arab armies and militias been successful in their attacks, the evidence of the Etzion Bloc, the Jewish Quarter, and others make perfectly clear that it would have been the Jews who would have been fleeing to safety, and seeing their cities, towns and kibbutzim razed to the ground.
2012-05-18 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive