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The Massacre at Kfar Etzion on the Eve of Israel's Birth

(Guardian-UK) Peter Beaumont - On 14 May 1948, just before David Ben-Gurion declared Israel's independence, he received a telegram: Jewish forces "waving a white flag at Kfar Etzion resulted in a massacre of the defenders by the Arabs." Yossi Ron, now 67, was one year old when he became an orphan. His father, Yechiel Rosenfeld, was one of those executed after the fall of the kibbutz by local Arab militiamen on the grounds of the old German Monastery in Kfar Etzion. His mother, Tzipora, a nurse as well as a fighter, was killed by grenades thrown into the monastery's cellar. They were among 127 killed. In 1967 Jews returned to the ruined kibbutzes and the Etzion Bloc was re-established, its prime movers the 71 "children of Etzion" who had lost parents in the battle.
2014-05-05 00:00:00
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