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Are American Universities Hiding the Truth about Deir Yassin?

(Los Angeles Jewish Journal) Shmuel Rosner - Israeli academic Eliezer Tauber has written a book offering a detailed account of what happened in the Arab village of Deir Yassin on April 9, 1948, minute by minute, hour by hour. I'd be surprised to find any scholar whose familiarity with this event is more intimate. Tauber knows the names of everybody, he knows the time and the place where everybody was fighting, or hiding, or wounded, or killed. The battle was bloody and many Arabs were killed, including women and children. It was followed by a propaganda campaign, claiming that what happened in Deir Yassin was a massacre. This campaign was very much responsible for the decision by many thousands of Arabs to flee their homes. Tauber counts one clear case of unjustified shooting. An Arab family evacuated a house in surrender. An Irgun fighter opened fire while his commander was shouting at him, "What are you doing? Stop it!" But the myth that was perpetrated was a deliberate attempt by the Palestinian leadership to force the Arab militaries of surrounding countries to intervene. Yet, more than convincing the Arab states to intervene (they eventually did), they convinced their fellow Palestinians to flee. Why am I telling you this story? Because there is no other way for you - Americans - to know about it. Professor Tauber contacted university presses in the U.S., but apparently, a book questioning the Palestinian narrative is not a book that American universities feel comfortable publishing.
2018-03-06 00:00:00
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