The origins of Israeli extremism.

The origins of Israeli extremism.

On the morning of April 9, 1948, Irgun and Lehi forces entered the village of Deir Yassin from different directions. The Zionist militants massacred Palestinian Arab villagers, including women and children, using firearms and hand grenades, as they emptied the village of its residents house by house. The Haganah, armed Zionist groups illegal under the British mandate, directly supported the operation, providing ammunition and covering fire, and two Palmach squads entered the village as reinforcement. A number of villagers were taken captive and paraded on the backs of trucks through West Jerusalem, where they were jeered at, spat upon, stoned, and eventually murdered. In addition to the killing and widespread looting, there were cases of mutilation and rape. By the end of the operation all of the villagers had been expelled and the Haganah took control of the village. The death toll has been researched as around 110, with the number of wounded estimated to be between 40 and 50.

News of the killings was widely publicised, sparking terror among Palestinians across the country, frightening many to flee their homes in anticipation of further violence against civilians by advancing Jewish forces. The massacre greatly accelerated the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight and strengthened the resolve of Arab governments to intervene, which they did five weeks later, beginning the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The Haganah denied its role in the attack and publicly condemned the massacre, blaming it on the Irgun and Lehi, and the Jewish Agency for Palestine, sent Jordan's King Abdullah a letter of apology, which Abdullah rejected, holding them responsible. Material in Israeli military archives documenting the Deir Yassin massacre remains classified.

As with all the propaganda spin by Zionists, the massacre is denied, but the debunking has been shown to be just that. Debunking.

For two years now a document that makes for difficult reading has been lying in the archives of the association to commemorate the heritage of Lehi – the Fighters for the Freedom of Israel pre-state underground militia. It was written by a member of the underground about 70 years ago. Reading it could reopen a bleeding wound from the days of the War of Independence that to this day stirs a great deal of emotion in Israeli society. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported:

"Last Friday together with Etzel – the acronym for the National Military Organization, also known as the Irgun, another pre-state underground militia, led by Menachem Begin – “our movement carried out a tremendous operation to occupy the Arab village on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road – Deir Yassin. I participated in this operation in the most active way,” wrote Yehuda Feder, whose nom de guerre in Lehi (also known as the Stern Gang) was “Giora.”

Further along in the letter, he describes in detail his part in the massacre that took place there. “This was the first time in my life that at my hands and before my eyes Arabs fell. In the village I killed an armed Arab man and two Arab girls of 16 or 17 who were helping the Arab who was shooting. I stood them against a wall and blasted them with two rounds from the Tommy gun,” he wrote, describing how he carried out the execution of the girls with a submachine gun."

A deranged British army colonel, Orde Wingate, went native and taught the Zionists terror techniques in Special Night Squad murder raids on Arabs. It was from these that the Irgun and the Stern Gang emerged. These are the beginnings of the IDF and the special forces group Sayeret Matkal.

In one respect, the cold blooded killing of 110 and moving a population out of a small village does not sadly, sound to be such a horrifically tragic event. That is because what is happening now is far, far, far worse. We have been numbed by the atrocities being perpetrated on the Palestinian people. At the time, Deir Yassin  was seen as such an atrocious military act against a civilian population that the Israeli government tried to cover it up, deny it happened. It should have been a warning to the world, but the world loked away, as it is doing today. Sad, sad, sad.