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[This text is from: Peretz Kidron: Truth Whereby Nations Live, chapter 4, p. 85-97 in Blaming the Victims (ed.: Edward W. Said and Christopher Hitchens), First published by Verso, 1988, ISBN 0-86091-175-6
The start of chapter 4, p. 85:]
My debut as a "ghost" was quite fortuitous. In 1974, shortly after taking up writing as a profession -principally in journalism and translation -a mutual friend introduced me to Ben Dunkelman, a Canadian Jew then on a visit to Israel where he sought help in writing his memoirs. A wealthy businessman now in retirement, Dunkelman in his younger days had made a name for himself as a combat officer with the Canadian expeditionary force which fought in France during World War Two. Later, he volunteered for the Israeli army during the 1948 war which coincided with the proclamation of Israel´s independence. With an eventful life behind him, Dunkelman obviously had an interesting story to tell, and in spite of claiming no experience as a "ghost", I willingly undertook the assignment.
In the autumn of that year, I went to stay at the Dunkelman house outside Toronto, where I lived and worked in close proximity with my "subject". It was an extremely convenient arrangement. Having almost no written material to go on, my work rested upon lengthy sessions with Ben -we were soon on first-name terms- in which he launched into rambling but colorful reminiscences about the highlights of his career. After getting the gist of particular story or episode, I would immediately retire to my basement study and write it up to the best of my ability, endeavouring as far as I could to remain faithful in style and substance to what I had so recently heard "from the horse´s mouth". When I completed a draft chapter more or less to my satisfaction, I would submit it to Ben for his comments and corrections. Helped by the immediacy of the situation, I must have done quite an acceptable job because Dunkelman generally pronounced himself satisfied with my rendering of his account. The changes he made were few and, for the most part, minor. When the chapter received his final okay, it would be passed to Ben´s Israel-born wife Yael who retyped it. (The manuscript was later published in somewhat condensed form by Macmillan under the title "Dual Loyalty"; it was also translated into Hebrew and issued by Schocken.)
[.......The greatest historical interest was Dunkelmans participation in the 1948 war: Dunkelman led his 7th Brigade and its supporting units towards Nazareth. After little more than token resistance the town capitulated. The surrender was formalized in a written agreement, where the town leaders accepted to cease hostilities in return for promises from the Israeli officers, including Dunkelman, that no harm would come to the civilians of the town....... ]
As to what happened next, it is best presented in my own version as recorded within hours of hearing the story from Dunkelman:
"Two days after the second truce came into effect, the Seventh Brigade was ordered to withdraw from Nazareth. Avraham Yaffe, who had commanded the 13th battalion in the assault on the city, now reported to me with orders from Moshe Carmel to take over from me as its military governor. I complied with the order, but only after Avraham had given me his word of honour that he would do nothing to harm or displace the Arab population. My demand may sound strange, but I had good reason to feel concerned on this subject.
Only a few hours previously, Haim Laskov had come to me with astounding orders: Nazareth´s civilian population was to be evacuated! I was shocked and horrified. I told him I would do nothing of the sort -in view of our promises to safeguard the city´s people, such a move would be both superfluous and harmful. I reminded him that scarcely a day earlier, he and I, as representatives of the Israeli army, had signed the surrender document in which we solemnly pledged to do nothing to harm the city or its population. When Haim saw that I refused to obey the order, he left."
A scarce twelve hours later Avraham Yaffe came to tell me that his battalion was relieving my brigade; I felt sure that this order had been given because of my defiance of the evacuation order. But although I was withdrawn from Nazareth, it seems that my disobedience did have some effect. It seems to have given the high command time for second thoughts, which led them to the conclusion that it would, indeed, be wrong to expel the inhabitants of Nazareth. To the best of my knowledge, there was never any more talk of the evacuation plan, and the city´s Arab citizens have lived there ever since.
I included this episode in the draft chapter describing the Seventh Brigade´s Galilee campaign, which I handed to Ben for his study and comments. The next day, he gave it back to me. To the best of my recollection, he said nothing, but as I glanced through the text, I came to the above episode, where I was suprised to find the following comment pencilled in the margin: "I WISH TO CONCIDER WEATHER [sic!] I SHOULD INCLUDE THIS OR NOT."
Ben´s second thoughts came as a dissapointment to me. [...] Ben made no effort to explain his back-tracking -making me suspect that the idea was not his own, and that Yael had exerted her very considerable influence. [...] when I saw that his mind was in fact set against including the passage, I abandoned my attempt, after all, I told myself, this being his story, it was his perogative to decide what to tell -and what to omit.
[...]
[p.89:] When I finished my work -it took me just six weeks to complete the manuscript -I cleared out my desk, throwing away heaps of paper, semi-completed drafts and notes. But I took the page with the Nazareth episode -authenticated by Ben`s pencilled comment, which implicitly endorsed its authensity -and carefully packed it with my personal effects.
[....p.90-93: Kidron writes about how, when he was translating Rabin´s memoirs to English (in 1978-79), he got access to part of Rabin´s memoirs which related to the expulsion of Arabs from Rod and Ramleh. ("Operation Larlar"). The Israeli censors cut that part out. Here is Kidron, p.91:]
...The operation [Larlar]´s successful first phase led the Israeli forces to occupy Lydda (now Lod) and Ramleh. Subsequent events are depicted in the Rabin manuscript (in the rather rough translation I made at the time and never polished):
While the fighting was still in progress, we had to grapple with a troublesome problem: the fate of the populations of Lod and Ramleh, numbering some fifty thousand civilians. Not even Ben-Gurion could offer any solution, and during the discussions at operational head-quarters, he remained silent, as was his habit in such situations.
Clearly, we could not leave Lod´s hostile and armed populace in our rear, where it could endanger the supply route to Yiftach, which was advancing eastwards.
We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Alon repeated his question: "What is to be done with the population?" BG waved his hand in a gesture which said: Drive them out! Alon and I held a consultation. I agreed it was essential to drive the inhabitants out. We took them on foot to the Bet Horon road, assuming that the Legion would be obliged to look after them, thereby shouldering logistic difficulties which would burden its fighting capacity, making things easier for us.
"Driving out" is a term with a harsh ring. Psycologically, this was one of the most difficult actions we undertook. The population of Lod (Lydda) did not leave willingly. There was no way of avoiding the use of force and warning shots in order to make the inhabitants march the 10-15 miles to the point where they met up with the Legion.
The inhabitants of Ramleh watched, and learned the lesson: their leaders agreed to be evacuated by the Legion. Great suffering was inflicted upon the men taking part in the eviction action. Soldiers of the Yiftach brigade included youth movement graduates, who had been inculcated with values such as international fraternity and humaneness. The eviction action went beyond the concepts they were used to. There were some fellows who refused to take part in the expulsion action. Prolonged propaganda activities were required after the action, to remove the bitterness of these youth movement groups, and explain why we were obliged to undertake such harsh and cruel action.
To day, in hindsight, I think the action was essential. The removal of those fifty thousand Arabs was an important contribution to Israel´s security, in one of the most sensitive regions, linking the coastal plain with Jerusalem. After the War of Independence, some of the inhabitants were permitted to return to their home towns.
This episode naturally brought to mind Ben Dinkelman´s account of the order to depopulate Nazareth. [..] The two incidents occured within days of one another. [..] In both cases the order was given personally, without any written record being kept. Ben-Gurions behavior as depicted by Rabin -the mute wave of the hand -bears out Dunkelman´s verbal account (I did not include it in the draft, but I recall it clearly) that when he demanded written authorization from Ben-Gurion, the expulsion order was not followed through. In brief, the two descriptions, particularly when taken together, proved beyond any shadow of doubt that there were high-level directives for mass expulsions of the Arab population, and that the decision-makers, evidently aware of the discreditable and unlawful nature of such a policy, were careful to leave no incriminating evidence about their personal and political responsibility.
[Kidron then passed on both the Dunkelman story and the Rabin story to New York Times. They published the story "Israel bars Rabin from Relating ´48 Eviction of Arabs", on 23 October 1979. Then Kidron continues, p.94:]
Because the New York Times had focussed exclusively upon Rabin´s revelations about Lydda and Ramleh, with no mention of Dunkelman´s account about the abortive attempt to depopulate Nazareth, I later provided that story to the Israeli weekly Haólam Hazeh, which published it in July 1980.
[..this is all Kidron writes about the Haólam Hazeh -story]
