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The '''Kfar Etzion massacre''' was a massacre of over 100 [[Jews]] by the [[Arab Legion]] on May 13, 1948, the day before the [[Declaration of Independence (Israel)|Israeli Declaration of Independence]]. Over 100 Jewish residents of [[Kibbutz]] [[Kfar Etzion]] were killed during a three-hour bombardment by Arab artillery, in the wake of a siege that lasted several days.<ref>[http://archive.jta.org/article/1948/05/14/3014214/100-jews-killed-by-arab-legion-at-kfar-etzion-mufti-in-open-rift-with-abdullah 100 Jews Killed by Arab Legion at Kfar Etzion Mufti in Open Rift with Abdullah]</ref>Fifteen of the Jewish defenders were murdered after surrendering.<ref>Allon, Yigal, (1970) "Shield of David - The Story of Israel's Armed Forces". Weidenfeld and Nicolson. SBN 297 00133 7. p.196.</ref><ref>Gilbert, Martin (1977) "Jerusalem - Illustrated History Atlas," Map 50, p.93.</ref>Only four members of Kfar Etzion survived. They were taken prisoner and transferred to Transjordan. Immediately following the surrender on May 13, the kibbutz was looted and burned.<ref>[http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-17784303.html Symbolism and landscape: The Etzion bloc in the Judean mountains]</ref>
The '''Kfar Etzion massacre''' was a massacre of 129 [[Jews]] by the [[Arab Legion]] on May 13, 1948, the day before the [[Declaration of Independence (Israel)|Israeli Declaration of Independence]]. All but four of the 133 inhabitants of [[Kibbutz]] [[Kfar Etzion]] were killed <ref>[http://books.google.co.il/books?id=7itq6zYtSJwC&pg=PA116&dq=kfar+etzion+massacre&hl=en&sa=X&ei=TEKKUMmWLOir0AX324H4Dg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=kfar%20etzion%20massacre&f=true Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land sicne 1948, Meron Benvenisti]</ref>during a three-hour bombardment by Arab artillery, in the wake of a siege that lasted several days.<ref>[http://archive.jta.org/article/1948/05/14/3014214/100-jews-killed-by-arab-legion-at-kfar-etzion-mufti-in-open-rift-with-abdullah 100 Jews Killed by Arab Legion at Kfar Etzion Mufti in Open Rift with Abdullah]</ref>When the remaining defenders surrendered, they assembled near the school where they were photographed waving white flags with their hands in the air. The Arabs opened fire and killed many on the spot. Those who remained alive were stabbed to death. Hand grenades were thrown into a cellar, killing a group of 50 who were hiding there. The building was blown up.<ref>[http://books.google.co.il/books?id=7itq6zYtSJwC&pg=PA116&dq=kfar+etzion+massacre&hl=en&sa=X&ei=TEKKUMmWLOir0AX324H4Dg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=kfar%20etzion%20massacre&f=true Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land sicne 1948, Meron Benvenisti]</ref>Only four members of Kfar Etzion survived. They were taken prisoner and transferred to Transjordan. Immediately following the surrender on May 13, the kibbutz was looted and burned.<ref>[http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-17784303.html Symbolism and landscape: The Etzion bloc in the Judean mountains]</ref>


==Background==
==Background==

Revision as of 08:09, 26 October 2012

The Kfar Etzion massacre was a massacre of 129 Jews by the Arab Legion on May 13, 1948, the day before the Israeli Declaration of Independence. All but four of the 133 inhabitants of Kibbutz Kfar Etzion were killed [1]during a three-hour bombardment by Arab artillery, in the wake of a siege that lasted several days.[2]When the remaining defenders surrendered, they assembled near the school where they were photographed waving white flags with their hands in the air. The Arabs opened fire and killed many on the spot. Those who remained alive were stabbed to death. Hand grenades were thrown into a cellar, killing a group of 50 who were hiding there. The building was blown up.[3]Only four members of Kfar Etzion survived. They were taken prisoner and transferred to Transjordan. Immediately following the surrender on May 13, the kibbutz was looted and burned.[4]

Background

Kfar Etzion was a kibbutz founded in 1943, about 2 km east of the road between Jerusalem and Hebron. By the end of 1947, there were 163 adults and 50 children living there. Together with three nearby kibbutzim established 1945-1947, it formed Gush Etzion (the Etzion Bloc).

Casualties of the "Convoy of 35" being brought to burial. January 1948

The United Nations partition plan for Palestine of November 29, 1947 placed the Etzion Bloc in the interior of the intended Arab state. The Haganah decided against the evacuation of the settlements for several reasons. The decision to hold out owed much to their strategic location as the only Jewish-held position on Jerusalem's southern approach from Hebron.[5] Not only a principle was at stake; strategically, they were also a 'sharp thorn stuck in the heart of a purely Arab area';' they offered a potential obstruction of Arab lines of communication, and would relieve pressure on Jerusalem by forcing Arabs to expend considerable forces elsewhere.[6] Throughout the winter hostilities intensified and several relief convoys from the Haganah in Jerusalem were attacked by Arab ambushes. In January, the children and some women were evacuated with British assistance. An emergency reinforcement convoy attempting to march to Gush Etzion under cover of darkness were discovered and killed by Palestinian Arab forces. Despite some emergency flights by Piper Cubs out of Tel Aviv onto an improvised airfield, adequate supplies were not getting in.

On March 27, land communication with the Yishuv was severed completely when the Nebi Daniel Convoy was ambushed on its return to Jerusalem. In the following months, Arab irregular forces continued small-scale attacks against the bloc, which the Haganah was able to effectively withstand. Etzion Bloc units had repeatedly attacked Arab Legion convoys and individual vehicles on the road between Jerusalem and Hebron on several occasions in April and May.[7]

As the end of the British Mandate drew closer, the fighting in the region intensified. Although the Arab Legion was theoretically in Palestine under British command, they began to operate more and more independently. In March a Jewish convoy from Jerusalem intended to supply the Etzion Bloc was ambushed and 15 soldiers of the Haganah died before the remainder were extricated by the British. On April 12 and May 4, Etzion Bloc operatives ambushed Arab Legion units, and the incidents, according to a Hanagah analysis, tipped the Legion's policy towards the bloc from one of isolating it, to destroying it.[8] On May the 4th, following the last ambush of a Legion convoy, a joint force of British, Arab Legion and irregular troops launched a major punitive attack on Kfar Etzion. The Haganah abandoned a few outposts but generally resisted, and the attack failed. A bloc counter-attack may have taken place the day after, but the failure of the Legion's assault led Hebronites and Legion units to plan a final attack and destroy the Etzion Bloc militarily.[9] The final assault on Kfar Etzion began on May 12. Parts of two Arab Legion companies, assisted by hundreds of local irregulars, had a dozen armored cars and artillery, to which the Jewish defenders had no effective answer. The commander of Kfar Etzion requested from the Central Command in Jerusalem permission to evacuate the kibbutz, but was ordered to stay. Later in the day, the Arabs captured the Russian Orthodox monastery, which the Haganah used as a perimeter fortress for the Kfar Etzion area, killing twenty-four of its thirty-two defenders.

On May 13, an attack broke through Kfar Etzion's defences and reached the settlement's centre effectively cutting off the perimeter outposts from each other.[10]

The Massacre

Arab Legion commander Abdullah el Tell (far right) with Captain Hikmat Mihyar (far left) pose with Jewish prisoners after the Fall of Gush Etzion. Around May 13, 1948

When the hopelessness of their position became undeniable on May 13, the defenders of Kfar Etzion laid down their arms and attempted to surrender. The number of people killed and the perpetrators are in dispute. According to one account, the main group of about 50 defenders were surrounded by a large number of Arab irregulars, who shouted "Deir Yassin!" and ordered the Jews to sit down, stand up, and sit down again. Suddenly someone opened fire on the Jews with a machine gun and others joined in the killing. Those Jews not immediately cut down tried to run away but were pursued.

The Israeli histories of the Kfar Etzion massacre (such as Levi, 1986, Isseroff, 2005) note that the defenders had put out the white flag and lined up to surrender in front of the school building of the German monastery. There were 133 people there. After they were photographed by a man in a kaffiyeh, an armored car apparently belonging to the Arab Legion opened fire with its machine gun, and then Arab irregulars joined in. A group of defenders managed to crawl into the cellar of the monastery, where they defended themselves until a large number of grenades were thrown into the cellar. The building was then blown up and collapsed on them. According to this reckoning, about 129 persons were murdered.[11] Yigal Allon (1970) and Martin Gilbert (1977) both state that fifteen Jews were killed after surrendering.[12][13]

Only three of the remaining Kfar Etzion residents and one Palmach member survived. According to their own testimony, the circumstances of their survival were as follows.

  • Yaacov Edelstein and Yitzhak Ben-Sira tried to hide amongst a jumble of boulders and branches, but they were discovered by a "wrinkled, toothless, old Arab" who told them "Don't be afraid." Then a group of Arab irregulars rushed up and threw them against a wall. The old Arab tried to shield them with his body. As they argued, two Arab Legionnaires came up and took the two Jews under their protection.
  • Nahum Ben-Sira, the brother of Yitzhak, was away from the main group when the massacre started. He hid until nightfall then escaped to a nearby kibbutz.
  • Eliza Fauktwanger (Palmach) tried to hide in a ditch with several others. They were discovered and all were murdered except Eliza, who was dragged away by several Arab irregulars. As the group were trying to rape her, an Arab Legion officer (Captain Hikmat Mihyar) arrived, shot two of the perpetrators and sent the rest away. Afterwards the officer gave her bread, waited until she finished eating, and said to her (quote) "You are under my protection".
Names of fallen in Kfar Etzion Memorial

A total of 157 defenders died in the battle of Gush Etzion (Levi, 1986), including those killed in the massacre at Kfar Etzion. About 2/3 of them were residents and the remainder were Hagana or Palmach soldiers.

On the following day, the Arab irregular forces continued their assault on the remaining three Etzion settlements. Fearing that the defenders might suffer the same fate as those of Kfar Etzion, Zionist leaders in Jerusalem negotiated a deal for the surrender of the settlements on condition that the Arab Legion protected the residents. The Red Cross took the wounded to Jerusalem, and the Arab Legion took the remainder as prisoners of war. In March 1948 320 prisoners from the Etzion settlements were released from the "Jordan POW camp at Mafrak", including 85 women.[14]

The role of the Arab Legion in the massacre is still debated. There is no doubt that the Legion led the attack on Kfar Etzion (probably on the explicit orders of Glubb Pasha), and at least a few Legionnaires were present when the massacre began. Other than that, the most credible evidence is that of Eliza Fauktwanger, who said that the Legion officer (Captain Hikmat Mihyar) who saved her life released all other wounded and that they were sent to Jerusalem.

Aftermath

Funeral procession leaving from Jewish Agency building, Jerusalem

On October 28, 1948, the Arab village al-Dawayima was conquered by the IDF 89th Commando Battalion. The Al-Dawayima massacre then took place, as the villagers were blamed for the Kfar Etzion massacre. Estimates of the number of murdered Arab villagers range from 80–100 to 100–200, depending on the source.[15][16]

The bodies of the murdered of Kfar Etzion were left at the site for a year and a half, until in November 1949, the Chief Military Rabbi, Shlomo Goren was allowed to collect their bones. They were buried in a full military funeral on November 17 in Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. Their communal grave was the first grave in what is today the military cemetery of Mount Herzl.

The Etzion Bloc became a symbol of Zionist heroism and martyrdom among Israelis immediately after its fall, and this importance continues. The date of the massacre was enshrined as Israel's Day of Remembrance.

The site of the Etzion Bloc was recaptured by Israel during the 1967 war. The children who had been evacuated from the Bloc in 1948 led a public campaign for the Bloc to be resettled, and Prime Minister Levi Eshkol gave his approval. Kfar Etzion was re-established as a kibbutz in September 1967, as the first Israeli settlement in the West Bank after the war.

See also

References

  1. ^ Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land sicne 1948, Meron Benvenisti
  2. ^ 100 Jews Killed by Arab Legion at Kfar Etzion Mufti in Open Rift with Abdullah
  3. ^ Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land sicne 1948, Meron Benvenisti
  4. ^ Symbolism and landscape: The Etzion bloc in the Judean mountains
  5. ^ Mark Daryl Erickson, Joseph E. Goldberg, Stephen H. Gotowicki, Bernard Reich, Sanford R. Silverburg (1996). An Historical Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, p. 149. Greenwood. ISBN 0-313-27374-X
  6. ^ Benny Morris, The Road to Jerusalem: Glubb Pasha, Palestine and the Jews, I.B.Tauris, 2003 p.135.
  7. ^ Benny Morris, The Road to Jerusalem,p.137. April 6,12,30, May 1, 3.
  8. ^ Benny Morris,The Road to Jerusalem, p.137.
  9. ^ Benny Morris,The Road to Jerusalem, pp.137-8.
  10. ^ B. Morris, The Road to Jerusalem: Glubb Pasha, Palestine and the Jews. p. 135–138, 2003.
  11. ^ James Cameron, (British journalist), "The making of Israel", published by Martin Secker & Warburgh Ltd, 1976. SBN 436 08230 6. Page 51. "Seventy Jews were killed, many of them after surrendering, many of them finished off most barbarously by Arab villagers instructed by legionaries."
  12. ^ Allon, Yigal, (1970) "Shield of David - The Story of Israel's Armed Forces". Weidenfeld and Nicolson. SBN 297 00133 7. Page 196.
  13. ^ Gilbert, Martin (1977) "Jerusalem - Illustrated History Atlas". Published in conjunction with the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Map 50, page 93.
  14. ^ Moshe Dayan, 'The Story of My Life'. ISBN 0-688-03076-9. Page 130. Out of a total of 670 prisoners released.
  15. ^ Benny Morris (2008), 1948: An History the First Arab-Israeli War, p. 333
  16. ^ Saleh Abdel Jawad (2007), Zionist Massacres: the Creation of the Palestinian Refugee Problem in the 1948 War, in E. Benvenisti & al, Israel and the Palestinian Refugees, Berlin, Heidelberg, New-York : Springer, pp. 59-127

Bibliography

  • L. Collins and D. Lapierre, O Jerusalem!, Grafton Books, 1982, ISBN 0-586-05452-9.
  • I. Levi, Jerusalem in the War of Independence ("Tisha Kabin" - Nine Measures - in Hebrew) Maarachot - IDF, Israel Ministry of Defence, 1986. ISBN 965-05-0287-4
  • D. Ohana, Kfar Etzion: the Community of Memory and the myth of return, Israel Studies, vol. 7 no. 2 (2002) 145-174.
  • J. C. Lehr and Y. Katz, Heritage Interpretation and Politics in Kfar Etzion, Israel, International Journal of Heritage Studies, Vol. 9, No. 3, 2003, 215–228.
  • B. Morris, The Road to Jerusalem: Glubb Pasha, Palestine and the Jews, I.B. Tauris (2003), ISBN 1-86064-989-0.

31°38′56.4″N 35°6′55.44″E / 31.649000°N 35.1154000°E / 31.649000; 35.1154000

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