The Safsaf massacre took place on 29 October 1948, following the capture of the
Palestinian Arab
Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine.
*: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous ...
village of
Safsaf
Safsaf ( ''Ṣafṣāf'', " weeping willow") was a Palestinian village 9 kilometres northwest of Safed, present-day Israel. Its villagers fled to Lebanon after the Safsaf massacre in October 1948, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
History
Th ...
in the
Galilee
Galilee (; ; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon consisting of two parts: the Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and the Lower Galilee (, ; , ).
''Galilee'' encompasses the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and ...
by the
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...
(IDF). The village was defended by the
Arab Liberation Army
The Arab Liberation Army (ALA; , better translated as Arab Rescue Army (ARA) or Arab Salvation Army (ASA), was an army of volunteers from Arab countries led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji. It fought on the Arab side in the 1948 Palestine war. It was set ...
's Second Yarmuk Battalion.
Safsaf was the first village to fall in
Operation Hiram
Operation Hiram was a military operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. It was led by General Moshe Carmel, and aimed at capturing the Upper Galilee region from the Arab Liberation Army (ALA) ...
, the aim of which, according to the IDF, was to "destroy the enemy in the central Galilee 'pocket,' to take control of the whole of the Galilee and to establish a defense line on the country's northern border." The village was attacked by two
platoon
A platoon is a Military organization, military unit typically composed of two to four squads, Section (military unit), sections, or patrols. Platoon organization varies depending on the country and the Military branch, branch, but a platoon can ...
s of armored cars and a tank company from the
7th Brigade, and a fierce battle lasted from the evening until seven o'clock the next morning.
Evidence of a
massacre
A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians Glossary of French words and expressions in English#En masse, en masse by an armed ...
in which 50–70 villagers were killed by the IDF comes from several contemporaneous Israeli government sources and Arab oral history. The evidence suggests that 52 men had their hands tied, were shot and killed, and were buried in a pit. Several women reported allegations of
rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...
by the IDF, including the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl.
[Morris 1995, p. 55.] At least two internal inquiries were initiated during 1948–49 by the IDF, but their reports remain classified.
Massacre
Israeli accounts
A key source are the diaries of Yosef Nachmani, a senior officer in the
Haganah
Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...
, who was also director of the
Jewish National Fund
The Jewish National Fund (JNF; , ''Keren Kayemet LeYisrael''; previously , ''Ha Fund HaLeumi'') is a non-profit organizationProfessor Alon Tal, The Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, The Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben Gurion ...
in Eastern
Galilee
Galilee (; ; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon consisting of two parts: the Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and the Lower Galilee (, ; , ).
''Galilee'' encompasses the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and ...
from 1935 until 1965. He visited Safsaf or the area around it on 6 November, accompanied by the Israeli Minority Affairs minister
Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit. The men were briefed by Immanuel Friedman, a representative of the Minority Affairs ministry, who talked about "the cruel acts of our soldiers." The Nachmani diary was released by the Israeli government in the early 1980s. It had been published before, but with the passages about the massacre omitted.
[Morris 1995, p. 53.]
On 6 November 1948, Nachmani wrote: "In Safsaf, after ... the inhabitants had raised a white flag, the
oldierscollected and separated the men and women, tied the hands of fifty-sixty ''
fellahin
A fellah ( ; feminine ; plural ''fellaheen'' or ''fellahin'', , ) is a local peasant, usually a farmer or agricultural laborer in the Middle East and North Africa. The word derives from the Arabic word for "ploughman" or "tiller".
Due to a con ...
''
easantsand shot and killed them and buried them in a pit. Also, they raped several women..." After listing alleged atrocities in other villages—
Eilaboun
Eilabun ( ''Ailabun'', , ) is an Arab Christian village located in the Beit Netofa Valley around south-west of Safed in northern Galilee between Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee. It had a population of in , which is predominantly Christian (70.5 ...
,
Farradiyya, and
Saliha
Saliha (), sometimes transliterated Salha, meaning 'the good/healthy place', was a Palestinian people, Palestinian Arab village located 12 kilometres northwest of Safed.
The Franco-British boundary agreement (1920), Franco-British boundary ag ...
—Nachmani writes: "Where did they come by such a measure of cruelty, like Nazis? ... Is there no more humane way of expelling the inhabitants than by such methods?"
Moshe Erem reported on the massacre to a meeting of the
Mapam
File:Pre-State_Zionist_Workers'_Parties_chart.png, chart of zionist workers parties, 360px, right
rect 167 83 445 250 Hapoel Hatzair
rect 450 88 717 265 The non-partisans (pre-state Zionist political movement), Non Partisans
rect 721 86 995 243 ...
Political Committee but his words were removed from the minutes. According to notes of the meeting taken by
Aharon Cohen
Aharon Cohen (; 1910–1980) was a senior member of Mapam, a pro-USSR Israeli political party which existed during the first two decades of statehood.
Biography
Born in Briceni (formally, Britchany), Bessarabia Governorate, Russian Empire (later ...
, Erem spoke of: "Safsaf 52 men tied together with a rope. Pushed down a well and shot. 10 killed. Women pleaded for mercy. 3 cases of rape ... A girl of 14 raped. Another four killed."
Arab accounts
The Israeli accounts in broad detail are supported by Arab witnesses who told their stories to historians. According to Nafez Nazzal, who interviewed survivors in
Ain al-Hilweh
Ain al-Hilweh (, lit. meaning "sweet natural spring"), also spelled as Ayn al-Hilweh and Ein El Hilweh, is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. It had a population of over 70,000 Palestinian refugees but swelled to nearly 120,000, as ...
camp in 1973, witnesses spoke of four rapes and the murder of about 70 men. Villagers said that when the attack began on the village, the militiamen were braced to defend it but were surprised by a three-pronged assault. One militiaman said later: "We did not expect them to fight on three fronts. When none of the Arab armies joined the fighting, we retreated, together with the ALA volunteers to Lebanon. We left behind most of the villagers, many dead or injure...."
[Nazzal 1948, pp. 93–95]
Those left behind said that Israeli soldiers had entered Safsaf around sunrise and ordered the villagers to line up in a spot in the northern part of the village. One villager told Nazzal: "As we lined up, a few Jewish soldiers ordered four girls to accompany them to carry water for the soldiers. Instead, they took them to our empty houses and raped them. About seventy of our men were blindfolded and shot to death, one after the other, in front of us. The soldiers took their bodies and threw them on the cement covering of the village's spring and dumped sand on them." In later days, Israeli troops visited the village, telling the inhabitants that they should forget what had occurred and could stay in their homes. But they began to leave under cover of the night towards Lebanon, about four at a time, until Safsaf was empty.
[Khalidi, p.491, mostly quoting Nazzal.]
See also
* Depopulated Palestinian locations in Israel
* List of massacres committed during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
*List of massacres in Israel
This is a list of massacres that have occurred in Israel after the 1948 Palestine War.
*For massacres that have occurred in Roman Judea prior to the establishment of the Roman province of Syria Palæstina, see List of massacres in Roman Jud ...
Notes
References
Oral History interview with Mohammad Abdallah Edghaim
* Morris, Benny
Benny Morris (; born 8 December 1948) is an Israeli historian. He was a professor of history in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Beersheba, Israel. Morris was initially associated with the g ...
(1995). Falsifying the record: a fresh look at Zionist documentation of 1948, ''Journal of Palestine Studies
The ''Journal of Palestine Studies'' (JPS) is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal which has been published since 1971. It is published by Taylor and Francis on behalf of the Institute for Palestine Studies.
History and profile
The journal ...
'', 24: 44–62.
* Morris, Benny (2004). ''The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited''. Cambridge University Press. .
* Morris, Benny (2008). ''1948: The First Arab-Israeli War''. Yale University Press.
* Nazzal, Naffez (1978). ''The Palestinian Exodus from Galilee: 1947–1949''. Inst. Pal. Studies.
* Zertal, Idith (2005). ''Israel's Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .
{{Massacres against Palestinians
October 1948 in Asia
1948 massacres of Palestinians
Massacres committed by Israel
Sexual violence in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Child sexual abuse in Israel
Incidents of violence against girls
Rape in Israel
Israeli massacres of Palestinians