Rabin on the killing of 250-400 Lydda residents under his command in 1948: “There was no way to avoid the use of weapons and warning shots in order to force the residents to march 10 to 20 kilometers… The residents of Ramle observed what was happening and learned the lesson. Their leaders agreed to evacuate voluntarily.”
IOA Editor: Not so, for both towns, according to Segev’s coverage. Despite the differing views among Israeli researchers, and the still restricted sources, it is clear that Palestinians did not leave their homes ‘voluntarily.’ Undoubtedly, another reason to award Rabin the N-Prize.
By Tom Segev, Haaretz – 26 Nov 2009
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1130942.html
Tom Segev
Yitzhak Rabin claimed that when he asked David Ben-Gurion during the War of Independence what to do with the residents of Ramle and Lydda (today, Lod), Ben-Gurion responded with a gesture of the hand that Rabin interpreted as an order to expel the residents of those cities. A new book by historian Shaul Weber reinforces the doubt that has already been raised in the past regarding the truth of this version of events. The book (“Rabin: The Growth of a Leader,” published in Hebrew by Maariv Books) is based among other things on testimony gathered at the initiative of the Yitzhak Rabin Center for Israel Studies.
According to Weber, “We can assume that the interpretation of Ben-Gurion’s wave of the hand was provided by Yigal Allon and/or Rabin, since this suited their preferences.” Among other things, they hoped that if refugees filled the roads, the Jordanian army would have difficulty advancing. Whatever the case, the expulsion order of July 12, 1948, has been preserved, and this is its wording: “The residents must be quickly removed from Lydda without taking time to classify them according to age. They should be sent in the direction of Beit Naballah … To be implemented immediately. Yitzhak R.”
Prior to that, Israel Defense Forces soldiers had killed about 250 residents of Lydda (according to Arab sources, the number was 400). The incident is usually explained by the fact that the residents opened fire on the soldiers. Weber writes: “This explanation for mass killing is clearly unreasonable and apparently this affair has yet to be properly researched.”
According to Rabin, the residents of Lydda refused to leave their city. In a passage that was at first censored and was eventually published in the 1996 book “Shalom, Friend: The Life and Legacy of Yitzhak Rabin,” by the staff of The Jerusalem Report, Rabin wrote: “There was no way to avoid the use of weapons and warning shots in order to force the residents to march 10 to 20 kilometers, up to the meeting point with the Arab Legion. The residents of Ramle observed what was happening and learned the lesson. Their leaders agreed to evacuate voluntarily.”
A document that is now kept in the Rabin center archives indicates that the version regarding the voluntary evacuation of the Ramle residents also “seems problematic on the face of it,” as Weber puts it. This was an order issued by Rabin in advance of the visit by Red Cross representatives to Ramle. “You must evacuate all the refugees by then,” he instructed. Weber therefore believes that methods similar to those used in Lydda were also used in Ramle.
Some of the testimony kept in the Rabin center is far from complimentary to the late prime minister as a fighter and a commander. He often hesitated, made mistakes, became hysterical, and was also involved in personal quarrels that contributed to military failures with dozens of casualties. Weber does his best to find specific explanations for the behavior of Rabin, a young man who like most of his friends, was not yet experienced at war at the time.
The capture of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War to a large extent reflected the need to atone for the failure to capture it during the War of Independence, asserts Weber.
