Ilan Pappe - A Jewish narrative on the occupation and killing of Palestinians by the Zionists (Part-I)

Since 1948, when "Israel" occupied the Palestinian lands, it has always tried to justify and cover up their crimes, either by lying or by distorting history.

During these years, although many Palestinian-Islamic-Arab efforts have been made to expose the facts and make them known to the world, but a Zionist rejecting the Zionist official narrative has a great importance and status.

What follows is a rejection of the Zionist official narrative on occupying Palestine, presented by a
Jewish historian and researcher - Ilan Pappe.

Pappé places Zionism under an uncompromising lens. In his reading it was not a national liberation movement but a settler colonial project imposed on the Palestinians by force with the support of the west. From this premise it follows that the state of Israel is not legitimate even in its original borders, much less so within its post-1967 borders. 

History is usually written by the victors, and the Middle East is no exception. Pappé himself is a leading member of the group of "new" or revisionist Israeli historians that emerged in the late 1980s

Pappé was born in Haifa, Israel. At the age of 18, he was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces, serving in the Golan Heights during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

Interested in history, Pappe entered the University of Haifa to continue his studies in this field and chose the branch of Israeli history.

As a field of study, he got access to the archive of Israeli historical documents, where he got further access to an archive of documents that were in complete conflict with the Zionists official narrative of Palestine and Palestinians that completely changed his views and beliefs about Israel and the Palestinians.

"When you come across these documents that are about the destruction of 500 villages and the killing and displacement of their inhabitants, you realize that this is not a normal war. In every sense, it is an ethnic cleansing of Palestinians," he said. 

Pappe continues: But that was not the end of the story. I confronted with more than a thousand military orders, each of which was issued about the destruction of a village and the killing and displacement of its inhabitants.

What was very important in these orders was the date of their issuance. The very important thing was that most of these orders had a date before "May 15, 1948". 

Another importance of these orders and the date of their issuance was that during our school years, we were told that when Israel was founded in 1948, the Arabs who opposed its founding became hostile to it and went to war against it. Therefore, there was no other way but defense. The result of this defense was the displacement and killing of the Palestinians, and this is not our fault.

Ilan Pappe, who grew up with such belief, suddenly came across documents that were in complete conflict with his beliefs.  He confronted with documents ordering special military operations in Qaisariah and Al-Burj that were the villages of Haifa and Jaffa.   

The documents ordered the invasion of the village and the killing of men, the capture of other residents, the blowing up of their houses, and the burning of everything in their path.

In the face of these documents, he expresses his feelings as: First I said to myself, this is impossible, this must be one or two documents .. It is impossible that our army can be so cruel and inhuman. But I was shocked when I came across dozens of similar documents in which the same instructions were given this time about the villages of Acre and other parts of Palestine. 

I also came across documents from Joseph Washitz, one of the leaders of Mapam - a left-wing political party. In them, he recorded the names of the villages that were exposed to massacres.  One of these villages was Al-Safsaf.

This is what we read about the Israeli military operation in this village. 52 people were handcuffed, tied together and shot after being thrown into a pit. But 10 men were still alive. The women of the village came and asked for forgiveness for them. In the meantime, the bodies of 6 old men were found. There were now 61 bodies. One of them was a woman holding a child. Three people were raped. One of them was a 14-year-old girl. The finger of one of the victims was cut with a knife to remove his ring. 

Ilan Pappe emphasizes: "The document I read about the village of Al-Dawayima were very horrible and painful. It is very difficult for me to talk about it right now .. The document stated that the Israeli military had raped and assaulted village women, breaking children's skulls and blowing up houses along with their owners.

I remember, at that time, I was a university student with Yossi Olmert, the brother of Ehud Olmert, the former Prime Minister of Israel. When I raised the issue of documents with him, he said that it is just a few documents, don't exaggerate this. "Every day more documents were found. Two weeks later, I was convinced that what had happened to Palestine and the Palestinians was pre-planned." 

He therefore called on the Israeli authorities to refrain from lying, and suggested that the Israeli authorities must provide access to reliable historical documents and sources so that they would not be accused of lying by Israeli officials.  

He emphasizes: "Contrary to the claims of the Zionists and the Israeli official narrative of the massacre and displacement of Palestinians in 1948, there is evidence that it was planned for Palestine many years ago."

One of these documents reveals a secret meeting held in 1934 with the presence of 10 leaders of the Zionist movement. The topic of discussion at this meeting was the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians within the framework of a transparent plan, and this completely rejects the official narrative of the Zionists, who claim that displacement and killing are the natural consequences of wars and that we are involved in what happened to the Palestinians.

Ilan Pappe goes on to refer to another document, dated March 10, 1948, a few months before the foundation of Israel and explains that this document also reveals a secret meeting attended by 11 people, including nine former Zionist leaders and two young military officers, and topic of the meeting
under discussion was the latest arrangements for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians including
operational and field instructions. 

These include the following:

1. Create widespread panic

2. Siege of villages and towns and residential centers

3. Burning houses, products and livestock  

4. Destroying houses and infrastructure

5. Mining areas to prevent residents from returning to them

These documents give rise to the belief in him that what was recorded in the diaries and notes of the military of that period were enforceable orders, and the book "Northern Campaigns", authored by Moshe Carmel Notes published in 1949 gives an idea into this.