Deir Yassin massacre: Encyclopedia II - Deir Yassin massacre - The massacre

Deir Yassin massacre - The massacre

The fighting was over at about 11:00 am. The fighters begin to clean up the houses to secure them. Irgun's commander Ben-Zion Cohen noted: "[We] felt a desire for revenge." One villager has stated that the attackers appeared to have been set off by an Irgun commander's death, still others reported that upon discovering an armed man disguised as a woman, one guerrilla began shooting everyone around, followed by his comrades joining in. In the afternoon prisoners were taken on the village trucks to a victory parade in the Jewish neighbourhoods in Jerusalem before they were released in Arab East Jerusalem. Fahimi Zeidan testified that they "put us in trucks and drove us around the Jewish quarters, all while cursing us." Harry Levin, a Haganah broadcaster, reported seeing "three trucks driving slowly up and down King George V Avenue bearing men, women, and children, their hand above their heads, guarded by Jews armed with sten-guns and rifles." (Sources: Statement of Ben-Zion Cohen, file 1/10 4-K, Jabotinsky Archives; "Out of Crisis Comes Decision", p.276, Milstein; "Deir Yassin", Monograph No. 4, p.56, Kanani and Zitawi; "Jerusalem Embattled", p.5 Levin.)

Deir Yassin massacre - Photographs of the bodies

Meir Pa'il who was at the scene during the massacre brought with him a photographer who took pictures of the dead bodies. These photos have never been published and are to this date still kept secret in the IDF archives, not even academic researchers being allowed to gain access to them.

Deir Yassin massacre - Meir Pa'il's eyewitness account

Meir Pa'il's eyewitness account is one of the most detailed single eye witness accounts of the massacre, as he was at the scene while it happened. Pa'il was a spy for the mainstream Jewish organizations in Palestine monitoring the activities of the right-wing or "dissident" groups:

Meir Pa'il stated that he "started hearing shooting in the village. The fighting was over, yet there was the sound of firing of all kinds from different houses ... Sporadic firing, not like you would [normally] hear when they clean a house.". He also stated that no commanders directed the actions, just groups of guerillas running about "full of lust for murder".".

His more contemporary report and on-scene photographs remain classified.

Deir Yassin massacre - Mordechai Gihon's eyewitness account

Mordechai Gihon was a Haganah intelligence officer in Jerusalem. He was in the village at the afternoon of April 9. He reported:-

Deir Yassin massacre - Eliahu Arbel's eyewitness account

Eliahu Arbel arrived at the scene April 10. He was an Operations Officer B of the Haganah's Etzioni Brigade. He reported:-

Deir Yassin massacre - Jacques de Reynier's eyewitness accout

Jacques de Reynier was a French-Swiss Representative of the International Red Cross. He came to the village on April 11. He reported: "... a total of more than 200 dead, men, women, and children. About 150 cadavers have not been preserved inside the village in view of the danger represented by the bodies' decomposition. They have been gathered, transported some distance, and placed in a large trough (I have not been able to establish if this is a pit, a grain silo, or a large natural excavation). ... [One body was] a woman who must have been eight months pregnant, hit in the stomach, with powder burns on her dress indicating she'd been shot point-blank.".

Deir Yassin massacre - Dr. Alfred Engel's eyewitness account

Alfred Engel went to Deir Yassin with Jacques de Reynier, his conclusion is similar to de Reynier's. He reported: "In the houses there were dead, in all about a hundred men, women and children. It was terrible. ... It was clear that they (the attackers) had gone from house to house and shot the people at close range. I was a doctor in the German army for 5 years, in World War I, but I had not seen such a horrifying spectacle.".

Deir Yassin massacre - Yeshurun Schiff's eyewitness account

Yeshurun Shiff was an adjutant to David Shaltiel. He was in Deir Yassin April 9 and April 12. He reported: "[The attackers chose] to kill anybody they found alive as though every living thing in the village was the enemy and they could only think 'kill them all.'...It was a lovely spring day, the almond trees were in bloom, the flowers were out and everywhere there was the stench of the dead, the thick smell of blood, and the terrible odor of the corpses burning in the quarry.".

Deir Yassin massacre - Yair Tsaban's eyewitness accout

Yair Tsaban was one of several youths in the burial team at Deir Yassin April 12. He reported: "What we saw were [dead] women, young children, and old men. What shocked us was at least two or three cases of old men dressed in women's clothes. I remember entering the living room of a certain house. In the far corner was a small woman with her back towards the door, sitting dead. When we reached the body we saw an old man with a beard. My conclusion was that what happened in the village so terrorized these old men that they knew being old men would not save them. They hoped that if they were seen as old women that would save them.".

Deir Yassin massacre - Some villagers' eyewitness accounts

According to the Daily Telegraph, April 8, 1998, Ayish Zeidan, a resident of the village and a survivor of the fighting there, stated: "The Arab radio talked of women being killed and raped, but this is not true... I believe that most of those who were killed were among the fighters and the women and children who helped the fighters. The Arab leaders committed a big mistake. By exaggerating the atrocities they thought they would encourage people to fight back harder. Instead they created panic and people ran away.".

Jerusalem Report dated April 2, 1998 described a BBC program in which Abu Mahmud resident of Dir Yassin in 1948 stated: "... the villagers protested against the atrocity claims: We said, "There was no rape." [Khalidi] said, "We have to say this, so the Arab armies will come to liberate Palestine from the Jews.".".

Khalidi was a prominent Palestinian Arab leader who pushed the editor of the Palestine Broadcasting Service's Arabic news in 1948, Hazem Nusseibeh, to make the most use of alleged atrocities in Dir Yassin.

Mohammed Jaber, a village boy, observed the guerillas "break in, drive everybody outside, put them against the wall and shoot them."

Zeinab Akkel, a woman, offered money (about $400) to protect her brother. One guerilla took the money and "then he just knocked my brother over and shot him in the head with five bullets.".

Fahimi Zeidan stated that she and her wounded siblings encounted a captured pair of village males and "When they reached us, the soldiers [guarding us] shot them.". When the mother of one of the killed started hitting the fighters, "one of them stabbed her with a knife a few times."

"(Information from Fahimi Zeidan, quoted by Kanani and Zitawi, "Deir Yassin, Monograph No. 4," 55.)

Haleem Eid, a woman, saw "a man shoot a bullet into the neck of my sister Salhiyeh who was nine months pregnant.". "(Information from Kanani and Zitawi, "Deir Yassin, Monograph No. 4," 55.)

Deir Yassin massacre - Irgun & Lehi member's eyewitness accounts

Irgunist Yehoshua Gorodentchik said that "Male Arabs dressed as Arab women were found, and so they started shooting the [surrendering] women also."

Irgun commander Mordechai Raanan recalled:-

Ben Zion-Cohen (an Irgun commander) reported to the Jabotinsky archives that at some point in Deir Yassin "We eliminated every Arab that came our way".

The Jewish Agency and the Haganah leadership immediately condemned the massacre.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The massacre", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki