The Massacre at Deir Yassin

The Deir Yassin massacre carried out in April 1948 is probably the most well-known massacre carried out by zionist paramilitary groups against Palestinian Arabs.

Deir Yassin is situated about 3 miles west of Jerusalem and on the 9th April 1948 was attacked by members of the Irgun and Lehi (or Stern gang). 

The Jewish Agency condemned the attack although The Civil & Military Gazette (Lahore) reports that “The Irgun is maintaining that the Haganah, the militia of the Jewish Agency, co-operated in the Deir Yassin massacre, despite the Agency’s condemnation of the killings as a “horrible outrage””.

The amount of people killed is disputed, shortly after the killings the figure was put as high as 250 people killed however this is believed to be an exaggerated number, inflated by Palestinians to persuade neighbouring Arab countries to intervene in Palestine and by zionists to frighten Palestinians in to fleeing their homes.The number of people killed is believed to be just over one hundred.

____________________

The Belfast Newsletter of 12th April 1948 Says that “Bodies of 150 of the dead have been thrown into a disused well” and quotes Dr. Khalidi, secretary of the Arab Higher Committee as saying that Deir Yassin “lives surrounded by Jews and for four months has been living under an agreement of non-molestation”. Giving the number of dead as 250 he said that “the remaining 150 women and children were dumped into trucks and paraded through the Jewish areas, spat on and stoned.” According to survivors 25 of the murdered women were pregnant.

The report says that the Arab Higher Committee tried to enter Deir Yassin to bury the dead but the Irgun/Lehi prevented them and Khalidi says “We wanted to send a moslem priest to say a short prayer over that well [where the bodies were dumped] but that, too was refused.”

Khalidi went on to say ”The Arab reaction is not for me to say, but there will be no reprisals. The Arabs do not bear any suppressed hatreds. We have transmitted this information to the Arab kings and rulers and will bring it to the attention of the whole moslem and christian worlds. They alone will decide the worlds reaction to this massacre of innocent people”

The same Belfast Newsletter quotes a 12 year old girl who survived the massacre but lost her mother, grandmother, grandfather, two older brothers and three month old younger sister. She said that her village was attacked by “about 500 Jews….Our 30 or 40 guards tried to stop them, but it was useless.” Her father threw a hand grenade at the attackers who were outside her house but they shot him in the shoulder. She tried to hide with her brothers and sisters but they were found, they were lined up and the attackers “shouted insults at us. Then they started firing with Bren guns. Some of us ran away and got back into a house and hid.”

“The Jews came in and took our olives and lemons and turned all the jars over. This was about 9 o’ clock in the morning. They took us to the edge of the village and made us stand there until 5 o’ clock in the afternoon and just laughed when older women asked for food for the children. They searched the village for men and shot them dead when they found them.”

“Two trucks came for us about 7 o’ clocked we were hauled through Givat Shaul, the Jewish suburb, where the Jews laughed at us and mocked us. They then drove us into the main road of the town and made us get out. They told us: “Give us everything you’ve got or we’ll shoot you””

“Then the men formed a circle and the Jewish girls stripped us naked and took our rings and ear-rings. While we were naked they made pictures of us, then told us to get dressed and walk to the Jaffa Gate.”

____________________

The British Colonial Secretary Arthur Creech Jones quoted a statement given by a spokesman of the Irgun to American and Jewish correspondents “it was claimed that of the 700 Arab inhabitants, 200 had been killed, approximately half of whom were women and children, 200 were wounded, and that 140 were taken prisoner to Jerusalem, where some were later released, and the remainder escaped into the hills.”

He added “ The whole affair points to another brutal and appallingly cruel outrage and I can hardly express the horror with which the Governments regard such barbarous acts.”

In the House of Commons Jones was asked if the “Jewish Agency…[would]….follow up their condemnation of this outrage by giving every possible assistance to get hold of the perpetrators?” To which he replied “I am afraid it is little use asking the Jewish Agency to do anything further”.

(In January 1947 Creech Jones had said in the House of Commons  that the “suppression of terrorism in Palestine demands the active participation of the whole Jewish community and also a direct cooperation by the Jewish Agency which, I regret, has not been forthcoming to the extent essential for preventing these acts of terrorism”.)

The Jewish Agency had cabled King Abdullah of Transjordan expressing “horror and disgust” at the massacre, giving a figure of 250 dead. The Chief Rabbinate of Palestine called on the Irgun and Stern Gang to realise the “depths of shame they have inflicted on the Jewish community”

____________________

The Civil & Military Gazette (Lahore) 14th April 1948

says that “Iraqi political parties and religious bodies have protested strongly against the “savage, brutal and disgusting” massacre of more than 200 Arab men, women and children at Deir Yassin. Thousands of students demonstrated yesterday in Baghdad, demanding immediate action and a protest was sent to the United Nations Organisation”

The same newspaper on 24th April 1948 reports an interview with King Abdullah of Transjordan, the report says "If the Jews did not dispute Arab sovereignty they would be given political rights and undoubtedly would have centralised administration in their own areas."

King Abdullah continued: “I do not believe the Zionist party is so mad as to violate the sanctity of the holy places and thus become an object of hatred....It is UNO’s duty to warn the Zionists to avoid approaching Jerusalem, in order not to have their throats cut. The Arabs will avoid using Jerusalem as a battlefield unless obliged. It is my wish to establish peace which impels me to make this statement.” 

He added that if the Zionists reach agreement with the Arab before the end of the British Mandate they “will find the Arabs generous and kind-hearted”

____________________

On 19th August 1948 The Civil & Military Gazette  quotes British Brigadier Glubb Pasha (real name Sir John Bagot Glubb leader of the Arab Legion) as saying “Most of the Jews of military age today are an Eastern European product - their ideology is totalitarian and they are often as ruthless as the Nazis.

Indeed, some are actually Nazi-trained soldiers and have imbibed the methods of their brutal masters. One example alone will suffice; the massacre of the Arab village of Deir Yassin.”

____________________

On the 23 April 1949 The Dublin Leader says the massacre at Deir Yassin led to thousands of Palestinians fleeing their homes in fear. “The brutal massacre of women and children by Israel terrorists in the Arab village of Deir Yassin was the signal for the flight of thousands of poor families, who fearful of the fate of Deir Yassin, sought refuge in Transjordan, Egypt and the Lebanon. Some 800,000 refugees in all are now living under most difficult material conditions with little prospect of returning to their homes.”

____________________

The Irgun gunmen were led by Menachim Begin who would later become Israeli Prime Minister. In 1950 Begin led the right wing political party Herut and before municipal elections in 1950 boasted that the massacre at Deir Yassin “has caused the Arabs to leave the country and make way for the [Jewish] newcomers. Without Deir Yassin and the subsequent Arab rout, the present government could not absorb one-tenth of the [new Jewish] immigrants” 

___________________

One member of the Lehi who took part in the killings at Deir Yassin is Ezra Yachin, now 95 years old he has been motivating Israeli soldiers taking part in Israel’s most recent attack on Gaza beginning in October 2023. In this video he encourages Israeli soldiers to “Erase them, their families, mothers and children. These animals can no longer live.” He also says “Every Jew with a weapon should go out and kill them. If you have an Arab neighbour, don’t wait until he comes into your house. Enter his house and shoot.”