The Link Above is Part 1
1947, 18 February: The British Government realized that the Mandate in Palestine was unworkable and announced its intention of giving it up.
Following this announcement, Ben Gurion began to hold regular weekly meetings with a group of Zionist leaders, the ‘Consultant Committee’, to discuss plans to expel the Arabs from Palestine and steal their homes and lands.
The ‘Consultant Committee’ included, among others, Yigael Yadin, Moshe Dayan, Yigal Allon, Yitzhak Sadeh, Israel Galili and Yossef Weitz.
1947, 17 November: Golda Meir secretly met with Jordan’s King Abdullah who stated that he would not take part in any Arab attack against the Jews. Meyerson signaled the ing that the Jews would not interfere with his annexation of territory allotted to the Arab State of Palestine.
1947, 29 November: UN General Assembly Resolution # 181 (II), outlining a partition plan for Palestine, was adopted.
The Arabs rejected the resolution partitioning their country. In protest, the Arab Higher Committee (AHC) proclaimed a three-day strike.
The Irgun used the Arab rioting as a pretext to launch a murderous campaign against Arab civilians in numerous towns and villages. Irgun leader Menachem Begin later stated: “My greatest worry in those months was that the Arabs might accept the UN plan. Then we would have had the ultimate tragedy, a Jewish State so small that it could not absorb all the Jews of the world.”
1947, 21 December – Late March 1948: Haganah and IZL attacked villages and Bedouin settlements of the coastal plain north of Tel Aviv.
1948, 1-2 January: Ben-Gurion met with his senior civilian and military advisers to shape the Jewish strategy in the conflict with the Arabs.
1948, 14 January: Haganah concluded an arms deal with Czechoslovakia.
1948, early March: Haganah prepared Plan Dalet and declared general mobilization.
1948, 30 March – 15 May: Haganah Alexandroni brigade attacked and drove out almost all Palestinian communities in the coastal area between Haifa and Jaffa.
1948, 31 March: Weitz met with Israel Galili, Head of the Haganah National Staff, “to discuss the problem of new Jewish settlements and the question of the Arab villages”. He demanded that a policy be decided upon and proposed the appointment of a committee to act.
An unofficial ‘self-appointed’ committee, headed by Weitz, started its ethnic cleansing activities as of the end of March 1948. Following the creation of Israel, an official committee was appointed, which submitted its recommendations to Ben-Gurion.
1948, 1 April: Ship ‘Nora’ arrived in Haifa bringing the first delivery of Czech arms.
1948, 4 April: Operation Nachshon was launched by the Haganah. Villages along the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road were captured and their Arab residents were expelled.
Abdul Qadir al-Husayni was killed in the counter-attack at Qastel on April 8. His death led to the collapse of the Husayni forces in Palestine. Shortly before his death, Abd al-Qadir telephoned Qawukji to ask for an urgent supply of arms and ammunition to beat off the Zionist offensive. Qawukji turned down this request.
1948, 9 April: A brutal massacre was committed in Deir Yassin by the Zionist gangs. Over 250 men, women and children were killed. The massacre spread panic and many Palestinians began to move to safer places within Palestine and the neighbouring Arab countries.
1948, 16 April: The Old City of Tiberias was attacked. The Arabs appealed to the British to lift the Haganah siege on the Old City and to extend their protection to the Arab areas. The British said they intended to evacuate the city within a few days and hence could offer no protection to the Arabs beyond 22 April. The Arab notables then decided to evacuate the city with British help. A truce was instituted and the British brought up buses and trucks and took the Arabs to Nazareth and Transjordan.
1948, 18 April: Major General Hugh C. Stockwell, British Commander in Haifa informed Harry Beilin, the JA liaison officer with the British army in the city that he intended immediately to begin withdrawing his forces from the borders and no-man’s-land between the Arab and Jewish quarters in Haifa. This encouraged the Haganah into action. An operation named Bi’ur Hametz (Cleaning the Leaven), which reflected the operation’s scope of cleaning the city of its Arabs, was launched.
The Carmeli Brigade’s full force was unleashed on a civilian population of about 75,000 crowded in an area no more than 1.5 square kilometers. When the Haganah Command learned that the Arab authorities were calling upon the civilians to gather for shelter in the old market place, three-inch mortars were ordered to shell the market place. A great panic ensued. The crowd broke into the port, stormed the boats and began to flee the city.
1948, 25 April: The assault on Jaffa started by an offensive launched by the IZL. When the news of the attack reached London, Bevin wanted to compensate for the wrong done in Haifa. Accordingly, the British went into action and tried to stem the Arab exodus, but to no avail. It was too little and too late. Part of the reason why the British were unsuccessful in persuading the Jaffa Arabs to stay put was Operation Hametz (Mivtza Hametz) launched by the Haganah during the same period against the Arab villages east of Jaffa, which cut Jaffa from all centers of Arab population and its rural hinterland.
Most of the inhabitants of Jaffa left the city under British protection.
On 13 May, with the final British evacuation, the Jaffa Arab Emergency Committee, representing the 4,000-5,000 remaining inhabitants, signed a formal surrender agreement with the Haganah.
1948, 26-30 April: Haganah Har’el and Etzioni brigades launched Operation Yevussi in and around Jerusalem. West Jerusalem residential areas were captured and its Palestinian residents were driven out.
1948, 28 April: Operation Yiftach was launched to cleanse Eastern Galilee of its Arabs. Safad and its surrounding villages were captured during the night of 11-12 May.
1948, 1 May: David Ben-Gurion paid a visit to newly occupied Haifa and spoke of his plan regarding the future of the Arabs in Haifa: Their number would not exceed 15,000; two-thirds would be Christians, one-third Moslems. Christians would be concentrated in Wadi Nisnas and the Moslems would be concentrated in the Wadi Salib neighborhood.
1948, 4 May: Operation Broom (Mivtza Matate), was launched in order to clear out the Arab population from the Jordan Valley area south of Rosh Pinna.
1948, 6 May: - Aharon Cohen, Mapam party’s Arab Department director, wrote a memorandum stating, “a deliberate eviction [of the Arabs] is taking place…Others may rejoice – I, as a socialist, am ashamed and afraid…To win the war and lose the peace…the state [of Israel], when it arises, will live on its sword.”
In a memorandum to the Political Committee of Mapam on 10 May, Aharon stated: “There is reason to assume, that what is being done…[Is being done] out of certain political aims and not only out of military necessity…In fact, what is called a ‘transfer’ of the Arabs out of the area of the Jewish state is what is being carried out…”
1948, 8-9 May: Haganah Har’el and Giv’ati brigades undertook Operation Maccabi and captured remaining villages between Ramla and Latrun.
1948, 9 May: Operation Lightning (Mivtza Barak) was launched in the south.
1948, 11 May: Haganah launched Operation Gideon to occupy villages in the upper eastern part of the Galilee.
1948, 12 May: The Golani Brigade units mortared the town of Beisan. During the battle, the Beisan municipal elders were threatened that if the town did not surrender, the Haganah would level it. The mayor formally announced the town’s surrender.
Some 700 – 1,500 Arabs initially remained in the town. Within days, an order was given to evict the inhabitants from the city and most of them were expelled across the Jordan. About 250 – 300 inhabitants, mainly Christians, were left in place until 28 May, when they were given the choice of going to Transjordan or to Nazareth. The majority preferred Nazareth.
1948, 13 May: - The Haganah launched Operation Mivtza Ben-Ami against Western Galilee up to the Lebanese border. Acre and coastal area north of the city were captured during the night of 17-18 May.
- Count Folke Bernadotte was appointed by the UN as mediator to resolve the conflict in Palestine.
Sir Alec Kirkbride, the British representative in Amman, wrote the following to Ernest Bevin, Britain foreign secretary, “There have been negotiations between the [Jordanian] Arab Legion and the Haganah, which have been conducted by British officers of the Arab Legion. It is understood that the object of these top secret negotiations is to define the areas of Palestine to be occupied by the two forces…”
1948, 14 May: This was officially the last day of the British mandate administration in Palestine. Proclamation of the state of Israel was declared in Tel Aviv at 4:00 P.M. At 6:11 P.M. (about mid-night in Tel Aviv), the White House announced: “This government has been informed that a Jewish State has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the provisional government thereof. The U.S. recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new State of Israel.”
1948, 15 May: British Mandate was ended and the Declaration of the State of Israel came into effect.
Egyptian, Transjordanian, Lebanese and Syrian regular troops crossed the borders into Palestine. Total number of Arab forces operating in Palestine, was fewer than 25,000. Their entry did not make any difference. The Zionist forces, numbering 35,000 continued with their ethnic cleansing operations unabated
The Israel Defense Force (IDF) was founded incorporating all the pre-state underground organizations. By mid-July, the IDF mobilized about 65,000 under arms, and by December the number reached a peak of 96,000.
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