From Lieut -General Sir John Glubb Sir: My attention has
only just been drawn to the letter from Air Vice-Marshal R. I. Jones (June 17). It is a peculiarity of the Palestine problem that people still spend their time accusing one another of crimes, committed twenty-four years ago. Would not a more constructive approach be preferable?
However, it is difficult to pass over some of these mis-statements. There was no massacre at Kafr Etzion, for example. I received several expressions of thanks from Israelis at the time, for the strictly correct attitude of the Arab Legion on that day. The massacre was the product of subsequent propaganda.
The Arab evacuation of Haifa took place during the British Mandate and is therefore not an example of action under the Israeli government. Once Israel took over, the Israelis evicted the Arab inhabitants by force.
It is not reasonable to suppose that tens of thousands of terrified people fled, running at top speed, in the clothes they stood up in, because they had decided to live elsewhere. Most of these people abandoned not only all they possessed, shops, houses, farms, lands, but many panic-stricken women even deposited their small babies in arms, in order to run faster. Some of these were picked up by the Red Cross.
As I saw these incidents, I am obliged to say that the Palestinians, after Israel took over, were evicted by force. But I would suggest that the continual exchange of recriminations serves no useful purpose.
John Glubb West Wood St. Dunstan, Mayfield, Sussex
Previous page
