Haaretz | Thursday, May 28, 2020 11 WEEKEND Arab citizens behind barbed wire Documents in Israel's State Archives reveal disturbing truths about the military restrictions imposed on Arab city dwellers during the War of Independence Adam Raz had worked hard, in the face of serious limitations imposed by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, to improve the situ- he curfew and lockdown im- ation of the Arabs who remained in the posed in Israel during the country, nonetheless found itself shut coronavirus epidemic may down in the middle of 1949. Additional have begun to feel like a documentation of great importance in faded memory, but few know the Israel State Archives and the Israel Tthat many of the country’s citizens en- Defense Forces and Defense Establish- dured a similar situation in the past. ment Archive is still sealed. Then, however, the approach was quite In other documents and papers from aggressive, with the use of barbed-wire the period, which were declassified over fences and the demarcation of zones the years, we sometimes encounter con- that were called ghettos and concentra- temporary attempts to conceal and fil- tion camps. ter various remarks that would grate on The imposition of a curfew and the Jewish ears. These attempts are recent, sequestration of the country’s Arabs and not related to security issues: Cen- began immediately after Israeli forces, sorship is being resorted to solely for during the 1948 War of Independence, propaganda purposes. conquered cities that were either Arab or mixed (Arab-Jewish) in their makeup. The battles left thousands of urban Arab Hard-to-swallow term residents under Jewish control. The ma- A flagrant example of an attempt to jority of the Arabs did not take an active hide offensive language can be seen in part in the war, and those who remained the minutes of a December 1948 meet- in the cities constituted a small fraction ing of the ministerial committee for of a defeated population – weak, without abandoned property. The meeting dealt representation and frightened. The long with the decision to concentrate the months following the conquest of the cit- Arab residents of Lod in certain neigh- borhoods, so as to make room for Jewish immigrants in the city. In this connec- tion, the director general of the Minor- Mapam’s Vashitz ity Affairs Ministry, Gad Machnes, said condemned the fencing that he “thinks it is no longer justified to hold the Arab residents in fenced con- off of the Arabs: ‘[This act] centration camps.” That comment was will determine whether redacted, only recently, by the State Ar- chives in the file holding the transcripts Israel will be a democratic of the committee’s meetings. The logic is state or a feudal state obvious: Israel’s citizens do not have the right to know their past. with medieval customs An examination of materials concern- and Nuremberg Laws.’ ing the fate of the residents of all of the conquered cities reveals a similar pat- Barbed-wire marking the limits of the area designated for Arabs in Jaffa, in 1948. “It will be best to have special areas for the Jews and areas for the Arabs,” the military tern: Ghettos were established in them. governor said about the mixed city. Israel Defense Forces and Defense Establishment Archive The term “ghetto” was hard to swallow ies in mid-1948 were a test in miniature even then. The original title of one file of the future relations of the two peoples in the State Archives, which made use of creating an Arab ghetto in Haifa.” neighborhood and the Jewish section. at odds with the military authorities, re- As in other cases, in January 1949, who shared the country. this charged term, tried to offer a more Vashitz condemned the fencing-off That arrangement will immediately ren- ported in February 1949 that it was still half a year after the conquest, the Mi- In Haifa, which was conquered in reasonable substitute: “Transfer of Ar- of the Arabs, maintaining that “this der Ajami a sealed-off ghetto. It is hard trying to obtain permits to enable Jaffa’s nority Affairs Ministry demanded that April 1948, no more than 3,500 Arabs abs to security zone (ghetto).” concentration is the most important to accept this idea, which stirs in us as- Arab residents “to exit the barbed wire.” the military authorities destroy the remained out of a population of close The same pattern recurred in each act done in connection with the Arabs sociations of excessive horror.” One local resident, Ismail Abu Sheha- barbed-wire fence that encircled the to 70,000 Arabs that had resided there case of Arabs being moved from one in Israel. This will determine whether Like Vashitz, Aram, too, thought deh, related, “They surrounded us with zone in which Lod’s Arab residents were a short time before. Jaffa, which sur- place to another. When Ben-Gurion vis- Israel will be a democratic state or a that establishing such a ghetto would barbed wire fences in which there were confined. Freedom of movement was rendered to the Jewish forces on May ited Haifa, just days after its conquest, feudal state with medieval customs and determine the future course of events: three gates. We were allowed to leave the not restored until July, when the rule 13, had a similar prewar Arab popula- he ordered the Arabs who remained Nuremberg Laws.” The Arabs were for- “And once more we are thereby sowing area only to work in one of the orchards of the military government in that area tion, of whom only 4,000 were left. Of to be concentrated in Wadi Nisnas (for bidden to live where they wished, and a toxic seed… in the heart of the Arabs. around the city, and for that we needed was lifted, but the barbed-wire fences the 35,000 residents of Ramle and Lod, Christians) and Wadi Salib (Muslims). were eventually all accommodated in A ghetto in barbed wire, a ghetto, cut off a permit from the employer.” The situa- were still intact. both of them Arab locales, about 2,000 The Arabs would have to move to their Wadi Nisnas. from access to the sea. Shall this be our tion was played down, but Moshe Chizik, Other archival documentation refers remained after the Israeli conquest in new places of residence by early July. In Jaffa, too, it was decided to move political approach?” who had served as military governor to similar relocations and closures of July 1948. In other cities taken by the Yosef Vashitz, a member of the left- the Arabs. “It will be best to have spe- In “Independence Versus Nakbah: before Laniado, maintained in private Arab communities in other cities, such Israeli forces – such as Tiberias, Safed, wing Mapam party and a leading figure cial areas for the Jews and areas for The Arab-Israeli War of 1948” (2004), conversations that Israel was violating as Majdal (Ashkelon) and Acre. Beisan (Beit She’an) and Be’er Sheva – in its Arab Department (which dealt the Arabs,” the military governor, Meir one of the most comprehensive books the terms of surrender agreed upon with For his part, Minister Sheetrit noted no Arabs remained. Within a short time, with issues related to that part of the Laniado, told the city’s Arab Committee written about the War of Independence, the Arabs, which had guaranteed them that he “object[s] to the establishment the vast majority (85 percent) of the population), was at the center of the in July 1948. Moshe Erem, who headed historian Yoav Gelber wrote that the freedom of movement in the city. of ghettos for minorities.” In a letter 160,000 Arabs who remained in the rest events in Haifa at the time. He reported the Minority Affairs Ministry’s depart- idea of fencing off the Jaffa neighbor- In Lod, too, the Arabs were concen- to cabinet ministers in mid-1948, he of Israel’s territory at the end of the war about the chaos that ensued in the wake ment for rehabilitation and relations hood was rescinded – but that is incor- trated in a single neighborhood, and wrote that relations with the Arabs found themselves under military rule, of the decision: For the sake of having with minorities, protested to Minister rect. Laniado, the military governor, placed under curfew. On one occasion, were “flawed and deficient.” He called subjected to permanent curfew and a all the Arabs living in a single neighbor- Sheetrit about relocating local Arabs to wrote that he was “thinking about the a group of Arab dignitaries from neigh- for “laying down a clear policy of equal strict regime that demanded authoriza- hood, they were moved into homes only the Ajami quarter, which was surround- possibility of reducing the barbed wire boring Ramle wrote to Ben-Gurion civil rights,” for fear reality would ex- tions and permits for movement. recently abandoned, with no attempt to ed on all sides by Jewish neighborhoods. and allowing the Arabs greater freedom to complain how, “old people, women, act its revenge. His remarks are equally The principal documentation about ready them for new occupants, and with Erem noted that even though there of movement, so that they do not feel that youth and children were humiliated” pertinent today. that period is contained in hundreds of no water or electricity. Vashitz quoted was no problem regarding security in they are in a detention camp.” and made to stand for eight hours “un- files of the Ministry of Minority Affairs, Arab left-wing figures, according to and around the city, “Ajami is about to But in fact Ajami was fenced off, for der the rays of the hot sun without water Adam Raz, a historian, is a researcher at which was then headed by Bechor-Sha- whom, “This is a racist political action, be closed off with a barbed-wire fence a period of months.