8 Friday, October 2, 2020 | Haaretz SUKKOT Ofer Aderet we have become as all the nations.” *** “All along the way there is no house, e turned a ma- no store, no workshop from which ev- hogany closet into erything was not taken… Things of a chicken coop ‘Like a swarm of locusts’ value and of no value – everything, and we swept up literally! You are left with a shocked the garbage with a impression by this picture of ruins and “Wsilver tray. There was chinaware with Refrigerators and caviar, champagne and carpets – a first-ever comprehensive study heaps of rubble, among which men are gold embellishments, and we would by historian Adam Raz reveals the extent to which Jews looted Arab property in wandering, poking through the rags in spread a sheet on the table and place order to get something for nothing. Why chinaware and gold on it, and when 1948, and explains why Ben-Gurion stated: ‘Most of the Jews are thieves’ not take? Why have pity?” – Ruth Lu- the food was finished, everything was bitz, testimony about looting in Jaffa taken together to the basement. In another place, we found a storeroom Raz, 37, is on the staff of the Akevot with 10,000 boxes of caviar, that’s Institute (which focuses on human- what they counted. After that, the guys rights issues related to the conflict), couldn’t touch caviar again their whole and edits the journal Telem for the life. There was a feeling on one hand Berl Katznelson Foundation. (He is of shame at the behavior, and on the also a frequent contributor of histori- other hand a feeling of lawlessness. We cal pieces to Haaretz.) Though he does spent 12 days there, when Jerusalem not possess a doctoral degree, his ré- was groaning under horrible shortages, sumé includes a number of studies that and we were putting on weight. We ate could easily have served as the basis chicken and delicacies you wouldn’t for a Ph.D. thesis – about the Kafr believe. In [the headquarters at] Notre Qasem massacre, the Israeli nuclear Dame, some people shaved with cham- project and Theodor Herzl. The loot- pagne.” ing of Arab property by Jews has been – Dov Doron, in testimony about loot- written about before, but Raz is appar- ing in Jerusalem ently the first to have devoted an entire *** monograph to the subject. On July 24, 1948, two months after “Unlike other researchers who have establishment of the State of Israel, Da- written about the war, I view the loot- vid Ben-Gurion, head of the provision- ing as an event of far greater order al government, voiced some extreme than what has been said about it pre- criticism about its people: “It turns out viously,” the historian notes. “In the that most of the Jews are thieves… I book, I show how disturbed most of the say this deliberately and simply, be- decision makers were about the looting cause unfortunately it is true.” His and the dangers it posed to Jewish so- comments appear in black and white ciety, and the degree to which it was a in the minutes of a meeting of the Cen- contentious issue among them.” tral Committee of Mapai, the forerun- He also maintains that there has ner of Labor, stored in the Labor Party been a “conspiracy of silence” about Archives. the phenomenon. As a result, even now, “People from the Jezreel Valley in 2020, colleagues who read the book stole! The pioneers of the pioneers, prior to its publication were “surprised parents of Palmach [pre-state com- by its scale,” he says. mando force] children! And everyone He describes the plundering of took part in it, baruch Hashem, the Arab property by Jews as a “singu- people of [Moshav] Nahalal!... This is lar” phenomenon, because the loot- a general blow. It’s appalling, because ers were civilians (Jews) who stole it shows a basic flaw. Theft and robbery from their civilian neighbors (Arabs). – and where does this come to us from? “These were not abstract ‘enemies’ Why have the people of the land – build- from across the seas, but yesterday’s ers, creators, pioneers – come to deeds neighbors,” he says. like this? What happened?” On what grounds do you claim that The protocol was unearthed by his- this was a singular event? History torian Adam Raz in the course of his Haifa, April 1948. “As they fought and conquered with one hand, the fighters found time to loot, among other items, sewing machines, record players and clothing, with the shows that in World War II, the Pol- research for his new book which, as other hand,” according to one observer. Fred Chesnik / IDF and Defense Establishment Archive ish public also looted the property of its title suggests, addresses a highly their Jewish neighbors, who had lived charged, sensitive and volatile issue: alongside them peacefully for centu- “Looting of Arab Property in the War Jewish community in Palestine] with shops broken into and its homes emp- chy reigned,” added Zadok Eshel, from gency Committee. The army’s Judi- ries. Maybe this is a response that’s of Independence” (Carmel Publishing a grave material temptation… pas- ty of occupants… The most shameful the Carmeli Brigade. “Along with the cial Service Staff, part of the military not unique to our case? Maybe it’s hu- House, in association with the Akevot sions of revenge, moral justification spectacle was of people rummaging joy at the city’s liberation and the relief justice apparatus, noted, in a document man nature? Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Con- and material allurement tripped up a among the heaps that remained af- after months of blood-soaked incidents, entitled “Epidemic of Looting and Rob- Raz: “Looting in wartime is an an- flict Research; in Hebrew). The task great many… Events on the ground ter the great robbery. One sees the it was shocking to see the eagerness of bery”: “This affliction has spread to all cient historical phenomenon that is he undertook was daunting: to collect, rolled down a slope unchecked.” same humiliating sights everywhere. civilians to take advantage of the vacu- the units and all the officer ranks… documented in texts thousands of years for the first time in a single volume, all The testimony of Haim Kremer, who I thought: How could it be? This should um and raid the homes of people whom The robberies and the pillage have as- old. My book does not deal with the existing information about the pillag- served in the Palmach’s Negev Brigade never have been allowed to happen.” a cruel fate had turned into refugees.” sumed appalling dimensions, and our phenomenon in general, but with the ing of Arab property by Jews during and was sent to Tiberias to prevent Netiva Ben-Yehuda, an iconic Pal- Yosef Nachmani, who visited Haifa soldiers are occupied with this work Israeli-Arab-Palestinian case. It was the 1947-49 Israeli War of Indepen- looting, was found in the Yad Tabenkin mach fighter who took part in the battle after it was taken by the Jewish forces, to an extent that endangers their pre- important for me to emphasize that the dence – from Tiberias in the north to Archive, in Ramat Gan. “Like locusts, for Tiberias, was uncompromising in wrote, “Old people and women, irre- paredness for battle and their devotion looting of Arab property was different Be’er Sheva in the south; from Jaffa the residents of Tiberias swarmed into her description of the events. “Such spective of age and religious status, are to their tasks.” from ‘regular’ wartime looting. These to Jerusalem via the villages, mosques the houses… We had to resort to blows pictures were known to us. It was the all busy looting. And no one is stopping Members of the Communist Party weren’t American soldiers, for exam- and churches scattered between them. and clubs, to beat them back and force way things had always been done to them. Shame and disgrace overwhelm also spoke out on the subject. In a ple, who plundered the Vietnamese, or Raz pored over 30 archives around the them to leave things on the ground,” us, in the Holocaust, throughout the me; there’s a desire to spit on the city memorandum to the People’s Admin- Germans thousands of kilometers form country, perused newspapers of that Kremer stated. world war, and all the pogroms. Oy, and leave it. This will take its revenge istration (the provisional government home. These were civilians who loot- era and examined all extant literature The diary of Yosef Nachmani, a Ti- how well we knew those pictures. And on us and in the education of the youth cabinet) and Haganah headquarters, ed their neighbors across the street. I on the subject. The result is shattering. berias resident who had been a founder here – here, we were doing these aw- and the children. People have lost all the party referred to “a campaign don’t mean that they necessarily knew “Many parts of the Israeli public – of the Hashomer Jewish defense orga- ful things to others,” she wrote. “We sense of shame, acts like these under- of looting, robbery and theft of Arab Ahmed or Noor whose property they civilians and soldiers alike – were in- loaded everything onto the van – with mine the society’s moral foundations.” stole, but that the neighbors were part volved in looting the property of the a terrible trembling of the hands. And So widespread was the looting and of a shared social civil fabric. Arab population,” Raz tells Haaretz.