Arafat, the PLO and the UN

The change in the attitude of the United Nations towards Israel did not come about recently. It came in the aftermath of Yasser Arafat’s Speech to the UN General Assembly on the 13^th of November 1974. From then on it has been virtually all downhill. Let us first review the history of the man, the organization and then the speech.

Yasser Arafat (Arabic: أبو عمار‎ , 'Abū `Ammār)

Mohammed Abdel Rahman (his first name) Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa (Arafat's full name) was born in Cairo, Egypt on the 24 August 1929. His father was Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini, who was from Gaza, Yasser's paternal grandmother, was Egyptian. His mother, Zahwa Abul Saud, was from a Jerusalem-based family. He was a member of the Al-Qudwa tribe of the al-Husseini clan to which the al-Qudwas belonged.

Arafat's biographer, the British historian Alan Hart, relayed the story that Arafat was heavily beaten by his father for going to the Jewish quarter in Cairo and attending religious services. When his father asked Arafat why he would not stop going, he responded by saying; "I wanted to study Jewish mentality."
In 1944, Arafat enrolled in the University of King Fuad I and graduated in 1950. Arafat later claimed to have sought a better understanding of how to counter the Jews and Zionism by engaging in discussions with Jews and reading publications by Theodor Herzl and other prominent Zionists.

During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Arafat left the University and sought to enter Palestine to join Arab forces fighting against Israeli troops but instead of joining the ranks of the "Palestinian fedayeen." Arafat fought alongside the Muslim Brotherhood, although he later denied joining the organization.

In early 1949, the war was winding down in Israel's favor, and Arafat returned to Cairo to university. Arafat studied civil engineering and served as president of the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) from 1952 to 1956. During the 1956 Suez War he was called to duty to fight with Egyptian forces but was not involved in the fighting. With the disasterous defeat of Egypt and the introduction of the UNEF -United Nations  Emergency Force to the Gaza Strip. Arafat who had been a member of the  "fedayeen" forces was expelled.

Arafat originally attempted to obtain a visa to Canada and later Saudi Arabia, but was unsuccessful in both attempts. In 1957, when Kuwait was still a British protectorate, he applied for a visa based on his work in civil engineering and was approved.
As Arafat began to develop friendships with Palestinian refugees, some of whom like Abu Iyad whom he had met while attending Cairo University and Abu Jihad in Gaza, both of whom were official members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Khalil al-Wazir ("Abu Jihad"), had arrived in 1959 Kuwait worked as a teacher and Salah Khalaf ("Abu Iyad") arrived in Kuwait in late 1960 became Arafat's top aides in Al Fatah.

Ion Mihai Pacepa, the highest-ranking Communist official to defect from the former Soviet bloc in a 2004 FrontPage Magazine interview had said:

"The PLO was dreamt up by the KGB, which had a penchant for "liberation" organizations. There was the National Liberation Army of Bolivia, created by the KGB in 1964 with help from Ernesto "Che" Guevara ... the KGB also created the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which carried out numerous bombing attacks... 

In an interview by the Wall Street Journal, Pacepa explained how the KGB had replaced the truth of Arafat's origins of their "Mole"- with a fictional background narrative for him:

"He was an Egyptian bourgeois turned into a devoted Marxist by KGB foreign intelligence. The KGB had trained him at its Balashikha special-operations school east of Moscow and in the mid-1960s decided to groom him as the future PLO leader. First, the KGB destroyed the official records of Arafat's birth in Cairo, and replaced them with fictitious documents saying that he had been born in Jerusalem and was therefore a Palestinian by birth."

The exact date for the establishment of Fatah is unknown however the group's existence was attested to in the pages of a Palestinian nationalist magazine, Filastununa Nida al-Hayat (Our Palestine, The Call of Life), which was written and edited by Abu Jihad in 1959.
The full name of "Fatah" - Harakat al-Tahrir al-Watani al-Filastini translates into "The Palestinian National Liberation Movement" or FaTaH the reverse acronym of the Arabic name and in early Islamic times to refer to "conquest."

In 1964 the first PLO Council, consisting of 422 Palestinian representatives handpicked by the KGB, approved the Palestinian National Charter -- a document that had been drafted in Moscow. The Palestinian National Covenant and the Palestinian Constitution were also born in Moscow, with the help of Ahmed Shuqairy, a KGB influence agent who became the first PLO chairman...
Fatah differed from other Palestinian Arab political and guerrilla organizations in that it dedicated itself to the liberation of "Falestine" by an armed struggle carried out by the "Arabs of the Mandated Area" themselves.

Due to his ideology, Arafat generally refused to accept donations to his organization from major Arab governments, in order to act independently of them. He did not want to alienate them, and sought their undivided support by avoiding alliances with groups loyal to other ideologies. He worked hard in Kuwait, however, to establish the groundwork for Fatah's future financial support by enlisting contributions from the many wealthy Palestinians working there and other Gulf States, such as Qatar (where he met Mahmoud Abbas in 1961). These businessmen and oil workers contributed generously to the Fatah organization.

In 1962, Arafat and his closest companions migrated to Syria and at that time Fatah had approximately three hundred members by this time, but none were actual fighters. Fatah began to recruit members by offering them higher incomes to enable his armed attacks against Israel. Many members of the Palestine Liberation Army (PLA), the regular military force of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which was created by the Arab League in 1964 defected to Fatah for the higher wages.

With the overwhelming defeat of Arab forces in the Six Day War  Israel humiliated two of the Soviet Union’s most important allies in the Arab world of that time, Egypt and Syria. It was at this point that Mahmoud Abbas who had been indocrinated into the KGB while a student at the Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, where he earned a Candidate of Sciences degree (the Soviet equivalent of a PhD) told his controllers to induct "Abu Ammar" as an agent.
The Kremlin was convinced by Abbas that Arafat could help repair the Soviet prestige.

Ion Mihai Pacepa, former acting chief of Communist Romania’s espionage once recollected:

"I became directly involved with Arafat in the late 1960s, in the days when he was being financed and manipulated by the KGB. In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel humiliated two of the Soviet Union's Arab client states, Egypt and Syria. A couple of months later, the head of Soviet foreign intelligence, Gen. Alexander Sakharovsky, landed in Bucharest. According to him, the Kremlin had charged the KGB to "repair the prestige" of "our Arab friends" by helping them organize terrorist operations that would humiliate Israel. The main KGB asset in this joint venture was a "devoted Marxist-Leninist"--Yasser Arafat, co-founder of Fatah, the Palestinian military force.
Gen. Sakharovsky asked us in Romanian intelligence to help the KGB bringing Arafat and some of his fedayeen fighters secretly to the Soviet Union via Romania, in order for them to be indoctrinated and trained. During that same year, the Soviets maneuvered to have Arafat named chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organizaiton, with public help from Egypt's ruler, Gamal Abdel Nasser.
When I first met Arafat, I was stunned by the ideological similarity between him and his KGB mentor. Arafat's broken record was that American "imperial Zionism" was the "rabid dog of the world," and there was only one way to deal with a rabid dog: "Kill it!""

Mohammed Abd al-Rahman Abd al-Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini, nom de guerre "Abu Ammar,” was therefore built into a Palestinian leader by the KGB.
The Arab leaders were "persuaded" to agree that a 'Palestinian' solution to their dilemma was indispensable. Because of this new line of thinking Yasser Arafat was invited to join the PLO in December 1967 when Ahmad Shukeiri resigned his post as PLO Chairman and Yahya Hammuda took his place.

The turning point for Arafat and the PLO was the battle of Karameh in Jordan. Although the Arab death toll was much higher and the fact that the battle was decided in Israel's favor, Fatah considered themselves victorious because it was the first time that Palestinian fighters stood their ground and did not flee before the Israeli army.

The events of the battle were covered in detail by Time magazine and Arafat's face appeared on the cover of the 13 December 1968 issue.  The coverage brought Arafat fame and fortune as he came to be regarded as a national hero who dared to confront Israel. With his new found importance the Arab world increased financial donations significantly and with it weaponry and equipment improved. The PLO numbers swelled as many young Arabs, including thousands of non-Palestinians, joined the ranks of Fatah. 

When the Palestinian National Council convened in Cairo on 3 February 1969, Yahya Hammuda stepped down from his chairmanship of the PLO and the KGB managed to catapult him up as chairman of the PLO executive committee. Egyptian ruler Gamal Abdel Nasser, who was also a Soviet puppet, publicly proposed the appointment. But Yasser Arafat was elected chairman on the 4th February 1969.

Soon after that, the KGB tasked Arafat to declare war on American “imperial-Zionism” during the first summit of the Black International, an organization that was also financed by the KGB. Arafat claimed to have coined the word “imperial-Zionism,” but in fact Moscow had invented this battle cry many years earlier, combining the traditionally Russian anti-Semitism with the new Marxist anti-Americanism.

The Advice: How to win the minds of the liberals in the West

In 1970, Arafat visited Hanoi were he was particularly struck by Ho Chi Minh’s success in mobilizing left-wing sympathizers in Europe and the United States. American student activists on college and university campuses throughout America, enthusiastically followed the line of North Vietnamese operatives. They had succeeded in re-framing the Vietnam war from a Communist assault on the south to a struggle for national liberation.

Ho’s chief strategist, Võ Nguyên Giáp, a General in the Vietnam People's Army and a politician, made it clear to Arafat and his lieutenants that in order to succeed, they too needed to redefine the terms of their struggle. Giap’s counsel was simple but profound: the PLO needed to work in a way that concealed its real goals, permitted strategic deception, and gave the appearance of moderation. Arafat sent his adjutant, Khalil Ibrahim al-Wazir - Abu Jihad (later the leader of the PLO’s military operations), to North Vietnam to study the strategy and tactics of guerrilla warfare. Arafat was struck by Ho Chi Minh’s success with left-wing sympathizers in the United States and Europe. “Progressive” activists on American campuses, enthusiastically following the line of North Vietnamese operatives, had succeeded in re-framing the Vietnam War from a Communist conquest of the South into a struggle for national liberation. An insight into this North Vietnamese PR campaign, which provided the key to the Communist victory and a lesson for PLO operatives, was offered by Ho’s chief strategist, General Giap:

“Stop talking about annihilating Israel and instead turn your terror war into a struggle for human rights. Then you will have the American people eating out of your hand.”

And here in this passage below we see the main objective of the “Falestinians” that they have worked on since Arafat had met with Muhammad Yazid, who had been minister of information in two Algerian wartime ‎governments (1958-1962). Yazid advised Arafat in 1970:‎

‎“Wipe out the argument that Israel is a small state whose existence is threatened by the Arab ‎states, or the reduction of the Palestinian problem to a question of refugees; instead, present ‎the Palestinian struggle as a struggle for liberation like the others. Wipe out the impression ‎‎…that in the struggle between the Palestinians and the Zionists, the Zionist is the underdog. ‎Now it is the Arab who is oppressed and victimized in his existence because he is not only ‎facing the Zionists but also world imperialism.”‎

Arafat became Commander-in-Chief of the Palestinian Revolutionary Forces two years later, and in 1973, became the head of the PLO's political department. Since then the “Falestinians” have worked tirelessly to change the narrative and mold it into their view of distorted historical fact and truth.

On November 29th of 1947 the UN passed the UN resolution 181 to Partition the Mandated Area by a vote of 33 votes in favor, 13 against, 10 abstentions and one absent. The vote allowed the cowardly British to put their tail between their legs and run off. The British, along with their French cohorts had become bankrupted from the costs of World War II. With the rise of Arab nationalism after the Second World War, they had finally loss their ability to “control the peasants” and had begun to flee their former colonies in the Middle East. Arafat describes the outcome of the United Nations November 1947 vote in his speech as;

“As a result of the collusion between the Mandatory Power and the Zionist movement and with the support of some countries, this General Assembly early in its history approved a recommendation to partition our Palestinian homeland. This took place in an atmosphere poisoned with questionable actions and strong pressure. The General Assembly partitioned what it had no right to divide — an indivisible homeland. When we rejected that decision, our position corresponded to that of the natural mother who refused to permit King Solomon to cut her son in two when the unnatural mother claimed the child for herself and agreed to his dismemberment. Furthermore, even though the partition resolution granted the colonialist settlers 54 per cent of the land of Palestine, their dissatisfaction with the decision prompted them to wage a war of terror (!!!?) against the civilian Arab population. They occupied 81 per cent of the total area of Palestine, uprooting a million Arabs. Thus, they occupied 524 Arab towns and villages, of which they destroyed 385, completely obliterating them in the process. Having done so, they built their own settlements and colonies on the ruins of our farms and our groves. The roots of the Palestine question lie here. Its causes do not stem from any conflict between two religions or two nationalisms. Neither is it a border conflict between neighboring States. It is the cause of people deprived of its homeland, dispersed and uprooted, and living mostly in exile and in refugee camps."

Here, Arafat as part of the new "dezinformatsiya" campaign, neglects to tell the whole historical truth. He does not even relate to the fact that Churchill had cut off 72% of the British Mandated Area to buy off [Prince] Abdullah and the chief tribal groups such as the Bani Sakhr, Abadi, Shobaki and Manaseer for a "Hashemite solution in 1921”. 

That this action by the British was done in contradiction to Article 5 of the League Of Nations Mandate that states: 

“The Mandatory shall be responsible for seeing that no Palestine territory shall be ceded or leased to, or in any way placed under the control of the Government of any foreign Power.”

He also fails to mention that 80% of the population of "Jordan" is therefore “Palestinian” and that Transjordan was closed to all Jewish migration and settlement, a clear betrayal of the British promise in the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and a patent contravention of its Mandatory obligations. 

The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is estimated (by impartial sources) to be less than 630,000, while the number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands was estimated to be 950,000. 

He also lays the cornerstone to the new equivilation of the Jews as "colonialist settlers".

In November of 1947 the British who had loss control over the vital oil fields in Iraq finally in essence said to hell with you all and wanted out.

 

The members of the UN; who were” Somewhat" feeling guilty for listening to the Arabs - who over eagerly had joined the Nazis in exterminating the Jews, voted to partition the Mandated Area.

Arafat continues:

“An old world order is crumbling before our eyes, as imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism and racism, the chief form of which is Zionism, ineluctably perish.

The question of Palestine belongs in this perspective of emergence and struggle. Palestine is crucial amongst those just causes fought for unstintingly by masses laboring under imperialism and aggression.”

By his equating "Zionism with Racism and imperialism" the new approach became wildly successful, especially with the moderate Left, which had generally supported the somewhat socialist state of Israel. 

At the 2001 UN Durban Conference on Racism, this approach was refined, focused and amplified. Now Israel was presented as not only denying Palestinians their rights, but as doing so out of an essential racism. The false analogy with South African apartheid was pushed and similar remedies were proposed: de-legitimization, boycotts, divestment, etc.

In 1947 several members of the UN at Lake Success New York believed that by finally heeding the calls of the displaced Jewish survivors of the Holocaust they would be absolved of their complicity in Hitler’s program of extermination. 

So at long last they divided the Mandated Area thereby “washing their hands” for their gross complicity and guilt. 

These countries believed that by assisting the surviving Jews of Europe by allowing them to establish a State they would find forgiveness. These European UN members snickered as they knew full well that the “Jewish State” would be “stillborn” and readily conquered and destroyed by the superior manpower and firepower of the armies of seven sovereign Arab nations.

The Jews of the Yishuv, with their limited resources and lack of arms under threat of annihilation a mere three years after the trauma of the Holocaust, extended their hand in friendship and peace to their neighbors. 

The Arabs of the Mandated Areas divided by internal bickering were urged by their brethren in the Arab League to “stand aside” and to evacuate the area so their “victorious” forces could conquer the area.

Arafat continues:

“As a result of the collusion between the Mandatory Power and the Zionist movement and with the support of some countries, this General Assembly early in its history approved a recommendation to partition our Palestinian homeland. This took place in an atmosphere poisoned with questionable actions and strong pressure. The General Assembly partitioned what it had no right to divide — an indivisible homeland. …we rejected that decision,”

As we all know the Arabs suffered a resounding and ‘inexplicable’ humbling defeat at the hands of the ill equipped numerically inferior Jewish Army. 

Since then the Arabs have used the term “Nachba” or “Catastrophe” to what they describe as the massive power of international Zionism that defeated them.

Arab pride was squashed by the fact that Jews who for two millennium were known as easy prey for all who abused them and never fought back suddenly proved to be brave and resilient fighters. The Arab defeat at the hands of the Jews was too much to bear on the Arab psyche.  

Suddenly in the flames of the Holocaust the Jews of old were reborn, Maccabees of the new age. Yes, there were cases of Jews as fighters but suddenly as a nation we were once again as during the time of David and Solomon brave soldiers defending our homeland.

The image of the brave Little David fighting the giant Goliath followed us until we once again performed a miracle against all odds in 1967. 

But with our victory those who had heeded the empty words of their brothers were kept sealed in dirty, cramped refugee camps. Denied of absorption in Arab lands and imprisoner in "Refugee Camps", the UNWRA teachers teach the children that they are "Palestinians" and that they will "return" to the "homes" in "Palestine". They do not teach them the historical truth nor of "coexistence" and Peace.

Arafat continued:

“They occupied 81 per cent of the total area of Palestine, uprooting a million Arabs. Thus, they occupied 524 Arab towns and villages, of which they destroyed 385, completely obliterating them in the process. Having done so, they built their own settlements and colonies on the ruins of our farms and our groves. The roots of the Palestine question lie here. Its causes do not stem from any conflict between two religions or two nationalisms.”

The members of the UN who voted against partition, who were embarrassed at the massive defeat suffered by the Arabs, demanded and received a special agency, UNWRA, just for their Arab brothers with no set limitation for resettlement so that the Arabs would not have to absorb them into their 22 countries.

And there they are until now. They still reside in squalid refugee camps, sites for perpetuation of hate and revenge. With no hopes for an improvement in life they are taught to seek vengeance and martyrdom. Hatred written into the curriculum of the UNWRA schools not of those who told their parents and grandparents to flee but at the Jews of the hated usurper the “Zionist entity.” In the speech Arafat eloquently spoke of the dispossessed Arabs of the Mandated area in his speech to the UN in 1974 but he blithely fails to mention the unjust expulsion of over 900,000 Jews from Arab lands who were not offered the assistance of a special refugee agency nor any compensation for their loss.

So when Arafat was invited by President: Mr. Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria to address the General Assembly he stated:

 

“The question of Palestine is being re-examined by the United Nations, and we consider that step to be a victory for the world Organization as much as a victory for the cause of our people. It indicates anew that the United Nations of today is not the United Nations of the past, just as today's world is not yesterday's world. Today's United Nations represents 138 nations, a number that more clearly reflects the will of the international community. Thus today's United Nations is more nearly capable of implementing the principles embodied in its Charter and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as being more truly empowered to support causes of peace and justice.”

With each passing year since this speech was made in the General Assembly of the UN, based on the principles of the advice given to Arafat by Giap and Yazid. The demonetization of Israel has gained in momentum. The number of Arab Nations and their allies in the third world sparked by intrigues of the cold war have increased in numbers. With these numbers has come the change of attitude and votes in the United Nations. It’s mission corrupted slowly over time by the manipulations and nefarious actions of the “Falestinian” lies and deception.

In conclusion Arafat actually touched on the real truth of the whole conflict when he said;

“It is the cause of people deprived of its homeland, dispersed and uprooted, and living mostly in exile …".

The sad truth is they will never acknowledge our right to Eretz Yisrael and the sole purpose of the PLO / Hamas is to destroy Israel. Since 1974 this program of annihilation has become far, far more important than helping the innocent "Falestinian Arabs", the everlasting pawns of the Middle East. The "refugees" only exist in order to ultimately destroy Israel. They must remain stateless and miserable or else they are useless to those who oppose the Jewish Homeland. To accept a peace offer as in the Oslo Accords of 1993 is their lowest priority since they are cynically used by their leadership solely for political and financial means.

A Hamas manual on “Urban Warfare”

Shuja'iyya is a  neighborhood district of the Falestinian city of Gaza located to the east of the city center. It is strategically situated on a hill, located across the main Salah al-Din Road that runs north-south throughout the Gaza Strip. While operating in the Shuja’iya neighborhood of the Gaza Strip during Operation Protective Edge. Israeli Army Intelligence found a manual on “Urban Warfare,” which belonged to the Hamas’ military

wing commanded by Mohammed Deif. The manual was found in a tunnel headquarters used by the regional commander in Jabalia of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades Abu Ali Atiye.

The Hamas manual explains how the civilian population can be used against IDF forces and reveals that Hamas knows the IDF is committed to minimizing harm to civilians.
Throughout Operation Protective Edge, Hamas continuously used the civilian population of Gaza as human shields. The discovery of a Hamas “Urban Warfare” manual by IDF forces reveals that Hamas’ callously used the innocent civilian Gazan population in a premeditated intentional and pre-planned method.
This Hamas urban warfare manual exposes two truths:
(1) The terror group knew full well that the IDF will do what it can to limit civilian casualties.
(2) The terror group exploits these efforts by using civilians as human shields against advancing IDF forces.

In a portion entitled “Limiting the Use of Weapons,” the manual explains that:
"The soldiers and commanders (of the IDF) must limit their use of weapons and tactics that lead to the harm and unnecessary loss of people and [destruction of] civilian facilities. It is difficult for them to get the most use out of their firearms, especially of supporting fire [e.g. artillery]."

It is amply clear that Hamas knew that the IDF would limit its use of weapons in order to avoid harming civilians to the point of refraining from using larger firepower to support infantry. Thereby exposing IDF units to Hamas's intended cynical use of "Human Shields" and therefore giving the terrorists the opportunity to inflict greater casualties on Israel forces and to use any loses of "Human Shields" as a propaganda item to defame Israel.

In a portion entitled “Limiting the Use of Weapons,” the manual explains that:

The soldiers and commanders (of the IDF) must limit their use of weapons and tactics that lead to the harm and unnecessary loss of people and [destruction of] civilian facilities. It is difficult for them to get the most use out of their firearms, especially of supporting fire [e.g. artillery].

The manual goes on to explain this in full. That the “presence of civilians are pockets of resistance” that cause three major problems for advancing troops:

(1) Problems with opening fire
(2) Problems in controlling the civilian population during operations and afterward
(3) Assurance of supplying medical care to civilians who need it.

The Hamas manual discusses the benefits for Hamas when civilian homes are destroyed: "The destruction of civilian homes will be used to increase the hatred of the citizens towards the attackers [the IDF] and increases their gathering [support] around the city defenders (Hamas resistance forces)."  Furthermore instructions are given to Hamas field operatives in the "resistance", serving as western media  photo journalists and cameramen, to manipulate the foreign news correspondents that they work for as they "escort" them to photograph and film the destroyed homes as backdrops for garnishing sympathy in the Western Media.

It is quite clear by the instructions outlined in the Manual that Hamas intentionally desired the destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure, knowing full well it will increase hatred for the IDF and inflame world public opinion.

The IDF Golani Brigade fought a major heroic battle in the neighborhood of Shuja’iya, which had been turned into a terrorist stronghold and a center for tunnels meant to be used to spring a horrific terrorist attacks on Jewish civilians in Moshavim, kibbutzim and towns along the border. The discovery of this manual suggests it was of no small importance that this manual belongs to the Shuja’iya Brigade. That the destruction in Shuja’iya was always part of Hamas’ battle plan.

Deir Yassin

One of the most argued about and contested incidents in the 1948 Israeli War of Independence; or as the Arabs of the Mandated areas refer to it as the Nackba-The Catastrophe, is the incident at the village of Deir Yassin on April 9^th, 1948.

The location of the village of Deir Yassin was strategically situated on a hill top astride the western approach to Jerusalem from the coastal region. The highly strategic importance of the heights on the Western approach to Jerusalem from the coastal plain had been noted by the leader of the German forces in World War I German General Erich von Falkenhayn. He had noted that whoever could control the ridge would be able to block access to Jerusalem from the direction of the coastal plain. So he had ordered the area to be heavily fortified with trenches and bunkers by the Ottoman Turkish Army. It was these very same positions prepared by the Turks in WWI that were refurbished by elements of the (Jaysh al-Jihad al-Muqaddas) or Holy War Army in early 1948.

Abd-el-Khader al-Husayni

The Jaysh al-Jihad al-Muqaddas  or Holy War Army was an Irregular Arab force that was led by Abd-el-Khader al-Husayni who was a nephew of the Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Hussein. The Headquarters of the Holy War Army was stationed nearby in the strategically located Arab village of Al-Qastal, named for a Crusader castle Belveer or Beauverium, built by the Crusaders around 1168 CE, located on the hilltop. Al-Qastal was a key position on the Jaffa-Jerusalem road that was used by Arab forces to besiege the Jews of Jerusalem. 

The Mufti at Deir Yassin

The“Casus belli” to justify the attack on Deir Yassin was the blockading of roads to isolated Jewish settlements which was part of the Arab plan for genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine, announced by the Arab League.

Here is a listing of attacks committed against Jews, after the Partition Vote, while the British were still in control of the occupation of the Mandate. Once again these were incidents prior to their departure and the declaration of Israel’s independence.

On Mar 18, 1948 al-Husayni's Arab Irregulars together with Arab civilians from surrounding villages attacked a Jewish convoy on the Shaar Hagay Hartuv road near Jerusalem. The convoy remained stranded on the road, unable to move. The Arabs, positioned on both sides of the road on the high strategic ridges opened fire and 10 Jews were murdered and their bodies butchered and burned.

Than on March 20,1948 al-Husayni's Arab Irregulars force attack the Tsuba quarry (near Motza on road to Jerusalem) 3 Jewish unarmed civilian workers were murdered.

Four days later al-Husayni's Arab Irregulars attack two Jewish convoys to Jerusalem one near Shaar Hagai (Bab El Wad) were the battle lasts six hours and 3 Jews are murdered and 7 wounded. Some of the convoy returns to Hulda, some manages to run the boulder strewn roadway to get through to Jerusalem. The Attack on the second convoy that day was moving civilian food supplies to Atarot north of Jerusalem 14 Jews were murdered and 9 wounded.

On March 26,1948 a Jewish supply convoy attempts to reach the beseiged city of Jerusalem but is repulsed and the road blocked. Part of the "war of the roads" during the period was an attack on the Nebi Daniel Convoy which occured on March 27,1948. Nebi Daniel is located on the road between Jerusalem and the Etzion bloc (Gush Etzion), near Bethlehem. The Haganah had no resources to extricate the convoy. Reluctantly, Shaltiel, CO Jerusalem district, contacted the Jerusalem unarmed, as part of the deal they made with the Arabs. 15 Jews are murdered and 73 wounded.

British and ask for their help. The British did nothing until the following day. The British stipulated that the Jewish troops had to surrender their arms and return to Tel Aviv.

On March 31,1948 another convoy attempts to breach the seige but 21 Jews are murdered and 16 wounded. The convoy is cancelled.

On April 2, 1948, the inhabitants of Deir Yassin began sniping at the Jewish Quarters of Bet Hakerem and Yefe Nof. According to reports by the Shai (Haganah Intelligence) elements of the (Jaysh al-Jihad al-Muqaddas) or Holy War Army were constructing fortifications in the village and a large quantity of arms were being stockpiled there by al-Husayni's Arab Irregulars which included foreign fighters and Iraqi soldiers.

An Arab research study conducted at Bir Zeit University (near Ramallah) also relate that the men of Deir Yassin took an active part in violent acts against Jewish targets and that many of the men of the village fought in the battle for Kastel, together with Abd-el-Kadr el-Husseini. The report also stated that trenches had been dug at the entry to the village, and that more than 100 men had been trained and equipped with rifles and Bren guns. A local guard force had been set up and 40 inhabitants guarded the village every night. (Knaana Sherif, “The Palestinian villages destroyed in 1948 - Deir Yassin”. Bir Zeit University, Documentation and Research Department 1987).

Palestinian irregulars moving to counterattack Haganah
 positions in Al-Qastal, 7–8 April 1948

On April 3 the Palmach's Harel Brigade during Operation Nachshon, launches an assault on the village of Al-Qastal succeeds causing almost all the inhabitants of to flee. Palmach troops occupied the village, but its commander was refused permission to blow up the houses.

On April 8, 1948 Al-Husayni himself was killed by a Jewish sentry on April 8, when he wanders into the Jewish held Qastel thinking it is in Arab hands. Forces under Abd-el-Khader al-Husayni recaptured the village Al-Qastal from the Palmach searching for Abd-el-Khader, then abandon it when his body is found. 39 Jews and 31 Arabs are killed in the intense fighting.
Al-Husayni's death is said to have been a factor in the loss of morale among his forces. Many left their positions to attend al-Husayni's funeral at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday, April 9. Palmach troops retook the village on the night of April 8-9th and they blew up what was left standing of the abandoned houses and made the hill a command post.

The Incident at Deir Yassin April 9, 1948

The Hagannah Intelligence (Shai) report from the 2^nd of April 1948 noted the presence of heavily armed fighters, from the (Jaysh al-Jihad al-Muqaddas) or Holy War Army led by Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni in the village."
On the thirtieth of March Mordehai Gihon reported “One hundred and fify men, mostly Iraqis, entered Deir Yassin.

The inhabitants were leaving, for fear of the foreign troops and reprisal operations by the Jews."

When the ETZEL and LECHI (Stern gang) forces were assembled for the attack to capture the village, they were given strict orders in advance to the fighters not to harm the elderly, women and children. It was also stated explicitly that any Arab who surrendered was to be taken prisoner.

In order to prevent unnecessary casualties, it had been decided that the strike force would be preceded by an armored car equipped with a loudspeaker, which would enter the village ahead of the troops. 

An Iraqi-born Jew, who spoke fluent Arabic, called out to the residents that the village was surrounded by Irgun and Lehi fighters, and to leave via the western exit from Deir Yassin for Ein Karem which the attackers had left clear for that purpose or to surrender. Soon after entering the town, however, the truck was hit by Arab gunfire and careened into a ditch.

It is very important to note that the Arabs themselves did not deny the use of a loudspeaker; indeed, an Arab League publication entitled "Israeli Aggression" stated: "On the night of April 9, 1948, the peaceful Arab village of Deir Yassin was surprised by a loudspeaker, which called on the population to evacuate it immediately."

The attackers left open an escape corridor from the village and more than 200 residents left unharmed.
For example, at 9:30 A.M., about five hours after the fighting started, the Lehi evacuated 40 old men, women and children on trucks and took them to a base in Sheikh Bader. Later, the Arabs were taken to East Jerusalem.
Starting at 2:00 P.M., residents were taken out of the village. The trucks passed through the Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim after the Sabbath had begun, so the neighborhood people cursed and spit at them, not because they were Arabs, but because the vehicles were desecrating the Sabbath. Seeing the Arabs in the hands of Jews also helped raise the morale of the people of Jerusalem who were despondent from the setbacks in the fighting to that point.
Another source says 70 women and children were taken away and turned over to the British. If the intent was to massacre the inhabitants, no one would have been evacuated.

At 2 a.m. the Irgun fighters, commanded by Ben-Zion Cohen (Giora), were driven from the Etz Hayim base to Bet Hakerem. The force moved into the wadi (riverbed), where the squads split up, each squad climbing up the terraced slope to its allotted field of action. The Lehi unit assembled at Givat Shaul and proceeded from there towards the target. Some of the force advanced behind the armored car which was proceeding along the path towards the center of the village.

Close to 4:45 am, the village guards spotted suspicious movements. One of them called out in Arabic: 'Mahmoud'; an Irgun fighter, mishearing the cry, thought that someone had shouted the password 'Ahdut' (Solidarity) and responded with the second half of the password in Hebrew: 'Lohemet'. The Arabs opened fire and shooting commenced from all sides.

The armored car advanced along the path and, on reaching the outskirts of the village, encountered a trench and was forced to come to a halt. The loudspeaker was switched on and the message was read out. Heavy fire was directed at the armored car from the adjacent houses and the fighters trapped inside had to be rescued. Injuries were reported, and a first-aid unit set out from Givat Shaul towards the armored car.

The other units began their attack, but Arab resistance was strong, and every house became an armed fortress. Fierce fighting was conducted from house to house. Many of the attackers were injured in the first onslaught, including a number of commanders who had been advancing ahead of their units.

After the center of the village had been occupied, all the wounded were concentrated in one of the courtyards and ways were sought to evacuate them. It turned out that the road to Givat Shaul was impassable because of gunfire from the Mukhtar's or Village leader’s house, which stood on a hilltop overlooking the area.

Since the fighting was taking place in a built-up area, the pace was slow, and both sides suffered heavy losses. In order to silence the source of gunfire, the fighters were forced to use hand-grenades, and in some cases even to blow up houses. There was firing from all sides and half the attackers were put out of action. On top of this, the remaining fighters suffered a shortage of ammunition. Michael Harif: “My unit stormed and passed the first row of houses. I was among the first to enter the village. There were a few other guys with me, each encouraging the other to advance. At the top of the street I saw a man in khaki clothing running ahead. I thought he was one of ours. I ran after him and told him, “advance to that house.” Suddenly he turned around, aimed his rifle and shot. He was an Iraqi soldier. I was hit in the foot"

A report on the course of the battle was transmitted by courier to Hagannah headquarters at Givat Shaul. When word started coming in about the number of casualties and ammunition shortage, several Lehi people went to the Schneller camp and asked a Palmach unit to come to the attackers aid after receiving the consent of the brigade HQ. The Palmach troops set out in an armored car, equipped with a machine-gun and a two-inch mortar. On arrival in the village, they fired several shells and machine-gun rounds at the Mukhtar's house. At that very moment, without prior co-ordination with the Palmach, Yosef Avni charged and captured the Mukhtar's house. With the Mukhtar's house now occupied, firing ceased and the occupation of the village was completed.

When the fighting was over, it was discovered that hundreds of villagers had retreated to Ein Karem, taking advantage of the fact that the road was open. Those who remained in the village surrendered and were taken prisoner. The prisoners, mostly women and children, were loaded onto trucks and taken to East Jerusalem, where they were handed over to their Arab brethren.

One of the major points to consider in the assault by Irgun forces was the unprecedented step at taken at Deir Yassin by the Etzel leadership by installing a loudspeaker system on an armored car to inform the population that the road to Ein Karem was open and safe, and that whoever left the village would not be harmed. The strike force was actually prepared to forfeit the surprise element of battle in order to issue these instructions and thus to prevent Arab civilian casualty. This unprecedented act is forgotten in the libelous lies of the Arabs of a “massacre”

Thirdly, it is universally agreed that there was bitter fighting at Deir Yassin. More than 100 Arab fighters were well equipped and had large amounts of ammunition. The Arabs occupied fortified positions in stone buildings, while the attackers were exposed to enemy fire. The fierce gunfire directed from the houses forced the attackers to charge, throw grenades and, in several cases, to blow up houses. As a consequence, women and children were among the dead.

According to all the documents and testimonies, it is clear today that fewer than one hundred Arabs were killed at Deir Yassin, and not the 240 as published.
Moreover, this was the first instance in the War of Independence where battle had taken place in a built-up area, and such fighting typically claims numerous victims. For the same reason, the number of Irgun and Lehi members injured by Arab fire was 35% of the force (5 dead and 35 wounded).

All the Arab casualties were killed in the course of the fighting. Villagers - men, women and children - who surrendered, were taken prisoner and came to no harm. When the firing ceased, they were transported by truck to East Jerusalem and handed over to their Arab brethren. This is confirmed in the eye witness testimonies.

The Deir Yassin affair had a strong impact on the course of the War of Independence; the battle was summed up as follows in the "History of the War of Independence", prepared by the History Division of the IDF General Staff:

“The assault on the strategic heights near Deir Yassin was publicized throughout the world as a "Massacre" means of causing great harm to the reputation of the new born State of Israel and the Jewish Zionist movement and the"Yishuv". 

The world press that disseminated the story at the time, based the story solely on the Arab point of view and due to the conflict being waged Jewish sources either could not or did not wish to relate to the lies and false accusations until later. It is intentionally overlooked and forgotten that at the time the seriousness of the perilous predicament of the Yishuv. The Jews of Eretz Yisrael were engaged in a "fight for their life" it was a matter of life and death survival.

The meager forces of the Hagannah had yet received "State" status and could not bring in "heavy weapons" such as, artillery, mortars. machine guns. Much of the arsenal of Jewish resistance was home made. Quantities of ammunition was scarce.
Jewish forces were under attack by well armed forces from seven Arab League armies who as Military forces of countries did possess and use "heavy weapons" such as, tanks, armored cars, artillery, mortars. machine guns. Ben Gurion shuffled his lightly armed Jewish forces between locations. They were spread out and embattled.

There were countless incidents were Jews were being caught under-fire in the joint cities and butchered by Arab Irregulars on the roads. Not one Jewish settlement was not under attack many cut-off.

The Deir Yassin affair indubitably served to expedite the collapse of the Arab hinterland in the period which followed much more than the incident in itself. This was achieved primarily by the publicity it received from Arab news sources. They manipulated the story to make it seem that the Jews were barbaric savages bent on their destruction and to instill in them a desire for vengeance, as witnessed four days later on April 13,1948 in the massacre of a medical convoy to Hadassah hospital.  Evidently, it had the tacit approval of the British authorities. About 80 Jewish, mostly medical personnel and injured patients were killed in an ambush. A month later on May 12,1948 129 survivors of Gush Etzion who had surrendered were also massacred. Arabs have seized upon the Deir Yassin attack as an excuse for "reprisals."”

Eye witnesses testimony 

Hazen Nusseibeh, an editor of the Palestine Broadcasting Service's Arabic news in 1948, was interviewed for the BBC television series "Israel and the Arabs: the 50-year conflict." He describes an encounter with Deir Yassin survivors and Palestinian leaders,including Dr. Hussein Khalidi, the secretary of the Arab Higher Committee, at the Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem's Old City."I asked Dr. Khalidi how we should cover the story," recalled Nusseibeh, now living in Amman. He said, "We must make the most of this". So we wrote a press release stating that at Deir Yassin children were murdered, pregnant women were raped and there were all sorts of atrocities. 

A Deir Yassin survivor, identified as Abu Mahmud, said the villagers protested at the time. "We said, 'there was no rape.' Khalidi said, 'We have to say this, so the Arab armies will come to liberate Palestine from the Jews'."

Mohammed Radwan, who was a resident of Deir Yassi in 1948, said; "I know when I speak that God is up there and God knows the truth and God will not forgive the liars." He listed in his own handwriting the number of villagers killed at 93. "There were no Rapes,it's all lies. There were no pregnant women who were slit open. It was propaganda that... Arabs put out so Arab the armies would invade" he said. "They ended up expelling people from all of Palestine on the rumor of Deir Yassin." "Deir Yassin a casualty of guns and propaganda", by Paul Holmes (Reuters)

Ayish Zeidan, known as Haj Ayish was a teenager from Deir Yassin. "We heard shooting. My mother did not want us to look out of the window. I fled with my sister, but my mother and my other sisters could not make it. They hid in the cellar for four days and then ran away.' "I never believed that more than 110 people had died at Deir Yassin, and I accuse Arab leaders of exaggerating the atrocities." and "'There had been no rape', he said. 'The Arab radio at the time talked of women being killed and raped, but this is not true. I believe that most of those who were killed were among the fighters and the women and children who helped the fighters.'

In this recounting of the incident of Deir Yassin from the book; "War Without End", by Anton La Guardia written fifty years after the conflict we can see the effect of the negative Jewish point of view:

“Early in the morning of Friday, April 9, 1948, members of the Irgun, headed by Menachem Begin, and the Stern Gang attacked Deir Yassin, a village of about 750 Arab residents. It was less than a month before the end of the British Mandate on May 14th,1948. The village lay astride a major route to Jerusalem adjacent to some strategic hill top positions outside of the area that the United Nations recommended to be included in a future Jewish State. It was "reported"that the village of Deir Yassin had a peaceful reputation and was even said by a Jewish newspaper to have driven out some Arab "militants". But it was located on high ground in the corridor between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and one plan, kept secret until years afterwards, called for it to be destroyed and the residents evacuated to make way for a small airfield that would supply the beleaguered Jewish residents of Jerusalem. By noon over 100 people, half of them women and children, had been systematically murdered. Four commandos died at the hands of resisting Palestinians using old Mausers and muskets. Twenty-five male villagers were loaded into trucks, paraded through the Zikhron Yosef quarter in Jerusalem, and then taken to a stone quarry along the road between Givat Shaul and Deir Yassin and shot to death. The remaining residents were driven to Arab East Jerusalem."

La Guardia  does begin the section accurately with his description of the extreme importance that Deir Yassin had to the beseigured Jewish residents of Jerusalem in that "it was located on high ground in the corridor between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem". And now comes the "Twist" that Arab apologists have asserted for years that,"one plan, kept secret until years afterwards.....called for it to be destroyed and the residents evacuated to make way for a small airfield ." Now if the reader were not pro-Israeli to begin with, or had NO knowledge of geography and topography they would buy into this "excuse"
 However that is not the case since as he previously stated,"... it was located on high ground." Correct me if I am wrong but doesn't an airfield need wide open flat spaces?
By the way the closet airport, Atarot Airport is located to the north here is a view of the area from above. Judge for yourself.

Now as to La Guardia's statement; "Four commandos died at the hands of resisting Palestinians using old Mausers and muskets." This is the apologists excuse that those who did the fighting in Deir Yassin were simple residents from the village. Yet, we are told by British CID and Hagannah SHAI sources that the ridge area was controlled by, "a large heavily armed force of elements of the (Jaysh al-Jihad al-Muqaddas) or Holy War Army.

After the attack the Irgunists and the Sternists escorted a group foreign correspondents to a house in the Jewish neighborhood of Givat Shaul, that had been founded in 1906. At the meeting they laid out the details of the operation and the reasoning behind it. One of the reasons was the housing of elements of the Grand Mufti’s (Jaysh al-Jihad al-Muqaddas) or Holy War Army led by Abd-el-Khader al-Husayni in homes in the village of  Deir Yassin. It had become a concentration point for Arabs, including Syrians and Iraqis, planning to attack the Jewish Convoys to Jerusalem and the western suburbs of Jerusalem.

They said that 25 members of the Haganah militia had reinforced the attack and claimed that an Arabic-speaking Jew had warned the villagers over a loudspeaker from an armored car. This was duly reported in The New York Times on April 10.

A final body count of 254 was reported by The New York Times on April 13, a day after they were finally buried.

By then the leaders of the Haganah had distanced themselves from having participated in the attack and issued a statement denouncing the dissidents of Irgun and the Stern Gang, just as they had after the attack on the King David Hotel in July 1946.

Okay so let’s review what was just said.

• The village of Deir Yassin lay astride a major route to Jerusalem adjacent to some strategic hill top positions.
• There were reports that Deir Yassin had become a concentration point for Arab irregulars, including Syrians and Iraqis, planning to attack the western suburbs of Jerusalem.
• There were attacks almost daily on Jewish convoys attempting to reach besieged Jerusalem from the heights near the village.
• A 1987 study undertaken by Birzeit University's Center for Research and Documentation of Palestinian Society found "the numbers of those killed does not exceed 120".

Earlier in the story I presented the eyewitness testimony Mohammed Radwan, who was a resident of Deir Yassi in 1948, who said;

"I know when I speak that God is up there and God knows the truth and God will not forgive the liars." 

He listed in his own handwriting the number of villagers killed at 93." Radwan's number "chives" with that of of Birzeit University. So what is the real truth?

The Aftermath

The Haganah leaders, who were eager to embarrass the Revisionists forces of the Irgun and Lechi and down play their importance prior to the foundation of the State, admitted that the massacre; "disgraced the cause of Jewish fighters and dishonored Jewish arms and the Jewish flag." The Haganah played down the fact that they had participated and had acted as reinforcements in the assault. Leader of the Irgun Menachem Begin's acknowledged this by stating for the record that, "Deir Yassin was captured with the knowledge of the Haganah and with the approval of its commander" even though they did not participate in the actual attack. 

As to the notoriety that Palestinian apologists have attached to Deir Yassin it should be noted that they were quick to cry out that there was barbarism and looting during the subsequent "mopping up" operations. Yet they failed to note their own barbarity in their assaults on the settlements of Gush Etzion and the Old City.

There are many who accuse the two groups the ETZEL and the Stern Gang of a “horrific act” and “atrocity” and as the one impetus for the mass fleeing of Arabs, but was it? 

According to recordings of Arab League radio broadcasts from the time, heard by the local Arab population throughout the country. They were induced to believe wild tales of "Irgun butchery" and they were seized with limitless panic and started to flee for their lives. Remember my quote from Mohammed Radwan, "There were no Rapes,it's all lies."  and  Hazen Nusseibeh, "I asked Dr. Khalidi how we should cover the story," recalled Nusseibeh, now living in Amman. He said, "We must make the most of this". So we wrote a press release stating that at Deir Yassin children were murdered, pregnant women were raped and there were all sorts of atrocities." 

The mass flight of the Arab population soon developed into a maddened, uncontrollable stampede. The political and economic significance of this development was understood by the Jewish leadership and its’ effect was not overestimated. That is why Jewish Leadership and the Hagannah forces went out of their way to plead with the Arabs to stay and not to fall for the lies of the Arab radio broadcasts. On the other hand no one remembers the strident calls by the Mufti of Jerusalem and the Arab League leaders to “make way” for the “victorious” Arab armies? The Arabs frightened into fleeing  and by the false lies of their brethren in the invading armies began their journey into the "Catastrophe" or "Nachba".

In the end after the attack, of about 144 houses, only 10 were dynamited. With the declaration of the State of Israel and while the conflict was raging thousands of homeless Jewish refugees poured into the new state. The doors that had been slammed shut at the urging of the Arabs to the British were now flung open. The acute need for housing for the thousands of homeless Jewish refugees was a priority. By September, Orthodox Jewish immigrants from Poland, Rumania, and Slovakia were settled there as the neighborhood of Givat Shaul Bet. Over the years as Jerusalem expanded, the land became part of the city and it is now known simply as the area between Givat Shaul and the settlement of Har Nof on the western slopes of the mountain.

Treatment of Arabs Of the Mandated Area.

This Blog is dedicated in memory of three young teenaged men who were murdered in cold blood solely because they were Jews.

With the cold blooded murder of the three innocent Israeli teenagers: 

Eyal Yifrah z"l, 19, from Elad, 

Gil-Ad Shayer z"l, 16 from Talmon

 and Naftali Frenkel z"l, 16, from Nof Ayalon.

Marwan Qawasmeh. picture here on the left, is one of the two DNA confirmed suspects for the abduction and murder of the three Israeli youths who were brought to their final resting place on July 1. Before they were murdered, one of the youths succeeded in calling the police and reported that he had been abducted. In the Emergency Call recording one can clearly discern the voices of the abductors on the police recording screaming at them to put their heads down and their hands up before a rapid volley of shots from an automatic pistol and the sounds of the last dying groans of pain of the young men are heard. The Emergency Call recording leaves absolutely no doubt about it: The three youths were killed in cold blood, at point-blank range, only a few minutes after they entered the car apparently driven by Marwan Qawasmeh and the second abductor, Amar Abu Aisha who are heard in the continuation of the recording sing a song of praise to glorify their horrendous achievement with utter joy!

Just so those, who are Liberal bleeding hearts and Pro-"Falestinian" HOIZs - Haters of Israel and Zionism, will allow their one cell amoebic mind to understand just who we in Israel are dealing with here is a nominal list of Qawasmeh family members. Next to each name is the terrorist act or acts in which the individual was partner with, or which he masterminded and planned:

Hamza al-Qawasmeh: Together with another terrorist, Hamza murdered Israeli Netanel Ozeri in his home in Givat Harsina in Hebron, January 2003. In the attack, Ozeri's 5-year-old daughter was also wounded.

Mahmud Amadan Salim Qawasmeh committed the suicide attack on Bus 37 in Haifa in March 2003. Seventeen Israelis were murdered in that attack. The Israeli ID card of Amadan Qawasmeh was found on the bus, with a letter in his handwriting in which he glorifies suicide terrorists who carried out attacks in Israel as well as the perpetrators of the Twin Towers attack on the United States in September 2001.

Hazam al-Qawasmeh: In March 2003, he committed a shooting attack in Kiryat Arba in which two Israelis were killed.

Fuad al-Qawasmeh committed the suicide attack in Gross Square in Hebron, May 2003, in which Dina and Gadi Levy were killed.

Muhsan al-Qawasmeh: On the eve of the Jewish New Year (September 2003), he broke into a home on the Negohot settlement in the Southern Hebron Hills, and murdered Eyal Yeberbaum and his baby daughter, Shaked, while they were sitting down for their meal.

Raad Misk Qawasmeh committed the suicide attack on Jerusalem Bus 2 in August 2003. In that attack, 23 people were killed, of which seven were children. This attack put an end to the hudna (cease-fire) that had been declared 52 days earlier at the initiative of [current Palestinian President] Mahmoud Abbas, then the Palestinian prime minister, and encompassed all the Palestinian organizations including Hamas with the blessings of its leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. In retaliation for this attack, Israel initiated a wave of elimination of Hamas political leaders. The first to pay with his life for the actions of the Hebron family was senior Hamas official Ismail Abu Shanab from Gaza.

Abbedallah al-Qawasmeh, head of Hamas' military wing in Hebron, was eliminated in an action by Israel's special police unit for counter-terror Warfare (Yamam in June 2003. Abbedallah was replaced by his cousin Bassal Qawasmeh, who was also eliminated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Afterward, Imad Qawasmeh was appointed head of the military wing.

Imad planned the double suicide attack in Beersheba (August 2004) in which 16 Israelis were killed. This attack shattered the understandings reached by Israel and Hamas six months earlier, regarding cessation of the attacks (on Israelis) and of the eliminations (of Hamas leaders).

Imad Qawasmeh was not picky when he recruited suicide terrorists and sent his cousin Ahmed Qawasmeh and another terrorist, Nassim Subhi Jabari, to commit the suicide mission in Beersheba. In addition, to recruit suicide terrorists, Imad worked together with his cousin Abbedallah with a bunch of boys who played soccer close to the university in Hebron in a group they called ''the al-Jihad Mosque team.'' All the group's players were recruited for terror activities. Some were members of the Qawasmeh clan (Fuad, Hamza, Muhsan and others), while others were neighbors or acquaintances of the family (such as Basam a-Takruri who committed the attack in Jerusalem's French Hill neighborhood).

But Imad, the recruiter and handler of suicide terrorists, did not fall on his own sword. When the IDF surrounded the house in which he hid in Hebron in October 2003, and bulldozers started pushing down the house walls to collapse it, Imad chose to live and gave himself up to the soldiers of the Egoz Reconnaissance unit soldiers. 

In light of the recent atrocious terror attacks, hideous outright lying headlines in the world media and Palliwood productions. I have thought, as many Israelis have, "What should be done to punish those "Falestinians" responsible for these heinous crimes."
So let us take a moment to look of just how the enlightened, civilized and highly moralistic British Empire would and did react to Arab terror.
So here is the role of the Mandate Government and the British Army during the Arab Revolt of 1936-1938 - taken from Wikipedia

"The second phase of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, which began late in 1937, was a violent and peasant-led resistance movement that increasingly targeted British forces.  During this phase, the rebellion was brutally suppressed by the British Army and the Palestine Police Force using repressive measures that were intended to intimidate the Arab population and undermine popular support for the revolt Military law allowed swift prison sentences to be passed. Thousands of Arabs were held in administrative detention, without trial, and without proper sanitation, in overcrowded prison camps.

The British had already formalized the principle of collective punishment in Palestine in the 1924–1925 Collective Responsibility and Punishment Ordinances and updated these ordinances in 1936 with the Collective Fines Ordinance. These collective fines (amounting to £1,000,000 over the revolt) eventually became a heavy burden for poor Palestinian villagers, especially when the army also confiscated livestock, destroyed properties, imposed long curfews and established police posts, demolished houses and detained some or all of the Arab men in distant detention camps.

The main form of collective punishment employed by the British forces was destruction of property. Sometimes entire villages were reduced to rubble, as happened to Mi'ar in October 1938; more often several prominent houses were blown up and others were trashed inside.

 

The biggest single act of destruction occurred in Jaffa on 16 June 1936, when large gelignite charges were used to cut long pathways through the old city, destroying 220–240 buildings and rendering up to 6,000 Arabs homeless.  Scathing criticism for this action from Palestine Chief Justice Sir Michael McDonnell was not well received by the administration and the judge was soon removed from the country. Villages were also frequently punished by fines and confiscation of livestock.  The British even used sea mines from the battleship HMS Malaya to destroy houses.

In addition to actions against property, a large amount of brutality by the British forces occurred, including beatings, torture and extrajudicial killings. A surprisingly large number of prisoners were "shot while trying to escape".  Several incidents involved serious atrocities, such as massacres at al-Bassa and Halhul.  Desmond Woods, an officer of the Royal Ulster Rifles, described the massacre at al-Bassa:

“Now I will never forget this incident ... We were at al-Malikiyya, the other frontier base and word came through about 6 o'clock in the morning that one of our patrols had been blown up and Millie Law [the dead officer] had been killed. Now Gerald Whitfeld [Lieutenant-Colonel G.H.P. Whitfeld, the battalion commander] had told these mukhtars that if any of this sort of thing happened he would take punitive measures against the nearest village to the scene of the mine. Well the nearest village to the scene of the mine was a place called al-Bassa and our Company C were ordered to take part in punitive measures. And I will never forget arriving at al-Bassa and seeing the Rolls Royce armoured cars of the 11th Hussars peppering Bassa with machine gun fire and this went on for about 20 minutes and then we went in and I remembered we had lighted braziers and we set the houses on fire and we burnt the village to the ground ... Monty had him [the battalion commander] up and he asked him all about it and Gerald Whitfeld explained to him. He said "Sir, I have warned the mukhtars in these villages that if this happened to any of my officers or men, I would take punitive measures against them and I did this and I would've lost control of the frontier if I hadn't." Monty said "All right but just go a wee bit easier in the future."”

 As well as destroying the village the RUR and men from the Royal Engineers collected around fifty men from al-Bassa and blew some of them up with explosion under a bus. Harry Arrigonie, a policeman who was present said that about twenty men were put onto a bus; those who tried to escape were shot and then the driver of the bus was forced to drive over a powerful land mine buried by the soldiers which completely destroyed the bus, scattering the mutilated bodies of the prisoners everywhere. The other villagers were then forced to bury the bodies in a pit.

Despite these measures Lieutenant-General Haining, the General Officer Commanding, reported secretly to the Cabinet on 1 December 1938 that "practically every village in the country harbours and supports the rebels and will assist in concealing their identity from the Government Forces." Haining reported the method for searching villages:

A cordon round the area to be searched is first established either by troops or aircraft and the inhabitants are warned that anybody trying to break through the cordon is likely to be shot. As literally hundreds of villages have been searched, in some cases more than once, during the  past six months this procedure is well-known and it can be safely assumed that cordon-breakers have good reasons for wishing to avoid the troops. A number of such cordon-breakers have been shot during searches and it is probable that such cases form the basis of the propaganda that Arab prisoners are shot in cold blood and reported as "killed while trying to escape". After the cordon is established the troops enter the village and all male inhabitants are collected for identification and interrogation.

In addition to actions against villages the British Army also conducted punitive actions in the cities. In Nablus in August 1938 almost 5,000 men were held in a cage for two days and interrogated one after another. During their detention the city was searched and then each of the detainees was marked with a rubber stamp on his release. At one point a night curfew was imposed on most of the cities.

It was common British army practice to make local Arabs ride with military convoys to prevent mine attacks and sniping incidents: soldiers would tie the hostages to the hoods of trucks, or put them on small flatbeds on the front of trains.  

The army told the hostages that any of them who tried to run away would be shot. On some of the trucks, soldiers would brake hard at the end of a journey and then casually drive over the hostage, killing or maiming him, as Arthur Lane, a Manchester Regiment private recalled:

“ ... when you'd finished your duty you would come away nothing had happened no bombs or anything and the driver would switch his wheel back and to make the truck waver and the poor wog on the front would roll off into the deck. Well if he was lucky he'd get away with a broken leg but if he was unlucky the truck behind coming up behind would hit him. But nobody bothered to pick up the bits they were left. You know we were there we were the masters we were the bosses and whatever we did was right ... Well you know you don't want him any more. He's fulfilled his job. And that's when Bill Usher [the commanding officer] said that it had to stop because before long they'd be running out of bloody rebels to sit on the bonnet.”

British troops also left Arab wounded on the battlefield to die and maltreated Arab fighters taken in battle, so much so that the rebels tried to remove their wounded or dead from the field of battle. Sometimes, soldiers would occupy villages, expel all of the inhabitants and remain for months. The Army even burned the bodies of "terrorists" to prevent their funerals becoming the focus of protests.

In 1936 an Air Staff Officer in Middle East Command based in Egypt, Arthur Harris, known as an advocate of "air policing", commented on the revolt saying that:

 "one 250 lb. or 500 lb. bomb in each village that speaks out of turn would satisfactorily solve the problem." 

In 1937 Harris was promoted to Air Commodore and in 1938 he was posted to Palestine and Trans-Jordan as Air Officer Commanding the RAF contingent in the region until September 1939.

"Limited" bombing attacks on Arab villages were carried out by the RAF,  although at times this involved razing whole villages to the ground. Harris described the system by which recalcitrant villages were kept under control by aerial bombardment as "Air-Pin""