After their exile in 1948, Palestinians were stripped of their private property in a process of systematic weaponized dispossession.
While many in the Arab world and elsewhere are aware of these and other outrages committed by Zionism, Israeli political historian Adam Raz describes this in his latest book, Spoils of War. It details its role in the creation of Palestinian refugees and shows how Israel’s first prime minister, David Benn, played a role in the creation of Palestinian refugees. – Gurion politically manipulated the process.
Raz’s book was first published in Hebrew four years ago and is now available in English with a translation by Philip Hollander.
Amidst the horrors of Israel’s recent war against Palestine, this publication is particularly timely in that it reveals the roots of Zionism.
“Raz’s groundbreaking work meticulously depicts the looting of Palestine during the 1948 war, in which Israeli fighters and others participated in the theft of the belongings of former Arab neighbors. ”
Drawing on more than 30 archives, the author documents how Jews, the generation that founded Israel, plundered Palestinian property before and after the 1948 war.
Raz also said that because the looting took place in public, Jewish leaders, including Ben-Gurion, knew what was happening and that despite some expressing disapproval. , also showed that it did little.
Raz, of the Akebot Institute for the Study of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, uses primary sources to elucidate the Nakba (the 1948 Palestinian catastrophe), linking Zionist depredations to Ben-Gurion’s policy of expelling Palestinians.
Raz’s groundbreaking work meticulously depicts the looting of Palestine during the 1948 war, in which Israeli fighters and others took part in stealing the belongings of former Arab neighbors.
However, the meaning of this act goes beyond immorality. This act emptied the land of Palestinians, destroyed the Palestinian economy, destroyed their villages, and helped confiscate crops in depopulated areas.
Therefore, the Jews who participated in these crimes were motivated to prevent the return of Arabs and promoted the separation of Arabs and Jews. Subsequently, any reference to the above process was suppressed, and denial of the events of 1948 remains deeply rooted in Israeli society to this day.
create a land without people
Raz thus exposes another side of the ugliness of the birth of Israel, and his unsparing writing regards the emergence of the Jewish state as highly exploitative.
Stories of the theft of Palestinian land and buildings have already been told elsewhere, but The Spoils chronicles how Israeli settlers steal common objects from their former Palestinian neighbors.
Raz shows another dark side of the 1948 war. It’s a looting done by many individuals that was mostly considered legitimate. Another aspect of the dehumanization of the Palestinian people, which is still reaching its climax 76 years later.
The first part of the spoils involves looting city by city, region by region. This is inevitably a harrowing chronicle, especially for those involved in the trauma – “It was especially painful to read about the destruction and pillaging of my hometown of Haifa,” said Ayman Odeh, a Knesset member and leader of the Hadash party. say. He talked about reading “Loot.”
“The looting served a national purpose: to complete the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from abroad and to ensure that 700,000 refugees would never consider returning.”
The shorter, more analytical parts of Spoils of War delve into Israeli politics and society. Raz’s analysis focuses on Ben-Gurion and the Arab policy of expulsion and dispossession, but other figures and topics are also mentioned.
For me, the most interesting section here is the analysis of the unique case of Nazareth, which happens to be my hometown.
Raz notes that the people were not directly affected by expulsion or plunder, and concludes that Nazareth’s status as a sacred place, densely populated with churches and filled with Christians, spared it.
Since then, this has sometimes been touted as an example of proper Zionist behavior, but as Raz shows, the truth is much more complex. As a Nazarene myself, I have lived this entire story not as a refugee but as an exile.
Israeli civilians who plundered Arabs had a personal stake in preventing the return of their former neighbors and became accomplices in the political situation.
According to Raz, Ben-Gurion made the bitter remark in July 1948, two months after the founding of Israel, that “most of the Jews turned out to be thieves.”
However, Israeli authorities ignored the theft and even encouraged it, despite accusations and some absurd trials.
This plunder served as a national purpose. The goal is to complete the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from abroad and ensure that 700,000 refugees never consider returning home.
Even before Israel destroyed many homes and eradicated more than 400 villages, the Israeli military had extensively plundered and cleared land so that refugees would have less reason to return.
Towards truth and reconciliation
This book is powerful and The Spoils of War will captivate anyone who wants to understand both history and today’s reality.
As more details about the Nakba are understood and documented, calls to redress Palestinian grievances will grow stronger. Only through reparations and truth-telling can Israelis hope for reconciliation with their Palestinian neighbors.
Israel should consider the feelings of the descendants of Palestinian refugees who will never be able to see their ancestral villages, most of which were destroyed by Israel. By exposing all of this, Raz succeeds in retelling history in order to achieve a just future.
Riyad Al Khouri is an independent Jordanian economist
Follow him on LinkedIn: Riyad Al Khouri
