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October 20, 1972 - Image 6

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1972-10-20

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

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aDttsloiVica rituoYzlicazA giticrticW

heir lassin Center of Fur or at Lecture

BY CHARLOTTE DUBIN
Ten pages in the Collins-
Lapierre epic "0 Jerusalem"
are devoted to the Deir Yas-
sin massacre. Those 10 pages
— which have opened old
wounds of both Arabe, and
Jews—renewed passions on
Monday evening, when co-
author Larry Collins spoke
at tong. Beth Achim.

After a lecture on his
hook, Collins was asked a
flurry of questions on his
reportage of the 1948 inci-
dent in which Arab villagers
were slain by members of
the Irgun and Stern Gang.
To this day, Arab propagan-
dists have used this single
incident to brand the Is-

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raelis as murderers. •
Defenders of the Irgun
counter that it was a mili-
tary action and that reports
of atrocities have been pure
fabrication. Collins and La-
pierre were accused of lean-
ing over backward to present
the .Arab viewpoint.
Despite shouts of dissent
from a member of the audi-
ence, Collins stood his
ground. insisting on the ac-
curacy of that portion of the
book. He said the testimony
he used came, with but one
exception, from non-Arab
sources and that, after ex-
haustive research and inter-
views, -"we had the unhappy
responsibility to print the
fact."
He added, however, that
he considers the incident,
in which "100 to 250" Arabs
were killed by some 200 Is-
raelis "In no way represen-
tative of the values of the
Israeli people, any more
than My Lai represents the
values of the American
people." The overwhelming
mass al Israelis condemned
the action at Deir Yassin,
said Collins, and the Jewish
Agency, to its credit, de-
plored the massacre.
At that point, Steve Gold-
in, a member of the Zion-
ist-Revisionists o f Detroit,
shouted from the floor that
there was no mention of
200 villagers who escaped
and were left in peace. The
Zionist - Revisionist position,
as enunciated by former Ir-
gun leader Menahem Begin,
is that the massacre oc-
curred only when the Israelis
were fired upon first. lie
said the villagers had ample
warning from a sound truck
that they should clear out.

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Amid shouts from other
members of the audience
that he sit down, Goldin
yelled, "Why don't you
learn Jewish history!"
The disruption that fol-
lowed was stilled only when
Rabbi Milton Arm took the
podium to tell Goldin: "You
are hurting your own case,
Mr. Goldin. You've prob-
ably lost for your cause the
sympathy of most of the
people here tonight." Al-
though cards were distri-
buted among the audience
so that questions could be
submitted to the speaker,
Goldin and a few others
charged later that they had
not been given ample op-
portunity to speak.

Collins said in his re-
sponse to Goldin that he had
no doubt 200 villagers would
have escaped. However,
when the Irgun-Stern sound
truck preceding the Israelis
into Deir Yassin fell over
into a ditch, the majority of
the Arabs — and the Jews
as well — failed to hear the
message of warning. This
recollection came from the
two drivers themselves, Col-
lins said.
Adding to the tragedy was
the fact that "Deir Yassin
was one of the few villages
around Jerusalem that had
never sheltered the gunmen
of the Mufti of Jerusalem."
The liagana asked the Irgun
not to touch Deir Yassin,
but the Irgun sought to dem-
onstrate their rote in mili-
tary defense and went their
own way, Collins said.
The Irgun leaders, trained
in commando fighting, had
no preparation for the kind
of battle that occured in Deir
Yassin, Collins said. They
panicked, and the massacre
ensued. Four of their own
men were killed.
Collins insisted that "the
standard part of Arab prop-
aganda that the Irgun went
to Deir Yassin with a pre-
ordained plan to murder all
the villagers, or as a reprisal
for Arab at!acks — is sheer
nonsense."
Ile said one of the heads
of the Arab Information Of-
fice whom he interviewed
admitted that they had made
a terrible error in 1948. They
ha d broadcast everything
that occured at Deir Yassin
so that other Arab states
would be aroused and join
in • their fight.
However. "the only emo-

by. 1*

l imns

tions they inflamed were
those in their own country,
said Collins. The result was
a massacre of the Israelis
of Kfar Etzion. In its wis-
dom, the Jewish Agency
played down that incident
so as to avoid a vendetta of
unimaginable proportions, he
said.
Prior to the question
period, chairman. Bernard
Panush read a letter from a
self-described member of the
Arab League who praised
Collins' book. The letter,
which appeared in last
week's Jewish News, re-
ferred to a campaign of ter-
ror against Jews in the U.S.

The author suggested that
"this fellow speaks ex-of-
ficio of the Arab League.
I've had less 'friendly' let-
ters from the Arab League."
He added that he considers
the letter-bombs and other
terrorist measures as "the
last outburst of the Palestin-
ian movement," for there is
"no other way left to them
to influence the course of
history."

Collins said the Israelis
have "demonstrated they
were capable of defending
their frontiers against infil-
tration.

"Second, El Fatah was
never able to fulfill the fun-
damental requirement of a
guerrilla organization, that
of building an effective base
among the Arab populations
of the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip."
Further, "King Hussein's

; iigni

in Jordan destroyed terror-
ist bases.
Collins, a veteran reporter,
said it was his and La-
pierre's intention in their
book to remain totally ob-
jective — not to further the
cause of any side but "to
advance each side's under-
standing of the other." -He
feels that this aim has been
achieved in that the book has
been well received in Israel,
by both Arabs and Jews

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Quiz Answers

1. Yerushalayim Shel Zahav
(Jerusalem the Golden).
2. Ahad Ha-Am (one of the
People) pseudonym for
Asher Ginsberg.
3. Archeology.
4. The Hope.
5. Henrietta Szold; to save
the children of Europe
from the Nazis.
6. Hermann Schapira.
7. The British Government
views with favor the es-
tablishment in Palestine
of a Jewish National
Home; Nov. 2, 1917.
A
democracy.
8.
9. The Yishuv.
10. The Negev.

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6 — Friday, Oct. 20, 1972

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