THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
20 Friday, November 2, 1919
Allon Refutes Story Attributed to Rabin
that Israelis Drove Out Arabs During '48
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Yigal
Allon, Israel's former
foreign minister who was
the commander of Palmach
on the central front during
Israel's War for Indepen-
dence in 1948, last week
branded as a total fabrica-
tion an alleged "first person
account" of the forced ex-
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pulsion of 50,000 Arab civi-
lians from the towns of Lod
and Ramle by Israeli forces
at the direct orders of then
Premier David Ben-Gurion.
The account, the subject
of a story published in the
New York Times, was pur-
portedly contained in the
original manuscript of the
memoirs of former Premier
Yitzhak Rabin but deleted
from the published Hebrew
edition and the English
translation by Israeli cen-
sors.
Rabin was commander of
the Harel Brigade which
was assigned to eliminate
the Jordanian Arab Legion
from the Jerusalem-Tel
Aviv Road. According to
Shipler, "A copy of his
manuscript was provided to
the New York Times by
Peretz Kidron, who trans-
lated the book from Hebrew
to English."
Allon, who was at the
time Rabin's superior
officer, held a broadcast
press conference in Is-
rael to refute the Times
story. He gave a detailed
version of the events dis-
cussed. "As the supreme
commander of the
'Danny Operation' in
July (1948) during which
the towns of Lod and
Ramle were captured by
the Israelis, I did not re-
quest permission to
evacuate or drive out the
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Arabs of these towns.
Ben-Gurion gave no such
order. I gave no such
order and there was no
such order," he said.
"The evacuation of Lod
and Ramle by its population
was a result of a coincidence
of two factors. One was an
order from the Arab Legion
to clear the town so its unit
could embark on a counter-
attack and recapture the
towns and the panic that
engulfed the population.
There was no problem of
driving (people) out. Any al-
legation that Ben-Gurion or
anybody else gave such an
order is totally without
foundation," Allon said.
Allon said at his press
conference that the Arab
Legion did counter-attack
at Lod and Ramle and used
soldiers disguised as civi-
lians in addition to infantry
supported by armor. But the
attacks were repulsed. Ac-
cording to Allon, the events
were as follows:
"An Israeli mechanized
column (commanded by
Moshe Dayan) entered the
town of Lod on the 12th day
of July but had to withdraw
under heavy fire and suf-
fered significant losses after
some 40 minutes. But this
raid helped soften the resis-
tance of the defenders and
by evening units of the Iftah
Brigade of the Palmach ap-
proached Lod and took over
positions on the outskirts of
the town. It was a disturb-
ing situation. We did not
know whether we were
occupied by the population
or whether we had occupied
the town.
"Next morning, the
units started combing the
town and it was then that
the Jordanian Arab
Legion started its
counter-attack while the
soldiers in mufti who
penetrated during the
night fired at the Israeli
soldiers. The fire was re-
turned and the attack
was repulsed and the Is-
.raelis completed the oc-
cupation of the town.
"At that time, the flight of
the population started. The
Israeli command helped the
population by giving them
both transportation and
water. The reason was sim-
ple: the battle went on and
fearing the civilians may
come between the lines,
enter mine fields and inter-
fere with operations, the de-
cision was to help an orderly
escape.
"Ramle was taken over
without a single shot. At
that time, Ramle notables
asked the Israelis to enable
the population to leave for
the Ramallah area (near
Jerusalem) via Latrun. I
agreed with one provision
— that the Arab Legion
agreed to accept them.
When the Legion's agree-
ment was given, I decided to
provide them with vehicles
and water so that they
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Judaism considers life
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• • • • • • • • • • • 11
would not interfere with the
battle that was going on in
the fields and the orchards.
These are the facts," Allon
said.
In New York, Rabin re-
fused today to discuss the
report in the New York
Times. Rabin explained to
the JTA that he cannot dis-
cuss the issue because doing
so would be a violation of
Israeli law.
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