False denunciations and unwelcome facts
In my column yesterday, I talked about the McCarthyite smearing that can descend on you if you criticise the actions of the Israeli government. I didn’t have space there to discuss this useful example. In a recent article discussing Israel’s 60th birthday, I tried to summarise the historical evidence as best I understand it about what happened in 1948. I cited the abundant historical evidence that David Ben-Gurion – Israel’s first Prime Minister – supported ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. ‘Honest Reporting’ and Melanie Phillips argued this was false and a malicious lie.
How do they rebut my arguments? There are smears, obviously: Phillips even entitles her post ‘The War Against the Jews’, the name of a famous history of the Holocaust. But for meat, they link to a statement by Benny Morris, the Israeli historian. Yet if you follow the link, you will find Benny Morris admits that Ben Gurion did in fact say “I support compulsory transfer”.
Morris just didn’t recognize the second part of the quote. (It appears in a book called ‘The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine’ by the Israeli the chair of History at Exeter University, Illan Pappe; I’ve e-mailed him to ask for the exact reference in the Ben Gurion archives.)
But isn’t it remarkable that to debunk my argument Ben Gurion was an ethnic cleanser, the best Melanie Phillips and Honest Reporting can do is link to a historian who… argues Ben Gurion was an ethnic cleanser. Here is Benny Morris being interviewed by Ha’aretz in 2004:
Ha’aretz: Are you saying that Ben-Gurion was personally responsible for a deliberate and systematic policy of mass expulsion?
Morris: From April 1948, Ben-Gurion is projecting a message of transfer. There is no explicit order of his in writing, there is no orderly comprehensive policy, but there is an atmosphere of [population] transfer. The transfer idea is in the air. The entire leadership understands that this is the idea. The officer corps understands what is required of them. Under Ben-Gurion, a consensus of transfer is created.
Ha’aretz: Ben-Gurion was a "transferist"?
Morris: Of course. Ben-Gurion was a transferist. He understood that there could be no Jewish state with a large and hostile Arab minority in its midst. There would be no such state. It would not be able to exist.
Ha’aretz: I don't hear you condemning him.
Morris: Ben-Gurion was right. If he had not done what he did, a state would not have come into being. That has to be clear. It is impossible to evade it. Without the uprooting of the Palestinians, a Jewish state would not have arisen here…
Ha’aretz: I'm not sure I understand. Are you saying that Ben-Gurion erred in expelling too few Arabs? Morris: If he was already engaged in expulsion, maybe he should have done a complete job. I know that this stuns the Arabs and the liberals and the politically correct types. But my feeling is that this place would be quieter and know less suffering if the matter had been resolved once and for all. If Ben-Gurion had carried out a large expulsion and cleansed the whole country - the whole Land of Israel, as far as the Jordan River.
Later today, I’ll post some more interesting evidence about what Ben Gurion said and did according to Benny Morris.
My family was 'ethnically cleansed' from main land Europe over 60 years ago. We got ourselves educated and assimilated in England,Chile,Argentinia and the USA. We DO NOT lay claim to our lands that were taken. What is the matter with these poor Arabs?
Who is Johann Hari and where is he aiming?
Posted by: Bob | Friday, 09 May 2008 at 12:49 PM
I'm not sure what the point of Johann's argument is: other than his legitimate defence of his own honesty and it looks like a slam dunk against Melanie Phillips right now.
But pro-Palestinians have a choice - argue about the fundamental legitimacy of Israel or build support for a two-state solution. Israeli rejectionists hide behind the skirts of those who want to make the argument one about the fundamental legitimacy of Israel to essentially characature all pro-Palestinian comment as anti-Jewish.
And, let's be honest, a lot of those who want to make the argument about what happened in 1948 are anti-semites, so let's not jump into bed with them.
Posted by: Ciaran Austin | Friday, 09 May 2008 at 12:57 PM
Mr Hari,
Your article yesterday was most welcome and it is a pity that more Jewish journalists don’t speak out against the racist state of Israel. Maybe they don’t because they are afraid, fear for their careers or because they are Zionists.
Zionists like Melanie Phillips (who should be banned from the media for her racism) always tell lies.
Posted by: Phil Ihsmael | Friday, 09 May 2008 at 01:04 PM
David Ben-gurion's exact quote was:
“We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population.”
Posted by: flipped | Friday, 09 May 2008 at 02:04 PM
The truth's been circumcised.
Posted by: Neil McGowan | Friday, 09 May 2008 at 03:57 PM
Bob: "My family was 'ethnically cleansed' from main land Europe over 60 years ago. We got ourselves educated and assimilated in England,Chile,Argentinia and the USA. We DO NOT lay claim to our lands that were taken. What is the matter with these poor Arabs?"
Could not this exact argument be used by Arabs who were living on land Jews lost in a diaspora a thousand (not just 60) years before? If you look around the world, Jews are some of the most assimilated people on earth. (And more power to them. I am extremely fond of the Jews and the great gifts Jews have brought the world culturally and intellectually. Extreme nationalism, on the other hand, of any persuasion, I despise.)
Posted by: Macander | Friday, 09 May 2008 at 10:13 PM
Nice that you're checking with Pappe about the quote. If he fails to substantiate it, will you denounce him for the fraud that would prove he is - who took you for a ride that's still got you reeling - or will you simply sweep it under the rug and hope we just forget it?
Posted by: Wimple | Sunday, 11 May 2008 at 05:08 PM