5. Expulsion as a Cause of the Exodus

Although many of the facts concerning Arab and Zionist motivations and actions are open to interpretation, it is clear that at some point, direct expulsion was employed by the Zionists. The degree to which this well-documented fact is acknowledged by the writer will serve as another criterion for analysing the work. Writings which ignore or deny that expulsion took place cannot be taken very seriously, nor can those which claim direct expulsion was the sole cause of the Palestinian exodus.

It is clear that by the third phase, that is, from May 15, 1948 onwards, expulsion of Palestinians became a regular practice. Avnery, explaining the Zionist rationale, says,

I believe that during this phase, the eviction of Arab civilians had become an aim of David Ben-Gurion and his government.... UN opinion could very well be disregarded. Peace with the Arabs seemed out of the question, considering the extreme nature of the Arab propaganda. In this situation, it was easy for people like Ben-Gurion to believe the capture of uninhabited territory was both necessary for security reasons and desirable for the homogeneity of the new Hebrew state. [46] 

The expulsion of civilians from Lydda and Ramleh are perhaps the best documented examples. Though direct expulsions had already taken place in other parts of the country, [47] these were the largest and hence the most notorious. Although the exact number of civilians expelled is not known (the normal peacetime population was supplemented by refugees from other locales), estimates range from 75,000 to 100,000. [48] According to Childers' description, which is largely corroborated by Rabin, [49] 

On July 11, Moshe Dayan led a jeep commando column into the town of Lydda with rifles, Stens and submachine guns blazing. It coursed through the main streets, blasting at everything that moved.... The corpses of Arab men, women and even children were strewn about in the streets in the wake of this ruthlessly brilliant charge. Next day, the adjoining town of Ramleh was seized. All Arab men of military age were rounded up and penned into special enclosures. Israeli loud- speaker vans then toured the two towns announcing that neither food nor water would be provided and that the Arabs had 48 hours to get out to Transjordan. Israeli troops then began sacking both towns. On July 13, the loudspeakers gave final orders, naming the Kubah and the Hinda bridges as the exodus routes for Ramleh and Lydda respectively. [50] 

Edgar O'Ballance, a military historian, adds,

Israeli vans with loudspeakers drove through the streets ordering all the inhabitants to evacuate immediately, and such as were reluctant to leave were forcibly ejected from their homes by the triumphant Israelis whose policy was now openly one of clearing out all the Arab civil population before them.... From the surrounding villages and hamlets, during the next two or three days, all the inhabitants were uprooted and set off on the road to Ramallah.... No longer was there any "reasonable persuasion." Bluntly, the Arab inhabitants were ejected and forced to flee into Arab territory.... Wherever the Israeli troops advanced into Arab country the Arab population was bulldozed out in front of them. [51] 

Propagandist writers either ignore the expulsions completely or try to explain them away. Thus we have the comment by Harry Sacher that "all the inhabitants of both Lydda and Ramleh, as of all the captured villages, chose evacuation and took the road to Ramallah, carrying with them such belongings as they could." [52] Syrkin can state, incredibly, that, "it should be noted that while it was not Haganah policy to encourage the exodus, some hostile villages threatening the road to Jerusalem were evacuated by individual Haganah commanders... a number of villages which served as bases for the enemy camped in the surrounding hills were forcibly cleared, and their inhabitants joined the exodus. But these were isolated instances, occurring late in the fighting, and involving numbers too small to affect the scope of the mass flight or to explain it." [53] Finally, Schectman attributes Arab flight to "atrocity propaganda" and thus does not even address the numerous instances of Zionist attacks and expulsions of Palestinian civilians. [54] 

Although direct expulsions were only one way in which the Palestinians were made to leave, the failure of an author to seriously consider them in his analysis can be taken to be a sign of an incomplete inquiry. The direct expulsion of Arab civilians from their homes was an important element in the overall exodus, and it is one which any serious author must deal with.

46 Avnery, pp. 224-25.

47 See Polk, Stamler, Asfour, p. 293, on Israeli ejection of the population of Beit Jiz and Beit Susan villages, and Nazzal, p. 225, on expulsions from Galilean villages.

48 Childers, "The Wordless Wish," p. 194.

49 See above regarding Rabin's recently published memoirs, including the censored account of the Palestinian expulsion from Lydda and Ramleh.

50 Childers, "The Wordless Wish," pp. 193-94. 

51 Edgar O'Ballance, The Arab-Israeli War 1948 (London: Faber and Faber, 1956), pp. 147, 172.

52 Harry Sacher, Israel: The Establishment of a State (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1952), p. 279.

53 Syrkin, p. 26. This brief apologetic reference to Zionist expulsion is the only one made in the entire article, which has nothing whatsoever to say about the cases of Ramleh and Lydda.

54 Schectman, p. 13. The author states: "...the Arab population was particularly susceptible to such atrocity propaganda, to dire prophecies that the advancing Jewish forces would exterminate them without mercy. So deeply was the fear of Jewish reprisals and the severity of Jewish rule implanted among the Arab population that it survived the war period." 

5. Pengusiran sebagai Penyebab Eksodus  

Meskipun banyak fakta mengenai motivasi dan tindakan Arab maupun Zionis masih terbuka untuk ditafsirkan, jelas bahwa pada titik tertentu, pengusiran langsung digunakan oleh Zionis. Sejauh mana fakta yang terdokumentasi ini diakui oleh seorang penulis akan menjadi salah satu kriteria penting dalam menilai karyanya. Tulisan yang mengabaikan atau menyangkal adanya pengusiran tidak bisa dianggap serius, begitu pula dengan tulisan yang mengklaim bahwa pengusiran langsung adalah satu-satunya penyebab eksodus Palestina.  

Jelas bahwa pada fase ketiga, yakni sejak 15 Mei 1948, pengusiran orang Palestina menjadi praktik rutin. Avnery, menjelaskan alasan Zionis, menulis:  

“Saya percaya bahwa pada fase ini, pengusiran warga sipil Arab telah menjadi tujuan David Ben-Gurion dan pemerintahnya.... Opini PBB bisa saja diabaikan. Perdamaian dengan Arab tampak mustahil, mengingat ekstremnya propaganda Arab. Dalam situasi ini, mudah bagi orang seperti Ben-Gurion untuk meyakini bahwa perebutan wilayah tanpa penduduk tidak hanya diperlukan demi alasan keamanan, tetapi juga diinginkan demi homogenitas negara Ibrani yang baru.” [46]  

Pengusiran warga sipil dari Lydda dan Ramleh mungkin adalah contoh yang paling terdokumentasi. Meski pengusiran langsung telah terjadi di wilayah lain, [47] kasus ini merupakan yang terbesar dan paling terkenal. Jumlah pasti warga yang diusir tidak diketahui (populasi normal masa damai bertambah karena kedatangan pengungsi dari tempat lain), tetapi perkiraan berkisar antara 75.000 hingga 100.000. [48] Menurut deskripsi Childers, yang sebagian besar dikonfirmasi oleh Rabin, [49]  

“Pada 11 Juli, Moshe Dayan memimpin kolom komando jip memasuki kota Lydda dengan senapan, Sten, dan senapan mesin ringan menyalak. Mereka melintas di jalan utama, menembaki segala yang bergerak.... Mayat laki-laki, perempuan, bahkan anak-anak Arab berserakan di jalan setelah serangan cepat yang brutal namun efektif ini. Keesokan harinya, kota Ramleh yang bersebelahan direbut. Semua laki-laki Arab usia militer digiring ke kandang khusus. Mobil-mobil van dengan pengeras suara kemudian berkeliling dua kota itu mengumumkan bahwa makanan dan air tidak akan diberikan, dan orang Arab memiliki waktu 48 jam untuk keluar menuju Transyordan. Tentara Israel kemudian mulai menjarah kedua kota tersebut. Pada 13 Juli, pengeras suara memberikan perintah akhir, menyebutkan Jembatan Kubah dan Jembatan Hinda sebagai rute eksodus untuk Ramleh dan Lydda.” [50]  

Edgar O’Ballance, seorang sejarawan militer, menambahkan:  

“Mobil van Israel dengan pengeras suara melintasi jalan, memerintahkan semua penduduk untuk segera pergi, dan siapa pun yang enggan keluar diusir paksa dari rumah mereka oleh pasukan Israel yang penuh kemenangan, yang kini secara terbuka menjalankan kebijakan membersihkan seluruh populasi sipil Arab di hadapan mereka.... Dari desa dan dusun sekitar, dalam dua atau tiga hari berikutnya, seluruh penduduk dicabut dari tempat tinggalnya dan diarahkan ke jalan menuju Ramallah.... Tidak ada lagi yang disebut ‘bujukan wajar.’ Dengan kasar, penduduk Arab diusir dan dipaksa melarikan diri ke wilayah Arab.... Di mana pun pasukan Israel maju ke wilayah Arab, penduduk Arab disapu keluar di depan mereka.” [51]  

Para penulis propagandis, di sisi lain, baik mengabaikan pengusiran sama sekali atau mencoba membenarkannya. Harry Sacher, misalnya, menulis bahwa “semua penduduk Lydda dan Ramleh, sebagaimana di semua desa yang ditaklukkan, memilih evakuasi dan mengambil jalan ke Ramallah, membawa serta barang-barang yang bisa mereka bawa.” [52] Syrkin bahkan menyatakan, betapapun sulit dipercaya, bahwa “meski bukan kebijakan Haganah untuk mendorong eksodus, beberapa desa bermusuhan yang mengancam jalan ke Yerusalem dievakuasi oleh komandan Haganah secara individual... sejumlah desa yang berfungsi sebagai basis bagi musuh di perbukitan sekitar dibersihkan secara paksa, dan penduduknya bergabung dalam eksodus. Tetapi ini adalah peristiwa terisolasi, terjadi di akhir pertempuran, dan jumlahnya terlalu kecil untuk memengaruhi skala pelarian massal atau menjelaskannya.” [53] Akhirnya, Schectman mengaitkan pelarian Arab dengan “propaganda kekejaman” dan sama sekali tidak membahas berbagai kasus serangan dan pengusiran warga sipil Palestina oleh Zionis. [54]  

Meskipun pengusiran langsung hanyalah salah satu cara orang Palestina dipaksa pergi, kegagalan seorang penulis untuk secara serius mempertimbangkannya dapat dianggap sebagai tanda penyelidikan yang tidak lengkap. Pengusiran langsung warga sipil Arab dari rumah mereka adalah elemen penting dalam eksodus secara keseluruhan, dan ini adalah aspek yang harus dibahas oleh setiap penulis serius.  

[46] Avnery, hlm. 224–225.  
[47] Lihat Polk, Stamler, Asfour, hlm. 293, tentang pengusiran penduduk desa Beit Jiz dan Beit Susin; dan Nazzal, hlm. 225, tentang pengusiran desa-desa di Galilea.  
[48] Childers, *The Wordless Wish*, hlm. 194.  
[49] Lihat juga memoar Rabin yang baru diterbitkan, termasuk catatan yang disensor tentang pengusiran Palestina dari Lydda dan Ramleh.  
[50] Childers, *The Wordless Wish*, hlm. 193–194.  
[51] Edgar O’Ballance, *The Arab-Israeli War 1948* (London: Faber and Faber, 1956), hlm. 147, 172.  
[52] Harry Sacher, *Israel: The Establishment of a State* (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1952), hlm. 279.  
[53] Syrkin, hlm. 26.  
[54] Schectman, hlm. 13.