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Dawaymeh

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aliasesal-Dawaymeh

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Summary

Village between Beersheba and Hebron occupied by Battalion 89 of Brigade Eight on 28 October 1948, in Pappe’s account; the events there are “probably the worst in the annals of Nakba atrocities”, investigated by the UN Palestine Conciliation Commission, whose 14 June 1949 report called the massacre in many respects more brutal than Deir Yassin’s.

Details

  • The original population was 2,000, but an additional 4,000 refugees had tripled that by the time of the attack on 28 October 1948, less than three miles west of Hebron (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.230).
  • The UN’s Palestine Conciliation Commission convened a special session to investigate what happened; its report of 14 June 1949 says so little is known about this massacre because the Arab Legion feared spreading the news would cause another flow of Arab refugees as Deir Yassin had (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.230).
  • The report was based mainly on the mukhtar Hassan Mahmoud Ihdeib’s testimony, much of it corroborated by reports in the Israeli military archives; the Israeli writer Amos Keinan, who participated in the massacre, confirmed its existence in a late-1990s interview for Muhammad Bakri’s documentary 1948 (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.230).
  • The mukhtar recalled twenty armoured cars entering from Qubayba half an hour after the midday prayer while soldiers attacked from the opposite flank; the village was surrounded from three flanks, leaving the eastern flank open to drive out 6,000 people in one hour, and when this failed the troops shot indiscriminately at people who ran to the mosque or to the holy cave Iraq al-Zagh (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.230-231).
  • The mukhtar’s count the next day was 455 people missing, among them around 170 children and women; he found piles of dead in the mosque and the cave entrance blocked by dozens of corpses (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.231).
  • Jewish soldiers who took part reported to the High Command within days: babies whose skulls were cracked open, women raped or burned alive in houses, and men stabbed to death (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.231).
  • The massacre was the end result of the order Battalion 89’s commander received from Chief of Staff Yigael Yadin: ‘Your preparations should include psychological warfare and “treatment” (tipul) of citizens as an integral part of the operation’ (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.231).
  • Pappe calls Dawaymeh the last large massacre Israeli troops perpetrated until 1956, when forty-nine villagers of Kafr Kassim were butchered (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.231).
  • Sitta’s register lists Dawayima al at S 340: depopulation date 28-10-48, Exodus Causes E/M, the Massacres mark “M++” — the strongest such mark in the register as printed — Arab Population 48 of 4,304 on 60,585 dunums, operation yv, defenders EG (The Palestinian Nakba 1948 — The Register of Depopulated Localities in Palestine, PDF p.11). Its date agrees with Pappe’s 28 October 1948.

The Palestinian Nakba 1948 — The Register of Depopulated Localities in Palestine, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Palestine Conciliation Commission, Beersheba, Deir Yassin

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