Summary
Syrian-born member of the Consultancy whose ‘divide and rule’ approach to the Palestinians was overruled in December 1947–January 1948 as the Consultancy moved to comprehensive ethnic cleansing, in Pappe’s account.
Details
- Sasson emigrated to Palestine in 1927; in 1919, before becoming a Zionist, he had joined the Arab national movement in Syria. In the 1940s his main role was to instigate ‘divide and rule’ inside the Palestinian community and in neighbouring Arab countries, and he was instrumental in strengthening the alliance with King Abdullah of Jordan (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.82).
- At the 10 December 1947 meeting he was the last to urge that, despite the need for ‘a comprehensive plan’ — the uprooting of the local population — it was prudent not to regard the whole Arab population as enemies, citing his 1930s arming of the ‘peace gangs’ against al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni’s formations (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.82-83).
- At the Long Seminar he, helped by Reuven Shiloah, tried to warn that provocation would alienate friendly or peaceful Palestinians, and reported the Khisas attack as unprovoked and ‘barbaric’; he was sidelined — Moshe Dayan told him Khisas igniting the Galilee ‘was a good thing’ — and in following meetings he toed the general line (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.92, p.97-98).
- In mid-February 1948 he reported that no more than 3,000 ALA volunteers had entered, poorly trained, and that if not provoked they would remain idle (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.102).
- Pappe traces his divide-and-rule legacy to the 1948 incorporation of the Druze into the Israeli army and to Ariel Sharon’s 1981 Village Leagues in the occupied West Bank (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.82).