Summary
Intelligence officer for western Galilee who in Manna’s account negotiated surrender agreements that spared villages, intervened to stop killings at Majd al-Krum twice — during its surrender and during the massacre a week later — and whose arrival with Shafiq Abu ‘Abdu the villagers of Majd al-Krum remember as a miracle (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.17, 87-89, 104-105).
Details
- Orbach, a friend of a relative from a British army camp near ‘Akka, arrived during the Majd al-Krum massacre in the Preface’s telling and intervened to stop the killing, as did Shafiq Abu ‘Abdu, a Palestinian who had crossed over and fought alongside the Jews in 1948 (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.17).
- At Kufr Yasif, council head Yani Yani used his Druze neighbours’ Jewish relations, mediated by Orbach of Nahariyya, to sign a surrender agreement on 10 July 1948 (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.68).
- On the night of 29-30 October 1948 a delegation from Majd al-Krum reached Orbach through the Ma’di family of Yarka, and a surrender document for Majd al-Krum and the neighbouring al-Shaghur villages was agreed with the army unit camped in al-Birwa (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.87).
- When Golani Brigade soldiers arriving from ‘Ilabun fired on Majd al-Krum on 30 October, Orbach spoke to them and asked twice, in a surprised tone: “Why have you come here from ‘Ilabun?” (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.89).
- On 5 November 1948 Orbach arrived in Majd al-Krum with Shafiq Abu ‘Abdu during the al-‘Ayn Square executions, spoke to the officer in charge and ordered a halt to the killings; three men already chosen, the mukhtar Hajj ‘Abd Manna’ first, were saved (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.104-105).
- The agreements signed with the army in al-Birwa through Orbach’s and the Ma’di family’s facilitation contributed, with Druze villagers’ help to their scattered neighbours, to the residents of al-Shaghur remaining and returning (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.91).