Summary
Galilee village raided and emptied in September 1948 and finally occupied in Operation Hiram at the end of October 1948, in Pappe’s account; its people were expelled towards Lebanon and the Christians among them then ordered back, so half the village survives and half lives in refugee camps in Lebanon.
Details
-
In September 1948 an Israeli report on its abortive assault read: “Tonight our forces raided Ilabun. After overcoming the enemy’s resistance, we found the village deserted; after inflicting damage and slaughtering a herd, our forces withdrew while constantly exchanging fire with the enemy” — although not yet taken, the village had already been emptied of most of its inhabitants (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.211).
-
In the lower Galilee the Arab volunteers were left with one artillery gun in Ilabun by October 1948, symbolising their imminent and total collapse (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.213-214).
-
During its occupation at the end of October the villagers took refuge in Ilabun’s two churches; the Israeli commander blamed them for the mutilation of two Jewish bodies and instantly retaliated by mowing down several young men in front of the horrified congregation, then forcibly evicted the rest, apart from the men between the ages of ten and fifty, who were led away as prisoners of war (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.216).
-
At first everyone in the village was expelled in a long column towards the Lebanese border, several dying on the way; then the commander changed his mind and ordered the Christians, who made up half the deportees, to turn back along the same route; seven hundred and fifty people were thus allowed to return (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.217).
-
In Manna’s Introduction, ‘Ilabun is the case of a permitted return he calls a unique case in the history of the Nakba: its residents were subjected to killings and forced expulsion, yet those expelled were allowed to return to their homes and village shortly after (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.33).
-
Manna also records that in cases such as ‘Ilabun and ‘Illut, internal migrants were allowed to live in the Galilee or even to return to their villages and homes (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.32).
-
Manna’s Chapter 2 in full (part 3) gives the massacre’s names and order: on 30 October 1948 Golani soldiers gathered the village in al-Hara, shooting while clearing the churches killed ‘Azar Salim Maslam and wounded two youths, and seventeen young men were set aside and shot in groups at Subhi Matar’s vegetable garden, the cemetery, Elias Hawwa’s bakery and south of the village centre, while five Zurayq men were made to drive ahead of the expulsion caravan (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.95-96).
-
On the march, Sam’an Jiryis Shufani was killed at Kufr ‘Anan after soldiers had handed out boiled potatoes; the villagers reached Lebanon via Farradiyya and Mirun, camped in the church at ‘Ayn Ibil and then in Miya Miya camp east of Sidon, and thirty-four more men were taken to prisoner-of-war camps on 31 October (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.96-97).
-
Manna dates the permitted return to the end of December 1948, says it took place gradually and quietly after the villagers made their voice heard by the outside world, and calls both the decision for the collective punishment and the devious channels of the return riddles no archive has clarified (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.97, 110).
-
‘Ilabun’s residents were the first to document their village’s story in detail, in books, films and filmed testimonies, erected a monument for the massacre’s martyrs, and persist in transmitting the story across generations (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.95, 97).
Where sources disagree
-
Pappe has the occupying commander change his mind on the expulsion march and order the Christians, half the deportees, back, with 750 people thus allowed to return (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.217). Manna has the whole village marched to Lebanon, held in camps there, and permitted to return at the end of December 1948 through quasi-secret channels (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.96-97, 110). Both accounts are kept as printed.
-
Manna’s Chapter 5 (part 5) gives the return in full, revising the part 3 summary’s dating: clergymen contacted local and international parties and Minister Bechor Shitrit acted quickly; on 20 November 1948 Mikha’il Damuni and Butrus Shukri Matta carried priest Murqus’s letter to the villagers in Lebanon telling them to return quickly, and the return journey began on 22 November 1948, most villagers back by May 1949 (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.192).
-
Returnees found their houses stripped — hundreds of cows, goats, sheep and donkeys and all furniture, clothing and stores taken — and rebuilt with UNRWA help and neighbours’ aid, planting their land against Zionist organizations that wanted it as “Present Absentees” property (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.192-193).
-
Manna argues the consent to return, and that the lands were not expropriated, was a special case driven by the embarrassment church pressure caused the government; a consensual agreement with Shitrit secured the quiet, gradual return, its details kept secret (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.193).
-
Against Morris, Manna says most ‘Ilabun villagers had returned by May 1949, before Yehushua Palmon’s agreement with Bishop Hakim, under which no more than several dozen more returned; one of the last groups, Faris Salim Matar’s family, returned at the beginning of January 1950 (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.194).
Related pages
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Nakba and Survival, Bishop Hakim, Golani Brigade, Operation Hiram