Summary
Small village in the northern Hula Plain, of a few hundred Muslims and one hundred Christians, attacked by Yigal Allon’s Palmach troops on 18 December 1947 despite the cancellation of the wider operation — houses blown up at night with occupants asleep and fifteen villagers, including five children, killed, in Pappe’s account.
Details
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Khisas stood on a natural terrace about 100 metres wide formed by the shrinking of Lake Hula, near the Hasbani River, and was singled out by foreign travellers for the natural beauty of its location (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.84).
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The operation against Khisas, Na’ima and Jahula was cancelled as too ambitious, but Allon partly ignored the cancellation, wanting to experience an attack on at least one village (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.84).
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On 18 December 1947 Jewish troops randomly blew up houses at the dead of night while occupants were asleep; fifteen villagers including five children were killed. The Hagana first denied the operation to a New York Times correspondent, then admitted it; David Ben-Gurion publicly apologised, claiming it unauthorised, but in April included it in a list of successful operations (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.84-85).
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At the Long Seminar Eliyahu Sasson called the attack unprovoked and ‘barbaric’; Moshe Dayan answered that it had ignited the Galilee ‘and this was a good thing’ (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.97).
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In Manna, the Palmach operation against Khisas, north of Hula Lake, on 18 December 1947 killed a dozen residents including some children, blew up houses, and spread panic so that hundreds fled seeking refuge in Syria; it provoked protests and criticism among Jewish security institutions, but its effect in panicking the Hula region’s Arabs was considered an important achievement (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.55).
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Dozens of residents under Shaykh ‘Atiyeh Juwayyid did not leave, hoping services rendered to Jewish settlers would be remembered; some of the family and their ‘Arab al-Hayb neighbours fought on the Jewish side in early 1948, but were nonetheless expelled at the end of that year — moved to Israel’s interior, unlike most on the Lebanese border strip — and all their political and legal attempts to return home failed (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.56).
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Manna calls Khisas and Balad al-Shaykh part of a blueprint to terrorize Palestinians in the areas allocated to the Jewish state in order to drive them to leave (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.57).
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Manna’s Chapter 5 (part 6) tells the survivors’ tale in full: Shaykh ‘Atiya and dozens of his extended family stayed, protected, they thought, by good relations with their Jewish neighbours, and a number of the family volunteered in the Haganah and then the Israeli army in 1948; at the end of 1948 the army had them vacate the border region temporarily, and when they returned and replanted, soldiers and policemen came on 5 June 1949 and ordered them “to vacate the premises immediately,” transporting dozens to the foot of Kan’an Mountain without food or shelter, and later to Wadi al-Hamam (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.203).
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Jewish friends, the upper Galilee regional council and HaKeren HaKayemet members headed by Yosef Nahmani protested in vain; Ben-Gurion answered a Knesset question that the transport was carried out at the northern commander’s request for military reasons, the government acknowledging the inhabitants’ loyalty while barring them from the border (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.203).
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After two years of mediation Shaykh ‘Atiya sued, with Hanna Naqqara and Elias Kusa volunteering; the Supreme Court accepted the 1949 expulsion was illegal, but the army issued individual expulsion orders on 7 July 1952 under the 1949 defence (emergency) regulations (security regions — no. 2), the court then rejected the plaintiffs while charging the defendants 75 liras in costs and recommending an arrangement allowing the plaintiffs to return; the recommendation was not acted on, and Shaykh ‘Atiya and his sons still live in Wadi Hamam, as Manna writes (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.203-204).
Related pages
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Yigal Allon, Palmach, Consultancy