Summary
Operations officer of the Carmeli Brigade in Pappe’s account, who orchestrated the cleansing of Haifa in April 1948 with orders to kill any Arab encountered; he later became the Israeli army’s Chief of Staff.
Details
- It was Maklef, not Haifa’s Jewish mayor Shabtai Levi — who beseeched the Palestinians to stay and promised no harm — who called the shots in the cleansing campaign of 21-22 April 1948 (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.124).
- The orders he issued to his troops were, in Pappe’s quotation: “Kill any Arab you encounter; torch all inflammable objects and force doors open with explosives.” (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.124).
- Under the brigade’s war book, its officers ordered three-inch mortars stationed overlooking the old marketplace and port to bombard the crowds gathered there, to guarantee the flight would be in one direction only (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.125).