Summary
The eleven-article agreement for the surrender of Nazareth, signed on 16 July 1948 in the house of Shafiq al-Jisr by the city’s mayor and notables and by Israeli army officers headed by Ben Dunkelman — a rare document of its kind for the events of the 1948 war, in Manna’s account (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.72).
Details
- The top Arab signatories were Mayor Yusif al-Fahum and National Committee head Ibrahim al-Fahum; two clauses guaranteed that the activities of the municipal council and the civil affairs administration would continue in coordination with the military governor; signatories also included police officer Samu’il Khamis and Nakhle Bishara, representing the Arab Orthodox sect (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.72).
- From the Israeli side, army officers signed in the name of the Israeli government, with Ben Dunkelman at the head of the list; the agreement strove to give a civilized face to the Israeli side, who wrote the text in advance and signed it with the leaders of the city (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.72).
- Its ninth clause refers to the government’s commitment to its recognition of “the civil rights in which all the residents of Nazareth are equal with the citizens of Israel without discrimination on the basis of ethnicity or language” — words Manna says seemed copied from the independence document of the state of Israel, and that the surrender document had been prepared in advance under the directions of the prime minister and defence minister, Ben-Gurion (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.72).
- The agreement was tested the next day, when Moshe Carmel issued an order to expel Nazareth’s entire population — an attempt to undo what had been agreed; Nazareth fared better than places where agreements were signed and subsequently violated only a few days later, as in Haifa (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.73-74).
Related pages
Nakba and Survival, Nazareth, Ben Dunkelman, David Ben-Gurion, Non-expulsion