Did Arab policymakers have plans for the Jewish population, in case of victory in 1948 War?

score:31

Accepted answer

Decided to do some research to try to provide an answer to this question. I found three documented cases where an Arab leader used the term "Drive Jews into the sea" or talked about large scale massacre. I also mention a court case that seems to indicate that Nasser never used that term himself, nor did any other Arab leader make genocidal statements prior to 1976.

Case 1

First, Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, quoted in the New York Times in 1948:

"If the Jewish state becomes a fact, and this is realized by the Arab peoples, they will drive the Jews who live in their midst into the sea."

According to the Jewish and Israeli news website Algemeiner.com he was not referring to Israelis but to the Jews living in other Arab countries, and was apparently not advocating this as an organized policy, but implied that it would be the unorganized reaction of Muslims to the establishment of the State of Israel. Judging from the quote and the context, appears his usage of the term was rhetoric.

Case 2

Thanks to @FelixGoldberg for pointing this one out, I had missed it and it seems to be the most famous one. Azzam Pasha, Secretary-General of the Arab League 1945-1952, said that if war broke out between the (future) Jewish state and the Arab world it would be:

"a war of extermination and momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacre and the Crusades."

Wiki here. I recommend reading the whole Wikipedia article on this one to make your opinion. This seems to be more an acknowledgment that any war between Arabs and Jews will be very bloody than a call for the extermination of the Jews. It is however often used to claim the Arabs intended a genocide.

Azzam Pasha claimed that his quote is taken out of context and was manipulated for propaganda. He claims that he never called for the extermination of the Jews. He is also quoted before the war:

"Whatever the outcome, the Arabs will stick to their offer of equal citizenship for Jews in Arab Palestine and let them be as Jewish as they like."

And perhaps another citation that leads credibility to the fact he didn't call for extermination of the Jews:

One of Azzam's first acts as secretary-general was to condemn anti-Jewish rioting in Egypt of November 2–3, 1945 during which Jewish and other non-Muslim owned shops were destroyed

Case 3

The other is a statement by Dr. Fadhil Jamali, Iraqi Representative to the United Nations in 1955, who gives a second hand report of an Arab League meeting:

The highest official in the League said that with 3000 soldiers or North African Volunteers we could throw the Jews into the sea.

Christopher Mayhew Case - Nasser

Another interesting point, in 1973 British MP Christopher Mayhew offered £5,000 to anyone who could produce evidence that Nasser had stated that he sought to “drive the Jews into the sea”. Several people claimed to have proof, including a fellow named Warren Bergson who ended up taking Mayhew to court for not paying the sum. The case went to the high court:

The case came before the High Court in February 1976. Bergson was unable to offer evidence of Nasser’s alleged statement and acknowledged that, after thorough research, he had been unable to find any statement by a responsible Arab leader that could be described as genocidal.

See Wikipedia for more info on this.

What we know about the plans for the Jews had the Arabs won the war

We don't know. There likely would have been massacres committed by low ranking soldiers, as by that time there were already dozens of documented cases of massacres, conducted both by Arabs against Jews and Jews against Arabs. However, an attempt at extermination is unlikely, and there is no evidence to support this was the intention of the Arab leaders. Forced emigration, or integration as second class citizens, are more likely scenarios in my opinion.

The official policy of the Arab League seems to have been that Jews should have equal rights and freedom of religion. Of course this usually doesn't work in practice in the Arab world (with some exceptions away from the conflict zones, like Morocco, and special cases like Lebanon, although it's shaky)

The Bottom Line

There is not conclusive proof any relatively important Arab leader said that Jews should be literally driven into the sea or exterminated and there is no evidence to indicate this was ever a policy.

It is to be noted there are political and military incentives to claim that the Arabs intended to exterminate the Jews.

Also, in this region, on all sides, there are plenty unverified rumors circulating claiming all kinds of stuff.

Upvote:-3

My take is that an Arab victory would have resulted in the total destruction of the Jewish community then living in British mandated Palestine.(about 650,000 people)Had the Palestinian Arabs won the initial civil war with the assistance of the ALA ,it would have been genocide pure and simple-every single Jew would have been murdered.Had the Arab coalition defeated the IDF in phase 2,there would have been large scale massacres combined with mass expulsions-assuming any country would have given sanctuary to the defeated Jews.Had no country been willing to grant the Jews sanctuary,a small number of Jews might have been allowed to remain-as slaves.(best case scenario)The penalty for dhimmis who revolt is death or slavery in Islam and that's the way Arab (and Persian) Muslims view Israel's Jews.

Upvote:14

Summary

Nothing is known beyond the official drive the Jews into the Sea rhetoric, and nothing definitive will probably be known.

Nothing is Known

Most countries do not publish their unfulfilled plans, and, even when they do, there is no good way to ascertain their authenticity. This is especially true for the Arab states in question, which were at the time, and remain now, despotisms - nothing like FOIA exists there.

Nothing will ever be Known

The only way to find out is for a conquering army to enter, say, Cairo, and publish the state archives. Chances are those 60+ year old archives - even if they ever existed - have been long destroyed.

The Bottom Line

The main lesson of the Holocaust (according to a Holocaust survivor interviewed by my wife) is:

When someone tells you that they want to kill you, you should believe them.

I see no reason whatsoever not to take the promise to "drive the Jews into the Sea" at face value.

PS. See also What would have happened to the Jews if Israel had lost its war of independence?

Upvote:24

What Arab plans can be inferred from three classes of sources: (1) Pre-war statements to the Arab population with promises that all would share in the booty of Jewish property won by the Arab Legion armies, (2) changes in Ottoman land ownership laws following Jordan's annexation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem Here are some statements from Arab books and journals of statements made before the war or shortly thereafter by Arab leaders:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Said: "We will smash the country with our guns and obliterate every place the Jews seek shelter in. The Arabs should conduct their wives and children to safe areas until the fighting has died down." From Sir Am Nakbah (The Secret Behind the Disaster), Nimr el-Hawari, Nazareth, 1952.

Habib Issa, Secretary-General of the Arab League, successor to Azzam Pasha: "Azzam Pasha assured the Arab peoples that the occupation of Palestine and of Tel Aviv would be as simple as a military promenade...and that all the millions the Jews had spent on land and economic development would be easy booty, for it would be a simple matter to throw Jews into the Mediterranean...." From Al Hoda, June 8, 1951.

Independent observers note that most Arab refugees left either on the orders of the Arab League or panic:

"As early as the first months of 1948, the Arab League issued orders exhorting the people to seek a temporary refuge in neighboring countries, later to return to their abodes ... and obtain their share of abandoned Jewish property." Bulletin of The Research Group for European Migration Problems, 1957.

"The Arab states succeeded in scattering the Palestinian people and in destroying their unity. They did not recognize them as a unified people until the states of the world did so, and this is regrettable." Abu Mazen from the official journal of the PLO, Falastin el Thawra (What We Have Learned and What We Should Do), Beirut, March 1976.

"The mass evacuation, prompted partly by fear, partly by order of Arab leaders, left the Arab quarter of Haifa a ghost city....By withdrawing Arab workers their leaders hoped to paralyze Haifa." Time Magazine, May 3, 1948.

"The [Arabs of Haifa] fled in spite of the fact that the Jewish authorities guaranteed their safety and rights as citizens of Israel." Monsignor George Hakim, Greek Catholic Bishop of Galilee, New York Herald Tribune, June 30, 1949.

What happened to Jews and Jewish property in the Jordanian-occupied West Bank and sections of Jerusalem is also revealing.

Under ancient Islamic law, peasant farmers could perpetually live on land that they held no title provided they worked that land. The real owners, however, were free to sell their property to others subject to the peasants tenancy rights. See Tilson, J.J., "Ottoman Land Registration Law as a Contributing Factor in the Israeli-Arab Conflict." The Ottomon Empire, which controlled Palestine during the 19th century and until the end of World War I, passed the Ottoman Land Code of 1858 required that land owners register their land. This changed the facts on the ground as tenant farmers discovered that not only did they not own the land they and their ancestors had farmed, they could be evicted from the land. "The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict," Jews for Justice in the Middle East (Berkeley, Calif. 2001) (available on-line here). So when the Zionist push began in the early 20th century, absentee owners of Palestinian land sold it, perfectly legally, to Jewish investors seeking to establish the Yishuv. Ibid. After World War I, the United Kingdom recognized this issue as a sore point in Arab-Jewish relations and sought to limit Jewish land purchases to west of the Jordan River only. Ibid.

After the 1948 war, Jordan annexed the West Bank and established its own land laws, giving Arab tenant farmers title to land their families had farmed plus vast acres of adjacent lands which would would have been state property under Ottoman law. Dann, M. "Legal Confusion: Why Does Israel Accept Jordanian Law?", Jerusalem Post, Mar. 26, 2014. Moreover, Jordan made it a capital crime for any landowner, Christian or Moslem, to sell his land to a Jew. Ibid.

Also following the 1948 war, Jordan occupied East Jerusalem, including the Old City, which had been the home for Jews since the Crusades or before. The Jewish residents were evicted from their homes, their homes confiscated, and their synagogues destroyed. The Jordanian commander is reported to have told his superiors: "For the first time in 1,000 years not a single Jew remains in the Jewish Quarter. Not a single building remains intact. This makes the Jews' return here impossible." Fernea, Elizabeth W., "The Struggle for Peace: Israelis and Palestinians," Univ. of Texas Press 1992, p. 53. The Hurva Synagogue, originally built in 1701, was blown up by the Jordanian Arab Legion. During the nineteen years of Jordanian rule, a third of the Jewish Quarter's buildings were demolished. Fisk, Robert (September 30, 2000). "Bloodbath at the Dome of the Rock," The Independent. (A total of 31 of the Old City's 32 synagogues were destroyed.) A replica of the Hurva synagogue was only rebuilt by Israel in the last two years.

From these statements and facts we can see that the Arab League's boast that they intended to evict Jews from Palestine and to prevent their return was sincere.

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