Quotation from Yosef Weitz “Not one village must be left, not one [Bedouin] tribe” — Dec. 20 1940

Director of the Jewish National Fund (KKL/JNF), one of the main architects of the "transfer" and destruction of Palestinian villages in 1948. In his diary (conversation with Zalman Lifschitz).

Author : Thematic :
"

Amongst ourselves it must be clear that there is no room for both [Arab and Jewish] peoples in this country. No ‘development’ will bring us closer to our aim to be an independent people in this small country. After the Arabs are transferered, the country will become wide and spacious for us ; with the Arabs staying the country will remain narrow and restricted. When the war is over, and the English have emerged victorious and when the judging nations sit on the throne of law, our people should bring their petitions and claims before them ; and the only solution is the Land of Israel, at least the western land of Israel [i.e. Palestine since Transjordan is the eastern portion], without Arabs. There is no room here for compromises. The Zionist enterprise so far, in terms of preparation and paving the way for the creation of the Hebrew state in the Land of Israel,.has been fine and good in its own time, and could do with 'land buying' - but this will not bring about the State ; that must come all at once, in the manner of a Salvation (this is the secret of the Messianic idea). There is no way but to transfer the Arabs from here to the neighboring countries, to transfer all of them, save perhaps for Bethlehem, Nazareth, and the old Jerusalem. Not one village must be left, not one [Bedouin] tribe. The transfer must be directed at Iraq, Syria, and even Transjordan. For this goal funds will be found . . . An only after this transfer will the country be able to absorb millions of our brothers and the Jewish problem will cease to exist. There is no other solution.

"

Nur Masalha, Expulsion of the Palestinians, Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992, pp. 131-132)
Also: Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestine Refugee Problem , Cambridge University Press, 1989, p. 54; Edward Said, Zionism from the standpoint of victims , Vintage, 1979, p.100.

#C198 Report a problem