Thread by @LabourLeak

In 1947 the #UnitedNations voted to partition Palestine, there followed a war and a land grab by Zionists forces.

The Palestinian village of #Tantura was emptied of its inhabitants as victorious Zionist forces swept into the area, massacred its people but enjoyed their property.

Israeli army veterans openly admit what they did.

"A state is seized by the sword"
"We killed them .... without remorse"
"If you killed you did a good thing"
"I was willing to kill because that's how I was raised"

#Tantura
#PalestinianLivesMatter

Teddy Katz first revealed the truth of what happened to Palestinians #Tantura and for this he has suffered greatly.

He tells the reporter "be careful because you will be hunted down like I was."

He has in his collection many tapes and hours of interviews with witnesses.

Teddy Katz says of the massacres by Israeli forces (including apparently ex-members of German death camps)

"What happened is there that the people were in such a trance that, based on several testimonies, they released their anger on everyone they saw"

#Tantura
#Palestine

"Everyone had their residual issues ... and then it unloads."
Israeli army veterans describe their behaviour during the #Nakba

One veteran, who it later transpires ordered silence on the massacre, says: "It's eating at me, why can't I tell?"

"I want to tell you about #Tantura."

Several Israelis now describe #Tantura as a serious battle but deny massacres or such took place.

Teddy Katz said he found seven Jewish people who had confirmed there was a massacre in Tantura.

But later they fell in line and took their orders to deny the issue from Henio.

Teddy Katz had revealed that in #Tantua a massacre had taken place and many Palestinians had been killed.
One veteran admits "We were turned into murderers ... and shot [Palestinians] for no reason."

However when a journalist published the story "all hell broke out".

When the media got hold of the story Teddy Katz was savaged.

Katz revealed he had testimonies of witnesses to the event, Jews and Arabs.

But the university, media and the establishment joined together to destroy him and his reputation.

#Tantura

Since 1948 "there hasn't been a legal case that dealt with the Nakba" - when the case went to court the judge ruled against Katz and declined to view all the evidence, even though she describes him as being akin to Moses.

#Tantura

The judge seems to change her mind when she hears the tape - seemingly agreeing with Katz.

The soldiers describe seizing prisoners and that the younger soldiers put Palestinians in a barrel and then "shot at the barrel" which became filled with blood.

#Tantura

"He shot them one by one with his Parabellum and killed them"

One veteran when listening to this testimony says:
"That's not who we are, shooting in the head with a Parabellum, that's exactly what the Nazis did. I don't believe that."

#Tantura
#PalestinianLivesMatter

Various plans were hatched to seize #Tantura including navy boats with machine guns - the village was thus surrounded on all sides.

Teddy Katz points out that it is odd that Israeli veterans claim not to remember what they did during the day when battle took place.

"We .. entered the backyards, in each yard there were 40 to 50 people ... they were afraid."

They were unarmed residents who gathered together in fear.

One man lined up Palestinians "drew his gun" and "killed them all".

#Tantura
#PalestinianLivesMatter

There seemed to be three forms of killing. two that occurred on the beach and at the same time in the houses. And a third form that was perhaps the most terrible.

Men were order to dig holes by the cemetery and were then shot and buried in them.

#Tantura
#PalestinianLivesMatter

"I'm telling you, there was no tragedy like the tragedy of #Tantura."

"The first 3-4 months I was a murderer. I didn't take captives. During battle, if someone raised hands, I didn't take captives. I had a machine gun with 250 bullets."

"He grabbed a woman, young and good looking."

#Tantura

Ahmed Zaraa for former resident of #Tantura describes one event that took place when the village fell:

"This guy ... he took a girl, a pretty girl"
Her uncle stood up to protest "so one guy shot him on the spot."

"The girl came back half dead, like a rag."

"There were many Arab casualties and they were scattered, like garbage. No consideration, no nothing.

On the roads, the paths, between the houses, they were scattered everywhere. I don't even remember if they were buried or not."

#Tantura

Mass graves in #Tantura

"I was born in Tantura in 1935"
We "stayed until 1948" when the village was occupied
The men who were still alive were arrested.
The murdered men were piled onto carts.
"I saw the bodies of my father and brother"

Teddy Katz was denounced from all sides and pressured to sign a letter dismissing his work on the massacre of Palestinians.

When he asked to retract it shortly the judge refused - this then destroyed his academic career.

#Tantura

"The biggest mistake I made [in my life] was releasing that apology."

Teddy Katz was summoned to a late night meeting and forbidden from informing his lawyer.

Under duress he signed an apology denying the #Nakba - a decision that haunts him to this day.

#Tantura

The University should have told the court is was "an academic debate". Instead they supported the prosecution and removed Teddy Katz's work from library shelves.

The same library has Hitler's Mein Kampf but removed Katz's work about the #Nakba and Palestinian victims.

#Tantura

The University should have told the court this is an academic debate. Instead of defending Teddy Katz the university removed his work from the library shelves, the same library that has Mein Kampf on its shelves.

#Tantura
#Palestina

An Israeli veteran blames atrocities on the fact there was a war. Drawing a link with American abuses in Vietnam. Before going on to say "We are a pure nation"

However Teddy Katz's and his wife reveal many people knew the reality of but asked them not to talk about it.

#Tantura

The self-image of Israel as a moral society is something not seen elsewhere in the world.
"How important it is to be exceptional"
"We are the Chosen People"
"[We are] a very superior moral people"

"It's very hard for Israelis to admit they commit war crimes."

#Tantura

#BenGurion had ordered:
"We have to do everything so that Arabs flee the Galilee"

This meant all kinds of violent actions were taken to get civilians to flee, buses were then used to deport them.
Villages were razed to the ground so that there was nothing to return to.

#Tantura

#BenGurion was the driving force not only in the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians but in the post-war narrative to deny massacres, ethnic cleansing and their forced expulsion.

Instead the story of Palestinians leaving of their own accord was created.

#Tantura

In 1988 Israel celebrated its 40th year of creation.

But there was a problem - IDF Archive which were due to be released to the public and the world were discovered to be full of evidence of war crimes.

The Israeli establishment ordered this to be heavily censored.

#Tantura

Women and children were gathered outside #Tantura and kicked out to Fureidis. The lack of food was an excuse to deport them eastwards.

In 1948 a journalist for Maariv Newspaper compared the situation of Palestinians with Jewish refugees in Europe.

But then also denies this.

The journalist having made the comparison then blames the refugees for their own plight.

Israeli authorities then use the refugees from #Tantura as a PR event filmed by MGM and released as a propaganda piece - showing their army helpfully deporting refugees away from their homes

The staged footage of the Battle of #Tantura doesn't have its original inhabitants there. What we seen is a damaged ghost village with soldiers acting as if in battle. Meant as a propaganda piece to whitewash army actions - the raw footage shows the truth of what happened.

Israeli soldiers based in #Tantura write to IDF command about the "mass grave" and everything being "in order."

"What a pastoral village this should have been. Like in Greece" laments Palestinian fisherman Fouad Hassdeya from the neighbouring village of Fureidis.

#Palestine

Hassdeya talks of the time a man from a Kibbutz wanted to build a golf course in the area before digging up bones and hastily.

There is also a cemetery that was turned into a parking lot. Older Jewish residents of the Kibbutz recall being shown the mass grave.

#Tantura

Both Palestinian and Israeli sources confirm the existence of two mass graves in #Tantura.

"If we had the ability to go look for the mass graves"

Official Israel - the government, foreign ministry etc "would find a way of saying what we see isn't what we see." - Ilan Pappé

"I don't care if it isn't solved" - an Israeli academic on finding out about mass graves in #Tantura.

Ronen Saraf carries out an investigation of the area using historic and modern photographs and finds an open trench. Indicating that this once was a mass grave.

#Palestine

Looking at the imagery further the site of what appears to have been a mass grave in #Tantura appears to have been dug up.

The image from 1949 (one year after the #Nakba) seems to show that someone deliberately tampered with the evidence and removed the bodies.

"Sadly and shamefully, the current generation doesn't understand, that when they walk in this area of #Tantura, they're actually walking over mass graves."

Teddy Katz

"A monument is needed on a mass grave, it must be done"

Fouad Hassdeya

#Palestine

Four elderly members of the Kibbutz that neighbours #Tantura are asked about what they think about a monument.

Two object outright to a monument while one speaks in favour:

".. they have the right to remember" "Like we remember that we were in Europe"

#Palestine

Drora, the one member of the Kibbutz in favour of a monument, draws a link between the #Nakba and the Holocaust:

"I was in Warsaw last year and you see monuments everywhere in memory of what happened there. If they did it in their city, we can also do that."

#Tantura
#Palestine

An Israeli veteran says:

"War is war"
"Anyone who wasn't there can't judge anyone else"
"At night, sometimes I would suddenly wake up, but gradually ... I decided not to think about these things"
"Not to think about them at all"

But seems a bit emotional after talking.
#Tantura

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