1/8 Snowballing nakba: on December 30th 1947, three IZL men - Moshe Levi, Shimon Damti and Moshe Bodek - arrived at the gates of the oil refinery in Haifa, where Arabs and Jews worked side by side. The men threw several homemade bombs, killing 6 Arab workers and injuring 42.
2/8 Immediately after the bombing, Arab workers started attacking their Jewish co-workers, using rods and knives. 39 Jews were massacred, many were injured. Only about an hour after the incident started, British police arrived and dispersed the crowd.
3/8 The next day, on new year's eve, more than 100 Zionist militants arrived at nearby villages Balad al-Shaykh and Hawassa, where some of the Arab workers lived. The order given to the Haganah men was "to kill maximum adult men, destroy furniture etc."
4/8 The Jewish forces started shooting indiscriminately and blowing up houses. Men were pulled out from their homes and shot. About 70 inhabitants were killed, among them some women and children. Three Haganah fighters were killed as well.
5/8 Following the massacre, many families from the two villages fled to Nablus, Jenin and Acre.
The Haganah strike had a demoralising effect on the Arabs of Haifa, and some started fleeing the city in fear. By April 1948 almost half of the local Arabs were gone.
6/8 On 21-22 April, Haifa was officialy taken by the Yishuv forces. By mid-May, only 4,000 Arabs were still in Haifa, out of the pre-war population of about 65,000. Reports of the fall of Haifa spread quickly all around the country.
7/8 Following the fall of Haifa and other incidents, such as the Deir Yassin massacre, the Arab morale reached a new low. Panic spread, and many Arab villages were abandoned by their freightened inhabitants. The mass exodus helped the Jewish forces to take over the whole region.
8/8 Last month, Moshe Bodek, probably the last man alive from the three IZL militants who initiated the oil refinery bombing, died at the age of 93.
A local Haifa news website eulogized him, saying he was "an admired, beloved teacher".
Images: 1. The oil refinery in Haifa 2. Palestine Post, 31.12.1948 3. Balad al-Shaykh in a British map from the 40's 4. "Dozens killed in two punitive actions taken by the Haganah, in Haifa and Salama", Haaretz, 2.1.1948 5. Haganah troops in Haifa, 1948
6. Palestinian Arabs leaving Haifa, April 1948 7. Palestinian Arabs at the Haifa port, on their way to a new life as refugees. May 1948 (photo by John Philips) 8. Moshe Bodek (photo by Haaretz)
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This Holocaust Remembrance Day I choose to remember Folke Bernadotte, a Swedish count and diplomat who, as vice-president of the Swedish Red Cross, managed to save more than 30k prisoners from concentration camps during World War II.
In 1948 he was appointed by the UN to be the mediator in Palestine. His WWII past didn't help him when the Stern Gang (Lehi), a Zionist miltia, made him the target of a defamation campaign and released a caricature (attached) of him being kicked out of Palestine while giving the Nazi salute, with the text: "A suggestion to the agent Bernadotte: get out of our country".
After Bernadotte didn't comply with the "suggestion" he was assassinated in Jerusalem by the Lehi on September 19th, 1948, along with the head of the UN's French military observers in Palestine.
One of the commanders of the Lehi at the time, who was responsible for ordering the hit, was Yitzhak Shamir, later the Prime Minister of Israel.
Lucky for those concentration camp survivors, it was not the Israeli army they were facing, otherwise the "white buses" would've just become a target as alleged "KHamas buses"
🧵What better way to celebrate Passover, so-called "Festival of Freedom", than in a holy place you desecrated or a house whose owners you expelled/murdered?
This one, from a mosque in Jenin, was posted on a battalion's IG page.
Next are some photos from Seder night, 8 days ago.
Seder night at an Israeli-occupied house in Jenin Refugee Camp
BTW, the yellow and black hearts near the text Chag Same'ah (happy holiday) mean that the soldier who posted this is a Beitar Jerusalem fan.
Seder night at an Israeli-occupied house in Tulkarm
Yesterday at the weekly Saturday pro-deal/anti-Bibi/pro-democracy/anti-war/who-knows-at-this-point demonstration in Tel Aviv leader of the captives' families protest Einav Zangauker yelled at protesters who held photos of murdered Gazan children. Then she posted this on Facebook:
🧵"Blotting out the memory of Amalek and burning the chametz. Happy holiday from Rafah!!"
Meet Uziel Bariach, a 52-year-old reservist who's also a prominent member of the Likud party and the owner of a metal painting company. He is currently in Rafah, apparently operating a D9.
"You are welcome to join this amazing initiative of settling Gaza. It's time you start thinking offense and not just defense", he replied to someone, after the "Victory Conference" in January 2024, which called to settle the Gaza Strip and included many ministers and MKs.
In the conference itself Bariach said he had already purchased "400 transport-ready containers for housing and a desalination plant" intended for the potential Gaza settlements.
Unusually for a Likudnik, He even said Bibi needs to go if he refuses to advance settlement in Gaza.
🧵Gaza, Oct. 20, 2024: Israeli reservist posts a clip of himself showing off a traditional "shabariya" knife he looted. He captioned it "GIMME THE LOOT", with a dagger emoji instead of a "T".
The video ends with him saying "Sexy".
From a story "highlights" album named "F Gaza".
His following story post is captioned
"Literally Nobody:
Gazaians:"
The video depicts him making stabbing-like gestures with the looted knife, as if that's what "Gazaians" normally do.
Another story post he published a few days prior includes a classic "blowing up & cheering" video, filmed in a residential neighborhood in Gaza.
🧵Just a typical football match between Beitar Jerusalem and an Arab team.
About a week ago Beitar met Bnei Reineh for the Israeli cup semi-final. Before, during and after the game, Beitar's fans repeatedly attacked Reineh's fans and chanted racist slogans at them.
#RedCardIsrael
Before the game began, Beitar's fans attacked Reineh's fans and managed to steal a drum. They then posted a "victory image" on social media.
During the game Beitar's fans threw objects at Reineh's stands and chanted genocidal songs like "Let the IDF win and f*ck the Arabs"