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In the occasion of the fifty eighth anniversary of the Palestinian Arab
“NAKBA” this is a study for its main cause, namely the great difference
in the balance of power between Arabs and Zionists during the 1948 war,
the thing that most people both Arabs and
Foreigners are unfortunately ignorant of!!!
It is impotent to
give an idea about the political conditions in the neighboring area
around Palestine when security conditions deteriorated in Palestine, as
a result of the 1947 U.N. Palestine Partition Plan in the General
Assembly, which was passed as a result of U.S. and Zionist political and
economic pressure on a number of member states to achieve the required
two thirds majority to pass this resolution. Noting that Palestinian
Arabs, the owners of the land, had never been consulted about their
opinion on the partition of their land, the same as when Lord Belford
promised the Jews a national home in Palestine.
The Zionist movement
backed by the British mandate government and the United States were
waiting for the right moment when the number of Zionist Jews and their
readiness to wage a colonialist war against Palestinian Arabs, to uproot
them from their land and, replace them by imported Jew from around the
world, and settle them in their stolen land and homes.
The representatives
of Great Britain and France, Sykes and Picot, met in 1916 and concluded
an agreement during WW II, which was later known as the Sykes/Picot
Agreement, to divide the Arab territories of the Ottoman Empire among
them before the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and hence these territories
in their hands! At the time Great Britain insisted on including
Palestine among its war spoils to achieve its long planed for
colonialist goal, namely the establishment of the “Jewish National Home”
in Palestine (to become in the future a state). As planned this state
will be the long arm of for colonialism in the Arab land to impose it
self on it and subjugate it. Sir Herbert Samuel, the first high British
high commissioner in Palestine wrote in his memoirs as well as in as
other occasions: “Obtaining its independence ,The Jewish state shall
be part of western civilization, and shall defend its interest in the
orient”. In another occasion he said: “The establishment of a
Zionist state in Palestine shall extend many services to great Britain”.
In 1917 the British
Government issued the disastrous “Balfour Declaration”, by the
strength of which it promised the Jews a national home in Palestine
while also its armies did not yet occupy Palestine, even if this give it
the right to give some else’s land to a third party who has no relation
or connection with it. Great Britain, as a leading power in the League
of Nations, imposed on it the approval on its “Balfour declaration”!
And as per the
“Sykes/Picot agreement”, Great Britain imposed itself on Iraq and
what was later known as Emirate of Tran Jordan, while its control on
Egypt preceded long before WW II. Great Britain gave each of them, Egypt
and Iraq, to be followed by Trans Jordan a nominal independence in the
twenties of the twentieth century. In 1948 Trans Jordan was under the
rule of Emir Abdullah Bin Al-Hussein whose family was brought by the
British from Hijaz after its fall in the hands of the Saudis, this
Emirate, which is a part of Syria, that is Southern Syria, was torn out
from it to please the Hashemite Emir whose brother, Faisal was appointed
as king of Iraq, Egypt was under King Farouk a descendent of an Albanian
family that the Ottomans brought his great grand father, Muhammad Ali
Pasha, to become the "wali" of Egypt, Iraq was under the underage king
Faisal II (the grandson of King Faisal I) under his uncle’s regency
Abdul Alilah and under the influence of England’s faithful man Prime
Minister Nouri Assaid.
It goes without
saying that as long as all the “rulers” of these three Arab states owe
their thrones to Great Britain, none of them is in a position to put
conditions on the other party of the treaties while they were being
drafted. The treaties gave Great Britain the right to control the
internal and external policies, their governments and armed forces. Thus
when these Arab states took part in the Palestine war after the end of
the British mandate on May 15, 1948, Great Britain had the right to
decide on the numbers and armament each of them can use in the battle
against the Zionist enemy, which was operating under a unified command.
Instead of unifying the three Arab states, which has a common link
namely treaties with one power, these treaties deepened the differences
and conflicts betweens their kings personal interests, to preserve
their thrones and get each his share of the war spoils. Thus none of
them had any real interest to defend the Arab character of Palestine, on
the contrary all what they wanted was to appease their protector, Great
Britain, without whose assistance the Zionist state would never had seen
light.
As well known Great
Britain was working hard to fulfill the “Balfour declaration” to
establish the Jewish national home, which is actually and what really
happened a Zionist state in Palestine on the wreckage our people in our
land, while it was on the other hand, also working hard, to destroy the
potential of the Palestinian Arab people culturally, politically,
economically and militarily, noting that the League of Nation’s
authorization for Great Britain to be the mandated power stated it
should prepare the Palestinians rule themselves in the earliest possible
time.
Culturally, Great
Britain rather than facilitating all the means possible for Palestinian
Arab to improve their educational standards, it worked on depriving them
of these facilities. It did not allocate enough funds in the educational
budget for establishing new schools and universities, noting that more
than two thirds of the population of Palestine at the time were Arabs,
namely 1,300,000, while out of the 600,000 Jews residing in Palestine at
the time, about 400,000 were smuggled and did not carry Palestinian
identity cards, still they received funds for education in the budget.
That means they were smuggled into Palestine with the knowledge of the
British mandate government.
All through the years
of the British mandate its government did not establish one single Arab
higher education establishment, a university, except for the school of
law in Jerusalem, which can not be considered a university. It had both
Arab and Jewish students.
On the elementary
and secondary levels schools conditions were as follows:
Elementary
government schools:
The number of complete elementary schools, namely with seven grades in
1945/1946 was hundred twenty five schools with 2,503 students in seventh
grade. And among 260,700 boys of school age there were 42,700 boys in
government schools, that is a mere 16.38% of the total number of boys
and girls of school age.
Secondary
government schools:
There were in
Palestine in 1946/1947 four complete secondary government schools, which
were increased to 12 in 1947/1948 that is the year the British ended
their mandate on Palestine! And there were about 8 incomplete secondary
schools for both boys and girls for a total Palestinian Arab population
of 1,300,000!!!
There is no better
proof on the delinquency of the British mandate government in providing
Palestinian Arabs with the required means of proper education at all
levels, and allocating the budget needed for it, then the report of the
royal committee it presented in the summer of 1937 stating: “We
declare with regret that the government of Palestine (British
mandate) could not after seventeen years provide education for more
than half of the Arab need for education”.
And also the report
of the Anglo/American investigation Committee appointed by the United
States and the United Kingdom in 1946 stated: “We found out that only
half of Arab school age children who want to join schools can find
places in government schools”.
There is no better
proof of the insistence and the desire of poor Palestinian Arab
villagers to teach their children, in spite of the negligence of the
mandate government in this field, then their contribution from their
meager income and savings between April 1941 and Aug. 1945 an amount of
P.L. 325,120.00, out of which P.L. 121,395.00 were spent on school
buildings. And during the last few years of the British mandate Arab
municipalities used to spend between P.L. 150,000.00 to 200,000.00 per
year on teaching, witch of course was not a part of the budget allocated
for Arab education by the mandate government!
But private education
filled the gap, which graduated hundreds of young men yearly, and many
went abroad for higher education.
The best example of
the delinquency of the mandate government in the field of Arab
education, is what the late Salim Agha, the mayor of Khan Younis to one
of the to officers of the British Mandate government in reply to the
latter’s saying: “Most of the budget is spent on security”, Agha
replied: “Look Mr. …… you give us political security and we give you
public security”. Of course expenditure on security was spent on
crushing Arab resistance to the Zionist project.
The reader may ask,
what is the relation between education and the balance of power between
Arabs and Zionist during the 1948 war? The answer is simple and clear.
Ignorance and illiteracy reduces the capability of a people to fight and
resist colonialism, especially for a people like Palestinian Arabs
fighting two colonialist enemies, the British Empire and the Zionist
enemy whose aim is to uproot the Palestinians and replace them in their
land, who were working hand in hand to destroy Arab resistance, and both
of them is highly qualified and received high education.
There is no doubt
that the difference between the standard of education among the
Palestinian under the British Mandate when 85% of the villagers were
illiterate and now, illiteracy for the generation under the age of 25
years is less than 5%. As for higher education there are eleven
universities with more then 80,000 students in spite the impossible
conditions they are living under Zionist state terrorism, curfews,
bombardment, arrests, road blocks, demolishing of school and university
buildings, assassinations… etc, etc.
As for Elementary and
high school education the number of male and female students rose from
617,868 in the school year 1994-1995 to 812,722 in 1998-1999 that is an
increase of 31.54%.
Concerning the
economical conditions under the mandate it was not much better then the
educational conditions, noting that even though a lot of Palestine Arab
efforts and funds were directed for resisting the common Zionist and
British colonialism and their efforts to put sticks in the wheels of the
Palestinian Arab economy, they were working hard to modernize their
economy in the field of trade, agriculture, industry and services the
thing that created job opportunities and encouraged Arabs from other
Arab countries to come to Palestine to seek work in the Palestinian Arab
projects.
What hurt the
Palestinian Arab community most is what the mandated/colonialist power
did in the military sphere. While it was persecuting them and trying to
deprive them of all means of resisting the Judaization of their country
by confiscating what ever arms they have, and not to allow them to have
military training to defend them selves and their land. Punishment used
to be severe: Exile, imprisonment, execution, demolition of whole
villages and buildings if any arms were discovered in them, or if fire
was shot from at British forces or Zionist colonies, all that while the
mandate government was arming and training the imported Jews for who it
opened wide the doors of Palestine to colonize, displace and replace its
people from and in their land and homes.
As per official
reports, statistics and various British and American committees,
Zionists in Palestine had forces, supplies and combat experience that
they gained during WW II when they joined the British Army as the Jewish
Legion in the British Army, which surpassed all the Arab armies and the
irregulars that participated in the battle of Palestine in 1948 as we
shall detail here below. This is in addition to the support, assistance,
arming, training that the Zionists received from the mandated government
inside and outside Palestine, which had all the vital importance in
creation of the Zionist state as per the “Balfour Declaration”
and the “Sykes/Picot Agreement”.
The Anglo/American
committee Report page 39 stated concerning the forces the Zionist enemy
had before the 1948 war:
The General Committee
(Haganah), which was perfectly organized and under a unified command,
and had three secondary commands each controlling a branch that had
women members.
a)
Major Forces: Is made up of the inhabitants of
cities and colonies that number 40,000.—men and women.
b)
Field Army: Is made of the police force of the
colonies that was militarily trained that numbered 16,000.—men.
c)
Striking Force: Which was at permanent alert (Palmach)
that numbered 6,000.—
The report said in
page 41: In addition to the force mentioned above the terrorist Irgon
organization had between 3,000 and 6,000 armed terrorist.
The report did not
mention any military Arab organization in Palestine at the time.
This legion was
formed by a decree of the British government during WW II to fight the
axis forces with the allies.
Hayyim Weissmann and
Mose Sharete had vital roles in convincing the British government in
forming the armed Jewish force which developed to become the Jewish
Legion in the British Army in 1944, and it later joined the eighth
British army in Italy to fight the Axis forces, but it concentrated its
efforts on organizing Jewish emigration to Palestine.
Differences started
for tactical reasons between the British and the Zionists, and the
latter organized what was known by “The Hebrew Resistance Movement”
that started with publishing a weekly pamphlet, which developed to
become daily. It used to criticize the British mandate in Palestine. In
1946 the British Government dismantled the legion and returned its
regiments to Palestine were they joined the semi official Jewish
military force.
Zionists started
arming themselves in the twenties of the twentieth century, namely with
the beginning of the British mandate over Palestine. And in the thirties
they already had a considerable military power, and they completed
arming themselves during and after WW II.
Survey of
Palestine, Vol. 1,p. 119 said:
1-
The British mandate authorities armed the
colonies police force and continued to do so up till the termination of
the mandate. An official mandate authorities report said that it armed
this force with the following arms:
4,921 military rifles
2,096 training rifles
84 machine guns
40 Launcher Rifles
17 armored cars
40 trucks
377 Greener rifles
The number of Jewish policemen who were trained and armed by the
British was:
12,000 special policemen
1,650
temporary policemen
13,650 Total
=====
This is in
addition to 2,000 Jewish policemen in the central police force who were
under direct British command.
2-
Military arms, ammunitions and equipment bought
or manufactured by Zionist factories established during WW II under
British supervision to supply the allied forces in the Middle East,
which continued production after the end of the war to supply the
Haganah with arms and ammunitions.
An example of the
production of these factories:
1st. Anti
tanks and other armed vehicles mines
Year 1942: 1,950,000
Year 1943: 1,684,000
Year 1944: Unknown
2nd. Steel
bomb cases:
Year 1942: 1,000,000
Year 1943: 5,500,000
Year: 1944:1,275,000
7,875,000
Top
Gideon Goes on to
War, Mosley P. 55. Book said:
“Zionist started
military training in Palestine in 1937/1938 during the Great Palestinian
Revolution 1936-1939 against Anglo/Zionist occupation and the operation
of installing the Zionist colonialism of Palestine, which took place
under the supervision of major Wignet by order of the commander general
of the British forces in Palestine”.
“40,000 to 60,000
Jews including 2,000 women living in Palestine joined the ranks of the
Jewish legion in the British Army out of whom 1,600 in the Royal Air
Force, 800 in the Royal Navy, the rest in the various services of the
army.
Although not all the
Jews who volunteered had the opportunity to gain combat experience, but
all of them gained precious training on fighting methods.
Army of Israel –
Parfman” London 1944 – P. 34 said:
3,000 - 5,000
Zionists were trained on tough Gorilla warfare in North Africa, for the
purpose of using them as a fifth column in case Nazi Germany occupied
Palestine, and they were secretly trained in the Mishmar Hayerdin colony
in Palestine”.
The Supplement to
Survey of Palestine P. 26 said:
“In addition to
‘Palestinian’ Jews thousands of East European Jews joined the allied
forces in the Middle East, and when they had the opportunity they
deserted their units and were smuggled into Palestine, among those were
3,600 Polish Jews”.
Kirk page 229:
said:
“Last but not least
Jews in Palestine received human resources of qualifies western Jews.”
In 1939 when WW II
broke out the Jewish Agency submitted to the British Government a list
of 126,000 male and female Jews between the ages of 18 and 50 to be
drafted in the various sectors of the British armed forces, and as we
said here above 40,000 to 60,000 were drafted noting that the total
number of Jews then was about 500,000. (This figure could sound strange
and unbelievable, but the Zionist society in Palestine is unique, it is
95% imported). Among the main goals of the Jewish agency is to give
priority to two categories of people: The young and able to carry arms
to fight Palestinian Arabs to expel them from their land and homes to
replace them. The other category was the scientists and technicians to
prepare the society in the field of science, production and war efforts.
They were trying to exclude the old and the disabled, and on these bases
they were able to draft almost 25% of the society. Another remark, is
that Zionists insisted on that their men and women be drafted in the
various sectors of the armed forces, the air force, the navy and the
army to gain experience in all of them.
The report of the
Anglo/American Investigation Committee stated that Jews in Palestine had
in April 1946 that is 17 month before the passing of the Partition Plan
by the U.N. General Assembly, the following numbers of armed men and
women in terrorist organizations:
Haganah: 62,000
Irgon: 3,000 – 6,000
Sturn: 2,000
This is in addition
to the colonies police forces and the central police force as stated
above.
Definitely these
numbers on May 15th should have increased considerably,
specially that the Zionist command was waiting for the mandate to end to
wage its war against Palestinian Arabs, the inhabitants and owners of
this land.
This was an over all
view of the Jewish society in Palestine on the eve of the 1948 war whose
social and military capabilities grew under and the blessing, planning
and support of the British to fulfill their “Balfour Declaration”/Promise
of the Jewish National Home in Palestine. This is while the British
mandate policy took all possible efforts to destroy Palestinian Arab
social, political and military establishments almost completely. (The
same as the Zionist entity is trying to do now). These efforts were
intensified during the Great Palestinian Arab Revolution 1936 – 1939
namely before the break out of WW II. This is because both British and
Zionist colonialism were sure, as the racist Zionist Sharansky said,
that Arabs will never willingly give up their land.
British sources took
reservation not to declare the numbers of Palestinian Arab casualties on
the hands of the British forces, which are as follows as published in
Survey of Palestine Vol. 1, pages 38, 43, 46, and 49.
1936 Not less than
1,000 killed and no mention of injured.
1937 Not mentioned
1938 Not less than
1,000 killed in addition to 54 hanged injured not mentioned.
1939Not less 55
hanged and nothing mentioned about those killed and injured.
The British Mandate
campaign against Palestinians was intensified before and after 1939.
The responsible
authorities admitted that 5,679 Arabs were arrested in 1939 while 2463
were arrested in 1938.
“Relying on the above
figures we conclude that 5,000 to 10,000 Palestinians were killed by
British Mandate authorities, and as the ratio of the wounded to the
killed in wars are usually four to one thus the number of those wounded
would range between 20,000 and 40,000 noting that the population of
Palestine in 1948 was 1,300,000, that is ten years after the Great
Palestinian Revolution, it is natural to conclude that the population in
1939 was about a 1,000,000 Palestinian Arabs. On this bases the ratio of
the killed and wounded would range between 2% and 4% of the total
population, this is in addition to the number of the imprisoned, exiled
and pursued. Let’s consider that the population of Great Britain at the
time was 50,000,000.—thus the number of the killed and injured would
have been 1,250,000. -- To 2,500,000.--, or now in the Zionist entity
with about five million Jews, the number of Jews killed and wounded
would be 125,000. -- to 250,000.--, or British and Jewish blood is
sacred and Arab blood is not and worthless!!!
Of course not to
forget the number of villages and tens of buildings demolished, which
was inherited by the Zionist entity since it came into existence, but on
a much larger scale. As a result of these atrocities committed by the
British occupation forces the Palestinian Arab economy and fighting
force were more than partly destroyed.
Dr. Walid Al-Khalidy
added: “While the Anglo/Zionist torture campaign against Palestinians
was overwhelming, the British took one single campaign against a Zionist
colony out of 373 Zionist colonies that had never been searched.
The British found
during this campaign in Bajour colony near Haifa in 29 June 1946 the
following military arms and ammunitions:
325 rifles
10 machine guns
1 Anti armored
vehicles gun
5,019 Mortar bombs
425,000 Bullets
Top
Just two weeks before
the five Arab Armies (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon) “entered”
Palestine namely on April 30th 1948, Arab chiefs of staffs
met in Amman and unanimously announced, that Arabs need to defeat the
Zionist enemy should enter the battle with no less than six complete
squads fully organized, armed, and with six divisions and with six
squadrons (72 military airplanes) of bombers and fighters, which all
should work under a common command with full authority to organize the
battle according to a well studied plan. The tragedy was that the
political leaderships of each state that were waiting for the decisions
of the chiefs of staff, deemed the numbers requested as excessive and
ordered the military command to enter the war with the forces available
to them (!!!), and when necessary they will be increased as required!!!
It is known in the science of war that it is necessary for an attacking
army to defeat the enemy to have available on hand four times the forces
available to the enemy, especially that surprises in battles most often
exceed the expected.
The total number of
forces employed in the battle in May 15th. 1948 as follows:
Officers and
soldiers:
18,000 (This is even if we take for granted the numbers that Abdullah
Atall claimed that the Jordanian army entered the battle with, which
contradicts with the data mentioned in the memoirs of Glob Pasha the
British commander of the Jordanian army).
Various types of
armored vehicles: 242 (The above comment applies on this number too).
Light Tanks:
19 (Noting that two Syrian tanks broke down on the way to the front, and
the six Lebanese tanks did not join the battle except on June 4th.
in the Malkiah battle).
Field batteries
excluding antiaircraft and antitank: 136 (Also as per Atall numbers).
Antiaircraft and
antitank batteries:
70 (Also as per
Atall’s exaggerated figures).
Training,
transport and exploration airplanes:
32 (On the bases that the number of the Syrian planes of
this type was 10 and not 4).
In total these Arab
forces form at most two and half divisions, while planes form only one
squadron that is 1/6 of the required force requested by the chiefs of
staff.
This is in addition
to about 5,000 Palestinian Arab fighters and volunteers in Al-Inqaz army
of various Arab nationalities without any combat experience, who receive
quick training. They were under the command of officers from various
Arab armies. As for the Palestinian fighters they also lacked any
fighting experience because they were, as we explained above living
under the oppression of British colonialism. Most of the arms they had
available to them fighting a well trained, organized and armed enemy
were mostly old and few in number; so several fighters were using the
same rifle alternately day and night. The number of rifles was less then
the number of the volunteers. As for the ammunitions they were scarce,
and fighters were buying them from their own meager savings, selling
their wives jewelries and/or instead their children’s daily bread.
We decided to quote
the following part of an article entitled: “Subhi Al-Khadra’: The
Biography of a leader from Safad”, by: the researcher specialized in the
history of Palestine under the British Mandate, published in the Arabic
language “Majalat Adirasat Al-Falistiniah”, issue 59, Summer 2004,
about Palestinian armament to show the extent of the carelessness of the
Arab League about the Arab central cause, the Palestinian cause, which
ended in the great Arab NAKBAH, our NAKBAH in Palestine. We quote the
following from this article:
“Before the Palestine
Partition Resolution and specifically on November 11th 1947
the heads of the Arab League delegations decided on forming a military
committee of the following: Ismael Safwat on behalf of Iraq, Mahmoud
Al-Hindi on behalf of Syria, Subhi Al-Khadra on behalf of Palestine,
Bahjat Tabarah on behalf of Jordan and Shawkat Shokeir on behalf of
Lebanon.(1)
“It was not easy for
this committee to operate because of differences in opinions among Arab
states, as some looked at it as the leadership responsible for the
defense of Palestine, others considered it responsible for training
volunteers and supervision of fighting uptill the armies enter Palestine
on May 15th. 1948.
“The head quarter of
the committee was in Damascus and concentrated most of its efforts on
supplying Palestinian fighters with arms and ammunitions in order to
defend themselves, it also worked on gathering volunteers and training
them and established a training camp in Qatana near Damascus.
“Practically the
military committee acted since it was formed and uptill the armies
entered Palestine on May 15th. As being the responsible
military authority, due to the slackness of the Arab League and failure
of forming the higher Arab military command.
“The committee was
authorized with supervising and organizing military operations,
armament, spending the money budgeted by Arab states to help Palestinian
Arabs to defend themselves and their land.
“The committee
authorized Subhi Al-Khadra with the job of buying arms and shipping them
from Egypt and Libya, as there were quantities available from left over
from WW II, the Egyptian authorities and the governor of the Green
Western Desert gave Al-Khadra facilities to organize warehouses in
Salloum and the governorate of the Western Desert, to store the weapons
he was buying from traders and middlemen, and even from tribes
chieftains, gathering them and shipping them to specified destinations.
(3)…
“Reports and
correspondence show that Al-Khadra’s assignment in buying arms was
initiated on January 8th. 1948 and ended in June of the same
year, during which he traveled between Syria and Egypt seven times and
between Egypt and the Libyan border five times. He shipped what he
bought on board of five ships and five airplanes to warehouses in Mazeh
in Damascus Syria through the ports of Tyre and Latakya. The Arab League
budgeted Egyptian Pounds 20,235.—only, which Al-Khadra spent all in his
mission. (4) This amount is meager in comparison to importance of the
challenges the Palestinian cause was and is still facing.
“Al-Khadra made use
of five agents in fulfilling his job, four Egyptians and a cousin, Said
Al-Khadra, they all worked together for six months to buy arms for the
order of the military committee, as stated in the agreements concluded
with them. (5)
“Al-Khadra sent large
quantities of arms of various types, most of which – as we said above –
used to go to Damascus and from there to Palestine, and from Damascus to
Lebanon then to Palestine. Also he was also was supplying Hajj Amin Al-Huseini
and Adib Al-Shishakli, commander of Al-Inqaz army in northern Palestine
directly (6), and they used to distribute them to fighters.
“Al-Khadra did not
waste an opportunity to obtain the largest quantity of arms; he even
request Jamil Mardam, Prime Minister of Syria to use his good offices
with the Egyptian authorities to sell or grant him arms from the
Egyptian ministry of Defense it discarded with, witch included Mortars,
and anti-armors guns(7). From a report which he raised to the committee
the variety and quantities of arms he bought included trucks, guns,
machine guns, rifles, hand guns, ammunitions, hand grenades, mines and
dynamite. (8)
“Al-Khadra confesses
that not all the material he bought was in good condition, but prices
were acceptable and cheaper than was available in Syria and Palestine,
which were any how scarce and very hard to obtain.
“The report also says
that Saudi Arabia gave one thousand rifles and a big quantity of
ammunitions, but through the Egyptian Royal Border Guard.(9) It is not
clear why the rifles were not directly given to Al-Khadra or the
military committee directly.
“If we consider that
the military committee was the most important committee the Arab League
formed, and entrusted it with vital responsibilities during the most
critical hours of the war starting with passing the Partition Plan and
the withdrawal of the British occupation forces from Palestine on May 15th
1948, we can say that Subhi Al-Khadra was, not because he was the only
Palestinian, but because he was entrusted with purchasing arms without
which it would have been impossible to run the battle.
“It is also important
to say that entrusting one person with such a big responsibility such as
buying arms for a battle of survival show how negligent the Arab League
was.”(!!!)
Top
As mentioned in the
Anglo/American Committee report appointed by the British Government to
make a study of the current Palestinian situation on April 1946, we said
that the Haganah had an armed force of 65,000 -70,000 fighters, witch
was according to the information gathered by the intelligence department
of the British armed forces.
Walid Al-Khalidy
wrote in his book: “Fifty Years After the 1948 War” Dar Annahar Lilnashr,
Beirut pages 32-33:
“On May 15th.
1948 as mentioned in Ben Gorion’s Memoir’s and in “The History of the
Haganah”, the Haganah had ten brigades and three brigades for the
Palmackh as follows:
Yaftah
Brigade: 2,000 soldiers;
Hareil
Brigade: 2,000 soldiers;
Hanighf Brigade:
2,000 soldiers;
The other Brigades:
Larmili
Brigade: 2,238;
Golani
Brigade: 3588 soldiers;
Alxandroni Brigade: 3588 soldiers;
Kiriati
Brigade: 2504 soldiers;
Ghafaeti Brigade:
3229 soldiers;
Shifae Brigade: 800
soldiers;
Atsioty Brigade: 3166
soldiers;
In addition to 4161
soldiers in services, that is artillery, engineering, air force and
transport.
As for the armament
that these forces used to own on the termination of the mandate were as
follows:
* 25 Hispano-Suisa
guns Swiss made;
* 105 Mortars 205
mms;
* 600 – 800 locally
made armored cars;
* 52 half track
American made;
* 29 flamethrowers;
* 30 anti-armored
vehicles guns (Hashaf);
* 182 Medium size
machine guns;
* 1269 machine guns;
* 28,000 rifles
(including the colonies police force that belongs to the mandate
government!);
* 10,264 machine
guns;
* 94,926 locally made
hand grenades;
* 31,000 locally made
mines;
Al-Khalidy added,
these weapons do not include the huge quantities that Ben Gurion had
with his farsightedness and determination ordered in advance from
abroad, concentrating on the most important then the important, they
were all on their way to Palestine on May 15th. Ben Gurion
mentioned in his memoirs in May 19th that a ship carrying a
large quantity of these orders was waiting outside Haifa port on that
date to unload its shipment. It had on board 10,000 rifles, 1421 machine
guns and 16,000,000 rifle bullets to be of course added to the
quantities mentioned above.
The official story of
the “History of the Haganah” states that between May 15th
and 31st that is within two weeks after the declaration of
the state of Israel – 10 more 75 mms guns, 30 more 65 mms guns, in
addition to 70,000 gun bombs and 12 field guns 120 mms.
In order to form a
better idea on the seriousness of statesmen in war time, we give only as
an example the contents of additional orders that Ben Gurion insisted on
ordering and received successively after May 15th. 10 Miser
Schmitt airplanes, 20 Normand airplanes, 40 tanks, 92 armored vehicles,
200 Bazookas, 59 different types of ships, 20 million bullets, and more
than 200 field guns. What is strange is that the price of all these big
quantities of arms and equipments were not out of the potential of the
five Arab states individually or as a group. Ben Gurion mentioned in his
memoirs that the ten Miser Schmitt airplanes coasted him only one
million U.S. Dollars. Because the prices of arms after WW II were too
cheep because of the great excess of arms and ammunitions available.
In comparing the arms
and equipment of the two parties we would find that Zionists were
primarily superior on the Arabs in various systems (armored vehicles,
mortars, flamethrowers, anti armor guns, automatic guns, mines, hand
grenades, in addition to ammunitions, combat experience and
administrative logistics). And if there was any thing that we were
superior in the enemy was able to over come that quickly and with
determination.
But we should add,
that in spite of the above lack equality in the balance of power in
favor of the enemy but our Palestinian Arab daring fighters had
determination, and showed extra ordinary courage in fighting the
invading enemy to protect the land and confront an enemy, which was far
superior in the number of fighters, training and armament and backed by
the British occupation army that put a complete all sorts of military,
social, educational, economical… siege on Palestinian Arabs as we tried
to explain above, and in spite of the scarcity of Arab support.
This is contrary to
the Zionist enemy, which was receiving great support from the
international Zionist movement, and the colonialist powers politically,
militarily and in the media. It is impotent to stress on while we are
reviewing this case to stress on the lack of seriousness of Arab rulers
and their subordination to the colonialist powers who had been and are
still are the promoters of the Zionist project, this had been the main
effect in the breach of the Arab/Zionist balance of power, which was not
possible to balance in the absence of Arab unity especially among the
political Arab leadership.
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