"The Arab plan is not only to strangle our communication lines and destroy our outposts but to lay siege to the city and starve us into submission -- with a little help from the British. The British don't believe for a moment that we'll be able to withstand an invasion by SEVEN ARAB STATES so the Mandatory policy calls for us to surrender the city to Abdullah, the King of Transjordan, when the Mandate ends on May 15th.
We aren't fooling ourselves. Jerusalem and its 100,000 Jews are in for it. Everyone knows there is no defending the city from a strategic point of view. Our only hope is international intervention in some form -- a UN militia or some other neutral force. I can't believe the entire world would abandon the Holy City without making provisions for safeguarding the sacred places or trying to prevent an outright attack.
Any way you look at it, the picture is already grim. There have been no convoys out of the city for a week and, worse yet, none have arrived in Jerusalem. Food and water supplies are getting critically low and our worst nightmare, isolation from the Jewish State, may ensue. But, believe it or not, spirits are high. Everyday life goes on...with a minimum of the depressing atmosphere you would expect with everyone fully aware of what is in store. "
Aldus een brief van Zipporah Porath, een studente in Jeruzalem aan haar ouders in de VS, geschreven op 29 maart 1948, anderhalve maand voordat Israël zich onafhankelijk verklaarde en werd aangevallen door de Arabische buurlanden. Deze brief laat de andere kant zien van de zogenaamde Nakba, de verdrijving van honderdduizenden Palestijnen. Zij waren niet allemaal onschuldige boeren die hun land bewerkten toen opeens de boze Zionisten ze verjoegen, zoals het tegenwoordig vaak wordt voorgesteld (onder andere door het Tropenmuseum), maar waren zelf de oorlog tegen de Joodse gemeenschap in Palestina begonnen, nadat de VN op 29 november 1947 voorstelde Palestina in twee ongeveer gelijke staten te delen.
Voor de duidelijkheid: die interventie waar Zipporah op hoopte kwam er niet, en de Britse machthebbers stelde voor dat de Joden zich overgaven aan Jordanië (wiens leger overigens door de Britten werd getraind en bevoorraad). Dit deden ze niet, en ze wisten West-Jeruzalem te behouden, maar de Oude Stad werd door het Jordaanse leger veroverd en alle Joodse inwoners verdreven. Meer dan duizend Joden kwamen om in Jeruzalem, en Jordanië heeft in de jaren daarop bijna alle synagoges en de Joodse begraafplaats vernield. Misschien kan het Tropenmuseum daar in een volgende expositie aandacht aan besteden?
Ratna
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Zipporah ("Zippy") Porath arrived in Mandatory Palestine in Oct. 1947, as an American student, for what was intended to be a year of study at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. But, caught up in Israel's War of Independence, she served first as a medic in the underground Haganah defense forces, and then in the nascent IDF and the fledgling Israel Air Force. These volunteers from abroad were later recognized as part of the MACHAL volunteer corps.
The letters Zippy wrote to her parents and sister capture the historic events as they occurred. They are compiled in the book, Letters from Jerusalem 1947-1948. You can order it from zip(at)netvision.net.il (Israel) or click here for review and order information
Letters from Jerusalem by Zipporah Porath:
Visit to the doomed: Gush Etzion, October 1947 - In October of 1947, Zipporah Porath went to see Zionism at work in four new kibbutzim - the four doomed communities of Gush Etzion.
Palestine Partition - November 29, 1947 - Historic letter from Jerusalem recalls a night to remember.
Joining the Haganah - The spirit made up for the lack of weapons and training.
Fallen Heroes of Gush Etzion - Thirty five who set out to save a besieged community, and their tragic murder.
Palestine 1948: Fight or Flight - As Jerusalem prepares for a siege, a young American student explains why she is staying.
Palestine Pioneering - Observations on what it takes to make a new nation.
Palestine: Ben Yehuda Street Bombing 1948 - A letter describing the Ben Yehuda Street bombing of February 1948, and explaining why such acts of terror were so easy to carry out.
Palestine: Ben Yehuda St. Bombing 1948 (2) - A letter from Jerusalem describing grim restraint and fierce determination in the face of impossible odds.
The darkest hours of Jewish Jerusalem - March 1948, it seems like nothing can save Jerusalem. The ultimate trial of Zionist determination.
Jerusalem 1948: A convoy arrives - describes the joy of momentary relief of the siege.
Hadassah convoy massacre 1948 - Describes the massacre of nearly 80 medical personnel, patients and their guards by Palestinian Arab terrorists.
Palestine 1948: Passover in besieged Jerusalem - When one egg was a feast.
Israel: a country is born - Letters from besieged Jerusalem, May 15 and 16, 1948.
Israel - warts and all, 1948 - "This will be a great country in ten years."
Israel: This is my home - 1948 - From student to volunteer soldier to new immigrant.
Notice: These letters are copyright 1987 by Zipporah Porath. Introduction copyright 2008 by Zipporah Porath and Zionism-Israel.com. All rights reserved. This document may not be reproduced without express permission of the author and the publisher.
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