THE PLOT

As soon as the civil war broke out following the UN’s partition plan, hundreds of thousands of Arabs began leaving Palestine. By the time Israel was created in 1948, there were Arabs living both outside and inside the new state, but, crucially, there were also Arabs living inside contested territory. It was these Arabs that concerned Ben Gurion, because one of Israel’s goals in the War of Independence was to seize enough territory to push the Arabs far enough back from Jewish settlements that Israel’s boundaries could be defended. A buffer zone that Israel could completely control in order to maximize its security.

The city of Lydda (today called Lod) sat right on the blurry non-border between Israel and the theoretical Arab state, and was strategically important for both sides. It was on the crucial highway linking Tel Aviv and Jerusalem that Israel was desperately fighting to retake. And from Lydda the Arab forces could strike out in any direction. 

On July 11, 1948, Israel took most of the city in a brief, bloody, and confusing battle in which several Israeli soldiers, and probably several dozen Arab civilians, were killed. Historians still debate today exactly what happened. But in the aftermath, Ben Gurion ordered the IDF to expel the remaining thousands of Muslim civilians. Some sources say a handful of refugees died while trekking to the Arab lines; others say it was hundreds. 

Palestinians interpreted what happened in Lydda as a massacre that exemplified Israel’s inhumanity, territory-grabbing, and disregard for Palestinian life. But it’s also the case that the fall of Lydda and the expulsion prevented the Arab forces from attacking Tel Aviv, and opened the way for Israel to secure the road to Jerusalem to rescue the 100,000 Jews trapped there under siege. 

THE PEOPLE

David Ben Gurion: Prime Minister of Israel who ordered the expulsion of Lydda’s Palestinian population. It was the only time he gave an expulsion order during the War of Independence.

Shmarya Guttman: Israeli archaeologist whom Yitzhak Rabin appointed in charge of Lydda. He was responsible for organizing the expulsion, though he was reluctant to carry out the orders..

Yitzhak Rabin: commander of Israeli forces fighting in the center of the country, to take the road leading to Jerusalem. He was in charge of the operation to take Lydda and cities to prevent Arab forces from attacking, and relayed Ben Gurion’s expulsion order.

THE BIG IDEAS

Part of the Israeli relationship towards the Arabs in 1948 was borne out of fear and vulnerability. Israelis saw an ocean of hostile Arabs crowded around them on the map. This fear drove the obsession with security, which meant, in part, wanting more territory. Ben Gurion believed that Israel’s borders should be wherever is necessary for defense, and that Israel must have a Jewish majority within its boundaries to remain Jewish.

The Palestinian narrative claims that the same callous disregard for Palestinian lives which the Israelis showed at Lydda was repeated everywhere in Palestine. It is the sin at Israel’s beginning which invalidates Israel’s entire existence. Lydda exemplified, for them, the Palestinian experience during the War of Independence, which they call “the nakba,” meaning, “catastrophe.”

But for Israel, taking Lydda was necessary because Israel couldn’t have a hostile Arab population in the center of the country. Lydda fell during the heat of battle and was not a deliberate massacre. More to the point, it was a rare occurrence: while both sides committed atrocities, on the Israeli side it was the exception but on the Arab side it was much more frequent.

FUN FACTS

It’s often assumed that the Arabs/Palestinians were the only ones expelled from captured territory during the war, but the reverse was also true. Where the Arabs took territory from the Jews, the Jews were expelled, fled, or taken prisoner.

Lydda is mentioned in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, and has at various times been occupied by the Israelites, Romans, Byzantines, Muslims, Crusaders, Ottoman Turks, the British, and now Israel.

Lydda today is next door to Israel’s main airport: Ben Gurion International Airport.

© Jason Harris 2020