Dair Yasin’s slaughter: The moment in which the creation of Israel was based

It is estimated that 15,000 Palestinians were killed and hundreds of thousands abandoned their homes to live as refugees in other parts of Palestine or in neighboring countries, an event known by the Palestinians as Nakba – « The Disaster ».

But the Palestinians never ceased to honor the loss of every village that once was part of their homeland.

Among them was Derry Yasin, a village perched on a hill west of Jerusalem, which became a precursor to the suffering of Israel to the Palestinians.

What is Deir Yasin’s slaughter?

On April 9, 1948, a few weeks before the creation of the Israeli state, members of the Zionist militias Irgun and Sterm Gang attacked the village of Deir Yasin, killing at least 107 Palestinians.

According to the testimonies of the perpetrators and surviving victims, many of the people who were slaughtered – by those who were tied to trees and burned to those who lined up on a wall and shot by sub -parole – were women, children and elderly.

Family from Deir Yasin, 1927

As the news of the atrocities spread, thousands of people left their villages for fear.

Eventually, about 700,000 Palestinians would leave or violently displaced to the principles of Israel’s creation, making the slaughter a decisive moment in the history of the Palestinians.

What happened to Deir Yasin?

It was Friday afternoon when the militia hit Derry Yasin, where about 700 Palestinians lived.

Most were quarry workers and lithoxians.

According to Israeli narrative, Nahsson was intended to break the blocked way to Jerusalem and the fighters met strong resistance from the villagers who forced them to move home slowly.

But the Palestinians and some Israeli historians say that the villagers had signed an agreement with the Hagana, the pre-Israeli-state-of-the-art Zionist army.

Nevertheless, they were killed in cold and buried in group graves.

According to a 1948 report submitted by the British delegation to the United Nations, the murder of « about 250 Arabs, men, women and children, took place in conditions of great savagery ».

« Women and children were stripped, lined up, photographed and then slaughtered with automatic fire and survivors have talked about even more incredible brutality, » the report said.

« Those who caught prisoners were treated with degrading barbarism. »

Israeli historian Benny Morris said that the militants « looted ruthlessly, stole money and jewelry from the survivors and burned the corpses. Even partitions and rape happened. « 

The exact number of dead is disputed but ranged from 100 to 250.

A Red Cross spokesman who entered Deir Yasin on April 11 said he saw the corpses of about 150 people stacked in a cave, while about 50 had gathered at another location.

Dair Yasin’s slaughter (Getty)

The prominent Jewish intellectual Martin Buber then wrote that such events were « infamous ».

« Hundreds of innocent men, women and children were slaughtered in Deir Yasin, » he said.

« Let the village remain uninhabited at the moment and let it desert a terrible and tragic symbol of war and a warning to our people that no practical military need can ever justify such acts of murder. »

Why does it matter to date?

Morris noted that « Dair Yasin had a deep demographic and political influence: a massive flight of the Arabs followed by their areas. »

The news of the slaughter scattered panic to the Palestinians, pushing hundreds of thousands to flee.

Four nearby villages were the next: Calies, Charles, Bayy Surik and Bidu.

Palestinians in the city of Ramle are delivered to Israeli forces during the 1948 war

Deir Yasin was not an unfortunate mistake, according to Israeli historian Ilan Pope.

« The desolation of Palestine was not a subsequent war event, but a carefully designed strategy, also known as a Dallet plan, approved by Israeli leader David Ben Gurion in March 1948, » Pope wrote.

« The business was, in fact, the first step of the plan. »

Palestinian villagers return to the village of Kibia after the Israeli slaughter of 1953

The slaughter has launched a cycle of violence and antibia that has been the pattern from then on.

In fact, Dair Yasin laid the foundations for the years of violence that followed, and thus the October 7th attack and the subsequent war and the genocide currently raging in Gaza.