Source B is from a statement made to the United Nations (UN) in 1961, written by Mrs Golda Meir, Israel’s foreign minister. It gives an Israeli view of the Arab exodus in 1948. Source B was written to justify the attack to the UN. Source B says that ‘the responsibility for the fact that the Arabs became refugees must lie with those who carried out the aggression against Israel.’ It also implies that the Arab leaders told the Arab civilians to leave so that the Arab Armies could get in. However it does admit that, yes, some Arab civilians were murdered but this was the fault of ‘some Jewish dissidents.’
I think both sources are biased and because an outside agent wrote neither, I don’t think either source is very reliable. The PLO pamphlet supports the Palestinian cause and so wants to make the Jews look bad and Arabs look good, and vice-versa, the Israeli statement supports the Jewish cause and so aims to make the Jews look good and Arabs look bad. This is the main reason why sources A and B differ in their accounts of the events at Deir Yassin; both sides wish to shift the blame to the other side. The Arabs, feeling bitter and angry about the Jewish attack want to put total blame onto the Jews, whereas the Jews want to justify the attack and put the blame on the Arabs. Neither side will accept responsibility for the Arab flight from the village. As well as trying to shift the blame, the two sides, of course, do have different views on the attack. The Jews do believe the attack was a legitimate military operation, and the Arabs do believe the attack was a cold-blooded massacre, thus, the sources differ because the views differ.
2) There has been significant Palestinian refugee problem for the last fifty years. Do these sources allow you to come to a firm conclusion about who or what is responsible for the problem?
Source A is a Palestinian view of the Arab exodus from Palestine in 1948. It is an extract from a pamphlet written by the PLO in 1984. It blames the Israeli attack on Deir Yassin for the Arabs leaving their homes and becoming refugees. It says the attack frightened the ‘Palestinian population into leaving to avoid the same fate, which they did in there thousands.’ This source is biased because it only gives the Palestinian point of view, therefore it does not allow us to come to a firm conclusion about the refugee problem. This source only partially explains the Arab exodus because from my own knowledge I know that, just four days after the reports about Deir Yassin were published, Arab forces ambushed a Jewish convoy on the way to Hadassah Hospital, killing 77 Jews, including doctors, nurses, patients, and the director of the hospital. Another 23 people were injured. If the Arabs were all so scared surely no revenge attack would have been carried out?
Source B is an Israeli view of the same event as source A. It was taken from a statement by Mrs Golda Meir (the Israeli foreign ambassador) to the UN in 1961. It blames Arab propaganda over –exaggerating the events at Deir Yassin. It also says that, ‘large numbers of the refugees left the country at the call of the Arab leaders, who told them to get out so that the Arab armies could get in.’ Just like source A, source B is biased because it only gives the Israeli point of view, because of this, and because it directly contradicts source A, a conclusion cannot be drawn from this source.
Source C is a journalist investigating the reasons for the Arab exodus. It is from an article by Erskine Childers, an Irish journalist, published in The Spectator, on 12th May 1961. Childers wanted to ‘test the charge that the Arab evacuation orders were broadcast by Arab radio.’ He found that: ‘there was not a single order, or appeal, or suggestion about evacuation from Palestine from any Arab radio station inside or outside Palestine in 1948,’ In fact he found that there were, ‘repeated appeals and even direct orders, to the civilians of Palestine to stay put.’ This source was written by somebody who was neutral to the argument and so therefore, it is not a biased source. The evidence Childers found is very reliable, because the BBC monitored all Middle East broadcasts in 1948 and these records can be viewed in the British Museum. The evidence in this source challenges the reliability of source B because it proves that Arab leaders did not tell the civilians to leave but in fact ordered them to stay.
Source D is comments made by Palestinian refugees on the work of the UN. It is quoted in The Arab Israeli Conflict-a school textbook written by Rea and Wright in 1997. It says that the refugees did not accept help from the UN and did not want to settle in host countries. The source says that the refugees wanted, ‘nothing short of our return to our homeland.’ Again this source only gives a Palestinian point of view, but it does however give us a reliable view of the attitudes of the Palestinians at that time. The comments were written in a school text book and so are useful for insight into the Palestinian way of thinking, but no conclusion can be drawn from this source.
Source E is Abba Eban (the former Israeli ambassador to the UN) speaking to the UN in 1958. It is quoted in The Arab Israeli Conflict-a school textbook written by Rea and Wright in 1997. Abba Eban says that ‘this refugee problem has been artificially maintained for political motives.’ In other words he blames the Arabs for the problem, claiming the Arabs maintain the problem to gain sympathy. He also states that: ‘The vast Arab world could find homes for a million refugees.’ He may be right but the views of the refugees in source C say that the Palestinians do not want to live in other Arab countries, but want to return to Palestine. Sources C and D contradict each other and both giving only ‘one side of the story.’ Like source C, source D is biased and so again no firm conclusion can be drawn from this source.
Source F is a photograph showing a Palestinian demonstration. The photo shows two women, a Palestinian and a Jew, holding banners demonstrating about their rights to live in Palestine. One banner says, ‘I am a Palestinian Arab. I was born in Jerusalem. Palestine is my homeland. But I cannot return there.’ The other banner says, ‘I am an American Jew. I was born in U.S.A. Israel is not my homeland. But I can “return” there. The picture was taken outside the Israeli embassy in December1973. The information given tells us that the same two women were photographed in 1993 carrying the exact same banners. As well as giving the view of an Arab, it also gives us the view of an American Jew. This shows us that not all Jews agree with the Jewish handling of the refugee problem. Although it is unreliable because it only gives one point of view, it does show us that in 20 years nothing has changed. The two women are still carrying the same banners as they were 20 years ago.
