The state of Israel was founded by terrorist organizations that committed acts of terror against the British and Arab peoples of Palestine. Organizations such as Haganah and the more militant Irgun attacked civilians and bombed non-military targets both British and Arab. Their predecessors began attacking Palestinians well before the 1948 war that resulted in the declaration of the state of Israel and terrorism against the Palestinian people has continued unabated ever since the Nakba. It is important to understand that Israel was founded by terrorists because the label terrorist is used to discredit any Palestinian opposition to the theft of their lands and their brutal treatment by the occupying Zionist forces. The first prime minister of the Likud party which has governed Israel for much of the period post 1967 was Menachem Begin. He led the terrorist group Irgun in mandatory Palestine. This group was designated terrorist by the British mandatory authority.
I’ve come across a picture several times in my social media feed since October 7th. While it is not a comprehensive list by any means, it is a good starting point to understand why the Palestinians have resorted to means outside what we would consider acceptable behavior. It also serves as a stark reminder that whatever you may think of the actions of Palestinian groups like Hamas, the crimes of Israel dwarf them in comparison. Since seeing this picture several times, I decided to research and describe the incidents listed. I will try to keep my descriptions short because I don’t have time to write a book length treatment that would result from a comprehensive treatment of this topic and better writers than I have already done this. This essay is not an attempt to whitewash the behavior of the Palestinians but to show that much of what we consider terrorism was in response to similar and in some cases much more brutal actions by the Zionist occupiers. I focused solely on Zionist attacks because the history of Jewish terrorism is little known in the United States. Like the United States, Israel has a long history of murdering and expelling the indigenous peoples of territory it has captured and since October 7th government policy has accelerated the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. If you don’t believe this is a genocide, I urge you to research the UN definition of genocide found in the UN CONVENTION ON THE PREVENTION AND PUNISHMENT OF THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE Article 2 which defines the crime of genocide.
DISCLAIMER
***I am not a historian and this is not meant to be a scholarly treatise. It is meant to spur on your own further research. Please take the information presented and use it as a springboard to find more information and further your education about the history of the occupation of Palestine.***
1937 The Jerusalem Massacre: Irgun terrorists detonated a bomb in the vegetable market near the Damascus (Nablus) gate. Killing dozens and wounding many more, exact numbers unknown.
1937 Haifa Massacre: Paramilitaries from the Irgun and Lehi Zionist groups bombed a market in Haifa killing 18 Palestinian civilians and wounding 38.
1938 Haifa Massacre: Zionist paramilitaries from the Irgun placed two car bombs in a Haifa market killing 21 and wounding 52.
1939 Haifa Massacre: The Irgun paramilitaries detonated two bombs in Haifa killing 27 Palestinians and wounding 39.
1939 Balad al-Shaykh Massacre: Palmach, A wing of the terrorist group Haganah, attacked the village and killed between 30-70 men, women and children. Houses were attacked from nearby hillsides in the middle of the night. The men were dragged from their homes and shot.
1947 Jerusalem Massacre: Irgun paramilitaries detonated a bomb near the Bab al-Amud (Damascus) gate, Killing 14 Palestinians and wounding 27 others.
1947 Sheikh Bureik Massacre: Zionist paramilitaries raided the village of Sheikh Bureik killing 40 palestinians with an unknown number of wounded.
1948 Haifa Massacre: Irgun and Lehi paramilitaries placed a bomb inside a vegetable cart in a Haifa market killing 78 Palestinians and wounding many others.
1948 Jaffa Massacre: The Zionist tern gang detonated a bomb in a crowded plaza in Jaffa killing 15 Palestinians and wounding 98.
1956 Khan Yunis Massacre: The IDF killed 275 )Palestinians in Khan Yunis in 1959. IDF sources claimed that they died in a battle. Eyewitness accounts said they were captured and executed. Another 100 men were killed in Rafah under similar circumstances.
1982 Sabra and Shatila: Somewhere between 500 and 3,500 Palestinians and Lebanese Shias were killed in the City of Beirut by Lebanese Christian forces and the IDF. It ishard The IDF surrounded the neighborhood of Sabra and the adjacent Shatila refugee camp. The IDF allowed their Christian allies into the area and then sealed it off, not allowing anyone in or out as the killing progressed. The PLO had negotiated a cease fire conditional upon their leaving Lebanon. After the PLO left Lebanon the IDF advanced to Beirut in violation of cease fire. Between 300-400 Christian militia and some members of the South Lebanon Army particip[ated in the massacre. The IDF received reports of atrocities taking place and did nothing to stop it. They also prevented refugees from leaving the camp and fired flares to keep the camp illuminated during the massacre. In February 1983 an independent commission organized by the UN and chaired by Irish diplomat Sean Mc Bride concluded that the IDF as the occupying power over Sabra and Shatila failed in their responsibility to protect civilians under their occupation and were responsible for the massacre. The commission also concluded that the massacre was an act of genocide. At the same time the Israeli KAHAN COMMISSION found that the IDF failed to take steps to stop the massacre even though they knew the militias inside the camp were committing atrocities. Israeli defense minister Ariel Sharon was forced to resign because of the IDF’s failure to act. (Also note that even though Sharon was forced to resign he later held various positions within the goventment of Israel.)
1990 Al-Aqsa Mosque Massacre: The IDF killed 17 Palestinians and 150 Palestinians were wounded. UN Security Council Resolution 672 condemned the acts of violence committed by Israeli security forces.
1994 Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre: on 25 February 1994, Israeli Terrorist Baruch Goldstein opened fire on with an assault rifle on people praying in the Mosque killing 29 including several children as young as 12 and wounding 125. During the ensuing clashes with the IDF a further 20 Palestinians were killed and 120 more were injured. Although his actions were condemned by many Israelis, ultra-right wing groups praised him as a martyr.
2002 Jenin Refugee Camp: The Jenin refugee camp was located in the Palestinian territory of the West Bank. The IDF entered the camp under the pretense of seeking terrorists. This shows the Palestinians were never given autonomous authority over what was nominally their territory. Original estimates suggested that hundreds were killed in buildings demolished by the IDF but the official death toll by the organization Human Rights Watch put the number at 22 civilians killed and 27 militants killed.
In 2006 Hamas won municipal elections in Gaza.
2008-09 Gaza: In what was named Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Air Force dropped 100 bombs on Gaza, prior to a land invasion. According to the IDF the attacks targeted Hamas targets in Gaza. The attacks led to the deaths of 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.
2012 Gaza: In an operation named Pillar of Defense Israeli forces again attacked Gaza resulting in 105 civilians killed and 971 wounded.
2014 Gaza: in Operstion Protective Edge Israel attacked Gaza. The UN HRC put totals 1,600 civilians killed and 10,600 wounded.
2018-19 Gaza: in what Palestinians labeled the Great March of Return, Gaza’s residents protested at the border fences surrounding Gaza. They were demanding that Palestinians displaced in 1947-48 be allowed to return to their lands, the land, sea and air blockade of Gaza and the United States’ recognition of Jerusalem, which was designated Palestinian territory by the UN, the capital of Israel. 223 Palestinians were killed and over 10,000 were wounded. This number included 1,849 children, 424 women, 115 paramedics, and 115 journalists. Of the injured, over 50% were hit by live fire from the IDF firing from Israeli Territory into Gaza.
2023-Present Gaza Genocide still ongoing: conservative estimates put the number of Palestinians dead at 31,000, with thousands more missing and presumed dead, buried under the rubble. This number includes more than 13,000 children and 8,000 women. Another 74,000 people have been injured including 8,600 children and 6,300 women. The casualties in the West Bank have risen to 440 dead including 116 children and more than 4,600 wounded. It is important to note that there are no Hamas members in the West Bank, and that the Israeli government does little to curb the violence against Palesinians there. Israel has also denied food aid to Gaza residents and thousands stand on the precipice of starvation with children being the most vulnerable. If things do not change immediately tens of thousands more will die.
Any civilian deaths whether Israeli or Palestinian are a tragedy but as I stated in the opening, the number of atrocities committed by Zionists makes the crimes that we attribute to Hamas pale in comparison and their beginning predates the formation of Hamas by several decades. The history of Zionist terrorism against Palestinians even predates that state of Israel. The history of Israel is one never ending story of settler colonial violence against an indigenous population. This list doesn’t even detail the list of common place brutality faced by the Palestinians as an occupied people, the discrimination and imprisonment, the sexual assault and confiscation of lands, all well documented by human rights organizations but little known in the U.S. We must not let that continue. We must end the current genocide and the United States’ participation in it. The Biden administration could end this immediately if they told Israel that all aid would stop if they don’t stop. It is a sad day that I never thought I would see when the United States participates in another genocide. We must not let our guilt over the delayed reaction to the Nazi holocaust that resulted in the deaths of millions of Jews and other peoples allow Israel to replicate the actions of the Nazis. I know this essay will seem one sided to Israeli apologists but it is only an attempt to provide information not readily available through most American mainstream media.
Sarcasm is a very good way to shut down a conversation but you are not alone. Zionist apologists are often sarcastic because it’s too hard to defend genocide on its merits, . If you go back and reread my post instead of rushing out to show the world how clever you can be you would see that I conceded that Zionists do not have a monopoly on violence but I said that I was concentrating on Zionist violence because Zionist violence is rarely talked about. I also know that if you add up all the innocent victims of Hamas, the plo, the fedayeen and any other Palestinian resistance organizations you want to throw in there it would not add up to the tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians killed, the tens of thousands injured, the thousands of innocent Palestinians taken hostage, the lands stolen, the 50+ years of brutal occupation of Palestinian territory, that includes torture, rape , Israeli imposed shortages of food, water and medicine and the operation of the largest concentration camp in the history of the world but yes the people who have suffered all that also did some bad things.
Thank you for this post Ed. As you suggested, I took this information and used it as a springboard to research more information on this history of Jewish and Arab Muslim relations in the region. I was able to find a lot of information that predates the events you listed here which you might be interested in.
January 1919: A man named Haj Amin el-Husseini, leader of one of the most prominent Arab clans in Jerusalem, began to organize fedayeen terrorists to drive the Jews from Palestine. They first attacked Tel Hai, a Jewish neighborhood in the north near the Syrian border in January and then attacked Tel Hai again on March 1 killing eight Jews and injuring 200.
March-April 1919: The Arab terrorists attacked more than a dozen Jewish agricultural settlements in the Galilee including Kfar Tavor, Degania, Rosh Pina, Ayelet Hashahar, Mishmar Hayarden, Kfar Giladi and Metulla. During the Passover of that year, the Mufti incited the masses to attack the Jewish population in the Old City of Jerusalem, killing five Jews and injuring more than 100.
May 1, 1921: The Mufti incited Arabs to arm themselves and attack Jews in Jaffa. Terrorists came to the streets of Jaffa armed with knives, pistols and rifles and began to beat and murder Jews while looting Jewish stores and homes, killing 27 Jews and injuring 150. The attacks spread to Jewish communities in Petach Tikvah, Rehovot, Hadera, and Haifa.
1924: Arab terrorists began looting Jewish property, causing extensive damage, and attacks against Jews throughout Palestine. The sporadic attacks became much more organized and the terror targeted Jewish communities near Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed and Kfar Darom. In all, 135 Jews were killed and more than 300 were injured.
August 23, 1929: More than 1,000 Arab terrorists attacked Jews throughout Jerusalem, killing 47 under the battle cry, “defend the holy places!”
August 24, 1929: The Hebron Massacre :Arabs terrorists murdered 18 Jews, injuring 40, and burning down 200 homes.In total, with the attacks in other cities during those few days, 133 Jews were killed and 339 were injured.
April-July 1936: Arab terrorists killed over 40 Jews between and burned thousands of acres of Jewish fields and crops.
October 2, 1938: Arab terrorists shot and burned 21 Jews, including 10 children below the age of 12.