1 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:12,559 60 years ago, Israel fought and won a war for its independence. 2 00:00:12,594 --> 00:00:15,696 For Palestinians, defeat was a catastrophe. 3 00:00:15,731 --> 00:00:18,799 The two sides have been fighting ever since. 4 00:00:48,119 --> 00:00:54,079 What happened 60 years ago still shapes lives in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. 5 00:00:54,114 --> 00:00:59,639 If they want peace, they'll need to overcome the legacy of l948. 6 00:01:05,320 --> 00:01:08,565 Gaza - home to 1.4 million Palestinians, 7 00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:11,999 most of whom are refugees from the land that became Israel. 8 00:01:13,839 --> 00:01:19,600 The current battleground in this long war lies in and around the Gaza Strip. 9 00:01:19,635 --> 00:01:23,399 Israel uses air strikes and ground incursions. 10 00:01:23,434 --> 00:01:26,199 Palestinians rocket Israeli border towns. 11 00:01:26,234 --> 00:01:29,359 Both sides blame each other. 12 00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:45,245 Two miles to the north of Gaza, this is kibbutz Yad Mordechai. 13 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:48,920 Some of the thousands of rockets fired into Israel have landed here. 14 00:01:53,480 --> 00:01:56,405 History is never far away. 15 00:01:56,440 --> 00:02:03,320 This kibbutz - or communal farm - was founded in the 1930s by Jews from Poland. They were Zionists, 16 00:02:03,355 --> 00:02:07,599 who wanted to return to the biblical home of the Jews to make a state. 17 00:02:07,634 --> 00:02:11,885 We build a society with our own hands. 18 00:02:11,920 --> 00:02:14,800 By new forms of life, not only by high-technology. 19 00:02:14,835 --> 00:02:18,137 The kibbutz, and the development towns. 20 00:02:18,172 --> 00:02:20,966 Those are forms of life that without it, 21 00:02:21,001 --> 00:02:23,725 you cannot understand what Israel is. 22 00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:26,920 We developed the best agriculture maybe on earth. 23 00:02:28,719 --> 00:02:34,559 The Zionists had neighbours - Palestinian Arab farmers, who'd been working the land for centuries. 24 00:02:34,594 --> 00:02:40,559 The relationship between the two was normal, and reasonably friendly. 25 00:02:40,594 --> 00:02:46,039 It was after 1930, with the massive land purchases, 26 00:02:46,074 --> 00:02:48,924 with the massive immigration, 27 00:02:48,959 --> 00:02:52,760 that the Palestinians became aware that their existence was at stake. 28 00:02:54,560 --> 00:02:59,445 In 1943, the kibbutz took the name of Mordechai Anielewicz, 29 00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:03,400 the Jew who led the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto against the Nazis. 30 00:03:13,399 --> 00:03:16,279 They swore Jews would never be defenceless again. 31 00:03:20,079 --> 00:03:23,519 There was no life in a camp like Auschwitz. 32 00:03:26,119 --> 00:03:31,920 So then I decided, should I survive, I'd become a Zionist activist. 33 00:03:31,955 --> 00:03:34,005 And by miracles, I did survive. 34 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:37,839 Yad Mordechai has its own Holocaust museum. 35 00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:47,680 They've also preserved the field where they fought the Egyptians during the 1948 war. 36 00:03:50,399 --> 00:03:51,959 MACHINE GUN RATTLES 37 00:03:56,039 --> 00:04:00,240 What happened here was a critical moment in the fight to create a Jewish state. 38 00:04:00,275 --> 00:04:03,645 60 years on, Israelis have a lot to celebrate. 39 00:04:03,680 --> 00:04:07,005 It's been an extraordinary feat of nation-building. 40 00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:11,440 But for Palestinians, every year, this anniversary reminds them 41 00:04:11,475 --> 00:04:13,964 of what they call their catastrophe. 42 00:04:13,999 --> 00:04:19,360 For them, the last 60 years has been about dispossession and exile. 43 00:04:21,679 --> 00:04:28,640 During Israel's independence war, around 700,000 Palestinians became refugees. 44 00:04:28,675 --> 00:04:30,764 They left everything. 45 00:04:30,799 --> 00:04:34,324 They left everything intact at their homes, everything. 46 00:04:34,359 --> 00:04:40,719 Some families even left their money, their jewels at home... 47 00:04:41,920 --> 00:04:44,004 ..and ran. Thinking that... 48 00:04:44,039 --> 00:04:51,240 the storm will calm down and in two or three months, they will come back. 49 00:04:53,279 --> 00:04:56,604 But Israel stopped them returning. 50 00:04:56,639 --> 00:05:01,200 Many of Yad Mordechai's old Palestinian neighbours are still close by - 51 00:05:01,235 --> 00:05:02,840 refugees in the Gaza Strip. 52 00:05:03,839 --> 00:05:06,159 They call it the world's biggest prison. 53 00:05:07,840 --> 00:05:11,645 Here is a war, which had led 54 00:05:11,680 --> 00:05:14,924 to the uprooting of a villager from his village. 55 00:05:14,959 --> 00:05:18,760 You know how attached a villager is to his olive tree, 56 00:05:18,795 --> 00:05:21,377 to his little home, to his house, 57 00:05:21,412 --> 00:05:23,924 to his mode of life, to his... 58 00:05:23,959 --> 00:05:27,005 It's something unimaginable. I mean, 59 00:05:27,040 --> 00:05:30,080 the Palestinian people are one of the oldest people 60 00:05:30,115 --> 00:05:33,084 in their habitation of Palestine. 61 00:05:33,119 --> 00:05:36,240 The Palestinians have to do some soul-searching too. 62 00:05:36,275 --> 00:05:39,084 Why did it become a catastrophe? 63 00:05:39,119 --> 00:05:44,680 They could have accept most of the land, a state of their own. 64 00:05:44,715 --> 00:05:47,519 THEY refused, not us. 65 00:05:47,554 --> 00:05:51,045 In 1947. 66 00:05:51,080 --> 00:05:54,280 We cannot apologise for their mistake. 67 00:05:56,000 --> 00:05:59,720 In 1897, the Zionist movement in Europe met and declared 68 00:05:59,755 --> 00:06:03,440 that it wanted to found a state for Jews in Palestine. 69 00:06:04,919 --> 00:06:07,739 Two years later, the Arab Mayor of Jerusalem 70 00:06:07,774 --> 00:06:10,559 begged them to leave Palestine alone, and warned 71 00:06:10,594 --> 00:06:14,000 there'd be an Arab uprising if they didn't. 72 00:06:15,039 --> 00:06:20,880 After the meeting in 1897, two rabbis were sent to Palestine to see what the country was like. 73 00:06:20,915 --> 00:06:26,204 They reported back, "The bride is beautiful, but she is married to another man." 74 00:06:26,239 --> 00:06:33,239 Some of the early Zionists warned that confrontation with the Arabs was going to be unavoidable. 75 00:06:33,274 --> 00:06:37,800 Others persuaded themselves that Arabs would be glad to see them, 76 00:06:37,835 --> 00:06:41,480 because they were bringing with them European expertise. 77 00:06:49,719 --> 00:06:52,919 The majority of Palestinian Arabs lived traditional lives 78 00:06:52,954 --> 00:06:56,800 in around 800 largely self-sufficient villages. 79 00:06:56,835 --> 00:06:59,519 Politics was local, and tribal. 80 00:07:03,079 --> 00:07:04,685 Life was hard. 81 00:07:04,720 --> 00:07:10,480 These days in the refugee camps, it is idealised, a lost dream of a homeland. 82 00:07:14,920 --> 00:07:17,364 "Village life was great. 83 00:07:17,399 --> 00:07:23,159 We worked the land and sold the crops in Ramallah, Hebron and Jaffa. 84 00:07:23,194 --> 00:07:28,919 We had olives, watermelons, cantaloupes, wheat and sesame. 85 00:07:28,954 --> 00:07:31,764 All these things. 86 00:07:31,799 --> 00:07:35,080 The people were happy and content. 87 00:07:40,280 --> 00:07:44,719 Britain controlled Palestine between 1917 and 1948. 88 00:07:47,879 --> 00:07:52,000 In November 1917, as British troops were fighting their way up to Jerusalem, 89 00:07:52,035 --> 00:07:54,885 seizing Palestine from the Turks, 90 00:07:54,920 --> 00:08:00,320 the Foreign Secretary in London wrote a letter that became known as the Balfour Declaration. 91 00:08:08,840 --> 00:08:13,880 The Balfour Declaration said the British would "view with favour the establishment in Palestine 92 00:08:13,915 --> 00:08:18,920 "of a national home for the Jewish people, and use their best endeavours to make it happen." 93 00:08:18,955 --> 00:08:22,364 It also said it was clearly understood that "nothing shall be done 94 00:08:22,399 --> 00:08:28,040 "which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, 95 00:08:28,075 --> 00:08:32,800 "or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country." 96 00:08:32,835 --> 00:08:37,359 Now, there's a whole series of incompatible promises in that, 97 00:08:37,394 --> 00:08:39,765 and the British never found a way to keep them. 98 00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:44,240 As a result, they were regarded as betrayers - by both sides. 99 00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:49,085 For the Zionists, it was a big step forward. 100 00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:53,320 But, said the writer Arthur Koestler, it was an impossible idea - 101 00:08:53,355 --> 00:08:57,965 one nation promising another the land of a third. 102 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:02,519 It did a great deal to create the conflict that continues today. 103 00:09:06,799 --> 00:09:12,520 Small communities of religious Jews had remained in Palestine since Roman times. 104 00:09:12,555 --> 00:09:15,525 The new Jewish immigrants were different. 105 00:09:15,560 --> 00:09:21,520 Many were socialists and atheists, who wanted to escape persecution, and to create a new society. 106 00:09:23,519 --> 00:09:28,564 A dream to change the Jewish nature from a nation 107 00:09:28,599 --> 00:09:34,520 of merchants and bankers to a nation of farmers and fighters. 108 00:09:47,280 --> 00:09:50,799 In 1929, there was a serious clash here at the Western Wall, 109 00:09:50,834 --> 00:09:55,164 the holiest place in the world, for Jewish prayer. 110 00:09:55,199 --> 00:09:58,440 More than 100,000 Jews had arrived in Palestine in the 1920s, 111 00:09:58,475 --> 00:10:02,377 and some had good relations with their Arab neighbours. 112 00:10:02,412 --> 00:10:06,280 But as immigration continued, and as Arab land was sold 113 00:10:06,315 --> 00:10:09,217 for Jewish settlement, then tensions rose. 114 00:10:09,252 --> 00:10:11,946 The trouble here spread across Palestine. 115 00:10:11,981 --> 00:10:14,605 Religious Jews were massacred in Hebron. 116 00:10:14,640 --> 00:10:18,960 Hundreds died on both sides, and after that, nobody could have 117 00:10:18,995 --> 00:10:23,280 any illusions - the two communities were on a collision course. 118 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:37,445 Events in Europe brought the collision closer. 119 00:10:37,480 --> 00:10:43,479 After 1933, Hitler turned the power of the German state against the Jews. 120 00:10:43,514 --> 00:10:44,996 Heil! Heil! 121 00:10:45,031 --> 00:10:46,995 Heil! Heil! 122 00:10:47,030 --> 00:10:48,924 I came after... 123 00:10:48,959 --> 00:10:54,125 a year under Hitler, in Vienna, 124 00:10:54,160 --> 00:10:58,880 which was a very, very bad year for me as a child. 125 00:10:58,915 --> 00:11:00,965 And, er... 126 00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:07,440 I asked my parents to go away as fast...as fast as possible, 127 00:11:07,475 --> 00:11:10,760 and told them, "I don't want to remain in the...hell." 128 00:11:10,795 --> 00:11:14,364 Jewish refugees regained a future. 129 00:11:14,399 --> 00:11:17,364 Palestinians felt theirs disappearing. 130 00:11:17,399 --> 00:11:21,520 They were getting angry because they saw that their country 131 00:11:21,555 --> 00:11:23,844 was becoming really threatened. 132 00:11:23,879 --> 00:11:28,599 The Jewish immigration was threatening to overwhelm them, 133 00:11:28,634 --> 00:11:30,000 in their country. 134 00:11:37,559 --> 00:11:41,840 At the Independence Mosque in Haifa, Palestinians were ready to fight. 135 00:11:48,640 --> 00:11:52,860 One of the most popular preachers here was a man called Izzedine al-Qassam. 136 00:11:52,895 --> 00:11:57,080 He became a guerrilla chief, leading attacks on the British and on the Jews. 137 00:11:57,115 --> 00:12:01,777 The British killed him, in a gunfight near Jenin in 1935. 138 00:12:01,812 --> 00:12:06,440 His death was one of the sparks for a full-scale Arab revolt. 139 00:12:06,475 --> 00:12:08,759 It took the British three years to put it down 140 00:12:13,840 --> 00:12:16,204 This is Qassam's grave. 141 00:12:16,239 --> 00:12:18,239 Thousands came to his funeral. 142 00:12:20,040 --> 00:12:26,560 These days, the armed wing of Hamas, responsible for many suicide attacks, is named after him, 143 00:12:26,595 --> 00:12:30,000 and so are the rockets that Palestinians fire out of Gaza. 144 00:12:32,080 --> 00:12:37,760 The British crushed the uprising so ruthlessly that Arab society in Palestine fractured. 145 00:12:39,119 --> 00:12:42,520 It exhausted the stamina of the Palestinian people, 146 00:12:42,555 --> 00:12:46,937 three years of deprivation, of imprisonment, 147 00:12:46,972 --> 00:12:51,284 of exile of the entire Palestinian leadership. 148 00:12:51,319 --> 00:12:56,439 With the result that when the real issue of our existence came, 149 00:12:56,474 --> 00:13:00,804 Palestine was...had no leadership whatsoever. 150 00:13:00,839 --> 00:13:05,960 Attacks on Jews also increased their determination to fight. 151 00:13:05,995 --> 00:13:11,560 I saw suddenly Jews running out of Jaffa 152 00:13:11,595 --> 00:13:15,285 to Tel Aviv. And I heard later on 153 00:13:15,320 --> 00:13:19,164 that the Arabs attacked the Jews in Jaffa, 154 00:13:19,199 --> 00:13:24,320 er...killing, murdering, about nine and more than 50 injured. 155 00:13:24,355 --> 00:13:27,257 And they became refugees. 156 00:13:27,292 --> 00:13:30,125 I couldn't understand it. 157 00:13:30,160 --> 00:13:36,379 Because I couldn't understand Jews refugees in their...in their own homeland. 158 00:13:36,414 --> 00:13:42,599 The biggest Jewish militia was called the Haganah - Hebrew for "the Defence". 159 00:13:42,634 --> 00:13:46,559 From the l930s, it was expanded into an underground army. 160 00:13:52,120 --> 00:13:57,760 It was directed from this building in Jerusalem, the headquarters of the Jewish Agency. 161 00:13:57,795 --> 00:14:02,640 Its leader and later Israel's first Prime Minister was David Ben-Gurion. 162 00:14:02,675 --> 00:14:06,359 The Haganah was one of a number of building blocks of a state, 163 00:14:06,394 --> 00:14:08,765 which the Jewish Agency established 164 00:14:08,800 --> 00:14:13,400 as it worked tirelessly to make itself into a government-in-waiting. 165 00:14:15,760 --> 00:14:20,120 Just look at this place, designed and built in the '20s and '30s, 166 00:14:20,155 --> 00:14:22,845 in what for the time was an ultra-modern style. 167 00:14:22,880 --> 00:14:27,540 It shows the ambition there was here, to create a Jewish state. 168 00:14:27,575 --> 00:14:32,165 They had a very, very clear objective, and from this building, 169 00:14:32,200 --> 00:14:36,479 David Ben-Gurion designed and drove the strategy to get them there. 170 00:14:37,519 --> 00:14:41,479 The Palestinian Arabs never had anything like the Jewish Agency, 171 00:14:41,514 --> 00:14:45,516 and they never had a leader like Ben-Gurion. 172 00:14:45,551 --> 00:14:49,484 A man that, from the morning to the evening, 173 00:14:49,519 --> 00:14:54,160 thought about the Jewish people and the state, nothing private. 174 00:14:54,195 --> 00:14:58,497 A man of tremendous courage, 175 00:14:58,532 --> 00:15:02,765 honesty, historic obligation, 176 00:15:02,800 --> 00:15:06,680 thinking that the Jewish tradition calls for the preference 177 00:15:06,715 --> 00:15:10,880 of the moral call above all other consideration. 178 00:15:12,479 --> 00:15:18,279 With war coming, Britain wanted to strengthen its position in the Middle East against Nazi Germany. 179 00:15:18,314 --> 00:15:24,080 The British reckoned the Jews would fight against Hitler, but Arabs would need to be persuaded. 180 00:15:26,759 --> 00:15:30,484 So in May 1939, a British Government White Paper restricted 181 00:15:30,519 --> 00:15:35,964 Jewish immigration to Palestine to 75,000 over the next five years. 182 00:15:35,999 --> 00:15:41,879 After that, Palestinian Arabs would have to acquiesce in any more Jewish immigration. 183 00:15:44,560 --> 00:15:50,279 Ben-Gurion's response was that Palestine's Jews would fight the White Paper, and fight Hitler. 184 00:15:52,040 --> 00:15:54,645 32,000 of them joined the British Army. 185 00:15:54,680 --> 00:15:59,319 Later, they used the training to fight both the Arabs...and the British. 186 00:16:07,799 --> 00:16:11,939 After 1945, knowledge and guilt about the Holocaust, 187 00:16:11,974 --> 00:16:15,786 and the question of what to do for the survivors, 188 00:16:15,821 --> 00:16:19,599 transformed the case for a Jewish state in Palestine. 189 00:16:21,599 --> 00:16:26,319 We were not brought to Auschwitz to survive, we were brought to die there. 190 00:16:26,354 --> 00:16:29,837 Either immediately on arrival in the gas chambers, 191 00:16:29,872 --> 00:16:33,320 or they worked us to death in the heavy industry. 192 00:16:37,559 --> 00:16:40,720 But should I survive, I decided I'd become a Zionist, 193 00:16:40,755 --> 00:16:42,204 because I did understand 194 00:16:42,239 --> 00:16:45,125 that the only solution for the Jewish people 195 00:16:45,160 --> 00:16:49,019 would be an independent state, a state like all the others, 196 00:16:49,054 --> 00:16:52,879 with all the rights, and all the duties, with the government, 197 00:16:52,914 --> 00:16:56,204 a member in the Concert of the Nations. 198 00:16:56,239 --> 00:17:01,039 A state that could protect its citizens, a state that could speak for its citizens. 199 00:17:02,680 --> 00:17:09,479 American pressure was decisive, as the Holocaust created a new moral argument for the Jewish state. 200 00:17:10,919 --> 00:17:15,965 It is my attitude that the American Government couldn't stand idly by 201 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:21,480 while the victims of Hitler's madness were not allowed to build new lives. 202 00:17:22,760 --> 00:17:27,040 Truman pressed for the immediate admission of 100,000 Holocaust survivors. 203 00:17:27,075 --> 00:17:31,717 The closest some came were British internment camps in Cyprus. 204 00:17:31,752 --> 00:17:36,324 Ernest Bevin, Britain's Foreign Secretary, stuck to the quota. 205 00:17:36,359 --> 00:17:41,239 He believed mass Jewish immigration would start a civil war in Palestine, 206 00:17:41,274 --> 00:17:43,960 and ruin Britain's relations with Arab states. 207 00:17:48,479 --> 00:17:52,485 Armed Jewish groups stepped up their attacks on the British. 208 00:17:52,520 --> 00:17:57,645 'This is the voice of Fighting Zion, this is the voice of Fighting Zion, the underground radio. 209 00:17:57,680 --> 00:18:04,319 'Today, our soldiers, in defence of their country, attacked the enemy's police headquarters in Jerusalem. 210 00:18:04,354 --> 00:18:07,959 'This is voice of Fighting Zion, broadcasting for the freedom of Israel.' 211 00:18:12,760 --> 00:18:16,560 Two future Israeli Prime Ministers were both wanted men. 212 00:18:16,595 --> 00:18:19,759 Yitzhak Shamir was a leader of the Stern Gang. 213 00:18:19,794 --> 00:18:21,999 Their speciality was assassination. 214 00:18:23,800 --> 00:18:27,645 Menachem Begin commanded the Irgun. 215 00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:32,045 Its methods included kidnapping and bombing. 216 00:18:32,080 --> 00:18:37,439 In July 1946, the Irgun blew up the British military headquarters 217 00:18:37,474 --> 00:18:41,679 at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 91 people. 218 00:18:43,479 --> 00:18:45,484 They called us terrorists. 219 00:18:45,519 --> 00:18:49,979 Not only they, also Begin also called us terrorists. 220 00:18:50,014 --> 00:18:54,405 Now, a terrorist is a question of definition, of course. 221 00:18:54,440 --> 00:19:00,599 For one, the act is terrorism, for the other, they are freedom fighters. 222 00:19:02,480 --> 00:19:07,640 The British continued to intercept ships full of Jewish immigrants from Europe. 223 00:19:10,760 --> 00:19:15,880 'After being intercepted by the Navy, the illegal immigrant ship 224 00:19:15,915 --> 00:19:18,479 'Exodus 1947 entered Haifa harbour under escort.' 225 00:19:20,320 --> 00:19:25,004 We were stopped on the high sea and then brought to Haifa. 226 00:19:25,039 --> 00:19:28,960 It was a catastrophe, of course. We were in Palestine, we couldn't stay. 227 00:19:30,680 --> 00:19:34,240 How important was immigration at that point for the Zionists? 228 00:19:34,275 --> 00:19:35,245 Very important, 229 00:19:35,280 --> 00:19:38,640 because we were already aware that there would be a solution. 230 00:19:38,675 --> 00:19:42,564 And we wanted as many as possible Jews in order to get 231 00:19:42,599 --> 00:19:47,080 a bigger piece of this territory, so we wanted the Jews in Palestine. 232 00:19:47,115 --> 00:19:51,199 Why should the Palestinians, who had not heard of it, 233 00:19:51,234 --> 00:19:56,204 pay the price of the Holocaust? Why? Why? 234 00:19:56,239 --> 00:20:02,720 Why displace the Palestinian people to pay a price for a crime which they had not committed? 235 00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:08,840 As Jewish attacks continued, the pressure for a solution increased. 236 00:20:08,875 --> 00:20:11,720 The British Empire was forced to turn for help. 237 00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:18,320 Here in London, at the Foreign Office, they'd had enough. 238 00:20:18,355 --> 00:20:21,325 They turned the problem over to the United Nations. 239 00:20:21,360 --> 00:20:26,440 The UN voted at the end of November 1947 to partition Palestine into two states - 240 00:20:26,475 --> 00:20:29,005 one Jewish and one Arab. 241 00:20:29,040 --> 00:20:35,200 The Jews got the best of it - more than half the country, even though they owned around 10% of the land, 242 00:20:35,235 --> 00:20:37,845 and there were twice as many Arabs. 243 00:20:37,880 --> 00:20:42,760 The Palestinian Arab leadership rejected the plans straightaway. 244 00:20:42,795 --> 00:20:45,560 This was not going to be settled by diplomacy. 245 00:20:48,160 --> 00:20:52,925 In Palestine, the Jews celebrated. Since the 1930s at least, 246 00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:58,640 David Ben-Gurion had believed that getting a state was the first priority, 247 00:20:58,675 --> 00:21:01,719 but he knew they were going to have to fight for it. 248 00:21:02,879 --> 00:21:06,804 At that time, the Jewish population accepted it, 249 00:21:06,839 --> 00:21:12,439 and the night of 29th November, we all danced in the streets. 250 00:21:12,474 --> 00:21:17,120 And we were still dancing when the first news came 251 00:21:17,155 --> 00:21:19,164 that some of the... 252 00:21:19,199 --> 00:21:22,619 That some people were killed on the roads. 253 00:21:22,654 --> 00:21:26,004 We were... We were shocked by the thing. 254 00:21:26,039 --> 00:21:29,320 To see that the country was going to be vivisected. 255 00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:37,000 There had been violence between Jews and Arabs before the partition plan, 256 00:21:37,035 --> 00:21:39,357 but it escalated fast after the vote. 257 00:21:39,392 --> 00:21:41,644 Within a week, there was a civil war. 258 00:21:41,679 --> 00:21:46,600 The British, counting the days until they could leave, were stuck in the middle. 259 00:21:51,080 --> 00:21:55,119 The Jewish underground army was rapidly coming into the open. 260 00:21:55,154 --> 00:21:57,577 They had clandestine arms factories, 261 00:21:57,612 --> 00:21:59,965 but they were still short of weapons. 262 00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:02,644 Their biggest advantage over the Palestinians 263 00:22:02,679 --> 00:22:06,760 was a leadership that had spent years preparing for this moment. 264 00:22:06,795 --> 00:22:11,560 We were better organised, because Ben-Gurion, 265 00:22:11,595 --> 00:22:15,165 with a very far-sighted look, 266 00:22:15,200 --> 00:22:19,325 he knew that we are going to come to a conflict. 267 00:22:19,360 --> 00:22:23,720 And the Haganah - that was the underground forces of Israel - 268 00:22:23,755 --> 00:22:26,004 were organising in such a way 269 00:22:26,039 --> 00:22:29,160 that they would become an army eventually. 270 00:22:31,279 --> 00:22:34,579 The main Palestinian leader, Haj Amin al-Husseini, 271 00:22:34,614 --> 00:22:37,880 the Mufti of Jerusalem, lived in exile in Egypt. 272 00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:45,880 During the Second World War, he was in Berlin supporting the Nazis. 273 00:22:45,915 --> 00:22:49,977 The Mufti controlled the biggest Palestinian militia. 274 00:22:50,012 --> 00:22:54,040 Other Arab leaders saw him as a rival, not as an ally. 275 00:22:55,880 --> 00:22:58,725 He appointed his cousin, Abdel Khader al-Husseini, 276 00:22:58,760 --> 00:23:03,245 to lead his militia, which was called the Holy War Army. 277 00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:09,320 In the minds of people, he was a hero, and he deserved to be a hero. 278 00:23:09,355 --> 00:23:13,357 He was... He was a top level fighter - 279 00:23:13,392 --> 00:23:17,359 courageous, brave, and sincere, loyal... 280 00:23:18,359 --> 00:23:21,319 Husseini led a few thousand guerrilla fighters. 281 00:23:21,354 --> 00:23:24,245 With the help of men from local Arab villages, 282 00:23:24,280 --> 00:23:30,400 they cut the main Jewish supply route from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem - the city they all wanted. 283 00:23:32,599 --> 00:23:39,159 This was the biggest prize of all - Jerusalem, a city holy to Christians, Jews and Muslims, 284 00:23:39,194 --> 00:23:44,159 and which had a central part in the dreams of both sides in the war. 285 00:23:44,194 --> 00:23:48,119 When the fighting started, neither could imagine a future 286 00:23:48,154 --> 00:23:50,960 that didn't include being in charge of this place. 287 00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:03,759 In the partition plan, Jerusalem was supposed to be under international control. 288 00:24:03,794 --> 00:24:06,885 Neither Arabs nor Jews wanted that. 289 00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:12,599 So once again in its bloody history, the Holy City was at war. 290 00:24:14,279 --> 00:24:20,879 Jerusalem was under siege, and the Jewish community in Jerusalem was completely cut off. 291 00:24:20,914 --> 00:24:23,604 There was not enough water, not enough food, 292 00:24:23,639 --> 00:24:26,885 not enough ammunition, not enough soldiers in Jerusalem. 293 00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:31,780 And we used to have convoys going from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, 294 00:24:31,815 --> 00:24:36,640 carrying wheat and water and food and ammunition and so forth. 295 00:24:37,679 --> 00:24:44,239 From February l948, the attacks on the convoys from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem intensified. 296 00:24:44,274 --> 00:24:47,000 Arabs controlled the hills overlooking the route. 297 00:24:49,199 --> 00:24:52,120 The Haganah constructed improvised armoured cars - 298 00:24:52,155 --> 00:24:55,000 known as sandwiches - to protect themselves. 299 00:24:56,039 --> 00:25:00,359 We fought our way to Jerusalem, fighting vehicle after vehicle, 300 00:25:00,394 --> 00:25:04,200 and the convoys were almost suicidal operation. 301 00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:17,325 The situation was such that... 302 00:25:17,360 --> 00:25:21,760 we didn't want to fall alive in the hands of... 303 00:25:21,795 --> 00:25:24,564 So, when you drove... 304 00:25:24,599 --> 00:25:30,084 a normal car, with people inside, whatever, 305 00:25:30,119 --> 00:25:33,119 we used to have high explosives inside the truck... 306 00:25:35,119 --> 00:25:40,080 ..that if worst come to worst, and you see that there is no hope, 307 00:25:40,115 --> 00:25:45,320 we prefer to die than to fall alive in their hands. 308 00:25:45,355 --> 00:25:48,040 This was a war without prisoners of war. 309 00:25:49,959 --> 00:25:54,099 In March 1948, the Jews went on the offensive. 310 00:25:54,134 --> 00:25:58,205 Ben-Gurion and his generals adopted Plan D. 311 00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:02,320 Its objectives are still the subject of great controversy. 312 00:26:04,120 --> 00:26:11,040 Some historians say that Plan D was a blueprint for the ethnic cleansing of Arabs from Palestine. 313 00:26:11,075 --> 00:26:16,205 Others say it was simply a military plan, for seizing strategic ground, 314 00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:21,919 and that there was no political scheme to drive the Arabs out of a future Jewish state. 315 00:26:23,240 --> 00:26:26,285 The priority was opening the road to Jerusalem. 316 00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:29,485 As the Arab militias didn't coordinate with each other, 317 00:26:29,520 --> 00:26:33,320 the Jewish forces were able to pick villages off one by one. 318 00:26:35,919 --> 00:26:40,279 If the residents hadn't already left, they were often expelled. 319 00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:51,440 Central to the plan was the capture of Qastel, the site of an ancient fortress. 320 00:26:53,441 --> 00:26:57,240 At the beginning of April 1948 it changed hands several times 321 00:26:57,275 --> 00:27:02,239 in fierce fighting, until the Haganah drove the Palestinians out. 322 00:27:02,274 --> 00:27:04,564 They stormed the hill, 323 00:27:04,599 --> 00:27:10,760 and the...reinforcement came down while they were firing. 324 00:27:10,795 --> 00:27:14,240 The commander said, "The commander will cover, 325 00:27:14,275 --> 00:27:19,325 "and the soldiers...should retreat." 326 00:27:19,360 --> 00:27:23,639 So in a way, the commanders covered the retreat. 327 00:27:23,674 --> 00:27:26,120 And we lost a lot of people at that time... 328 00:27:28,120 --> 00:27:30,080 ..Qastel cost a lot of blood. 329 00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:38,879 In the days before the battle, al-Husseini had visited Syria to get arms and ammunition. 330 00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:46,920 When Abdel Khader al-Husseini got to Damascus, the Syrian President refused to help him. 331 00:27:46,955 --> 00:27:51,679 Husseini stormed out, yelling that they were "all traitors", 332 00:27:51,714 --> 00:27:55,679 and that history would record that THEY lost Palestine. 333 00:27:55,714 --> 00:27:58,164 That was 5th April, 1948. 334 00:27:58,199 --> 00:28:02,519 Abdel Khader al-Husseini, the strongest war leader the Palestinians produced, 335 00:28:02,554 --> 00:28:05,000 came back to Qastel to continue the fight. 336 00:28:05,035 --> 00:28:08,840 A few days later, he was killed. 337 00:28:11,399 --> 00:28:16,725 On the 9th of April, a group of fighters from the Irgun and the Stern Gang - 338 00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:21,280 the two Jewish ultra-nationalist groups that the British regarded as terrorists - 339 00:28:21,315 --> 00:28:24,519 were moving towards a village nearby called Deir Yassin. 340 00:28:27,080 --> 00:28:30,324 The Haganah gave them fire support. 341 00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:34,799 Recent research suggests the attack killed around 120 Palestinian civilians. 342 00:28:39,159 --> 00:28:41,720 "In every house they entered, 343 00:28:41,755 --> 00:28:43,405 they killed the people inside. 344 00:28:43,440 --> 00:28:47,680 The Jabar family, for example, was killed. 345 00:28:47,715 --> 00:28:49,725 Eight of them. 346 00:28:49,760 --> 00:28:51,880 They were killed in the morning. 347 00:28:51,915 --> 00:28:54,337 There were still sleeping. 348 00:28:54,372 --> 00:28:56,759 They shot them and left. 349 00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:20,645 This is from a report written by Itzak Levi, 350 00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:24,399 who was commander of the Haganah intelligence service in Jerusalem, 351 00:29:24,434 --> 00:29:29,445 dated 12th April 1948, which is three days after it happened. 352 00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:33,684 "The conquest of the village was carried out with great brutality. 353 00:29:33,719 --> 00:29:39,759 "Whole families - women, old people, children - were killed and piles of corpses accumulated. 354 00:29:39,794 --> 00:29:44,279 "Some of the prisoners taken to places of detention, including women and children, 355 00:29:44,314 --> 00:29:46,885 "were brutally murdered by their guards. 356 00:29:46,920 --> 00:29:49,805 "Among the prisoners was a young mother and baby. 357 00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:55,679 "The guards killed the baby in front of his mother and after she fainted, also murdered her." 358 00:30:00,879 --> 00:30:07,240 Palestinians had been fleeing their homes for safer places since December, l947. 359 00:30:07,275 --> 00:30:11,200 But after Deir Yassin, a mass exodus began. 360 00:30:14,839 --> 00:30:19,325 Menachem Begin, the Irgun's leader, said the massacre was a lie, 361 00:30:19,360 --> 00:30:24,100 propagated by his political rivals and by Jew-haters around the world. 362 00:30:24,135 --> 00:30:29,007 But Begin said the "legend of terror" was worth half a dozen battalions, 363 00:30:29,042 --> 00:30:33,880 because Arabs were seized with panic when they heard the Irgun was coming. 364 00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:45,679 Palestinian radio made the atrocity sound even worse than it was, to stiffen Arab resistance. 365 00:30:45,714 --> 00:30:48,919 The reports made the civilians even more terrified. 366 00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:59,480 "May God curse the reporters who came to us. 367 00:30:59,515 --> 00:31:02,284 They were servants of Jewish imperialism. 368 00:31:02,319 --> 00:31:05,920 They published stories about their crimes, the massacre, 369 00:31:05,955 --> 00:31:08,617 how they violated our women. 370 00:31:08,652 --> 00:31:11,245 This helped the Jews, not us! 371 00:31:11,280 --> 00:31:15,520 It scared us, and made us worry about our honour. 372 00:31:21,079 --> 00:31:27,799 King Abdullah of Transjordan and other Arab leaders came under strong domestic pressure to intervene. 373 00:31:27,834 --> 00:31:31,120 Ben-Gurion sent Abdullah an apology. 374 00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:41,445 Four days after Deir Yassin, there was another massacre. 375 00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:47,639 A column of Jewish doctors and nurses was attacked by Palestinians at Mount Scopus in Jerusalem. 376 00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:58,240 Their vehicles were set on fire and many were burnt to death. 377 00:31:58,275 --> 00:31:59,840 78 people were killed. 378 00:32:08,519 --> 00:32:10,485 Jaffa, just south of Tel Aviv, 379 00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:13,445 was in the Arab state in the partition plan. 380 00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:18,680 What happened here helps explain why so many Palestinians fled. 381 00:32:21,199 --> 00:32:27,040 In April 1948, Arab sniping out of Jaffa was answered by heavy shelling from the Irgun. 382 00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:32,325 The Jews attacked Jaffa. 383 00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:36,240 And by bombarding Jaffa, they, er... 384 00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:41,925 ..they made the conditions for the Arabs to leave, 385 00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:45,245 because the Arabs were afraid that they would be killed. 386 00:32:45,280 --> 00:32:50,199 So, it wasn't voluntarily, but it was a result of the battle. 387 00:32:51,240 --> 00:32:55,639 But the flight was triggered by more than force. 388 00:32:55,674 --> 00:32:59,564 We let them know, in different ways, 389 00:32:59,599 --> 00:33:02,819 not in pamphlets, not over the radio, not officially, 390 00:33:02,854 --> 00:33:06,039 we let them understand that it's better if they leave, 391 00:33:06,074 --> 00:33:09,044 because the Jews are terrible. 392 00:33:09,079 --> 00:33:11,920 And, "Don't stay here when the Jews come here." 393 00:33:11,955 --> 00:33:14,600 So this was psychological warfare? 394 00:33:14,635 --> 00:33:16,040 In a small scale. 395 00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:21,245 The people flee, 396 00:33:21,280 --> 00:33:25,284 because of this massacre that happened in Deir Yassin. 397 00:33:25,319 --> 00:33:30,640 They were afraid that the same thing will happen here in Jaffa. 398 00:33:32,639 --> 00:33:36,005 Palestinian society was collapsing. 399 00:33:36,040 --> 00:33:39,280 Some Israelis claim that Palestinians were leaving 400 00:33:39,315 --> 00:33:42,520 on the orders of Arab leaders to wait for victory. 401 00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:47,840 Jewish leaders had discussed moving Arabs out of Palestine for years, 402 00:33:47,875 --> 00:33:50,680 but deny that was anything to do with their departure. 403 00:33:55,080 --> 00:34:01,720 Does Israel bear any responsibility for the exodus of the Palestinians in 1948? 404 00:34:01,755 --> 00:34:03,444 No. 405 00:34:03,479 --> 00:34:10,480 Some historians say that Plan D was a blueprint for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, of Arabs. 406 00:34:10,515 --> 00:34:12,285 Is that true? No. 407 00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:17,079 You know, as they say, I was present at the creation. 408 00:34:17,114 --> 00:34:20,600 I don't mind what historians write or think. 409 00:34:20,635 --> 00:34:24,044 I watched with my own eyes. 410 00:34:24,079 --> 00:34:27,725 Ben-Gurion did not want the Arabs to leave the country. 411 00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:31,479 When we spoke to President Peres of Jerusalem, he said that Israel bears 412 00:34:31,514 --> 00:34:35,639 no responsibility whatsoever for the exodus of Palestinians. 413 00:34:35,674 --> 00:34:38,285 No responsibility whatsoever?! 414 00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:41,719 Then what caused the exodus to happen? 415 00:34:41,754 --> 00:34:44,565 It was the Israeli massacre 416 00:34:44,600 --> 00:34:47,940 of villagers, of people whom they encountered. 417 00:34:47,975 --> 00:34:51,280 I can count to you the scores of massacres, 418 00:34:51,315 --> 00:34:53,359 which happened all over the country. 419 00:34:53,394 --> 00:34:55,764 Do you think that anybody would leave his home 420 00:34:55,799 --> 00:34:59,119 unless he was...really threatened? 421 00:35:02,399 --> 00:35:06,640 That's what Peres said to us. I am surprised that President Peres has said so. 422 00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:10,365 The 14th of May, 1948. 423 00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:13,565 The last day of the British mandate. 424 00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:16,599 Britain's legacy to Palestine was a legal system, 425 00:35:16,634 --> 00:35:21,119 red pillar boxes, chaos and war. 426 00:35:27,599 --> 00:35:31,400 The same day, David Ben-Gurion announced that the State of Israel 427 00:35:31,435 --> 00:35:34,919 would come into existence at midnight. 428 00:35:38,879 --> 00:35:42,444 Within hours, the country was under attack. 429 00:35:42,479 --> 00:35:45,239 We heard the explosions, and I said to my wife, I said, 430 00:35:45,274 --> 00:35:48,164 "The game's on. They're bombing Tel-Aviv." 431 00:35:48,199 --> 00:35:52,739 Their main targets were the Reading power station, 432 00:35:52,774 --> 00:35:57,245 the Tel Aviv airfield, the central bus station, 433 00:35:57,280 --> 00:36:02,000 and they were really bombing Tel Aviv with impunity, because there was nothing to stop them. 434 00:36:04,240 --> 00:36:07,199 That day, five Arab states invaded. 435 00:36:11,080 --> 00:36:13,524 The Egyptians advanced from the south, 436 00:36:13,559 --> 00:36:16,244 towards the main Jewish centre of Tel Aviv. 437 00:36:16,279 --> 00:36:19,365 The Lebanese barely crossed the northern border, 438 00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:24,040 with the Syrians attacking at either end of the Sea of Galilee. 439 00:36:24,075 --> 00:36:26,760 Further south came the Iraqis, while in the centre, 440 00:36:26,795 --> 00:36:28,937 Transjordan's Arab Legion advanced 441 00:36:28,972 --> 00:36:31,044 towards the West Bank and Jerusalem. 442 00:36:31,079 --> 00:36:34,720 The invading force was between 25-30,000, 443 00:36:34,755 --> 00:36:38,280 against around 35,000 Israelis. 444 00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:43,845 Although the invasion was under the nominal command 445 00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:48,780 of King Abdullah of Transjordan, each country made its own plans. 446 00:36:48,815 --> 00:36:53,187 Abdullah had been having secret but inconclusive negotiations 447 00:36:53,222 --> 00:36:57,559 with Jewish leaders about carving up Palestine between them. 448 00:36:57,594 --> 00:37:01,400 He also wanted to add Lebanon and Syria to his kingdom, 449 00:37:01,435 --> 00:37:03,845 to make an Arab superstate. 450 00:37:03,880 --> 00:37:07,159 No wonder other Arab leaders didn't trust him. 451 00:37:07,194 --> 00:37:09,204 They didn't trust each other, either. 452 00:37:09,239 --> 00:37:12,804 They'd all have liked a piece of Palestine for themselves. 453 00:37:12,839 --> 00:37:18,160 And destroying the Jewish state at birth would have made them into national heroes. 454 00:37:18,195 --> 00:37:22,560 But they knew their capacity to do it was limited. 455 00:37:22,595 --> 00:37:26,565 Some of the Arab states went to war 456 00:37:26,600 --> 00:37:32,360 just to satisfy the ambitions of their common classes. 457 00:37:32,395 --> 00:37:35,964 Some of the Arab states wanted 458 00:37:35,999 --> 00:37:40,560 to prevent King Abdullah from controlling 459 00:37:40,595 --> 00:37:44,480 more areas from the Arab states. 460 00:37:46,040 --> 00:37:50,244 Some of the states, er... 461 00:37:50,279 --> 00:37:53,765 were forcing themselves to go to war, 462 00:37:53,800 --> 00:37:58,359 otherwise the Arab people will call them traitors. 463 00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:05,719 Most of the invading troops were like Egypt's - well-armed, but badly trained and led. 464 00:38:05,754 --> 00:38:11,440 Egypt's King Farouk sent his men to war against the advice of his government. 465 00:38:13,039 --> 00:38:17,044 Transjordan's Arab Legion was commanded by British officers. 466 00:38:17,079 --> 00:38:21,804 It was the most effective Arab fighting force, but small - 8,000 men. 467 00:38:21,839 --> 00:38:27,320 It only fought for land allocated to the Arabs by the partition plan, and in Jerusalem. 468 00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:34,879 "The Jordanians considered Jerusalem and Palestine 469 00:38:34,914 --> 00:38:36,885 as the diamond of the Middle East, 470 00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:43,200 because of the spiritual and religious significance we have as Muslims and Arabs. 471 00:38:43,235 --> 00:38:49,480 So we considered the capture of Jerusalem as our incentive as Jordanian fighters, 472 00:38:49,515 --> 00:38:52,400 and we fought hard to defend it. 473 00:38:59,399 --> 00:39:03,959 For the first month after the invasion, it was touch and go for the Israelis. 474 00:39:03,994 --> 00:39:08,084 The old city of Jerusalem was under attack by the Jordanian army, 475 00:39:08,119 --> 00:39:11,959 so we were stretched all over the place, and there were very few units, 476 00:39:11,994 --> 00:39:14,536 who were free to fight everywhere else. 477 00:39:14,571 --> 00:39:17,044 And the situation at that time I think 478 00:39:17,079 --> 00:39:22,120 was the most critical during the war of independence. 479 00:39:30,719 --> 00:39:33,805 Kibbutz Ramat Rachel near Bethlehem. 480 00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:36,405 Here, the Israelis fought to stop the Egyptians 481 00:39:36,440 --> 00:39:40,919 linking up with the Arab Legion to encircle Jerusalem. 482 00:39:42,559 --> 00:39:47,360 The building behind me was the dining hall here at Kibbutz Ramat Rachel. 483 00:39:47,395 --> 00:39:50,725 It was the strongest building in the place, on the highest point, 484 00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:56,320 and it was there that the Israelis set up their headquarters and decided to make their stand. 485 00:39:59,360 --> 00:40:04,760 You know, it's been 60 years since I was here last. 486 00:40:04,795 --> 00:40:07,240 60 years, that's a long time. It sure is. 487 00:40:08,919 --> 00:40:10,600 There's the wall. 488 00:40:12,680 --> 00:40:17,120 And all those pocket marks from the bombardment. 489 00:40:17,155 --> 00:40:18,804 From the shelling. 490 00:40:18,839 --> 00:40:22,959 You were up here when you were wounded. What happened? 491 00:40:22,994 --> 00:40:26,199 The truth is, I don't know what happened. 492 00:40:26,234 --> 00:40:27,804 A shell exploded in my face 493 00:40:27,839 --> 00:40:31,479 and I got covered with shrapnel all over my body. 494 00:40:31,514 --> 00:40:34,077 I couldn't see. I thought I was blind. 495 00:40:34,112 --> 00:40:36,605 The Israelis held on to Ramat Rachel, 496 00:40:36,640 --> 00:40:42,400 but the Arab Legion kept up the pressure on Jewish-controlled Jerusalem 497 00:40:42,435 --> 00:40:44,680 by cutting the supply route from Tel Aviv. 498 00:40:50,720 --> 00:40:54,004 To reopen it, the Israelis tried - and failed - 499 00:40:54,039 --> 00:40:58,124 repeatedly to take Latroun, a strongpoint on the Jerusalem road. 500 00:40:58,159 --> 00:41:03,239 The first time they thought it was defended by Palestinian irregulars. 501 00:41:03,274 --> 00:41:08,285 Instead, they faced well-dug-in professionals from the Arab Legion. 502 00:41:08,320 --> 00:41:13,600 We were encountered by tremendous fire of machine-guns and mortars, and so forth. 503 00:41:13,635 --> 00:41:17,720 The heat was absolutely about 40, 42 degrees, 504 00:41:17,755 --> 00:41:20,039 and in the shadow. 505 00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:23,720 We didn't have enough water, of course, 506 00:41:23,755 --> 00:41:25,925 and people were hit all the time. 507 00:41:25,960 --> 00:41:29,120 I myself was wounded, first time, in the morning. 508 00:41:29,155 --> 00:41:31,405 I got a bullet in my shoulder, 509 00:41:31,440 --> 00:41:35,280 and then, about 10 o'clock, I got another shrapnel, in my chest. 510 00:41:35,315 --> 00:41:40,360 And the situation was hopeless, as far as we are concerned. 511 00:41:40,395 --> 00:41:43,845 In Jerusalem's walled Old City, 512 00:41:43,880 --> 00:41:47,580 the Jewish Quarter fell to the Arab Legion. 513 00:41:47,615 --> 00:41:51,245 Over 1,000 Jewish civilians lost their homes. 514 00:41:51,280 --> 00:41:58,000 Almost 23,000 Palestinians left districts of the city captured by Jewish forces during the war. 515 00:41:58,559 --> 00:42:03,160 The Legion kept the Jewish-controlled west of the city under siege, 516 00:42:03,195 --> 00:42:06,320 but never risked trying to capture it. 517 00:42:06,355 --> 00:42:08,765 I think that people fired... 518 00:42:08,800 --> 00:42:13,044 'For the Israelis, the breakthrough was finding a cross-country route, 519 00:42:13,079 --> 00:42:18,000 'to ferry supplies and pump water, that bypassed the Arab Legion's positions.' 520 00:42:18,035 --> 00:42:20,205 We assembled 13 Jeeps. 521 00:42:20,240 --> 00:42:22,965 One of them belonged to Ben-Gurion. 522 00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:27,400 We loaded them with about more than half a ton per Jeep 523 00:42:27,435 --> 00:42:30,484 medical supplies, ammunition, weapons. 524 00:42:30,519 --> 00:42:33,725 We knew exactly what the situation in Jerusalem is. 525 00:42:33,760 --> 00:42:38,720 How important was it for the Jewish forces to hang on in Jerusalem? 526 00:42:38,755 --> 00:42:42,645 It's unbelievable how people felt about Jerusalem. 527 00:42:42,680 --> 00:42:48,079 They knew that...that without Jerusalem, there is no Jewish state. 528 00:42:49,240 --> 00:42:54,280 On the southern front, the Egyptian army advanced north towards Tel Aviv, 529 00:42:54,315 --> 00:42:56,279 avoiding smaller Israeli settlements. 530 00:43:00,720 --> 00:43:05,059 But Kibbutz Yad Mordechai was too big to ignore. 531 00:43:05,094 --> 00:43:09,399 On 24th May, Egyptian armour and infantry attacked. 532 00:43:10,800 --> 00:43:17,079 Here, in front of me, I have no bullets and I have no rifles to reach them. 533 00:43:17,114 --> 00:43:20,524 I need a mortar, or I need something... 534 00:43:20,559 --> 00:43:25,359 And I was very, very angry that I can't shoot... 535 00:43:25,394 --> 00:43:28,037 there in front of me. 536 00:43:28,072 --> 00:43:30,255 And I can't do nothing, 537 00:43:30,290 --> 00:43:32,404 because, er, the distance, 538 00:43:32,439 --> 00:43:37,439 it's too wide. I have no rifle, I have no munition. 539 00:43:37,474 --> 00:43:42,440 And no aims to defence myself, or to attack them. 540 00:43:44,239 --> 00:43:46,799 Outnumbered and out of ammunition, 541 00:43:46,834 --> 00:43:49,324 the Israeli forces had to retreat. 542 00:43:49,359 --> 00:43:53,499 But they had bought time to establish a defence line further north, 543 00:43:53,534 --> 00:43:57,640 where the Egyptians were stopped before they could reach Tel Aviv. 544 00:43:59,840 --> 00:44:01,725 After nearly a month's fighting, 545 00:44:01,760 --> 00:44:05,559 the United Nations secured a four-week ceasefire. 546 00:44:07,319 --> 00:44:13,445 During the truce, both sides re-armed, but Israel had the edge, 547 00:44:13,480 --> 00:44:20,320 with big deliveries from Czechoslovakia of modern weapons, including heavy guns and aircraft. 548 00:44:20,355 --> 00:44:24,520 Although hugely outnumbered by Arabs in the Middle East, 549 00:44:24,555 --> 00:44:29,597 Israel was always able to mobilise more soldiers. 550 00:44:29,632 --> 00:44:34,604 It was now better equipped, organised and motivated. 551 00:44:34,639 --> 00:44:38,560 As far as you were concerned, it was a life-or-death struggle. Absolutely. 552 00:44:38,595 --> 00:44:40,857 This was Israel's most frightful war. 553 00:44:40,892 --> 00:44:43,686 It was a case of to be or not to be. 554 00:44:43,721 --> 00:44:46,445 When the ceasefire ended after a month, 555 00:44:46,480 --> 00:44:50,359 the Israelis were ready for what one of their top generals called 556 00:44:50,394 --> 00:44:54,239 a series of sharp, short, decisive and victorious engagements. 557 00:44:56,320 --> 00:45:00,359 The priority was relieving the pressure on Tel Aviv-Jerusalem axis. 558 00:45:00,394 --> 00:45:05,080 Lydd and Ramleh, two adjoining Arab towns close to Tel Aviv, 559 00:45:05,115 --> 00:45:07,125 were the targets. 560 00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:11,800 What happened here was one of the most controversial episodes of the entire war. 561 00:45:11,835 --> 00:45:15,844 The Israelis scored a major strategic victory. 562 00:45:15,879 --> 00:45:19,645 They secured Tel Aviv, and the centre of their new country. 563 00:45:19,680 --> 00:45:25,160 In the process, tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs lost their homes, 564 00:45:25,195 --> 00:45:28,480 and hundreds of them lost their lives. 565 00:45:41,719 --> 00:45:46,280 The Haganah killed dozens of Palestinians who were sheltering in a mosque. 566 00:45:51,239 --> 00:45:56,239 Some of them just left their houses and found this place as a refuge, 567 00:45:56,274 --> 00:45:59,880 most of the families, and they thought that this is the way, 568 00:45:59,915 --> 00:46:01,684 they are very safe in this place. 569 00:46:01,719 --> 00:46:04,564 The Haganah army, when they got inside the city, 570 00:46:04,599 --> 00:46:10,520 after fears of fighting between the Palestinians and the Haganah, 571 00:46:10,555 --> 00:46:13,485 they just came inside this mosque, 572 00:46:13,520 --> 00:46:17,120 and they just killed all of the people inside here. 573 00:46:17,155 --> 00:46:21,004 Women, children, old people, 574 00:46:21,039 --> 00:46:23,800 all of them were shot. It was a big massacre. 575 00:46:30,440 --> 00:46:34,479 Some of the residents were forced to bury the bodies. 576 00:46:42,080 --> 00:46:46,600 'The army took us to the mosque, to take the dead to the cemetery. 577 00:46:47,760 --> 00:46:52,645 'We entered one room. there were 60 or 70 bodies inside. 578 00:46:52,680 --> 00:46:58,520 'Later, they covered them with clothes and poured petrol, and set them on fire. 579 00:47:00,480 --> 00:47:04,520 'There was a woman dressed in peasant clothes. 580 00:47:06,319 --> 00:47:10,044 'Next to her were two little girls. 581 00:47:10,079 --> 00:47:14,525 'We carried them, and put them over there. 582 00:47:14,560 --> 00:47:17,359 'They were the only ones who had a proper burial.' 583 00:47:20,519 --> 00:47:27,280 There's a controversy over whether Ben-Gurion authorised the expulsions from Lydd and Ramleh. 584 00:47:28,399 --> 00:47:32,119 The Israeli commander who signed the order believed that he had. 585 00:47:32,154 --> 00:47:35,920 More than 50,000 Palestinians were forced out. 586 00:47:37,999 --> 00:47:40,759 It's not a secret any more. 587 00:47:42,599 --> 00:47:46,205 It was called Shualei Shimshon, "the wolf of Samson". 588 00:47:46,240 --> 00:47:52,080 With Jeeps, with machine-guns, it's not a secret any more. 589 00:47:53,759 --> 00:47:59,599 Many things we did we regret until today. We...we regret until today. 590 00:47:59,634 --> 00:48:01,445 And I think that, er... 591 00:48:01,480 --> 00:48:04,480 Well, but in war, you make mistakes. You... 592 00:48:06,119 --> 00:48:10,565 Anyhow, there was no clear order from Ben-Gurion 593 00:48:10,600 --> 00:48:15,564 how to deal with the inhabitants in an occupied village. 594 00:48:15,599 --> 00:48:21,199 But could Israel have functioned with a big town like Ramleh... 595 00:48:21,234 --> 00:48:23,576 full of Arabs...? 596 00:48:23,611 --> 00:48:25,884 Ramleh? All Arabs... 597 00:48:25,919 --> 00:48:31,639 Could you have built a state if you had that many Arabs living right in the centre of the country? 598 00:48:31,674 --> 00:48:33,485 No. 599 00:48:33,520 --> 00:48:39,040 Many refugees died on the long walk to the Arab lines. 600 00:48:39,075 --> 00:48:42,160 The offensive ended with another UN truce. 601 00:48:46,280 --> 00:48:50,844 In ten days of fighting, the Israeli general Yigal Allon 602 00:48:50,879 --> 00:48:55,240 estimated that 20% of the effective Arab fighting force had been lost, 603 00:48:55,275 --> 00:48:58,720 and the war of independence won, though not ended. 604 00:49:00,959 --> 00:49:05,200 In the remaining months of the war, there were more Israeli offensives, 605 00:49:05,235 --> 00:49:09,084 more Palestinians were forced out, and there were more ceasefires. 606 00:49:09,119 --> 00:49:16,279 Of the invaders, only the Arab Legion, in Jerusalem and the West Bank, could claim any success. 607 00:49:16,314 --> 00:49:18,520 The others were humiliated. 608 00:49:19,880 --> 00:49:25,640 When the second war came, it was not in favour of the Arabs. 609 00:49:25,675 --> 00:49:28,879 It was totally in favour of the Jews. 610 00:49:30,400 --> 00:49:32,360 Because their... 611 00:49:32,960 --> 00:49:38,360 The Jews were able to make victory in the south, 612 00:49:38,395 --> 00:49:40,965 and against the Syrians and Lebanese. 613 00:49:41,000 --> 00:49:46,359 We were left alone in the West Bank, defending ourselves. 614 00:49:47,760 --> 00:49:53,599 By the time Israel seized the last corner of the Negev Desert in March l949, 615 00:49:53,600 --> 00:49:55,900 armistice talks had already started. 616 00:49:58,034 --> 00:50:02,939 Yad Mordechai was recaptured, and became a symbol of Israeli resistance. 617 00:50:03,840 --> 00:50:07,845 From November 1947 to January 1949, 618 00:50:07,880 --> 00:50:14,640 around 6,000 Israelis - 1% of the population - had been killed. 619 00:50:14,675 --> 00:50:18,365 What do you think would have happened if you hadn't won? 620 00:50:18,400 --> 00:50:22,340 Well, the Arabs really gave the answer to that question, Jeremy. 621 00:50:22,375 --> 00:50:26,280 When someone said to them, "But what will happen to the Jews 622 00:50:26,315 --> 00:50:28,365 "once you over-run them?" 623 00:50:28,400 --> 00:50:30,204 He says, "There won't be any Jews. 624 00:50:30,239 --> 00:50:32,680 "They will have been drowned in the sea." 625 00:50:34,199 --> 00:50:37,845 And I have no doubt that it really would have been a holocaust. 626 00:50:37,880 --> 00:50:43,639 One estimate is that around 15,000 Arab soldiers and civilians were killed. 627 00:50:43,674 --> 00:50:48,760 Defeat made the Arab world even more unstable. 628 00:50:48,795 --> 00:50:50,565 There was no balance 629 00:50:50,600 --> 00:50:54,920 between the forces of Israel and the forces of the Arabs, 630 00:50:54,955 --> 00:50:56,445 because in wars, 631 00:50:56,480 --> 00:51:01,840 you don't only depend on the number of soldiers, or the number of tanks, 632 00:51:01,875 --> 00:51:06,845 you have also to have political force, 633 00:51:06,880 --> 00:51:12,320 and you have to have unity among those who are going to war. 634 00:51:12,355 --> 00:51:17,399 Unity did not exist among the Arab states. 635 00:51:19,879 --> 00:51:23,319 Since l948, the Israelis have built a modern state, 636 00:51:23,354 --> 00:51:26,760 the region's superpower, a homeland for the Jews. 637 00:51:30,039 --> 00:51:34,040 Palestinians believe that it has all come on the back of their loss, 638 00:51:34,075 --> 00:51:36,759 and that troubles some Israelis, too. 639 00:51:38,600 --> 00:51:41,679 "I have no doubt that the Arabs' deportation 640 00:51:41,714 --> 00:51:44,080 also helped the state of Israel. 641 00:51:44,115 --> 00:51:46,285 The truth should be said. 642 00:51:46,320 --> 00:51:48,924 It helped us because hundreds of thousands fled, 643 00:51:48,959 --> 00:51:52,560 and new immigrants settled into their villages and towns. 644 00:51:52,595 --> 00:51:55,325 It's difficult to say, but this DID happen. 645 00:51:55,360 --> 00:51:59,760 We didn't ask for it, but it happened nonetheless. 646 00:51:59,795 --> 00:52:04,160 On the other hand, the situation of an ongoing war, 647 00:52:04,195 --> 00:52:07,644 day after day, for 60 years, 648 00:52:07,679 --> 00:52:12,119 big wars with names, small wars with no names. 649 00:52:12,154 --> 00:52:16,360 The 1948 war is yet to end. 650 00:52:26,800 --> 00:52:31,679 For all Israel's strength, its civilians still get killed by Palestinians. 651 00:52:36,599 --> 00:52:39,764 And with their civilians dying, too, 652 00:52:39,799 --> 00:52:43,360 Palestinians believe that what they called the Nakba - 653 00:52:43,395 --> 00:52:47,159 the catastrophe of 1948- has never ended. 654 00:52:48,559 --> 00:52:53,159 The current peace process, sponsored by President Bush, 655 00:52:53,194 --> 00:52:55,805 will fail, like all the others, 656 00:52:55,840 --> 00:53:00,920 if it cannot solve problems that are hard-wired to l948. 657 00:53:00,955 --> 00:53:03,324 Partition is still on the agenda. 658 00:53:03,359 --> 00:53:08,759 They need to fix a border between Israel and a Palestinian state. 659 00:53:08,794 --> 00:53:12,856 Jerusalem is still claimed by both sides. 660 00:53:12,891 --> 00:53:16,919 And Palestinian refugees await a future. 661 00:53:19,360 --> 00:53:23,480 Until 1948, that was a bare hill on the edge of Bethlehem. 662 00:53:23,515 --> 00:53:25,565 Now it's Deheishe refugee camp. 663 00:53:25,600 --> 00:53:30,925 The original tents were replaced by permanent structures a long time ago, 664 00:53:30,960 --> 00:53:35,560 but there is no sense of permanence in the minds of the people who live there, 665 00:53:35,595 --> 00:53:40,160 because, for 60 years, they have effectively been in limbo. 666 00:53:40,195 --> 00:53:43,565 The future of the Palestinian refugees 667 00:53:43,600 --> 00:53:49,640 is still one of the Middle East's great unsolved, politically toxic issues. 668 00:53:52,439 --> 00:53:57,805 When the Palestinian camps were new, 60 years ago, 669 00:53:57,840 --> 00:54:01,919 Israel was absorbing hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees and migrants. 670 00:54:04,560 --> 00:54:11,840 Now almost all Israelis believe a mass influx of Palestinian refugees would destroy their state. 671 00:54:11,875 --> 00:54:16,000 'A UN resolution on their return has never been implemented. 672 00:54:17,879 --> 00:54:23,680 'Some Palestinian refugees, still dreaming of everything they lost, will not hear of compromise.' 673 00:54:32,759 --> 00:54:35,085 'We said it more than once. 674 00:54:35,120 --> 00:54:39,245 'Even if they give us Heaven, we will not give up on our country. 675 00:54:39,280 --> 00:54:44,960 'If they give us enough gold to fill this room, we will decline everything. Impossible! 676 00:54:44,995 --> 00:54:47,165 'I will die, and die a heretic, 677 00:54:47,200 --> 00:54:50,800 'if you take £1 million in gold for an inch of Palestine, 678 00:54:50,835 --> 00:54:52,725 'you die as a heretic. 679 00:54:52,760 --> 00:54:56,600 'Not a Muslim, not a Christian, not a Jew. 680 00:54:56,635 --> 00:54:58,880 'A heretic. And you go to Hell.' 681 00:55:05,039 --> 00:55:10,360 And even though most Palestinians DO accept that they will live alongside Israel, 682 00:55:10,395 --> 00:55:14,805 memory and history stand on every street corner. 683 00:55:14,840 --> 00:55:19,079 My father has built here. My father, he was denied to live, 684 00:55:19,114 --> 00:55:23,319 and he was dispossessed to live in this beautiful house. 685 00:55:23,354 --> 00:55:26,657 It's been now 60 years for most of the people. 686 00:55:26,692 --> 00:55:29,925 There are weaknesses. You want to advance, 687 00:55:29,960 --> 00:55:36,800 and I would want very much to compete and advance as much as the Israelis have advanced, 688 00:55:36,835 --> 00:55:40,879 but I am a Palestinian. My...my...my land has been robbed by the Israelis. 689 00:55:40,914 --> 00:55:45,440 We want them to have a state of their own. 690 00:55:45,475 --> 00:55:49,017 Fair, independent, frank. 691 00:55:49,052 --> 00:55:52,525 And they want it, too. 692 00:55:52,560 --> 00:55:57,684 There is no division in our destinies. 693 00:55:57,719 --> 00:56:04,080 Our problem, from our side, is they are divisioned within themselves, and their weakness. 694 00:56:07,119 --> 00:56:10,885 Others believe the main problem is that Israel is still expansionist, 695 00:56:10,920 --> 00:56:17,759 breaking international law by settling Jews on occupied land that Palestinians say is theirs. 696 00:56:20,279 --> 00:56:23,619 They don't want to give up territory. 697 00:56:23,654 --> 00:56:26,924 They want to squeeze the Palestinians. 698 00:56:26,959 --> 00:56:30,699 They want to take as much territory as they can 699 00:56:30,734 --> 00:56:34,439 and give the Palestinians as little as they can, 700 00:56:34,474 --> 00:56:38,160 which would not be conducive to a solution, 701 00:56:38,195 --> 00:56:41,359 a self-sustaining Palestinian state. 702 00:56:43,600 --> 00:56:49,480 60 years ago, Arab propagandists boasted they would push the Jews into the Mediterranean. 703 00:56:49,515 --> 00:56:54,760 Plenty of Israelis suspect that's still something Palestinians would like to do. 704 00:56:58,199 --> 00:57:00,524 Had they accepted the 1947... 705 00:57:00,559 --> 00:57:05,645 their part, half of Palestine, the mandate, 706 00:57:05,680 --> 00:57:09,920 we would have two countries since then, and no conflict. 707 00:57:09,955 --> 00:57:12,845 But what they wanted is the whole country. 708 00:57:12,880 --> 00:57:16,759 They wanted to drive us into the sea, to kill the Jews. 709 00:57:16,794 --> 00:57:19,444 This is why they don't have anything today. 710 00:57:19,479 --> 00:57:23,779 I will continue to resist, in an un-violent resistance, 711 00:57:23,814 --> 00:57:28,080 until we can co-exist, until we can convince the Israelis 712 00:57:28,115 --> 00:57:30,757 that we want our freedom, but this does not mean 713 00:57:30,792 --> 00:57:33,399 that we want to destroy the state of Israel. 714 00:57:37,600 --> 00:57:43,679 The long war of 1948 has consumed two peoples with two separate stories to tell. 715 00:57:44,920 --> 00:57:47,639 They'll have to find a way to live with its legacy 716 00:57:47,674 --> 00:57:50,360 if they ever want peace. 717 00:57:53,080 --> 00:57:56,719 One day we shall have to shake hands and sit together. 718 00:57:56,754 --> 00:57:58,640 We can't continue fighting for ever. 719 00:58:03,680 --> 00:58:07,880 You can't continue killing and killing and killing. 720 00:58:07,915 --> 00:58:09,959 There must be an end to it. 721 00:58:34,919 --> 00:58:37,439 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd 722 00:58:37,474 --> 00:58:39,959 E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk