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"Each Group Had to Dig a Hole."
At the Right of Return rally in Washington Jawdat Hindi, a refugee who surivived the Tantura Massacre gave this short speech:
"I am an eyewitness to the massacre at Al Tantura. If was in the month after the establishment of Israel. Israel invaded the area south of Haifa. It was an area designated by the resolution to be part of Israel. We stayed on our land and we were drive off. My village was one of the first to be attacked. On the 22nd of 1948 we heard explosions and bombs. Our doors were locked. The doors were kicked in with boots. Armed men pulled us out of our house. We saw the neighbors coming out like us. We saw shooting and all the members of that family fell down -- parents and children. Three soliders were laughing. They drove us to the seashore. We were surrounded by armed men. Some we knew they were officers. They called us and I saw they made three groups of ten and they took them to where we did not know. "
"Later I found that each group had to dig a hole and drag the bodies of the killed people, men women and children and to throw them into the hole and they shot all except two from each group, who put the dirt on the hole . My uncle who was 17 with another young man was ordered to drag bodies and the young man saw one body and he said, 'Oh, my God it is my father and he is still shaking.'
Armed men took jewelry from the women and took us to a settlement. We were driven from the country. We did not leave on our own. We were called prisoners of war. We were exchanged for Israeli soldiers. I declare that my name is Jawdat Hindi. I was driven from my country . I am a U.S. citizen and proud of it. I insist on my right to return to my home. We will go."
I spoke to Mr. Hindi by phone a week later to get a few more details. He told me he was 22 years old at the time of the massacre. After he was "exchanged" he was sent to the Jordanian part of Jerusalem where relatives met him. From there he went to Damascas where mother, brother and sisters were in a refugee camp. I asked him to make an estimate of how many were killed at Tantura. He said that after talking to other survivors over the years he thought that 150 to 200 men, women and children perished that night.
The Tantura Massacre has made the news twice this year in Israel, first because Teddy Katz brought it to public attention and second because Katz is being sued for libeling the killers. Teddy Katz is an Israeli who decided in his '50's to go study history at Haifa University. As part of his graduate degree he spoke with survivors of the Tantura massacre and members of the Alexandroni Brigade, the Hagana unit that did the killing. (The Hagana was the fighters that became the core of the Is
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