For decades, these were rumors and assertions in the memoirs of former officers. Now, thanks to two Israeli historians, it’s written in black and white: the Jewish state used bacteriological weapons during the 1948 war.
“The Arabs had denounced bacteriological attacks at the time, and for the past twenty years, several autobiographies in Israel have mentioned them,” explains Benny Morris, a historian at Ben-Gurion University, who co-published the study in september in the magazine Middle Eastern Studies. “But there were no supporting documents. Everything was secret. We uncovered hundreds of military documents using the operation name, Throw Your Bread. Apparently, the censors were confused by this obscure name and did not classify these documents as confidential. »
The most important attack in April 1948 targeted the city of Acre, in northern Israel, because it was located on the presumed route of an invasion by Lebanese troops. Israeli agents poured solutions of typhoid fever bacteria into the city’s water system.
“The attack caused dozens of illnesses and possibly a few deaths,” Morris said. Note that the State of Israel was created on May 14, 1948.
Attacks were later planned in Beirut, Gaza and Cairo, but the agents sent to reconnoitre were stopped by the Arab authorities.
“And there was moral opposition at the highest levels of the State of Israel,” Morris said. Chaim Weizmann [premier président d’Israël] was shocked by germ warfare. There were talks of poisoning wells in deserted Arab villages to discourage refugees from returning, but that didn’t happen. It is also necessary to put things in perspective: the two sides, in the conflict of 1948, had the tactic of destroying the wells to drive out inhabitants of enemy villages. »
The planned poisoning of German cities
Research by Mr. Morris and his co-author, Benjamin Kedar, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, also uncovered a 1948 plan to go and poison German cities with bacteria, which apparently did not resulted in no concrete action.
“It’s not clear how the bacteria were obtained either,” says Morris. We will have to wait for the declassification of the military archives to find out. »
The term “Throw away your bread” comes from a passage in the Old Testament book Ecclesiastes, which is about the importance of productively using the energy that God has given to humans.
How were the findings of the study received? “There was almost no media or political reaction,” Morris said. It’s stunning. A former prime minister told me he was shocked to see how dark episodes in Israeli history no longer scandalize anyone. »
The new historians
Benny Morris is the best known, outside of Israel, of the “new historians” who, beginning in the 1980s, have examined the dark sides of Israel’s history. In his book The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, Mr. Morris exposed the different dynamics that led to the Palestinian exodus, including the expulsions by the Israeli army. That does not make Mr. Morris a dove. “I don’t believe peace is possible for a number of reasons, one of which is that, in my view, the Palestinians do not accept Israel’s right to exist at the moment,” he said. I am a cosmic pessimist. »
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- 5.9 million
- Number of Palestinian refugees in 2019
- 1.5 million
- Number of Palestinian refugees who lived in UN camps in 2019
Source: UNRWA
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- 700,000
- Number of Palestinian refugees in 1948
Source: UNRWA