In 2003, on the eve of the Iraq War, when America felt like it was going mad, I succumbed to a madness of my own: I moved to Sweden. In those grim days before one could stuff a thousand books onto a Kindle, I stuffed two books into a carry-on bag: one stumping for war against Saddam, the other on the European obsession with anti-Americanism. I was, it seems, determined to make no new European friends. A few months later, bored with reading about anti-Americanism when experiencing it was so much more invigorating, I was doing my regular rounds of Stockholm's bookstores, scouring the shelves for affordable English-language books that weren't written (or blurbed) by Noam Chomsky. Desperate to escape the terrible present for the horrible past, I spent $25 on a copy of Simon Sebag Montefiore's Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, a deliciously salacious, surprisingly pacy (and slyly academic) biography of the Georgian mass murderer's reign over the Soviet Union and his despoiling of its population.
The Observer, in a generally positive notice, warned that Soviet nostalgics might "regard the slightly forced brio as evidence that Sebag Montefiore is incurably biased against communism in theory and practice. … For he writes about the excesses of Stalin's regime with uninhibited relish." A slightly incoherent criticism (Does he really relish the excesses? Should he write about them with a touch more inhibition?), but coherent enough to tell me that, as a reader incurably biased against both homicidal dictators and The Observer, I was going to devour Sebag Montefiore's book.
And so I did. And so I have with his subsequent books: Young Stalin; Jerusalem: The Biography; The World: A Family History of Humanity. Every one a bestseller, all worth your time. Sebag Montefiore is back with The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East, a wonderfully economical retelling of the region’s modern history (a hundred-plus years in 500-odd pages) that will doubtless reach a broad audience but would especially benefit those young activists mewling about the river and the sea yet unsure why either body of water matters.
He joined me in our Soho studio to discuss “settler colonialism,” “genocide,” Zionism, imperialism, the Iranian Revolution, the West’s role in the whole mess, and how Israel won the ground war in Gaza but lost the information war abroad.
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I’ve only read “Jerusalem: The Biography” by Simon Sebag-Montefiore. I loved it and have recommended it often. So, I write this with considerable trepidation and the expectation of being corrected, but…
I believe Dr. Montefiore is wrong on several points.
It’s possible that he’s unaware of the document:
Migration of Eretz Yisrael Arabs between December 1st 1947 and June 1st 1948
This is a primary source contemporary report produced by the Zionist military intelligence apparatus during the 1948 war. It has been translated into English by the Akevot Institute and can be accessed in full here:
https://www.akevot.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/1948ISReport-Eng.pdf
It casts serious doubt on Dr. Montefiore's account in several ways.
Haifa: Dr. Montefiore claims that Zionist leaders urged the Arab population to remain. The report identifies the Zionist military operation of 22 April 1948 as the major cause of Haifa's exodus. It specifically describes the effectiveness of shelling, loud explosions and Arabic-language loudspeakers in frightening residents into flight.
Jaffa: Dr. Montefiore similarly claims that Zionist leaders wanted Jaffa's Arabs to remain. The report identifies operations by Irgun and Lehi as having a decisive influence on the evacuation of Jaffa and its surrounding countryside.
Safed: Dr. Montefiore recounts Mahmoud Abbas's family fleeing because they feared Jewish reprisals, and states the Zionist forces did not drive Safed's Arabs out. The report records Safed's evacuation on 10 May 1948 as resulting from its military occupation. It also identifies the fall of Safed as the cause of further evacuations in surrounding villages.
Direct expulsions: Dr. Montefiore acknowledges that expulsions occurred but stresses that many Palestinians simply fled. The report records explicit evacuation orders, military expulsions and instances where Palestinians who returned to previously evacuated villages were expelled again by Zionist forces.
The geography of displacement: Dr. Montefiore suggests that direct expulsions were concentrated in central Palestine. The report documents military-induced displacement across Galilee, Haifa, Jaffa, Jerusalem and the southern coastal plain. This challenges the geographical impression he creates, although it does not by itself disprove his narrower claim about where most direct expulsions occurred. The report also records that, by early June 1948, approximately 122,000 Palestinians had been displaced from territory allocated to the proposed Arab state under the UN Partition Plan - at least 70 villages. A further 30,000 were displaced from Jerusalem, which was intended to be internationally administered. The report documents Zionist military operations as causes of displacement in these localities. Displacement was not confined to territory allocated for Jewish statehood.
Orders from Arab leaders: Montefiore cites encouragement from Arab leadership as an explanation for the exodus. The report attributes only approximately 5% of village evacuations to orders from Arab institutions or armed groups. It also records that the Arab Higher Committee attempted to prevent Palestinians from leaving, including through restrictions, penalties and public appeals.
The principal cause of Palestinian displacement: Dr. Montefiore emphasises Palestinians fleeing out of fear or following encouragement from Arab leaders. The intelligence report explicitly concludes that Zionist military operations and their consequences were responsible for approximately 70% of the displacement and describes Zionist military action as the decisive factor.
Dr. Montefiore places considerable weight on the distinction between fleeing and being forcibly expelled. The intelligence report demonstrates that people could flee without being physically expelled but their departure was nevertheless caused by Zionist military attacks, intimidation, the destruction of neighbouring communities or the collapse of local defences.
Indeed, the report's authors write:
“The impact of ‘Jewish military action’ (Haganah and Dissidents) on the migration was decisive, as some 70% of the residents left their communities and migrated as a result of these actions.”
The report covers displacement up to early June 1948, not the entire Nakba, and its estimates should not be extrapolated.
Nevertheless, it is a valuable contemporary assessment from the Zionist military intelligence apparatus itself that has been quoted from extensively by historians such as Benny Morris.
It establishes the predominant cause of displacement as Jewish military action and its consequences. Which is substantially different from the impression Dr. Montefiore gives in this interview.
There is, of course, one unalterable fact suggesting the true intentions of the Zionist forces - almost none of the displaced Palestinians or their descendants have ever returned.
The story of the 1948 Haganah Intelligence Report documenting the causes of Palestinian displacement, how it contradicts so much of the accepted narrative and why it was suppressed for 30+ years.
https://pilgrimofhope.substack.com/p/suppressed-nakba-document?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=6fzf4p