10. See www.birzeit.edu/crdps/[email protected]#1948. The Hagana was the main Jewish military arm
during the pre-statc cra.
11. The 1948 documents at Israel Defense Force Archive (IDFA) under Israel’s Archival Law, were
theoretically to remain closed for fifty years, namely until 1998. However, a special committee
declassified some of these documents earlier, in light of the growing interest “generated by the
celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the State”, writes the archivist, Yoram Mayorek
(www.research.co.il). As the documents are not to be opened automatically but are still going
through weeding and due to the slow work of the censors, the great majority of them are still
unavailable to the public. Current access procedure is that the researcher approaches the archive
and lists his/her interests. The archivist chooses the relevant files and transfers them to a censor who
weeds them. Then they are loaded on a computer. It is a matter of months until the researcher gains
access to the documents. When a document has been weeded from a file, a form noting its general
outline (who wrote to whom, when and the nature of the correspondence) is inserted in its place. In
some documents only specific sentences or words are censored. One can guess from the context
that it is mainly names of people or deeds such as civilians’ expulsion that the archive still wishes to
conceal.
12. Moshe Carmel (1949) published his memoirs of the 1948 war. The conquest of Ijzim is mentioned
in his book; the policy expressed in the following document is not.
13. IDFA 244/1951 file 67 dated May 1948. Benny Morris commented that “to cleanse” might refer to
army forces only.
14. In many villages, elderly people and some women and children remained during the conquest. In
the case of at
-T
ireh, for example, after the fall of the village, the captive men were taken for
interrogation in prison and the Jewish forces transferred the rest of the population to the border with
Jordan.
15. When quoting from interviews,Hbefore the quote signifies that the talk was in Hebrew;Abefore the
quote signifies that the talk was originally in Arabic;Ebefore the quote signifies that the talk was in
English.
16. Abu
¯ Ashraf was one of the few people who used the new Jewish names when speaking of the places
during the war of 1948.
17. T
awfi¯q al-’A¯ ref was one of the village makha
¯ti¯r (headmen).
18. T
awfi¯q al-Mura¯d is also mentioned by ’Awa¯d and ’Abd ar-Ra¯zeq who now reside at Irbid’s refugee
camp when describing Ijzim’s school teachers: ’Awa¯d: “There were four to five teachers. There was
amongst them Tawfi¯q al-Mura¯d.” ’Abd al-Ra¯zeq [who is sitting nearby, adds]: “T
awfi¯q al-Ma¯d
i
¯.”
19. When saying desk Jami¯l is referring to the seat in front.
20. Haaretz (a Jewish newspaper), 3rd of February 1948, p. 4.
21. IDFA 7249/1949, file 152 dated 4th of July 1948.
22. IDFA 244/1951 file 67, 6 July 1948 [sent to the officer in charge of Haifa by the city’s intelligence
officer]. A shorter version in 922/1975 file 1176 dated 7 July 1948.
23. As with Abu
¯ Ashraf, Abu
¯ Na’i¯m uses the Hebrew names of the location. The two have been living
in Israel since 1948.
24. Dalia, the shortened name for Dalyet al-Karmel, the Druze village a couple of kilometers east of
Ijzim.
25. IDFA 4663/1949 file 46. The letter is dated 6 of July. The army document that quotes it is dated
10th of July.
26. IDFA 6400/1949 file 66 dated 12 July 1948.
27. Amongst the notes was another letter from Kupershtock to Salomon and a list of names of Arab
prisoners held by the Jews.
28. Kupershtock is probably referring to Shari¯f.
29. Kupershtock may have reached this conclusion following his chat with Shafi¯q. Note that earlier on
Shafi¯q mentioned that Kupershtock wanted to escape and that he warned him that it is dangerous.
30. Israel State Archive 931/6/P.
31. IDFA 6400/1949 file 66.
ANTHROPOLOGICAL HISTORIES OF A PALESTINIAN VILLAGE
27