through  the port  immediately after  it fell  into  Jewish  hands,  landing first  in Acre,  on  the northern tip of the Haifa Bay, and later continuing to Lebanon.⁷ The culminating situation of violence in the city between the two groups and the massacre of Arabs by Jews in the village of Di¯r Ya¯si¯n 10 days earlier had their impact on this mass exodus. Many of the villages of the Carmel district held out for three months after the fall of Haifa. Ijzim and its two neighboring villages, Jaba’ and ’Ein Ghaza¯l, numbering 1140 and 2170 inhabitants, respectively,⁸ fought together and were the last Carmel villages to fall, on the 26th of July. The continuous resistance and steadfastness of the three villages, nicknamed by the Jews “the little triangle,” is mentioned in Israeli books on the war.⁹ In a curious reverse manner, we find Palestinian reports quoting the Jewish sources that describe the steadfastness of these villages. For instance, Walid Khalidi in All That Remains (Khalidi, 1992 :164) cites The  History  of  the  War of  Independence  and  the  Bir  Zeit  web-site  on  at -T ireh  cites  The History of the Hagana¹⁰. The  Jewish  army’s  intention  to  “cleanse  the  Carmel”  is  expressed  in  a  rare  May  1948 document. (Documents kept at IDFA that refer to expulsion are usually censored).¹¹ Tuvia Arazy had  worked  for  the  Shai  (Sherut  Yedi’ot,  literally  “The  Information  Service”),  the  Hagana intelligence arm, and later for the Arab section of the Political Department of the Jewish Agency. Arazy was holding talks with representatives of the Druze villages of Mount Carmel and reported their  outcome  to  Moshe  Carmel,  the  commander  of  the  Carmeli  Brigade,  the  army  unit responsible for the area.¹² The following is a reply Moshe Carmel sent Arazy in May 1948: . . . I emphasized this to you by phone before the meeting and I repeat, the Hagana has not authorized anyone to negotiate with the Druze in matters of security and defense, nor to make agreements with them in these matters either in writing or verbally. Whatever was decided in this meeting does not bind the  Hagana  and it will operate according to its own considerations and inclinations. Furthermore, this meeting if it touches on military matters, contradicts the  Hagana  inclination to cleanse (letihur ) the Carmel and causes damage in matters of security  . . . .¹³ This plan “to cleanse the Carmel” was not carried through fully. Two Moslem village, Fredi¯s and Jisr az-Zarqa’ (originally ’Arab al-Ghawa¯rneh) remained intact, as well as the two Druze  villages,  Dalyet  al-Karmel  and  ’Isfiyyeh  (which  had  previous  ties  with  Jewish dignitaries). The rest of the villages in this area were indeed depopulated. In some cases, such as in the village of Sarafand, (which was relatively small), the inhabitants left out of fear before  they  were  attacked  whereas  in  most  cases  the  inhabitants  did  not  leave  until  they realized that they had lost the battle. Such was the case of Ijzim.¹⁴ 1948—EARLY INCIDENTS Abu¯ Ashraf, born in 1927, was well informed of the war, as he had been actively involved in it, being of fighting age in 1948. We met roughly five times at his current village of residence in Israel.^H15 Abu ¯  Ashraf: I’ll tell you about the war of Kerem Maharal [the name of the Jewish settlement that was established on the site of Ijzim]¹⁶. The war of Kerem Maharal began bit by bit. It began on the main road. People would go, people would pass to Haifa. Haifa was not gone yet [that is, had not fallen into Jewish hands yet]. The war’s first incident—there was a Jewish jeep on the road. And there was a bus from Ijzim to Haifa [an Arab bus]. In it were a nurse and a teacher named T awfi¯q. . .[Abu ¯  Ashraf is trying to recall T awfi¯q’s family name] Umm Ashraf [his wife]: T awfi¯q al- ’A^¯ ref.¹⁷ Abu ¯  Ashraf [correcting his wife]: T awfi¯q al-Mura¯d, T awfi¯q al-Mura¯d. That jeep was shooting at the bus. It killed that girl [i.e. the nurse] and that man, who was educated. Efrat: Why were they shooting at the bus? Abu ¯  Ashraf: It was the beginning of the war. . .. The bus arrived back at the village in the evening. They said: “This nurse was killed and the man from the al-Ma¯d i ¯ family”.¹⁸ On the next day, this man who owned the bus went [to Haifa]. His name is Sa’i¯d al-Madani¯. From Ijzim. He ANTHROPOLOGICAL HISTORIES OF A PALESTINIAN VILLAGE 15