From

Sylvia Allen, in her accusation, {Letter, "Half truths" Nov. 11] reproduces a new variant of the fable ,brought forward by Israeli leaders in 1949, claiming they have documents of Arab radio broadcasts ordering the Palestinians to evacuate their homes in 1948, and they will be returned when Israel is defeated. This fable was demolished by the Irish journalist, Erskine Childers, who took the trouble to investigate this claim. He reported : " Examining every official Israeli statement about the Arab exodus, I was struck by the fact that no primary evidence of evacuation orders was ever produced. In Israel in1958, as a guest of the Foreign Office, I asked to be shown the proofs. I was assured they existed...None had been offered when I left...I asked to have the material sent to me. I am still waiting." Childers went on to review all broadcasts in the Middle East, throughout 1948 { which were all monitored thoroughly by the BBC[ British Broadcasting Corporation] and by a US monitoring unit, available at the British Museum." He went on to report: " There was not a single order or appeal or suggestion about evacuation from Palestine, from any Arab station, inside or outside Palestine, in 1948. There is repeated monitored record of Arab appeals, even flat orders, to the civilians of Palestine to stay put." { Erskine Childers " The Other Exodus", The Spectator, London, May 12,1961.}

We all know how the Palestinians were uprooted from their homes through a systematic process of ethnic cleansing planned and orchestrated by the Zionist leaders from Herzl and his successors. I will spare you the details of this and the numerous massacres that were committed in virtually every Arab village or town occupied. The Jewish history researcher, Ariyeh Yitzhaki, spoke of at least twenty large massacres of Arabs and hundreds more massacres committed by Israeli forces. He wrote : " For many Israelis, it was easy to cling to the false claims that the Arabs left the country because that was what their leaders ordered. That is a total lie."

The Israeli thinker, Nathan Chofshi, in rebutting a claim, similar to Ms. Allen's, made by Rabbi Kaplan, stated ; " If Rabbi Kaplan really wanted to know what happened when we, old settlers in Palestine who witnessed the flight, could tell him how and in what manner we, Jews, forced the Arabs to leave their cities and villages.... We came and turned the native Arabs into tragic refugees. And we still dare slander and malign them, to besmirch their name. Instead of being ashamed of what we did and of trying to undo some of the evil we committed by helping these unfortunate refugees, we justify our terrible acts and even glorify them."