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Tantura
Until 1948, Tantura (also al-Tantura) was an Arab village on the Mediterranean coast, 30km south of Haifa. In 1948 it was depopulated during the Arab-Israeli war. Since 1998, Tantura has become famous due to allegations that Israeli forces committed a large scale massacre there in May 1948.
History
The village was situated at the place occupied by the Canaanite city Dor since at least the 13th century BC. Later it was occupied by the Greeks and others, until abandonment after the 4th century AD. Much later, the Crusaders built a castle called Merle there. It is not known when the village of Tantura was founded, but it existed by the end of the 18th century when it was burned by Napoleon. In 1855 it was described as having 30-40 houses, and later that century had expanded to about 1200 residents. In 1931 there were 952 Arabs and 1 Jew living there; in 1944/5, 1490 Arabs. The village economy was based on agriculture and fishing, with 1622 tons of fish harvested in 1944.
On May 22-23, 1948, approximately one week after the state of Israel declared its independence, Tantura was captured by the Alexandroni Brigade, a unit of the Israeli Army. Many villagers died during or soon after the battle, and the remainer were expelled. Most ended up in refugee camps in the West Bank or Syria. The village was almost immediately destroyed except for a few buildings, and in June 1948 the Jewish kibbutz of Nachsolim was established nearby. Today the site of the village is a beach recreational area.
Allegations of a Massacre
A book by Muhammad Nimr al-Khatib published in 1950 quoted two eye-witnesses from Tantura as saying that a group of 40 young men of the village had been systematically executed and buried in a mass grave. However these claims drew little attention, even from Palestinian historians.
In 1988, the Israeli Teddy Katz submitted a Masters thesis to Haifa University claiming to document a massacre of up to several hundred Arabs after the capture of Tantura. Katz's claim was supported by the oral testimony of several veterans of the Alexandroni Brigade and of many Arabs who were former residents of Tantura or neighboring villages. Katz was awarded the degree with an A+ grade. A summary of the thesis, and some independent investigation, was published by the newspaper Maariv in 2000 and caused an outcry. The organization of Alexandroni veterans sued Katz for defamation. During the first two days of the trial, it was revealed that Katz could not support some of his claimed testimonies, and indeed in a few cases the recordings of the interviews appeared to contradict the reports that Katz had made of them.
At this point, Katz signed a statement repudiating his own work. The statement said that Katz "beyond any doubt [believed that] there is no basis for the allegation that the Alexandroni Brigade ... committed killings of people in Tantura after the village surrendered". Twelve hours later, Katz changed his mind and attempted to withdraw his statement but the court refused to accept his retraction and ruled the case against him. Katz then appealed to the High Court, asking it to direct the lower court to reopen the case, but it declined to do so.
Meanwhile, Katz's degree had been suspended by Haifa University and he was invited to submit a revised thesis. He did so, with a much expanded thesis that still contained allegations of a massacre at Tantura. Five examiners were asked to read it, but three gave it a failing grade. The university then awarded Katz a "second-class" degree.
--the testimony
--investigation by Morris
Sources
- The Tantura Massacre, 22-23 May 1948 (http://palestine-studies.org/final/en/journals/content.php?aid=4348&jid=1&iid=119&vid=XXX&vol=134), Journal of Palestine Studies, Issue 119, Spring 2001.
- I. Pappe, The Tantura Case in Israel: The Katz Research and Trial (http://palestine-studies.org/final/en/journals/content.php?aid=4227&jid=1&iid=119&vid=XXX&vol=134), Journal of Palestine Studies, Issue 119, Spring 2001.
- S. Esmeir, 1948: Law, History, Memory, Social Text (Volume 21, Number 2), Summer 2003, 25-48.
- B. Morris, The Tantura 'massacre', Jerusalem Report, Feb 9, 2004, 18-22.
- W. Khalidi, All that remains, Inst. Pal. Studies, 1992.