Plan Dalet
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Plan Dalet, or Plan D, (in Hebrew, dalet is the fourth letter, similar to "d" in English), was a plan that the Haganah in Palestine worked out during autumn 1947 to spring 1948. The purpose of the plan was, according to its Jewish planners, to defend the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. According to Palestinian sources it was a plan with the purpose of conquering as much of Palestine as possible (Plan Dalet: Master Plan for the Conquest of Palestine, Walid, Khalidi, for example).
Plan Dalet was revised in December, after the 1947 UN Partition plan, and finalized on March 10th, 1948.
The first step of the plan was initiated in April when Operation Nachshon was launched, although documents state that action wasn't intended to be undertaken before the British had left (which they did not do before May 14th):
- This plan rests on the general assumption that during its implementation, the forces of the British authorities will not be present in the country. (Plan Dalet, Section 2b)
Purpose of Plan Dalet
The plan begins with:
- The objective of this plan is to gain control of the areas of the Hebrew state and defend its borders. It also aims at gaining control of the areas of Jewish settlements and concentration which are located outside the borders (of the Hebrew state) against regular, semi-regular, and small forces operating from bases outside or inside the state. (Plan Dalet, Section 1a)
This passage has, by the Palestinian side, been interpreted to mean that Plan Dalet was not really of defensive nature. But that the founders of the Jewish state intended to disregard the 1947 UN Partition plan and secure positions outside the partition plans borders.
In Section 3b the plan describes how to deal with occupied "enemy population centers":
- Destruction of villages (setting fire to, blowing up, and planting mines in the debris), especially those population centers which are difficult to control continuously. ... Mounting search and control operations according to the following guidelines: encirclement of the village and conducting a search inside it. In the event of resistance, the armed force must be destroyed and the population expelled outside the borders of the state.
The plan assumed that most of the opposition would come from semi-irregular forces and local militia which would work in civilian areas.
See also
External links
- MidEast Web Historical Documents - Plan D, March, 10 1948 (http://www.mideastweb.org/pland.htm)