A Mythical Massacre: Deir Yassin

Dr. Thomas Ice

Hank Hanegraaffis an advocate of Christian Palestinianism![1] Hanegraaff's pro-Palestinianism hasbeen advanced at the expense of the modern state of Israel. When I stated in an article that,"Hanegraaff is no lover of Israel,"[2]he responded by saying that my statement "is flatly false."[3] Hanegraaff cited from his book, TheApocalypse Code[4] his most positive statement about Israel indefense, which merely says, "the modern state of Israel has a definitive rightto exist."[5] If that is all he said it might havebeen acceptable. However, whencompared to what he says about and against the modern state of Israel, hisanswer does nothing to rebut my statement that Hanegraaff is no lover ofIsrael.

Trashing Israel

For yearsHanegraaff has had on his "Bible Answer Man" radio program guests that haveessentially an anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian viewpoint such as Gary Burge,Brother Andrew, Stephen Sizer, and Colin Chapman.[6] I am not aware of any pro-Israel gueststhat he has hosted on his program. Thus, it was not surprising when The Apocalypse Code came out, Hanegraaff's non-fiction book oneschatology, that he articulated an anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian narrative.

Hanegraaff arguesthat Israel has gained her land through unlawful tactics, like massacres andethnic cleansing, and presently oppresses the poor, downtrodden Palestinians.[7] The clear implication throughout isthat those of us who support modern Israel out of biblical conviction areenabling an injustice to take place in the Middle East. Hanegraaff has sought out evidence tosupport his notion that Israel has come into existence through immoralmeans. He presents the Arabs, whohave only in the last 35 years come to be known as Palestinians, as allindigenous to the land and victims of Israel's aggression. Hanegraaff is apparently either unawareof or not interested to read the account of former pro-Palestinian Joan Peters'documentation of the fact that most Arab immigration to Israel came after thereturning Jews founded prosperous communities that provided economicopportunity for Arabs as well.[8] Further, Hanegraaff and his cadre ofChristian Palestinians ignore the real cause of Palestinian Christianoppression, which is Islamic, not Israeli based.[9]

The Battle of DeirYassin

In his book TheApocalypse Code, Hanegraaffcites a battle that took place in an Arab town West of Jerusalem in 1948. He says, "Brother Andrew . . . recallsthe well-known 1948 massacre of Deir Yassin in which an entire village of twohundred fifty men, women, children, and babies were brutally slaughtered by theIsraeli paramilitary."[10] Hanegraaff then quotes Brother Andrew'saccount as follows: "A few men were left alive and driven around to othervillages to tell the story; then those men were killed too. The result was a panic. That's why so many Palestiniansfled. Entire villages wereemptied, which is exactly what the Israelis wanted. They just took over those people's homes."[11] What really happened during thisbattle?

Virtually nothingin the above description of the battle of Deir Yassin is correct. First of all, it was a militarycampaign not a massacre. Evenbefore Israel's declaration of national independence on May 14, 1948, Arabswere already attacking Jewish communities in the land and were blockadingJerusalem, since it was made up of primarily Jewish residents. Furthermore, six Arab nations alsoattacked Israel in their stated goal to drive all Jews into the MediterraneanSea. The town of "Deir Yassin wasstrategically situated on a hill overlooking the main highway enteringJerusalem."[12] It has been documented that by March,1948 that about 150 soldiers from Syria, but mainly from Iraq had taken upposts in Deir Yassin. A series of attacks on Jewish convoys to Jerusalem werelaunched by Arab soldiers disguised as villagers from Deir Yassin. The Arabs began to regularly shellJewish convoys and parts of West Jerusalem from Deir Yassin. [13] It is not surprising that Jewishmilitary leadership decided in April that year that they must take over DeirYassin for obvious strategic reasons. Since the Israeli army was not formed until after statehood wasdeclared, it was decided that Menachem Begin's Irgun forces, aided by theHaganah, would attack Deir Yassin. Begin helped plan but did not take part in the battle.

As the Jewsapproached the village to attack it, they were led by a truck with aloudspeaker that warned civilians to flee via the rear of the village that theJews kept open during the entire battle "and more than 200 residents left unharmed."[14] "It is unclear if the civilians hadchosen to stay of their own free will, or were held hostage by Arab soldierswho thought that their presence would deter the Jewish forces."[15] If the intent was to perpetrate amassacre then no one would have been warned or allowed to leave. Before the battle, the Arab's hadfortified the houses in Deir Yassin and placed Iraqi soldiers in thehouses. The homes had doors madeof iron, which replaced the more common wood doors. The battle was a difficult one for the Jews lastinghours. Because the houses werefortified, the Jews had to dynamite open most of the doors, which caused ahigher than expected number of casualties among the Arabs, and accounts formost of the civilians who were injured or killed.

"After theremaining Arabs feigned surrender and then fired on the Jewish troops, someJews killed Arab soldiers and civilians indiscriminately."[16] Some of the Arab soldiers dressed uplike women with the veils that covered their faces. The Jews began to search each individual they had capturedto insure that they were unarmed. "One of the people being checked realized he had been caught, took out apistol and shot the Jewish commander. His friends, crazed with anger, shot in all directions and killed theArabs in the area."[17] "The Irgun suffered 41 casualties,including four dead."[18] Instead, of 250 as stated above, thecurrent consensus of both Arab and Israeli investigation agree that Arabcasualties were 107 killed and 12 wounded.[19] "Contrary to claims from Arabpropagandists at the time and some since, no evidence has ever been producedthat any women were raped. On thecontrary, every villager ever interviewed has denied these allegations."[20]

There is noevidence to support the notion that a few of the remaining survivors of theso-called "massacre" were taken to other Arab villages causing them toflee. Instead, those captured weretaken to Jerusalem and later released.[21] Initial news reports, like one in the NewYork Times, simply reportedabout the battle with no hint of a massacre. The day after the battle, "the Irgun escorted arepresentative of the Red Cross through the town and held a press conference."[22] There was no hint of a massacre, thatmyth was developed later. Whatcame did come just a few days after the battle of Deir Yassin was an Arabambush of "a Jewish convoy on the way to Hadassah Hospital, killing 77 Jews,including doctors, nurses, patients, and the director of the hospital. Another 23 people were injured. This massacre attracted littleattention and is never mentioned by those who are quick to bring up DeirYassin. Moreover, despite attackssuch as this against the Jewish community in Palestine, in which more than 500Jews were killed in the first four months after the partition decision alone,Jews did not flee."[23] The Jews had nowhere to go.

Conclusion

It is true thatupon occasion there were a few Jews that committed some atrocities againstArabs during Israel's War for Independence, which can be classified as warcrimes. However, they were few andfar between and were not indicative of the leadership of the new Jewishstate. Peters contradicts anotherof Hanegraaff's false claims when she notes: "According to a research report bythe Arab-sponsored Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut, however, 'themajority' of the Arab refugees in 1948 were not expelled, and '68%' leftwithout seeing an Israeli soldier."[24] While Arabs had the option of fleeingto many different Arab nations, most of the 800,000 Jewish refugees expelledfrom Arab nations in the late 40s had nowhere to go but Israel. I doubt Christian Zionists had much todo with such events. Maranatha!

Endnotes

[1] A term coined by British scholar Paul Wilkinsonof those who reject biblical Zionism and champion the Palestinian cause againstIsrael. Paul Richard Wilkinson,"John Nelson Darby and the Origins of Christian Zionism" (PhD thesis, Univ. ofManchester, 2006), pp. 88-121.

[2] Thomas Ice, "Hanegraaff Calls Tim LaHaye a Racistand Blasphemer," National Liberty Journal (April 2007).

[3] Hank Hanegraaff, "Response to National LibertyJournal Article on TheApocalypse Code," www.equip.org.

[4] Hank Hanegraaff, The Apocalypse Code, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007).

[5] Hanegraaff, "Response."

[6] Their views are documented in the followingbooks: Gary M. Burge, Whose Land? Whose Promise? (Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2003); BrotherAndrew and Al Janssen, Light Force: A Stirring Account of the Church Caughtin the Middle East Crossfire (GrandRapids: Revell, 2004); Stephen Sizer, Christian Zionism: Road-map toArmageddon? (Leicester, England:Inter-Varsity Press, 2004); Colin Chapman, Whose Promised Land? TheContinuing Crisis Over Israel and Palestine (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2002).

[7] See Hanegraaff, Apocalypse Code, pp. xxii-xxiv, 162-69, 189, 196, 223-26, 241n34,261n3, n8, 268n65.

[8] Joan Peters, From Time Immemorial: The Originsof the Arab-Jewish Conflict Over Palestine (New York: J. KAP Publishing, 1984).

[9] The Islamic and not Israeli oppression ofChristians in the Holy Land has been documented by the scholar Justus ReidWeiner, "Palestinian Christians: Silent Victims of a Zero-Sum Game?" MediterraneanJournal of Human Rights, 2004.

[10] Hanegraaff, Apocalypse Code, p. xxiv.

[11] Brother Andrew, Light Force, p. 110 as cited in Hanegraaff, ApocalypseCode, p. xxiv. The source for Brother Andrew's accountis from an Arab.

[12] Morton A. Klein, Deir Yassin: History of a Lie (New York: Zionist Organization of America,n.d.), p. 5.

[13] Klein, Deir Yassin, p. 9.

[14] Mitchell G. Bard, Myths and Facts: A Guide tothe Arab-Israeli Conflict (ChevyChase, MD: American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, 2001), p. 174.

[15] Klein, Deir Yassin, p. 12.

[16] Bard, Myths and Facts, p. 174.

[17] Bard, Myths and Facts, p. 174.

[18] Bard, Myths and Facts, p. 173.

[19] Klein, Deir Yassin, p. 22. Hanegraaff even admits to the lower total in a footnote, ApocalypseCode, p. 241n34.

[20] Bard, Myths and Facts, p. 174.

[21] Klein, Deir Yassin, pp. 13-15.

[22] Bard, Myths and Facts, p. 173.

[23] Bard, Myths and Facts, p. 175.

[24] Peters, From Time Immemorial, p. 13.