On This Day

22 April

ZIONISTS SPREAD TYPHOID IN PALESTINIAN AREAS
On this day in 1948, Haifa fell and refugees streamed to nearby Acre, still under British Army control. Typhoid broke out in the city, which the British medical authorities determined was “water borne” and not due to unhygienic conditions. Beveridge, Chief of British Medical Services, reported that “this was the first time this happened in Palestine”. Two weeks later Jewish agents were captured in Gaza on their way with equipment and materials they confessed were to infect a key water supply with typhoid.

نشر الصهاينة التيفوئيد في المناطق الفلسطينية

22 أبريل

في مثل هذا اليوم من عام 1948 ، سقطت حيفا وتدفق اللاجئون إلى عكا المجاورة ، التي كانت لا تزال تحت سيطرة الجيش البريطاني. تفشى مرض التيفود في المدينة ، والذي قررت السلطات الطبية البريطانية أن "مصدره ماء الشرب" وليس بسبب الظروف غير الصحية. أفاد بيفريدج ، رئيس الخدمات الطبية البريطانية ، أن "هذه كانت المرة الأولى التي يحدث فيها هذا في فلسطين". بعد أسبوعين ، تم أسر عملاء يهود في غزة وهم في طريقهم بمعدات ومواد اعترفوا بأنها تلوث مصدر رئيسي للمياه بالتيفود.

Ilan Pappe writes in The Ethic Cleansing of Palestine:

"During the siege [of Acre] typhoid germs were apparently injected into the water. Local emissaries of the International Red Cross reported this to their headquarters and left very little room for guessing whom they suspected: the Hagana. The Red Cross reports describe a sudden typhoid epidemic and, even with their guarded language, point to outside poisoning as the sole explanation for this outbreak...

"A similar attempt to poison the water supply in Gaza on 27 May was foiled. The Egyptians caught two Jews, David Horin and David Mizrachi, trying to inject typhoid and dysentery viruses into Gaza’s wells. General Yadin reported the incident to Ben-Gurion, then Israel’s Prime Minister, who duly entered it in his diary, without comment. The two were later executed by the Egyptians without any official Israeli protestations."

Ex-Zionist militant, Iraqi Jew Naeim Giladi, wrote:

"The world recoils today at the thought of bacteriological warfare, but Israel was probably the first to actually use it in the Middle East. In the 1948 war, Jewish forces would empty Arab villages of their populations, often by threats, sometimes by just gunning down a half-dozen unarmed Arabs as examples to the rest. To make sure the Arabs couldn't return to make a fresh life for themselves in these villages, the Israelis put typhus and dysentery bacteria into the water wells.

"Official historian for the Israeli Defense Force, Uri Milstein, has written and spoken about the use of bacteriological agents. According to Milstein, Moshe Dayan, a division commander at the time, gave orders in 1948 to remove Arabs from their villages, bulldoze their homes, and render water wells unusable with typhus and dysentery bacteria."

Traces of Poison: Israel’s Dark History Revealed by Salman Abu Sitta

Israel was the first country in the Middle East  to use weapons of mass destruction with genocidal intent.
In the wake of Haifa’s occupation on 23 April 1948 by the Zionists...thousands converged on Acre, a nearby city, which was still Arab under the “protection” of the British forces.

Acre was to be the next Zionist target. The Zionists besieged the city from the land side, and started showering the population with a hail of mortar bombs day and night. Famous for its historical walls, Acre could stand the siege for a long time. The city water supply comes from a nearby village, Kabri, about 10kms to the north, through an aqueduct. The Zionists injected typhoid in the aqueduct at some intermediate point which passes through Zionist settlements. (see map)

The story can now be told, thanks to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) files which have now become available, 50 years after the event. A series of reports, under the reference G59/1/GC, G3/82, sent by ICRC delegate de Meuron from 6 May to about 19 May 1948 describe the conditions of the city population, struck by a sudden typhoid epidemic, and the efforts to combat it.

Of particular importance are the minutes of an emergency conference held at the Lebanese Red Cross Hospital in Acre on 6 May, to deal with the typhoid epidemic. The meeting was attended by: Brigadier Beveridge, Chief of British Medical Services and Colonel Bonnet of the British Army, Dr Maclean of the Medical Services, Mr de Meuron, ICRC delegate in addition to other officials of the city. The minutes stated that there are at least 70 known civilian casualties, others may not be reported. It was determined that the infection is “water borne”, not due to crowded or unhygienic conditions as claimed by the Israelis. It was decided that a substitute water supply should now come from artesian wells or from the agricultural station, just north of Acre (see map), not from the aqueduct. Water chlorine solution was applied, inoculation of civil population started, movement of civil population was controlled (lest refugees heading north towards Lebanon will carry the typhoid epidemic with them, as intended by the Zionists).

In his other reports, de Meuron mentioned 55 casualties among British soldiers, who were spirited away to Port Said for hospitalisation. General Stockwell arranged for de Meuron to fly on a military plane to Jerusalem to fetch medicine. The British, who left Palestine in the hands of the Jews, did not want another embarrassing incident to delay their departure.

Brigadier Beveridge told de Meuron that this is “the first time this happened in Palestine”. This belies the Israeli story, including that of the Israeli historian Benny Morris, that the epidemic is due to “unhygienic conditions” of the refugees. If that was so, how come there was an almost equal number of casualties among British soldiers? Why did such conditions not cause epidemic in such other concentrations of refugees, under far worse conditions, in Jaffa, Lydda, Nazareth and Gaza?

ICRC delegate, de Meuron admired greatly the heroic efforts of Arab doctors, Al-Dahhan and Al-Araj from the Lebanese Red Cross hospital in Acre, Dr Dabbas from Haifa and Mrs Bahai from Haifa.

The city of Acre, now burdened by the epidemic, fell easy prey to the Zionists. They intensified their bombardment. Trucks carrying loudspeakers proclaimed, “Surrender or commit suicide. We will destroy you to the last man.” That was not a figure of speech. Palumbo, in The Palestinian Catastrophe, notes the “typical” case of Mohamed Fayez Soufi. Soufi with friends went to get food from their homes in a new Acre suburb. They were caught by Zionist soldiers and forced at gun point to drink cyanide. Soufi faked swallowing the poison. The others were not so lucky, they died in half an hour.

Lieutenant Petite, a French UN observer, reported that looting was being conducted in a systematic manner by the army, carrying off furniture, clothes and anything useful for the new Jewish immigrants and also part of “a Jewish plan to prevent the return of the refugees.” Lieutenant Petite also reported that the Jews had murdered 100 Arab civilians in Acre, particularly those who refused to leave.

De Meuron spoke of “a reign of terror” and the case of the rape of a girl by several soldiers and killing her father. He also wrote that all male civilians were taken to concentration camps and considered “prisoners of war” although they were not soldiers. This left many women and children homeless, without protection, subject to many acts of violence. He also notes the absence of water and electricity. He demanded from the Zionists a list of civilians detained as “prisoners of war”, demanded to know their whereabouts and permission to visit them. More importantly he asked that Acre be placed under ICRC protection and care. Anyone who reads the familiar dry and matter-of-fact language of ICRC would not fail to notice the tone of abhorrence of Zionist actions in de Meuron's reports from Acre.