Cooperation between the Galilee Bedouins and the Yishuv during the 1948 war

ABSTRACT

During Israel’s War for Independence, the Bedouin tribes did not have a united attitude: Some tribes, who built good relations with the Jewish population, supported the Jewish side and fought with them, whereas other Bedouins tribes considered themselves part of the Palestinian population and fought with them. There were also tribes that supported no side and kept neutral.This article focuses on the Galilee Bedouin tribes, who chose to cooperate with the Jewish Yishuv and fought on their side. The article explains the background on which the relations between the Bedouins and the Jews in Galilee were built at the end of the Ottoman era and during the British mandate. It also examines the mutual trust and friendship that had developed between the Jewish population and their neighbor Bedouin tribes, leading them to cooperate with the Jewish side and support their cause. It analyzes causal factors and historical events that led certain Bedouin tribes to fight against the Jews and support the Palestinian side, and the reasons tribes kept neutral in this conflict.

KEYWORDS:

• Bedouins
• Yishuv
• 1948 war
• Galilee
• Zionism
• Israel

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Suwaed, “Ha-Yahasim ben ha-Bedouim la-Yishuv”; and Assaf, Ha-Yahasim ben Aravim ve-Yehudim be-Eretz Israel, 28.

2. Allon, Beit Avi; Teveth, Moshe Dayan, vol. 2; and Rubinstein, “Ha-Tipul ba-She’ela ha-Arvit.”

3. Author interview with Giora Zaid, June 17, 1994.

4. Author interview with Sasson Bar-Zvi, February 13, 1995.

5. Ben-Eliezer, Derech ha-Kavanot, 66.

6. On the ‘Arab Revolt’ see: Arnon-Ohana, Falahim ba-Mered ha-Arvi.

7. Author interview with Abdel Majid Khader (Amos Yarkoni), October 11, 1990.

8. Ibid.; Schiff, Tzahal be-Helo, 17.

9. Author interview with Muhammad Hussein Gadir, August 19, 1994.

10. Zaid interview.

11. Ibid.

12. Ibid.

13. Kraus, Ke-Ehad ha-Tzvaim Asher ba-Sadeh, 99–101; author interview with Zvi Kraus, August 24, 1996.

14. Kozviner, Le-Zikhro shel Avraham Blum, 1.

15. Rosh Pina archive, Testimony of Yeshayahu Mahanai, cassettes Q-3, Q-14. August 23, 1981.

16. Itzhak Hankin’s testimony (April 22, 1980), in Milstein and Doron, Sayeret Shaked, 32–3. This account is confirmed by the author’s interview with Zaid.

17. Dagan and Kozviner, Palhib, 18–20.

18. Ibid., 26–7.

19. Interview with Abdullah Khalaf, January 1993 (cassette ‘Zichronot Milhemet Haatzmaut – Palheib’).

20. Dagan and Kozviner, Palhib, 27; Author interview with Muhammad Fares, August 4, 1991.

21. Dagan and Kozviner, Palhib, 9.

22. Ibid., 43–4.

23. Ibid., 45–6.

24. Israel Defense Forces Archive, “Daily Report of Yiftah Brigade,” May 25, 1948, 66/A/128; “Daily Report of Yiftah Brigade,” May 27, 1948, 73/A/128.

25. Dagan and Kozviner, Palhib, 47.

26. Ibid., 419–23.

27. Gilad, Sefer ha-Palmah, Part B., 281.

28. Ibid., 494–5.

29. Suwaed, Relations between the Bedouins and the Jewish Settlement, 419–23; and Suwaed, Historical Dictionary of the Bedouins, 185.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Muhammad Suwaed

Muhammad Suwaed lectures at the Western Galilee College & Kinneret College, Israel.