No campaign of terror ‘orchestrated’ by Jewish groups in Haifa
I was, therefore, shocked to read the blatantly tendentious letter from Con Hayes (‘A reign of terror began in Haifa’, September 17).
He is correct that “With the passing of the UN partition resolution on November 29, 1947, the situation deteriorated immediately” in Haifa, but his claim of a “campaign of terror orchestrated by Jewish paramilitaries” is one-sided to say the least.
I suppose he must have relied on the statement by Syria’s UN delegate, Faris el-Khouri, at the UN that the seizure of Haifa was a “massacre”, despite the statement the following day by the British representative at the UN, Sir Alexander Cadogan, that “the fighting in Haifa had been provoked by the continuous attacks by Arabs against Jews a few days before, and that reports of massacres and deportations were erroneous”.
In fact, Jamal Husseini, the chairman of the Palestine Higher Committee, told the UN Security Council, that instead of accepting the Haganah’s truce offer, the Arabs “preferred to abandon their homes, their belongings, and everything they possessed in the world and leave the town.”
So Mr Hayes’s letter itself “bears no relationship to the reality experienced by the Palestinians of Haifa in 1947/48” and is merely mendacious propaganda put out by those who rely on your readers’ lack of knowledge of the facts to malign Israel.
Martin D. Stern
7 Hanover Gardens
Salford M7 4FQ