IDF Alexandroni Brigade Veterans Finally Admit the Tantura Massacre

In 1948, 200 Palestinians were massacred by the IDF Alexandroni Brigade in the northern village Tantura. This was one of many massacres committed during the 1947–1949 Palestine War.

Why am I bringing it up? Because after years of denying it and trying to harass and silence historian Benny Morris for bringing it up, the IDF soldiers who took part in committing the massacre finally admit what happened as part of the Tantura documentary by Israeli director Alon Schwarz.

Why is it important? The stance Israel takes in regards to its crimes and towards genocide in general is a rather hypocritical one. If Germany chose to deny the Holocaust, Israel would kick off about it big time, and rightly so. However, Israel doesn’t have any issue with denying its own crimes against the Palestinian population, and up until 2016, Israel refused to recognise the Armenian genocide in order to not spoil its relationship with Turkey.

Denying its crimes against the Palestinian population certainly can’t help the dialogue between the groups. Recognising what happened is a step forward towards mutual understanding.

I’d like to explain why most Israelis insist on denying the massacres during the Israeli Independence War (as it’s referred to in Israel). Israelis fear that acknowledging these crimes will somehow deprive them of the “right” of Israel to exist.

I’d like to say one thing: no country has a “right” to exist, they just exist. It’s not a matter of whether Israel has the “right” to exist or not – it’s there, and as much as most Israelis would like to deny it, so is Palestine. Palestine exists, Palestinian identity exists, the Palestinian entity exists, and occupying it doesn’t stop it from being there – but every day of occupation, of oppression, of humiliation, creates more frustration, more sense of hopelessness, and more terror.

Terror breeds terror – the terror inflicted by the IDF and the settlers in the Palestinian territories breeds Palestinian terror in return.

I’m extremely grateful the US exists, its contribution to the world is immense in every field imaginable (and anyone denying it as a hypocrite, because we all enjoy American contribution) – and recognising the terrible things that the Native Americans endured doesn’t contradict that, it’s just being honest and seeing the full story; I’m bloody happy Britain exists, for me a world without British rock bands and comedy shows would be a crap would – and yet people in England are fully aware of how the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons effected the Celts.

Even in pre-colonial times, the Mayan, the Inca, and the Aztec empires established themselves through genocide and enslavement of other – it doesn’t mean that people who identify with these cultures support genocide and slavery.

Again, recognising the bad parts of your history doesn’t mean you regret being alive, it just means you’re honest enough to acknowledge what happened and mature enough to move forward.