On this day 75 years ago, some 120 members of Jewish militia groups invaded the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin, killing between 100 and 250 people including women, and children.
The Jewish forces that invaded Deir Yassin belonged mainly to two extremists, underground, paramilitary groups, the Irgun and the Lehi also known as the Stern Gang, both of which were aligned with the right-wing Zionist movement; they have been described as “Jewish terrorist” groups.
The two groups attacked the village in order to clear the road to Jerusalem of its Arab inhabitants, as well as send a message to the other Palestinians in the region. The Palmach, a unit of the Haganah whose leadership was aligned with the political left, also took part in the massacre to a lesser degree.
Deir Yassin’s massacre resulted in the deaths of a large number of Palestinians. Arab and Palestinian sources reported that between 250 and 360 Palestinians were killed, including women, children, and the elderly.
At the time, the Israeli occupation denied international institutions, including the Red Cross, access to the crime scene to find out what had happened on the ground.
Deir Yassin is a Palestinian village situated on a hilltop, a short distance from the west of Jerusalem. If you try to find it on a map today, you will be disappointed, as the village has been completely razed to the ground.
Seven decades later, Palestinians continue to be killed with apparent impunity, as ongoing events in the Gaza Strip demonstrate.
The massacre remains one of the most brutal in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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