Remembering The Hadassah Medical Convoy Massacre

geoffff




For certain you will have heard of the Deir Yassin massacre. It would have been impossible to avoid. Every Israel basher gets around to it sooner or later. It is commemorated annually and the left/liberal media from The Guardian to The Canberra Times wallow in it at any opportunity. 

The only problem with this is that it never happened.  It was the first in a long series of war propaganda slurs against the Jews by the Arabs and leftists that continue to this day and are swallowed whole by an element of the Western media that is just dying to believe and report the worst about Israel and the Jews. There must be huge satisfaction for some in believing Jewish fighters guilty of war crimes. 

Likely you will have heard of the Jenin Massacre. For a  week the media went into a frenzy of exultation, each account more lurid than the next. All fantasy. Never happened either. In fact 23 Israeli troops were killed and another 75 wounded in a gouging ground battle undertaken solely to avoid civilian casualties. I can still see the retraction in the SMH which had been splashing the appalling news of the massacre over its front page for days. It was on page 6 and was two short paragraphs . The headline?  No Massacre At Jenin  -- UN , Red Cross.

There is one massacre that really happened 65 years ago and as it receives no mention ever in the main stream media it is likely that if you are not Jewish  you will never have heard of it.

This is the Hadassah Medical Convoy Masssacre

With the full complicity of the British who had given the all clear for the convoy to proceed and who then stood by and watched from 600 feet away a medical convoy was attacked and 78 doctors and nurses were burnt alive. Here's an account.

On April 13, 1948, a medical convoy left the Hadassah clinic on Rehov Hasollel (today Rehov Hahavatzelet), with doctors, nurses, patients, Hebrew University staff and students, making its way to the Mount Scopus enclave. Accompanying the armored ambulance, two armored Hamekasher buses and supply trucks were armored cars at either end of the convoy. British policemen assured the convoy that the route was safe, but at close to 10 a.m. the convoy was ambushed by Arabs in Sheikh Jarrah. The attack went on for hours, with some armed convoy members defending the passengers. Five of the vehicles managed to extricate themselves to safety. The buses were set afire by the Arab attackers, and passengers who escaped were shot.

“I wasn’t in school that day,” recalls Tamar Fuchs, who was 12 at the time and lived nearby. “At about 10 a.m., a neighbor burst in shouting, ‘They’re attacking the convoy to Mt. Scopus.’ From the roof, we saw black smoke and passing British cars which did not offer help. The sharp smells of burnt flesh drifted with the eastern winds in our direction. Until 2 p.m. we saw smoke and heard explosions. My friend’s sister, nurse Ziva Barazani, was in the convoy. Her remains were not found.”

Another account here

Today, the 4th day of the Jewish month of Nissan, marks the 65th yahrtzeit (anniversary of date of death) of the 78 medical personnel and their guards who were massacred on their way to Hadassah Hospital in Mount Scopus.

The massacre, by Arab Palestinians, of some 80 passengers and defenders in the Hadassah convoy to Hadassah hospital on Mt. Scopus in Jerusalem, on April 13, 1948. The victims were mostly doctors, nurses and other staff. The massacre had been planned long in advance, but was "spun" as a reprisal for the raid on on Deir Yassin by the Irgun and LEHI. The British authorities deliberately refrained from stopping the massacre, and British soldiers collaborated in it. Unlike the Deir Yassin raid, this massacre was planned in advance, a deliberate crime against medical personnel and civilians.

There has been no mention of this terrible anniversary. Can you imagine what would be going on around the world now had they been Arab doctors and nurses?

hat tip Confronting Anti-Semitism  And Israel Hatred In UK   

cross posted Geoffff's Joint