An Israeli historian who made big news in January 2000 by claiming that Israeli troops massacred 200 Arabs in one village in May 1948 - has apologized. Teddy Katz, who wrote up his account of the events in the village of Tantura for his master\'s degree, was forced to apologize for making the false accusations following a trial in the Tel Aviv District Court this week.
Soldiers of the Alexandroni Brigade said they were \"very hurt\" over the \"lies\" promulgated by Katz, which included telling Reuters, \"at least 200 people from the village of Tantura were killed by Israeli troops,\" and, \"From the numbers, this is definitely one of the biggest massacres.\" However, Bentz Pridan, the commander of the Israeli soldiers who fought the battle in Tantura, said that no such thing ever happened.
\"I\'ll give you an example of how he lied,\" Pridan told Arutz-7\'s Yosef Zalmanson today. \"He said that he taped dozens of cassettes worth of Arabs who allegedly told what happened after the battle. Of these, he sent us 14, which we translated. In one of them, we hear Katz ask, \'Tell us what you know about the massacre that happened here,\' and then the Arab answers, \"Hey, I didn\'t see anything of the sort.\' Katz then repeated the same question, and the Arab gives the same answer - four times! This is the kind of \'testimony\' Katz relied on for his version of history.\" Katz had originally apologized for his actions, but then withdrew his apology; the court has now compelled him to re-instate it.
Pridan told Zalmanson what did happen that day: \"This was a village, very close to the Mediterranean Sea and to train tracks [between Caesarea and Haifa], that was used for delivering supplies. This was the reason why it was decided to capture it... The elders of the village were willing to negotiate, as proposed by the nearby Jewish town of Zikhron Yaakov, and in such a case Tantura would have become just like the present-day [Arab] town of Faradis [right nearby]. But the younger people there refused to negotiate, and continued fighting. Their snipers shot at us from rooftops and from within buildings, and we had a difficult house-to-house fight. Many were killed in the battle - I would say about 70 Arabs and 14 of our soldiers. Their wounded were cared for in Jewish hospitals...\" He emphasized that his battalion, #33 of the Alexandroni Brigade [Arik Sharon fought in Battalion #32], placed great importance in the Israeli military custom of \"purity of weapons,\" i.e., military ethics.
Pridan said that he and his fellow soldiers are attempting to have the MA degree Katz received for his work revoked - \"but this is hard, because Ilan Pappe is his mentor and he is fighting for him.\" Dr. Ilan Pappe is a senior lecturer of Political Science at Haifa University and a senior director at the left-wing Givat Haviva Research Institute for Peace. He is a self-proclaimed \"new historian\" and \"post-Zionist\" who told the Associated Press, \"Jews came and took, by means of uprooting and expulsion, a land that was Arab\" and who believes there is no need for a Jewish state: \"Jews are nothing more than a religion. To have a \'Jewish state\' is like having \'a Catholic state\' in France.\" Pridan, however, continues to fight this trend. He and his fellow former soldiers have formed the Alexandroni Association, which goes from school to school and talks to students about the \"Legacy of 1948.\"
Soldiers of the Alexandroni Brigade said they were \"very hurt\" over the \"lies\" promulgated by Katz, which included telling Reuters, \"at least 200 people from the village of Tantura were killed by Israeli troops,\" and, \"From the numbers, this is definitely one of the biggest massacres.\" However, Bentz Pridan, the commander of the Israeli soldiers who fought the battle in Tantura, said that no such thing ever happened.
\"I\'ll give you an example of how he lied,\" Pridan told Arutz-7\'s Yosef Zalmanson today. \"He said that he taped dozens of cassettes worth of Arabs who allegedly told what happened after the battle. Of these, he sent us 14, which we translated. In one of them, we hear Katz ask, \'Tell us what you know about the massacre that happened here,\' and then the Arab answers, \"Hey, I didn\'t see anything of the sort.\' Katz then repeated the same question, and the Arab gives the same answer - four times! This is the kind of \'testimony\' Katz relied on for his version of history.\" Katz had originally apologized for his actions, but then withdrew his apology; the court has now compelled him to re-instate it.
Pridan told Zalmanson what did happen that day: \"This was a village, very close to the Mediterranean Sea and to train tracks [between Caesarea and Haifa], that was used for delivering supplies. This was the reason why it was decided to capture it... The elders of the village were willing to negotiate, as proposed by the nearby Jewish town of Zikhron Yaakov, and in such a case Tantura would have become just like the present-day [Arab] town of Faradis [right nearby]. But the younger people there refused to negotiate, and continued fighting. Their snipers shot at us from rooftops and from within buildings, and we had a difficult house-to-house fight. Many were killed in the battle - I would say about 70 Arabs and 14 of our soldiers. Their wounded were cared for in Jewish hospitals...\" He emphasized that his battalion, #33 of the Alexandroni Brigade [Arik Sharon fought in Battalion #32], placed great importance in the Israeli military custom of \"purity of weapons,\" i.e., military ethics.
Pridan said that he and his fellow soldiers are attempting to have the MA degree Katz received for his work revoked - \"but this is hard, because Ilan Pappe is his mentor and he is fighting for him.\" Dr. Ilan Pappe is a senior lecturer of Political Science at Haifa University and a senior director at the left-wing Givat Haviva Research Institute for Peace. He is a self-proclaimed \"new historian\" and \"post-Zionist\" who told the Associated Press, \"Jews came and took, by means of uprooting and expulsion, a land that was Arab\" and who believes there is no need for a Jewish state: \"Jews are nothing more than a religion. To have a \'Jewish state\' is like having \'a Catholic state\' in France.\" Pridan, however, continues to fight this trend. He and his fellow former soldiers have formed the Alexandroni Association, which goes from school to school and talks to students about the \"Legacy of 1948.\"