The dark history of 1948: Adam Raz's Loot exposes Israel's theft of Palestinian property

Following exile in 1948, Palestinians were robbed of private property in a systematic weaponised process of looting.

Though many around the Arab world and elsewhere are aware of these and other outrages perpetrated by Zionism, Israeli political historian Adam Raz documents this in detail in his latest book Loot, showing its role in creating Palestinian refugees and how Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, manipulated the process politically.

Raz’s book was first published in Hebrew four years ago and is now available in English with a translation by Philip Hollander.

Amid the horrors of Israel’s latest war against the Palestinians, this publication is especially timely in its exposure to Zionism’s roots.

"Raz’s groundbreaking work meticulously describes the looting of Palestine during the 1948 war, as Israeli fighters and others took part in stealing the belongings of former Arab neighbours"

Drawing from more than 30 archives, the author documents how, around the 1948 War, Jews who became the founding generation of Israel pillaged Palestinian property.

Raz also shows that, as the looting took place in full public view, Jewish leaders — including Ben-Gurion — knew what was happening and, even as some expressed disapproval, did almost nothing.

Relying on primary sources, Raz, of the Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research, illuminates the Nakba — Palestine’s 1948 catastrophe — and links Zionist plundering with Ben-Gurion's policy to expel the Palestinians. 

Raz’s groundbreaking work meticulously describes the looting of Palestine during the 1948 war, as Israeli fighters and others took part in stealing the belongings of former Arab neighbours.

Yet, the implications of this transcend its immorality — the acts helped empty the country of Palestinians, crush the Palestinian economy, destroy their villages, and confiscate crops in depopulated zones.

Jews participating in these crimes thus became motivated to prevent Arabs from returning, mobilising Arab-Jewish segregation. Any mention of the above processes was then suppressed, and the denial of the events of 1948 continued to run deep in Israeli society, until today. 

Creating land without people

Raz thus exposes another facet of the ugliness of Israel's birth, his unrelenting text viewing the emergence of the Jewish state as crassly exploitative.

While stories of the theft of Palestinian land and buildings have already been told elsewhere, Loot documents how Israeli settlers stole ordinary things from former Palestinian neighbours.

Raz shows another dark side of the 1948 war: looting committed by many individuals who were almost considered legitimate — another face of the dehumanisation of the Palestinians, which now, 76 years later, remains at a crescendo.

The first part of Loot goes through the pillaging, city by city and area by area. This is, inevitably, a grim chronicle, especially for those connected to the trauma —  "It was especially difficult for me to read about the destruction and looting of my hometown, Haifa," Ayman Odeh, Knesset member and leader of the Hadash party, said about reading Loot. 

"Looting served a national purpose: to complete the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the country and ensure that the 700,000 refugees would never contemplate returning"

The shorter more analytical rest of Loot delves into Israeli politics and society. Raz focuses his analysis on Ben-Gurion and a policy of expelling and robbing Arabs, but other persons and topics also gain a mention.

For me, the most interesting section here is an analysis of the unique case of Nazareth, which happens to be my city of origin.

Raz documents how its people were not directly touched by expulsion or looting, concluding that Nazareth’s position as a holy place thick with churches and full of Christians, helped spare it.

This has since been sometimes touted as an example of proper behaviour by Zionists, but the truth is far more complex, as Raz shows. Being a Nazarene myself, I have lived with this whole story — not as a refugee but in exile, nonetheless. 

Having robbed the Arabs, Israeli civilians became accomplices in the political situation, with a personal stake in preventing former neighbours from returning.

According to Raz, Ben-Gurion said in July 1948: "It turned out that most of the Jews are thieves," a pungent comment from the founder of Israel, two months after it came into existence.

Yet, Israeli authorities ignored the stealing and instead encouraged it, despite denunciations and a few absurd trials.

The looting served as a national purpose: to complete the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the country and ensure that the 700,000 refugees would never contemplate returning.

Even before Israel managed to destroy many houses, and eradicate more than 400 villages, its forces mass looted the properties to empty them, so that refugees would have less reason to return.

Towards truth and reconciliation

This book is powerful, and Loot will fascinate those wanting to comprehend both history and today's reality.

As more Nakba details are understood and documented, calls to redress Palestinian grievances will strengthen. Only through compensation and truth-telling can Israelis hope to reconcile with their Palestinian neighbours.

Israel should think about the feelings of descendants of Palestinian refugees who will never be able to see their ancestors’ villages, mostly demolished by Israel. In exposing all this, Raz thus succeeds in retelling history to achieve a just future.

Riad al Khouri is an independent Jordanian economist

Follow him on LinkedIn: Riad Al Khouri