No, I’m not talking about the tears he shed in Gaza, but a completely different event. Mr. Carter’s statement was a dramatic shift of almost 180º from his previous statements. Read on…

Jimmy Carter gave a brief address to reporters last Sunday, June 14. After visiting the home of Etzion Bloc (Gush Etzion) Regional Council head Shaul Goldstein and a small group of local residents, Mr. Carter – the author of Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid – declared:

“The Etzion Bloc settlement area is not one that I ever envision being abandoned or changed over into Palestinian territory.”

Either Mr. Carter talked with some very persuasive people, or else he learned some facts that he had never known before—and his own comment indicates the latter rather than the former.

Here’s a short history of the Etzion Bloc:

Kfar Etzion was a religious kibbutz first founded in 1927 by Yemenite Jews, evacuated by the British during the Arab riots of 1929, resettled in 1935, but evacuated again during the Arab riots of 1936-39 and re-established in 1943.

It is about 2 km east of the road between Jerusalem and Hebron. By the end of 1947, there were 163 adults and 50 children living there. Together with three nearby kibbutzim established 1945-1947, it formed Gush Etzion (the Etzion Bloc).

The United Nations partition plan for Palestine of November 29, 1947 placed the Etzion Bloc in the interior of the intended Arab state. Very soon fighting broke out in many parts of Palestine. The position of the Etzion Bloc on the important Jerusalem-Hebron road made it an important flash-point.

Throughout the winter hostilities intensified and several relief convoys from the Haganah in Jerusalem were attacked by Arab ambushes. In January, the children and some women were evacuated with British assistance. An emergency reinforcement convoy attempting to march to Gush Etzion under cover of darkness were discovered and killed by Palestinian Arab forces. Despite some emergency flights by Piper Cubs out of Tel Aviv onto an improvised airfield, adequate supplies were not getting in.

On March 27, land communication with the Yishuv was severed completely when the Nebi Daniel Convoy was forced to retreat back to Jerusalem. In the following months, Arab irregular forces continued small-scale attacks against the bloc, which the Haganah was able to effectively withstand. At times, the Jewish forces even ambushed Arab military convoys on the road between Jerusalem and Hebron. The defenders of Gush Etzion and the central command in Jerusalem mulled evacuation, but although they had very few arms, a decision was made to hold out due to their strategic location as the only Jewish-held position on Jerusalem’s southern approach from Hebron.

As the end of the British Mandate drew closer, the fighting in the region intensified. Although the heavily armed Arab Legion was theoretically in Palestine under British command, they began to operate more and more independently. In March a Jewish convoy from Jerusalem intended to supply the Etzion Bloc was ambushed and 15 soldiers of the Haganah died before the remainder was extricated by the British. There were many similar incidents involving both sides. Starting early in May, the Arab Legion, together with thousands of irregulars who were mostly local Arab villagers began a series of massive assaults on the Etzion settlements. Haganah command in Jerusalem was unable to provide any useful assistance.

On May 12, the final assault on Kfar Etzion began with overwhelming force. The Legion had armored cars and artillery, to which the Jewish defenders had no effective answer. The commander of Kfar Etzion requested from the Central Command in Jerusalem permission to evacuate the kibbutz, but was ordered to stay. Later in the day, the Arabs captured the Russian Orthodox monastery, which the Haganah used as a perimeter fortress for the Kfar Etzion area, killing twenty-four of its thirty-two defenders.

On May 13, an attack involving parts of two Arab Legion infantry companies, light artillery and local irregular support commenced from four directions.

The Gush Etzion Massacre

When the hopelessness of their position became undeniable on May 13, the defenders of Kfar Etzion laid down their arms and attempted to surrender. The number of people killed and the perpetrators are in dispute. According to one account, the main group of about 50 defenders was surrounded by a large number of Arab irregulars, who shouted “Deir Yassin!” and ordered the Jews to sit down, stand up, and sit down again. Suddenly someone opened fire on the Jews with a machine gun and others joined in the killing. Those Jews not immediately cut down tried to run away but were pursued.

The Israeli histories of the Kfar Etzion massacre (such as Levi, 1986, Isseroff, 2005) note that the defenders had put out the white flag and lined up to surrender in front of the school building of the German monastery. There were 133 people there. After they were photographed by a man in a kaffiyeh, an armored car apparently belonging to the Arab Legion opened fire with its machine gun, and then Arab irregulars joined in. A group of defenders managed to crawl into the cellar of the monastery, where they defended themselves until a large number of grenades were thrown into the cellar. The building was then blown up and collapsed on them. According to this reckoning, about 129 persons were murdered.

Only three of the remaining Kfar Etzion residents and one Palmach member survived. According to their own testimony, the circumstances of their survival were as follows.

• Yaacov Edelstein and Yitzhak Ben-Sira tried to hide amongst a jumble of boulders and branches, but they were discovered by a “wrinkled, toothless, old Arab” who told them “Don’t be afraid.” Then a group of Arab irregulars rushed up and threw them against a wall. The old Arab tried to shield them with his body. As they argued, two Arab Legionnaires came up and took the two Jews under their protection.

• Nahum Ben-Sira, the brother of Yitzhak, was away from the main group when the massacre started. He hid until nightfall then escaped to a nearby kibbutz.

• Eliza Fauktwanger (Palmach) tried to hide in a ditch with several others. They were discovered and all were murdered except Eliza, who was dragged away by several Arab irregulars. As the group was trying to rape her, an Arab Legion officer (Captain Hikmat Mihyar) arrived, shot two of the perpetrators and sent the rest away. Afterwards the officer gave her bread, waited until she finished eating, and said to her (quote) “You are under my protection”.

A total of 157 defenders died in the battle of Gush Etzion (Levi, 1986), including those killed in the massacre at Kfar Etzion. About 2/3 of them were residents and the remainder were Hagana or Palmach soldiers.

On the following day, the Arab irregular forces continued their assault on the remaining three Etzion settlements. Fearing that the defenders might suffer the same fate as those of Kfar Etzion, Zionist leaders in Jerusalem negotiated a deal for the surrender of the settlements on condition that the Arab Legion protected the residents. The Red Cross took the wounded to Jerusalem, and the Arab Legion took the remainder as prisoners of war. They were later released.

The role of the Arab Legion in the massacre is still debated. There is no doubt that the Legion led the attack on Kfar Etzion (probably on the explicit orders of Glubb Pasha), and at least a few Legionnaires were present when the massacre began. Other than that, the most credible evidence is that of Eliza Fauktwanger, who said that the Legion officer (Captain Hikmat Mihyar) who saved her life released all other wounded and were sent to Jerusalem. Glubb Pasha later denied that there had been a mmassacre at all.

[There was a massacre, but it was the Palestinian Irregulars, not the Arab Legion, who were the perpetrators. If the Arab legion was guilty of anything, it was of not preventing the massacre of prisoners of war who had surrendered by an irregular force—a war crime very similar to the one Ariel Sharon was (and still is) condemned for over Sabra and Shatilla—not preventing the Falange militias from massacring Palestinian civilians. If Sharon is to be condemned for Sabra and Shatilla, then Glubb Pasha (the British Army officer who commanded the Arab Legion at the time) should be condemned for the Gush Etzion massacre.]

Reestablishment after 1967

From 1949 until 1967 Gush Etzion was controlled by Jordan. During the interim, the survivors of Masu’ot Yitzhak, Ein Tzurim, and Revadim founded their communities anew in Israel to the west of the original sites. The survivors of Kfar Etzion ultimately founded Nir Etzion in the Mount Carmel area near Haifa.

During the Jordanian rule of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, all the buildings were destroyed and the thousands of trees planted in Gush Etzion were uprooted, save a very old one known as the “lone oak.” For 19 years, some survivors would gather on the Israel-Jordan frontier and gaze at the tree in remembrance of what was.

As a result of the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel controlled the area of the former Etzion Bloc. A loose organisation of Bnei Akiva activists, who later coalesced into Gush Emunim, led by Chanan Porat, whose parents had been evacuated, petitioned Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol to allow the reestablishment of Kfar Etzion. Since then, Gush Etzion has continued to expand. The settlement of Rosh Tzurim was founded on the former site of Ein Tzurim and Revadim, and Kfar Etzion’s poultry houses have been built in the area of Massuot Yitzchak. Many other settlements and two municipalities have been founded in the area of historic Gush Etzion, and its name was taken for the greater Gush Etzion Regional Council. The Israeli population in the entire area approaches 60,000 residents.
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A note on the Jordanian occupation of the West Bank between 1949 and 1967:

Unlike any other Arab country to which they fled after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Palestinian refugees who found themselves in the West Bank and East Jerusalem (and on the East Bank) were given Jordanian citizenship on the same basis as existing residents. However, many of the refugees continued to live in camps and relied on UNRWA assistance for sustenance. Palestinian refugees constituted more than a third of the kingdom’s population of 1.5 million.

Jordan, although mandated by the UN to let Jews and Christians visit their holy sites, refused access to them. They also led a systematic destruction of the Jewish Quarter including many ancient synagogues and Jewish cemeteries, using the headstones for paving military roads, among other purposes. Under Jordanian rule of East Jerusalem, all Israelis (irrespective of their religion) were forbidden from entering the Old City and other holy sites.
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A note to those who insist that “the settlements” are illegal:

Since there were tens of thousands of Jews ethnically cleansed from Judea, Samaria, and East Jerusalem during the Jordanian occupation, the Jewish settlements that pre-dated the War of Independence are legal under the right of reestablishment (Fourth Geneva Convention, Art. 6) and are not illegal under Art. 49, since the settlers were not deported or transferred there by the Israeli government, but voluntarily exercised their right of reestablishment.

This holds true for a number of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem, such as the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, a certain area of Hebron, the Etzion Bloc and other locations.

Anyone who declares “the settlements illegal” in a blanket statement is woefully ignorant of the history of events, circumstances and international law.