Zionist troops from Ben Dunkelman’s 7th brigade celebrate on July 17th, 1948, after the surrender of the mostly Christian Palestinian city of Nazareth. The Toronto Star calls Dunkelman a “hero” because he protected the residents from death or expulsion. But hold on. According to the UN partition plan, Nazareth was not supposed to be in Israel. And Dunkelman’s concern for Christians did not extend to Muslims. So what kind of hero is that? Read more
A feel-good Christmas story by Toronto Star writer Mitch Potter, told readers about Ben Dunkelman, the Canadian from Toronto who “saved” Nazareth. According to the Star article, “The Toronto man who saved Nazareth” Dunkelman is a hero because he protected the Christians in Nazareth from the Israeli military as it carried out its ethnic cleansing of the Galilee in 1948.
Dunkelman, who was an heir to the TipTop Tailor fortune, was the commander of one of the main Zionist forces which had already completed the expulsion of thousands of Palestinian Muslims. But Dunkelman hesitated when he came to Nazareth, a predominantly Christian city.
He asked for written orders to carry out the expulsion from David Ben Gurion, who had become Premier of Israel a few months earlier. Ben Gurion, concerned about how the expulsion of Christians from Nazareth would look in Europe, declined. Lacking explicit written orders, Dunkelman prudently decided to instead negotiate the surrender of Nazareth rather than attack it and expel its Christian residents.