יומנים > יומן - מלא 24/03/1949

[Thursday,] March 24, 1949

Elhanan [Yishai], Ya’akov [Dori], Elik [Shomroni], and Shaul [Avigur] regarding NAHAL [No’ar Halutzi Lohem – Pioneer Fighting Youth, a combined military service and agricultural settlement program]: Those born in 1931, students attending school who were sent to the Air Force, Navy, Artillery, and Signal, etc. – will be released from the army for 3-4 months in order to complete their studies. Whoever doesn’t return to school will forfeit their vacation. The release doesn’t indicate the final fate of those born in 1931 – that depends on the general plans for discharge and recruitment.

         NAHAL currently has 30 gar’inim [core groups for settlement purposes] numbering about 1,100 people, of whom 700 are in settlements, 300 in camps, 100 belong to gar’inim and haven’t yet been conscripted. The camp is Camp Meir 80 in Pardes Hannah, along with Gadna [Youth Battalions]. Before the gar’inim left for settlements they received two months’ training – which is enough for a private.

         Alongside the NAHAL division in the Defense Ministry there’s a council of all the public youth movements, from Agudas Israel to HaShomer HaTza’ir. There’s unity in the council. The conclusions were recorded by stenography.

         – Dr. [Ernst] Bergmann, [Shlomo] Grozovski, and [David] Mushin met with the Operations Department heads and discussed the country’s development to the extent that it’s linked to the army: the waterline passes over the ridge of the Tichon [central] hills [the hilly region east of the watershed line, up to the Jordan Valley], which is not currently in our hands (but part of it will be in our hands). I tasked the Operations Department with clarifying whether the waterline is to the east or the west of the new line agreed upon between us and Abdallah.

         – Sheetrit: I explained to him that it’s necessary to distinguish between the affairs of Arabs as citizens (work, housing, settlement, freedom of movement, etc.) and the special issue, not as a minority, which is a negative term, or as an ethnic community (Druze, Muslims, Arabs, Catholics), etc. Logically, the affairs of ethnic communities belong in either the Ministry of Interior, or the Ministry of Religious Affairs or the Ministry of Justice.

         Sheetrit asks: What’s the fate of the administrative workers? How many? 43. I told him that I’m prepared to hire a young man with a general education and Arabic. He suggested Framenti [sp.], a native of the country, studied Eastern Studies at the University. Or Aharon Shalosh (doesn’t know writing well enough), or Shlomo Yifrah, a lawyer [?], knows Arabic well, or Yitah [sp.] from Haifa (knows Arabic, Hebrew, French, English, and has the trust of the Arabs, age 48).

         On the matter of the police, I suggested that the conversation include Yehezkel.

         – Avner: There are military governors in Jaffa, Ramle-Lod, the Western Galilee, the Eastern [Galilee], Philistia [the southern coastal region], Beersheva. The government handles registration of the population, oversight over movement, protection of life and property (prevention of theft and looting, and handling their complaints against army), fighting infiltration through patrols and identification (infiltration has declined recently; about 1,400 infiltrators were expelled, mainly from the Galilee, and about 150 from the Majdal region), the mukhtars [village leaders appointed by the state] were tasked with reporting on infiltrators, and in Majdal they do report, confiscations of weapons (close to 200 different types of weapons), evacuation of partly abandoned villages (Saffuriya, Kafr ‘Inan, Farradiyya, Faluja), the distribution of weapons for village security (per the English system: a number of men take an oath and are given military rifles – seven villages were granted 6-7 rifles each), taking care of the population: providing food and fuel (through the government apparatus). Healthcare – clinics were opened, education – schools were opened at 45 locations, 6,900 children are attending, there are 163 teachers (up to age 10 boys and girls study together), water supply, employment[.] ([Walter] Eytan arrived – he left yesterday, at 7:15 he met Tall, who took them to Shuni (it was Yigael [Yadin], [Yehoshafat] Harkabi, Moshe Dayan and Eytan), at 8:15 they reached Shuni. Along the way [Tall] wanted us to relinquish Umm al-Fahm. [When] Moshe said that they’d better head back, he conceded. Afterwards he asked for something in exchange for other villages. He abandoned this [issue] as well. They arrived and ate; after the meal there was general talk; when they got down to business one of the signatories was an Englishman, Lieutenant-Colonel Cooker, Glubb’s operations officer. They signed [an agreement] on the [border] line agreed two days ago. Falah Madadha (minister of justice), Hussein Saraj [sp.], deputy foreign minister signed. Cooker signed the maps. [Israel’s representatives] agreed to a 20-km road of the highest quality (in exchange for the road from Tulkarm to Qalqilya). The prime minister, who’s in Beirut, needs to approve the agreement by signing the contract, by March 30 at the latest. Tall left for Beirut today to obtain his signature.)

         – Avner returned: The [military] government also handled welfare. About 800 persons who were separated returned. 1,300 POWs were released from POW camps and returned to their families in areas held [by Israel]. Municipal services have been arranged: in Jaffa, Ramle, Lod, Acre, and Beersheva.

         Who is being released from captivity? Anyone who has family in the country, except for those that the I.S. [Intelligence Service?] has material against.

         18 villages and six cities were populated – all this was done by an apparatus of 150 men, over the course of six months at a cost of P£ 55,000.

         – In the afternoon a delegation from PAI [Po’alei Agudas Israel – Agudas Israel Workers]: Kahana, Mintz, Goldratt [sp.]. So far they haven’t received anything from the Front, other than I.M. Levin’s willingness to accept a deputy who will also be the director of his office. Rabbi Fishman conditions PAI’s deputy position on the Aguda’s consent to a unified community. They asked me whether they could have something outside of the Front. I replied in the negative, aside from a deputy position with me if it turns out that one of them is suited to the task itself.

         – Ya’akov: Haifa wants to celebrate the date of its liberation, which occurs in April, about a month before the day of independence.

         Spare parts are needed for army vehicles – this morning the cable was sent to release $1 million from Granovski’s funds for this purpose.

         The Western Galilee roads – the Safed – Tarshiha – Nahariya road – are steadily being destroyed.

         – Discharges and recruitment: in December 1948 – 905 were discharged, in January 3,552, in February 6,339, up to 20 March 6,043 – total 16,839. A long unpaid vacation was granted: December 963, January 776, February 261, up to 20 March 253, total 2,261, with discharges 19,100.

         – Re-conscripted: December 2,700 (406 of them Eretz-Israelis, 2,294 immigrants), January 3,520 (615 + 2,905), February 2,372 (276 + 2,086), up to 20 March 1,025 (103 + 922), total 9,617 (1,410 + 8,207).

         – In the evening a Bureau meeting, from 7 to 12.