Maximos V Hakim - 1948 Nakba Controversy

1948 Nakba Controversy

In the aftermath of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War Hakim negotiated with Yehoshua ("Josh") Palmon, then leader of the "Arab Section" in the Israeli Foreign Ministry, for the return of Galilee Christian Arabs (then refugees in Lebanon) in exchange for Hakims future goodwill towards the Jewish State. In the end several thousand (including several hundred from Eilabun) Galilee Christian were allowed to return in the summer of 1949.

In the 1950s, while he was archbishop of Galilee, the future patriarch was involved in the fate of the Palestinians of the two depopulated Christian villages of Kafr Bir'im and Iqrit. He alerted the Vatican and other Church authorities about the expulsion of the villagers, and lobbied for their return.

A number of sources have quoted Maximos V as having said "the Arab League had issued orders exhorting the people to seek a temporary refuge in neighboring countries." For example, Israel's Abba Eban told the U.N. Special Political Committee in 1957 that Hakim had said:

The refugees had been confident that their absence from Palestine would not last long; that they would return within a few days within a week or two; their leaders had promised them that the Arab armies would crush the 'Zionist gangs' very quickly and that there would be no need for panic or fear of a long exile.

Joseph Schechtman in his 1949 publication book The Arab Refugee Problem quotes Hakim's comment to Karl Baehr, the then Executive Secretary of the American Christian Palestine Committee. Schechtman says of Hakim and his views,

“

The role played by the British authorities in the Arab mass flight is also stressed by Monsignor George Hakim, Archbishop of the Greek Catholic Church (a Uniate Church which is in fellowship with the Vatican and counts 20, 864 adherents in Palestine). An Arab himself and a former supporter of the Mufti, Archbishop told Baeher... that an important element in precipitating the flight, particularly in the Haifa area (where Monsignor lives) was "the fact that the British informed the Arabs that they would not protect them. Since most of the Arab leaders had already fled, the people were thrown into a panic so they fled by sea to Lebanon. They fled in spite of the fact that the Jewish authorities guaranteed their safety and rights as citizens of Israel."

”

Erskine Childers investigating the claim made by Eban that the

Arab League issued orders exhorting the people to seek a temporary refuge in neighboring countries, later to return to their abodes in the wake of the victorious Arab armies and obtain their share of abandoned Jewish property.

later wrote in The Spectator on May 12, 1961:

I wrote to His Grace, asking for his evidence of such orders. I hold signed letters from him, with permission to publish, in which he has categorically denied ever alleging Arab evacuation orders; he states that no such orders were ever given. He says that his name has been abused for years....

In a letter Childers received from the Archbishop in 1958, Hakim responded to allegations that his words were used as evidence that the Arab leaders had given the Palestinian Arabs orders to evacuate:

There is nothing in this statement to justify the construction which many propagandists had put on it, namely, that it established the allegation widely disseminated by partisan sources that the Arab leaders had urged the Arab inhabitants of Palestine to flee.

"As far as I can recollect, the aforesaid statement was intended to voice the strong feeling of resentment and revulsion felt by the refugees. They were convinced by what they had heard and read that the defeat of the Jewish armed forces, the re-establishment of peace and order throughout the country, and the institution of Arab rule, would be achieved within a short time. Instead of such achievements the Arab States had twice agreed to a truce, and the Arab armies were inactive. Hence the strong feeling of disappointment and frustration among the file and rank of refugees.

"At no time did I state that the flight of the refugees was due to the orders, explicit or implicit, of their leaders, military or political, to leave the country and seek shelter in the adjacent Arab territories. On the contrary, no such orders were ever made by the military commanders, or by the Higher Arab Committee, or indeed, by the Arab League or Arab States. I have not the least doubt that any such allegations are sheer concoctions and falsifications.

... as soon as hostilities began between Israel and the Arab States, it became the settled policy of the Government to drive away the Arabs. (Childers.