Britain’s Historic Responsibility Towards Palestine by William Dalrymple | S 3 Ep 2

So we're gonna start in one village, Izdud, modern Ashdud.

There is a village on the coastal plain of Palestine, five kilometers from the shore of the Mediterranean.

that appears in the historical record for the first time more than 3,000 years ago.

Egyptian royal inscriptions mention it.

Assyrian campaign records mention it.

The Hebrew Bible mentions it.

Herodotus mentions it.

Ottoman tax registers record it.

19th century British antiquarians from the Palestine Exploration Fund also mention it.

For three millennia, this village, its mosque, its ancient olive press, its wells, bore deep through limestone to the water table below.

Its Wednesday market, its two schools, survived every empire that marched through.

Babylonian siege engines, Macedonian phalanxes, Roman legions, Byzantine generals, Arab cavalry, crusader knights, Mamluk tax gatherers, Ottoman census takers, and finally, British mandate officers in armored cars.

Its name was Izdud.

On the morning of the 28th October 1948, Israeli trucks drove into the village.

Only 300 people remained, the old, the infirm, the stubborn, those who convinced themselves that surely there would be a negotiation, a truce, a return.

They raised white flags from the rooftops.

According to Benny Morris, the most distinguished Israeli historian working from the Israeli state archives decades later, they were, quotes, almost immediately expelled southwards.

Two villagers were shot dead in the square.

The rest were herded onto trucks like cattle.

One of those who survived, Zarifa Atwan, described what she saw.

It was so sad to see men, women, old people, children, hurrying away, carrying everything they could in hand carts or cloth bundles.

Suddenly we heard a lot of trucks coming into the village and the sounds of shots being fired into the air.

We could hear loudspeakers and we rushed into the village square to see what was going on.

It was the Israelis.

And they were saying in Arabic, leave your homes and go to Gaza where you will be safe.

So we're gonna start in one village, Izdud, modern Ashdud.

There is a village on the coastal plain of Palestine, five kilometers from the shore of the Mediterranean.

that appears in the historical record for the first time more than 3,000 years ago.

Egyptian royal inscriptions mention it.

Assyrian campaign records mention it.

The Hebrew Bible mentions it.

Herodotus mentions it.

Ottoman tax registers record it.

19th century British antiquarians from the Palestine Exploration Fund also mention it.

For three millennia, this village, its mosque, its ancient olive press, its wells, bore deep through limestone to the water table below.

Its Wednesday market, its two schools, survived every empire that marched through.

Babylonian siege engines, Macedonian phalanxes, Roman legions, Byzantine generals, Arab cavalry, crusader knights, Mamluk tax gatherers, Ottoman census takers, and finally, British mandate officers in armored cars.

Its name was Izdud.

On the morning of the 28th October 1948, Israeli trucks drove into the village.

Only 300 people remained, the old, the infirm, the stubborn, those who convinced themselves that surely there would be a negotiation, a truce, a return.

They raised white flags from the rooftops.

According to Benny Morris, the most distinguished Israeli historian working from the Israeli state archives decades later, they were, quotes, almost immediately expelled southwards.

Two villagers were shot dead in the square.

The rest were herded onto trucks like cattle.

One of those who survived, Zarifa Atwan, described what she saw.

It was so sad to see men, women, old people, children, hurrying away, carrying everything they could in hand carts or cloth bundles.

Suddenly we heard a lot of trucks coming into the village and the sounds of shots being fired into the air.

We could hear loudspeakers and we rushed into the village square to see what was going on.

It was the Israelis.

And they were saying in Arabic, leave your homes and go to Gaza where you will be safe.