The Last Days of "Free Galilee": Memories of 1948

Abstract

This personal account describes the unfolding of the 1948 war in the Galilee from the vantage point of a Nazareth physician. Covering the period from the months preceding the end of the Mandate in May tothe eve of Israel's final military assault on Arab Galilee (Operation Hiram) in late October, the memoir focuses on the repercussions of the evolving situation for Nazareth and its hinterland, highlightingthe prevailing mood, the haphazard military and civil defense preparations, and the relief efforts of the local population. Nazareth, an all-Arab town of some 15,000 inhabitants, over 60 percent of whomwere Christian and the rest Muslim, was assigned to the Arab state under the UN Partition Plan. Though conquered by the new state of Israel in July 1948, Nazareth was spared the devastation visited uponthe other Arab and mixed (Jewish and Arab) towns of Palestine because of its importance to world Christendom and the presence in the town of Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and other international Christian institutions.