On the morning Israeli statehood was declared, 127 who had survived the Holocaust and fought for independence were killed at Kfar Etzion. Their deaths inspired today's settlements
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Gush Etzion today. The massacre at Kfar Etzion, as it was called in 1948, moulded the Israeli psyche, spawning the Israeli settlement project. Photograph: Alamy
In his diary on 14 May 1948, David Ben-Gurion, later to be first prime minister of Israel, recorded the events leading to Israel's declaration of statehood.
It is marked in a handful of words: "At four o'clock in the afternoon, we declared independence. The nation was jubilant – and, again, I mourn in the midst of the rejoicing."
The cause for grief had been relayed to him at two o'clock that morning – the first entry in his journal. "General Staff Meeting. At 2am a telegram from Fritz [Eshet]: waving a white flag at Kfar Etzion resulted in a massacre of the defenders by the Arabs."
Sitting in a cafe in West Jerusalem, Yossi Ron describes what he knows about that day. Now 67, Ron was one year old the day Ben-Gurion wrote those words and already an orphan, the only child to lose both his parents, Holocaust survivors and Haganah fighters, in the worst military disaster for Jewish forces during the war for independence. They were among 127 killed.. Please CLICK HERE to keep reading
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