Operation Matateh ( he, מבצע מטאטא, ''Mivtza Matateh'', lit. ''Operation Broom'') was a Haganah offensive launched ten days before the end of the British Mandate in Palestine. It was a sub-section of

Operation Yiftach Operation Yiftach ( he, מבצע יפתח, ''Mivtza Yiftah'') was a Palmach offensive carried out between 28 April and 23 May 1948. The objectives were to capture Safed and to secure the eastern Galilee before the British Mandate ended on 14 May ...

, with the objectives of capturing the flatlands between

Lake Tiberias The Sea of Galilee ( he, יָם כִּנֶּרֶת, Judeo-Aramaic: יַמּא דטבריא, גִּנֵּיסַר, ar, بحيرة طبريا), also called Lake Tiberias, Kinneret or Kinnereth, is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is the lowest f ...

and

Lake Hula A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

and clear the area of Bedouin encampments. It was carried out by Palmach units under the command of

Yigal Allon Yigal Allon ( he, יגאל אלון; 10 October 1918 – 29 February 1980) was an Israeli politician, commander of the Palmach, and general in the Israel Defense Forces, IDF. He served as one of the leaders of Ahdut HaAvoda party and the Labor P ...

Background

The 1942 edition of Steimatzky's "Palestine Guide" describes Hula district as follows:

"The road passes through several small Arab settlements. All round are Bedouin encampments with mat tents. The Bedouin gather reeds that grow in the marshes and weave them into mats. These are sold in the markets, and form an important source of their income. You can see the people weaving beside their tents. They also breed buffalies(sic) which can be seen basking in the swamps near the springs. This part of the country is rich in this type of cattle."

In a report to Haganah General Staff, dated 22 April 1948, Allon recommended: "an attempt to clear the beduins encamped between the

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

, and Jubb Yusuf and the Sea of Galilee".Morris, 1987, p.121 The area was home to five Bedouin clans: al-Qudayriyya, 'Arab as Samakiya, 'Arab as Suyyad,

Arab al-Shamalina Arab al-Shamalina ( ar, عرب الشمالنة) also known as Khirbat Abu Zayna was a Palestinian Arab village in the Safad Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on May 4, 1948, under Operation ...

and the

al-Zanghariyya Al-Zanghariyya was a Palestinian Arab village in the Safad Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on May 4, 1948, under Operation Matate. It was located 8.5 km southeast of Safad, near Wadi ...

. These had for months harassed Jewish traffic on the

Tiberias Tiberias ( ; he, טְבֶרְיָה, ; ar, طبريا, Ṭabariyyā) is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's F ...

- Rosh-Pina road.

Operation

The Operational orders were: #The destruction of bases of the enemy, who sabotages and harasses our traffic in the Galilee #To destroy points of assembly for invading forces from east #To join the lower and upper Galilee with a relatively wide and safe strip. The company commanders who attacked the villages of Zanghariya and Tabigha and the area of 'Arab ash Shamalina' also had orders that "their inhabitants eexpelled and houses blown up", though friendly Arabs and churches "should on no account be harmed."Morris, 2004, p.
250
note #695, p.
302
/ref> The attack was launched on 4 May 1948. The assault on Zanghariya was preceded by mortaring and the Arabs fled eastward into Syria. The following day Palmach sappers 'methodically blew up more than 50 houses' in the area. The Yiftah Logbook records on 4 May that: "The operation is going according to plan and at 9.00 o'clock (a.m.?) the units reached their objectives as, on the way, they blow up all the houses and burn all the bedouin tents."

Aftermath

A cable to the British Foreign Office, dated 4 May, quoted Syrian sources that 2,000 refugees had crossed the border. According to Yigal Allon, Operation Broom had a "tremendous psychological impact" on the population of Safed and of the

Hula Valley The Hula Valley ( he, עמק החולה, translit. ''Emek Ha-Ḥula''; also transliterated as Huleh Valley, ar, سهل الحولة) is an agricultural region in northern Israel with abundant fresh water, which used to be Lake Hula, prior to ...

to the north.

Communities captured during Operation Matateh

Population figures based on year-end 1944 figures from the ''Village Statistics 1945 - Palestine Index Gazetteer.'''All that Remains', pp.xvii,xviii.

References

Bibliography

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Morris, Benny Benny Morris ( he, בני מוריס; born 8 December 1948) is an Israeli historian. He was a professor of history in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Beersheba, Israel. He is a member of t ...