Robert F. Kennedy's 1948 visit to Palestine
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Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...
visited the
British Mandate of Palestine British Mandate of Palestine or Palestine Mandate most often refers to: * Mandate for Palestine: a League of Nations mandate under which the British controlled an area which included Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan. * Mandatory P ...
in 1948, one month before Israel declared its independence. Twenty-two years old at the time, he was reporting on the tense situation in the region for ''
The Boston Post ''The Boston Post'' was a daily newspaper in New England for over a hundred years before it folded in 1956. The ''Post'' was founded in November 1831 by two prominent Boston businessmen, Charles G. Greene and William Beals. Edwin Grozier bough ...
''. During his stay, he grew to admire the Jewish inhabitants of the area. He later became a strong supporter of Israel; this was later cited as
Sirhan Sirhan Sirhan Bishara Sirhan (; ar, سرحان بشارة سرحان ''Sirḥān Bišāra Sirḥān'', born March 19, 1944) is a Palestinian Jordanian man who was convicted for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy, a United States Sena ...
's alleged motivation for assassinating him on the first anniversary of the start of the
Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 Ju ...
on June 5, 1968. Sirhan happened to see a documentary about Kennedy in Palestine in 1948. Later in his murder trial, Sirhan Sirhan testified: "I hoped he will win Presidency until that moment. But when I saw, heard, he was supporting Israel, sir, not in 1968, but he was supporting, it from all the way from its inception in 1948, sir ..." Author Robert Blair Kaiser points out a discrepancy in the timing of Sirhan's decision. In Sirhan's diary, the entry in which he decided to kill Robert Kennedy was made on May 18. The documentary in question was first shown on TV in the Los Angeles area on May 20. When asked to explain, Sirhan said that he did not recall writing the journal.


Background

Following his graduation from Harvard, Kennedy was encouraged by his father to travel overseas. Ignoring his father's warning to avoid trouble, Kennedy took a flight from
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
to
Lydda Airport Ben Gurion International Airport, ; ar, مطار بن غوريون الدولي , commonly known by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the main international airport of Israel. Situated on the northern outskirts of the city of Lod, it is th ...
, near
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...
.Bass 2003: 50


Trip and dispatches

While in Israel, Kennedy visited
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...
,
Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
, and a kibbutz, and spoke with various locals. The area was very unsafe at the time; the Jewish convoy that followed Kennedy's from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was, in Kennedy's words, "cut to ribbons." While touring Jerusalem, he was arrested, blindfolded, and brought to the Haganah headquarters, where he was advised to stay off of the streets.Bass 2003: 51 At the time of Kennedy's visit, a four-year-old
Sirhan Sirhan Sirhan Bishara Sirhan (; ar, سرحان بشارة سرحان ''Sirḥān Bišāra Sirḥān'', born March 19, 1944) is a Palestinian Jordanian man who was convicted for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy, a United States Sena ...
resided in
Musrara, Jerusalem Musrara ( ar, مصرارة, he, מוסררה, also known by its Hebrew name, Morasha, ) is a neighborhood in Jerusalem. It is bordered by Meah Shearim and Beit Yisrael on the north, the Old City on the south, Bab a-Zahara to the east, and the ...
. He interviewed members of the
Irgun Irgun • Etzel , image = Irgun.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = Irgun emblem. The map shows both Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan, which the Irgun claimed in its entirety for a future Jewish state. The acronym "Etzel" i ...
, a former Soviet Army major, and a 23-year-old woman who worked in propaganda services. He wrote that the Jews have "an undying spirit" and said: "They will fight, and fight with unparalleled courage." He wrote about Jews and Arabs working together in the fields as a hopeful sign for the future of the region. He talked to a Haganah soldier who had shot his sister upon learning that she was not going to leave her British boyfriend. He wrote that Arabs told him that they were going to poison
Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
's water supply. It was clear to him that no side was going to compromise: He was impressed with the "new" Jews he discovered in Palestine, who were vastly different from the Jews he knew in the United States. He wrote: "The Jewish people in Palestine who believe in and have been working toward this national state have become an immensely proud and determined people. It is already a truly great modern example of the birth of a nation with the primary ingredients of dignity and self-respect." Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948. The dispatches that Kennedy wrote in Palestine were published in ''The Boston Post'' on June 3–6, 1948. The first one, titled "British Hated by Both Sides", immediately attracted attention to the reports. Following are quotations from Kennedy's dispatches:
The Arabs are most concerned about the great increase in the Jews in Palestine: 80,000 in 1948. The Arabs have always feared this encroachment and maintain that the Jews will never be satisfied with just their section of Palestine, but will gradually move to overpower the rest of the country and will eventually move onto the enormously wealthy oil lands. They are determined that the Jews will never get the toehold that would be necessary for the fulfillment of that policy ...
The Jews point with pride to the fact that over 500,000 Arabs, in the 12 years between 1932-1944, came into Palestine to take advantage of living conditions existing in no other Arab state ...
If a Jewish state is formed it will be the only remaining stabilizing factor in the near and far 'sic'' for Near and MiddleEast.Davis, 650
Kennedy dismissed Western fears that Israel might turn communist as "fanatically absurd" and argued that the United States and Britain might soon "be looking to a Jewish state to preserve a toehold in that part of the world."


Notes


References

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External links


On Bobby Kennedy's 40th Yahrzeit: Articles He Wrote from Palestine 60 Years AgoSupport any friend: Kennedy's Middle East and the making of the U.S.-Israel Alliance By Warren Bass
pages 50 (the last paragraph) and 51.
Life magazine page 34Bobby Kennedy and the history of pro-Israel candidates
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robert Kennedy In Palestine (1948) Robert F. Kennedy Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Robert