The Ma'ale Akrabim massacre, known in English as the Scorpions Pass Massacre, was an attack on an

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i passenger bus, carried out on 17 March 1954, in the middle of the day. Eleven passengers were shot dead by the attackers who ambushed and boarded the bus. One passenger died 32 years later of his injuries, in a state of paralysis and partial consciousness. Four passengers survived, two of whom had been injured by the gunmen.

Background

Scorpions Pass (, ''Ma'ale Akrabim'') is a narrow, winding

grade Grade most commonly refers to: * Grading in education, a measurement of a student's performance by educational assessment (e.g. A, pass, etc.) * A designation for students, classes and curricula indicating the number of the year a student has reach ...

on the old road connecting

Eilat Eilat ( , ; ; ) is Israel's southernmost city, with a population of , a busy port of Eilat, port and popular resort at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on what is known in Israel as the Gulf of Eilat and in Jordan as the Gulf of Aqaba. The c ...

and

Beersheba Beersheba ( / ; ), officially Be'er-Sheva, is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the centre of the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in Israel, the eighth-most p ...

, just south of

Makhtesh Katan HaMakhtesh HaKatan (, ''lit.'' The Small Crater) or simply Makhtesh HaKatan or Makhtesh Katan, is a makhtesh, a geological erosional landform, situated in Israel's Negev desert. At 5 km by 7 km, it is the third largest of the five makh ...

, and roughly 60 miles south of Beersheba. The pass was on the primary route between Eilat and central Israel in 1954. The

1948 Arab–Israeli war The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

ended with the signing of several armistice agreements between Israel and her neighboring Arab states, but border clashes began almost immediately after the signing agreements. On the Israeli–Jordanian border lines, infiltrations, unarmed (71%) and armed (29%), were not infrequent from both sides. According to Israeli sources, between June 1949 and the end of 1952, a total of 57 Israelis, mostly civilians, were killed by infiltrators from Jordan. The Israeli death toll for the first 9 months of 1953 was 32. Over roughly the same time (November 1950 – November 1953), the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan/Israel Mixed Armistice Commission (HJK/IMAC) condemned Israeli military reprisal actions 44 timesS/635/Rev.1
and claimed it suffered 629 killed and injured from Israeli incursions. Similar attacks, carried out largely by Palestinian commandos likely with some Egyptian support, originated from across the Egyptian border and the Gaza strip. Israel historian

Benny Morris Benny Morris (; 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. Morris was initially associated with the ...

states that, between 1949 and 1956, between 200 and 250 Israelis were killed by infiltrators and a similar number of Israeli soldiers were killed in action. Other sources give a total of 1,300 killed over this period. Morris wrote, in ''Israel's Border Wars, 1949–1956'', that "Israel's defensive anti-infiltration measures resulted in the death (sic) of several thousand mostly unarmed Arabs during 1949–56." A group called the "Black Hand", composed of predominantly Bedouins from

'Azazme The Azazima/Azazimeh or Azazme/ 'Azazmeh/al-Azazmeh () are a Bedouin tribe whose grazing territory used to be the desert around the wells at El Auja and Bir Ain on the border between Israel and Egypt. During the 19th century the 'Azazme fought as ...

and Tarrabin tribes living within the al-Auja Demilitarised zone, were carrying out 'revenge raids' principally against suspected informers but also against Israeli targets. In the Negev, Israel embarked on development projects, which became the target of theft by

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...

s. Israeli security forces' shooting of these Bedouin had created blood feuds in the area.

The attack

On the night of 16 March, a bus operated by the Egged Israel Transport Cooperative Society on an unscheduled journey carrying 14 passengers made its way from Eilat to

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

. As it was ascending the steep grade, it was ambushed by gunmen who shot and killed the driver as well as passengers who tried to escape; they then proceeded to board the bus and shoot and pilfer from the remaining passengers. Both the driver, Kalman Esroni, and the alternate driver, Efraim Firstenberg, were killed, along with seven male passengers and two female passengers. Among the passengers killed was Efraim Firsteinberg's wife Hannah who was raped outside the bus and subsequently killed in the sand. The four survivors were two Israeli soldiers, a woman, and a 5-year-old girl, Miri Firstenberg, Efraim and Hannah Firstenberg's daughter, after one of the soldiers riding the bus defended her and her 9-year-old brother, Chaim, with his body. After the terrorists got out of the bus, Chaim got up, called to his sister and asked her, "Are they gone?" The terrorists heard his voice, returned and shot him in the head. He did not regain consciousness, and spent 32 years in a state of paralysis and partial recognition until he died on 4 September 1986 at the age of 42, becoming the 12th fatality of the massacre.

Tracking

The next day, Israeli trackers assisted by police dogs and accompanied by UN observers followed the attackers' tracks to a point 6 miles west of the Jordanian border, where the tracks were lost. Relying on informants, Israeli intelligence sources named 3 suspects from the Jordanian village of

Ghor es-Safi Ghor es-Safi, also transliterated Ghawr as-Safi, is an area in the Jordan valley located in the Wadi al-Hasa. It is situated between the governorates of Karak and Tafilah, near the southern Dead Sea. The location is depicted on the 6th-century ...

as the perpetrators, and Lt. Colonel Shalev passed the names to Elmo Hutchison. The Jordanians continued in their endeavours to discover the perpetrators of the attack.

Aftermath

Despite public outcry and call for military retaliation against Jordan, Israel's prime minister

Moshe Sharett Moshe Sharett (; born Moshe Chertok (); 15 October 1894 – 7 July 1965) was the second prime minister of Israel and the country’s first foreign minister. He signed the Israeli Declaration of Independence and was a principal negotiator in th ...

called for restraint and diplomatic measures, as less than six months before the events,

Unit 101 Commando Unit 101 () was a sayeret (commando) unit of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), founded and commanded by Ariel Sharon on orders from Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion in August 1953. They were armed with non-standard weapons and tasked wit ...

had attacked the village of

Qibya Qibya () is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, located northwest of Ramallah and exactly north of the large Israeli city of Modi'in. It is part of the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, and according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Sta ...

as part of Israel's retaliation policy, which resulted in the deaths of 69 people and worldwide condemnation.Morris, pp. 309–13. "In Israel, there was a hue and cry for retaliation against Jordan. But Sharett favoured restraint, which helped to repair Israel's image in the West, opposed a reprisal while the memory of

was still fresh. Uncertainty about the perpetrators identity facilitated restraint." Nevertheless, Israel did retaliate militarily. The Israeli cabinet authorized a "limited" response to the massacre as well as the murder of a guard moshav Ksalon. On 28 March 1954, the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

conducted a raid codenamed Operation Lion against the village of Nahhalin. A force of the Israeli

Paratroopers Brigade The 35th Paratroopers Brigade (, ''Hativat HaTzanhanim'') is an Israeli military airborne infantry brigade. It is a selective unit, which accepts new recruits following physical tryouts and interviews, and consists of volunteers. It forms a m ...

raided the village, killing four National Guardsmen, three Jordanian soldiers, the village

mukhtar A mukhtar (; ) is a village chief in the Levant: "an old institution that goes back to the time of the Ottoman rule". According to Amir S. Cheshin, Bill Hutman and Avi Melamed, the mukhtar "for centuries were the central figures". They "were ...

, and a woman. Israel requested that the

Jordan–Israel Mixed Armistice Commission Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan/Israel Mixed Armistice Commission (HKJI MAC) was the United Nations organisation of observers which dealt with complaints from Jordan and Israel to maintain the fragile cease fire along the demarcation line (Green Line ...

(HJK/IMAC) denounce Jordan for the crime. Jordan's representative to the HJK/IMAC pointed out the possibility of the atrocity being carried out by Israeli Bedouin, and HJK/IMAC Chairman, Commander Hutchison abstained as there was no conclusive proof, resulting in no decision.UN Doc S/3252 of 19 June 1954
Report dated 19 June 1954 by the Chief of Staff of the

UNTSO The United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) is an organization founded on 29 May 1948 for peacekeeping in the Middle East. Established amidst the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, its primary task was initially to provide the military com ...

in Palestine to the Secretary-General concerning the Scorpion Pass incident As a result, Israel left the HJK/IMAC. Hutchison suggested that the attackers were either Gaza Bedouin or Israeli Bedouin.

John Bagot Glubb Lieutenant-General Sir John Bagot Glubb, KCB, CMG, DSO, OBE, MC, KStJ, KPM (16 April 1897 – 17 March 1986), known as Glubb Pasha (; and known as Abu Hunaik by the Jordanians), was a British military officer who led and trained Transj ...

suggested that the culprits were from Gaza or the Sinai. Glubb offered a £100 reward for the killers' capture. This theory gained credibility when, in 1956, an ID from the Ma'ale Akrabim incident was found in Gaza by Israeli troops during the

Suez Crisis The Suez Crisis, also known as the Second Arab–Israeli War, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, having done so w ...

. Many believe Glubb had been right and Israel wrong, and that the Ma'ale Akrabim killers had indeed come from Egyptian-controlled territory rather than Jordan. In 1968, Israeli troops of the Sayeret Shaked special forces unit killed Said Abu Bandak, who was identified as the leader of the group that had carried out the attack, in a clash with a militant cell in the Sinai. The

Israeli Foreign Ministry The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (; ) is one of the most important ministries in the Israeli government. The ministry's role is to implement Israel's foreign policy, and promote economic, cultural, and scientific relations with other c ...

cited the Ma'ale Akrabim incident, among many others, as evidence that "major Arab terrorist attacks" preceded the 1967

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

, in which Israel occupied the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

and

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

, to challenge what they describe as common claims by Palestinian and Arab spokesmen "that the recent Palestinian terrorism is the result of the Israeli 'occupation'". In 2007, a reconstructed bus was placed in the Eilat City Museum.

References

Bibliography

*Morris, Benny (1997) ''Israel's Border Wars, 1949–1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and the Countdown to the Suez War,'' Oxford University Press. *Hutchison E (1955) Violent Truce: A Military Observer Looks At The Arab-Israeli Conflict 1951–1955 *Political Affairs By Trade Union Educational League (U.S.), Earl Browder, Herbert Aptheker, Communist Party of the United States of America, Gus Hall Published by Political Affairs Pub., 1967 *Avi Plascov, (1981) The Palestinian Refugees in Jordan 1948–1957: 1948–1957 By Published by Routledge, 1981 *Miri Furstenberg, (2018) The Girl From Scorpions Pass: Surviving a desert massacre was just the beginning, Amazon Digital Services LLC {{Massacres or pogroms against Jews Terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians before 1967 Massacres in Israel Massacres in Israel during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict 1954 murders in Israel Terrorist incidents in Israel in 1954 Ambushes of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict Palestinian Fedayeen insurgency Massacres in 1954 March 1954 in Asia Attacks on buses by Palestinian militant groups Bus incidents in Israel 1954 road incidents 20th-century mass murder in Israel 1954 mass shootings in Asia Mass shootings in Israel Jordan in the Arab–Israeli conflict