Robert F. Kennedy's 1948 Visit To Palestine
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Robert F. Kennedy visited the British Mandate of Palestine in 1948, one month before Israel’s Declaration of 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 its final shutdown in 1956. The ''Post'' was founded in November 1831 by two prominent Boston businessmen, Charles G. Greene and William Beals. Edwin Groz ...
''. 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 (; ; born March 19, 1944) is a Palestinian-Jordanian man who assassinated Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a younger brother of American president John F. Kennedy and a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 1968 U ...
's alleged motivation for assassinating him on the first anniversary of the start of the
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 ...
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 Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
, Kennedy was encouraged by his father to travel overseas. Ignoring his father's warning to avoid trouble, Kennedy took a flight from
Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
to Lod Airport, near
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 ...
. Bass 2003: 50


Trip and dispatches

While in Israel, Kennedy visited
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 ...
,
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
, and a
kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...
, 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 Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...
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 (; ; born March 19, 1944) is a Palestinian-Jordanian man who assassinated Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a younger brother of American president John F. Kennedy and a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 1968 U ...
resided in Musrara, Jerusalem. He interviewed members of the
Irgun The Irgun (), officially the National Military Organization in the Land of Israel, often abbreviated as Etzel or IZL (), was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of th ...
, 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 is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
'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 1992: 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."


Impact

In a 1964 speech in Westchester, Kennedy bolstered his pro-Israel credentials to a largely Jewish crowd and referred to his 1948 visit: “I was involved in that war," Kennedy said, "I took a tank from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. I was one of a few who said Israel was going to get her independence because of her courage and determination.”


Notes


References

* * * * *


External links


Jerusalem Center for Policy Affairs: Robert Kennedy's 1948 Reports from Palestine
(includes text of Kennedy's articles)

* ttps://books.google.com/books?id=23HR-Y6bQHQC&dq=%22British+Hated+by+Both+Sides%22&pg=PA51 Support any friend: Kennedy's Middle East and the making of the U.S.-Israel Alliance By Warren Basspages 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 Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Robert Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy