The Tantura Massacre
Written by Raneem Hijazi and Shafika Husseini
The fishing village of Tantura, with a population of approximately 1,500, was one of 64 coastal villages between Haifa and Jaffa that were ethnically cleansed against the backdrop of the Nakba in 1948. On May 22 to 23, 1948, a week after the Zionist state claimed its ‘independence,’ soldiers of the Alexandroni Brigade (currently part of the IOF) carried out a premeditated massacre of over 200 unarmed Palestinians. This attack, typical of many during the beginning of the Nakba, resulted in the depopulation and destruction of Tantura, as well as the theft of its lands by ‘Israel.’
Today, the village of Tantura has become an ‘Israeli’ only beach resort, nestled near the newly discovered mass graves of Palestinians who were tortured and killed during the 1948 Tantura Massacre.
Tantura’s surviving population sought refuge in neighboring cities across Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon. At the same time, a small number of families settled in nearby villages that are today part of the Zionist state, demanding justice for their massacred loved ones and urging officials for a dignified burial.
They trapped all the men
in the village there was no exit route for Palestinians.
From May 22nd to 23rd 1948, the Tantura Village Massacre took place.
In October 2023 through to May 2024, there were multiple massacres, with an escalation in these brutal murders taking place in March through April including the Al-Shifa Massacre, where we still continue to find mass graves of Palestinians.
'From establishing the Zionist colony to its continued colonial expansion in 2024, Palestinians have experienced massacre after massacre, which has aided the larger pattern of ethnic cleansing.
‘Israel’ was founded on the blood of native Palestinians by massacring the indigenous population, one village at a time.
Genocide is not the sole method employed by ‘Israel’ in its settler colonial project; instead, it's part of a broader logic of elimination aimed at creating an exclusive Jewish state. This strategy encompasses various practices, including ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and cultural erasure, all serving the goal of securing control over indigenous Palestinian land and populations.
The ongoing genocide in Gaza further exposes ‘Israel’s’ colonial intentions, with calls for resettlement indicating a desire to replace Palestinian populations with new illegal Jewish-only settlements. However, historical events like the Deir Yassin massacre serve as stark reminders of the lengths to which the Zionist entity will go to advance its colonial agenda.
The Deir Yassin massacre, along with other atrocities, were utilized as a tool to instill fear in Palestinians and coerce them into ‘leaving’ their homes. Through genocide, mass rape, psychological warfare, and the threat of violence, Zionist terrorists sought to intimidate Palestinians and create a narrative that framed their displacement as a "choice" rather than a forced expulsion.
These tactics of fear and violence are integral to the Zionist colonial project, perpetuating the cycle of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine, while masking the true nature of their intentions. Until the Zionist colonial project is dismantled, such manipulative narratives and violent tactics are likely to persist, perpetuating the cycle of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine.
Today, Tantura the village no longer exists. Since the massacre in 1948, the village has been razed to the ground and turned into the Dor Beach resort where ‘Israelis’ relax on stolen land. Multiple sources say that underneath the car parking lot, there is a mass grave of all the Palestinian men who were brutally murdered, which shows even after death, there is no respect for Palestinians and their burial rites and customs. Three different mass graves are located in or around this car park, and families of the massacred insist on visitation rights, as the human rights organization Adalah reports.
Survivors from the massacre are still alive as recently as May 2023, such as Adnan Haj Yahya, providing first hand accounts of having to dig large holes for these mass graves as they witnessed the horrors of the Tantura Massacre.
Massacres such as the Flour Massacre and Al-Shifa hospital massacres are on a much larger scale than ever before but still using the same tactics. Many parts of the Gaza Strip are massacre sites, with makeshift burial grounds that aren’t respected by the Zionist forces, as they often dig up or vandalize gravesites. Like in Tantura, there is no respect, or ability for Palestinians to honor our martyrs’ bodies. We as Palestinians demand justice and dignity for our martyrs so that they may be given a humane burial and their memory is honored as they deserve.
Cited Sources:
https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/41048