English transcript

We gathered in Jerusalem at the Hebron Gate.

We checked who was missing and who had survived.

Then the Palestinian leaders arrived, including Dr. Khalidi.

I asked Dr. Khalidi how we should cover the story.

He said, we must make the most of this.

So he wrote a press release stating that at Deir Yassin, children were murdered, pregnant

women were raped, all sorts of atrocities.

Arab radio stations passed on the false reports, ignoring the protests of the witnesses.

We said there was no rape.

He said we have to say this so the Arab armies will come to liberate Palestine from the Jews.

This was our biggest mistake.

We did not realize how our people would react.

As soon as they heard that women had been raped at Deir Yassin, Palestinians fled in terror.

They ran away from all our villages.

In the next few months, over half the Arab population, three-quarters of a million people,

fled their homes in Palestine.