Ben Dunkelman

Benjamin (Ben) Dunkelman (1913 – June 11 1997) was a Canadian Jew who served in the Canadian Army during the Second World War.

Educated at Upper Canada College in Toronto, Dunkelman enlisted with The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada and saw action at Caen, Falaise, and the Battle of the Scheldt. His father was David Dunkelman, the founder of the Canadian men's retailers, Tip Top Tailors. [Hammond, Karen; "Old Times": Leaders and Legends; Winter/Spring 2007; Pg. 32]

After the war, Dunkelman returned to Canada, but again decided to travel to war, this time to fight for Israel in the spring of 1948. He arrived there at a time when the Israeli army was short of officers with combat experience, and he became the commander of the 7th Brigade, the country's best-known armored brigade.

In his autobiography, called "Dual Allegiance" [Dunkelman, Ben (1984). "Dual Allegiance: An autobiography", Goodread Biography. ISBN 0-88780-127-7] , Dunkelman tells the story of how, between July 8 and 18, 1948 during Operation Dekel, he led the 7th Brigade and its supporting units as it moved to capture the town of Nazareth. Nazareth surrendered after little more than token resistance. The surrender was formalized in a written agreement, where the town leaders accepted to cease hostilities in return for solemn promises from the Israeli officers, including Dunkelman, that no harm would come to the civilians of the town.

Shortly following the capture, Dunkelman received orders [According to Ben-Gurion's War Diary, Vol. II, these orders came from Moshe Zalitzky (Carmel), quoted in Gelber, Yoav (2006), "Palestine 1948", Sussex Academic, Brighton, ISBN 1-84519-075-0, p.166.] from General Chaim Laskov to expel the civilian population in the town, but he refused to implement these orders. The Israeli journalist and translator Peretz Kidron, (who Dunkelman collaborated with writing "Dual Allegiance"), reproduced his record of Dunkelman's account of the capture of Nazareth in a book chapter entitled "Truth Whereby Nations Live"::" [less than a day later] Haim Laskov [came] to me with astounding orders: Nazareth's civilian population was to be evacuated! I was shocked and horrified. I told him I would do nothing of the sort -in view of our promises to safeguard the city's people, such a move would be both superfluous and harmful. I reminded him that scarcely a day earlier, he and I, as representatives of the Israeli army, had signed the surrender document in which we solemnly pledged to do nothing to harm the city or its population. When Haim saw that I refused to obey the order, he left. [Kidron, Peretz (1988). Truth Whereby Nations Live. In Edward Said and Christopher Hitchens (Eds.). "" Verso. ISBN 1-85984-340-9, p. 87.] "A scarce 12 hours after Dunkelman had refused to expel the inhabitants of Nazareth, Laskov had appointed another officer as military governor.Morris, Benny (2004). "The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-00967-7, pp.419-420.] :"Two days after the second truce came into effect, the Seventh Brigade was ordered to withdraw from Nazareth. Avraham Yaffe, who had commanded the 13th battalion in the assault on the city, now reported to me with orders from Moshe Carmel to take over from me as its military governor. I complied with the order, but only after Avraham had given me his word of honour that he would do nothing to harm or displace the Arab population. [....] I felt sure that [the order to withdraw from Nazareth] had been given because of my defiance of the evacuation order." [Kidron, Peretz (1988). Truth Whereby Nations Live. In Edward Said and Christopher Hitchens (Eds.). "Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question" Verso. ISBN 1-85984-340-9, pp. 86, 87.] Dunkelman's defiance of the evacuation order forced Laskov to attempt to obtain sanction from a higher level. However, David Ben-Gurion finally vetoed the order. The Arab inhabitants in Nazareth were never forced to evacuate, in sharp contrast to the surrounding less internationally sensitive towns such as Saffuriya, which Dunkelman had shown no such compunction about clearing.

There is a bridge on the Lebanese border called "Gesher Ben" in Dunkelman's honor. His story is told in the film "Ben Dunkelman: The Reluctant Warrior".

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