In the early hours of 5 June 1967, Israel attacked Egypt and
destroyed nearly its entire air force on the ground. On the Syrian-
Israeli border, Israel attempted to evict its inhabitants and
provoked a Syrian response. Already preluding the war, on 7 April
1967 the Israeli air force attacked Syria, shooting down six
planes, hitting thirty fortified positions and killing about 100
people. By 10 June, Israeli forces captured the West Bank, East
Jerusalem and Gaza, along with the Sinai and the Golan Heights. At
the end of the war Israel had succeeded in almost doubling the
amount of territory it controlled.
While one third of Egypt's army was in Yemen and therefore
unlikely to start a war, Israel claimed to a believing world that
the Arabs attacked Israel and that Israel was in danger of
annihilation. Both claims were false. Israeli Air Force General
Ezer Weizman declared that "there was never any danger of
extermination". [1]
Almost a year
after the war, Israeli General Matityahu Peled said: "To pretend
that the Egyptian forces massed on our frontiers were in a position
to threaten the existence of Israel constitutes an insult not only
to the intelligence of anyone capable of analysing this sort of
situation, but above all an insult to the Zahal [Israeli
army]." [2]
On the Syrian-Israeli border, Israel was engaging in threats and
provocations. One such incident on 7 April 1967 in a major aerial
engagement between Israeli and Syrian planes. Six Syrian planes
were shot down. In an interview in May 1967, Yitzhak Rabin
threatened to overthrow the Syrian regime. Prime Minister Levi
Eshkol reportedly said that Israel "may have to teach Syria a
sharper lesson than that of 7 April." [3] On May 14, Soviet and
Egyptian intelligence reported a massing of Israeli troops on the
Syrian borders. [4]
A similar provocation against Jordan took place in November
1966, when 4,000 Israeli soldiers attacked Samu in the West Bank,
and killing 18 Jordanian soldiers. The public justification for
this action was to prevent Palestinian infiltration," though at the
time "the Jordanian authorities did all they possibly could to stop
infiltration," according to Odd Bull, chief of staff of UN forces
at the time. [5]
In the course of the war more than 300,000 Palestinians were
displaced, half for a second time. [6] A smaller number of
Palestinians were internally displaced during the war, including
Palestinians expelled from the Old City of Jerusalem. Subsequent
displacement and expulsion of refugees has continued in 1967
occupied Palestine and in various countries of exile. Most of them
found refuge on the east bank of the Jordan River along with the
more than 400,000 who had fled there in 1948. More than 100,000
people, including 17,000 Palestinian refugees registered with
UNRWA, moved from the Golan Heights into Syria. [7] In Jordan the
refugee population increased by almost half. A small number fled
further northern into the part of Syria not occupied by Israeli
military forces, to Lebanon and Egypt. [8]
On the side of Egypt, Jordan and Syria the loss was 4,296 killed
soldiers and 6,121 wounded. On the Israeli side the loss was 983
soldiers killed and 4,517 wounded. [9]
About one million Palestinians remained in those parts of
Palestine occupied by Israel in 1967. As in 1948 in conquered areas
with large Palestinian populations, Israel established a military
government in West Bank and Gaza. The military government prevented
the return of refugees who had been displaced during the war and
also enabled Israel to take control of large amounts of land
without granting citizenship and civil and political rights to the
Palestinians living in these areas.
In the immediate wake of the June 1967 war, the Israel destroyed
more than half a dozen Arab villages in the West Bank. Villages
such as Imwas, Yalu and Beit Nuba in the Latrun area were destroyed
and their inhabitants expelled. The area of these villages was
subsequently turned into a nature reserve, Park Canada, which
remains to this day a favorite Israeli picnic spot.[10] In the old
city of Jerusalem, Israel depopulated and demolished the Mughrabi
quarter adjacent to the Western Wall to make room for a square.
Israel also depopulated the villages of Beit Marsam, Beit Awa,
Jiftlik, and al-Burj as well as half the city of Qalqilya. [11]
Only those Palestinians (and their offspring) registered in
Israel�s September 1967 census of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and
the Gaza Strip were considered legal residents of the 1967 OPTs.
The administrative measure effectively prevented most Palestinian
refugees displaced in 1967 from returning to their homes.
In occupied eastern Jerusalem, Israel disbanded the local
municipal council and extended Israeli law and jurisdiction. The
military government in West Bank and Gaza and the municipal order
imposed on eastern Jerusalem controlled the Palestinian population
by policies of separation and isolation.
A year after Israel occupied the remaining part of Palestine it
began to establish settlements in these areas. In 1979 the UN
Security Council determined in Resolution 446 that the policy and practices of
Israel in establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other
Arab territories occupied since 1967 have no legal validity and
constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just
and lasting peace in the Middle East.
http://www.1948.com.au/1967/articles
<On the side of Egypt, Jordan and Syria the loss was
4,296 killed soldiers and 6,121 wounded. On the Israeli side the
loss was 983 soldiers killed and 4,517 wounded.>
While the Israeli casualty figures are just a little on the high
side, the Arab casualty figures are kind of small.
The Arab casualty numbers below are more believable:
21,000 killed,
45,000 wounded,
6,000 captured
6,000 missing
400 aircraft destroyed
