Order to expel Arab residents of לוד LOD.

Benny Morris reproduces the 13:30 order to the Yiftah headquarters, signed by יצחק רבין YIẒḤAK RABIN:

The inhabitants of Lydda must be expelled quickly without attention to age. … Implement immediately.¹

The omitted part directs residents toward Beit Nabala and assigns the method and reporting to brigade headquarters. The order did not distinguish children from adults in its instruction to remove the inhabitants. The original signed military witness remains unexamined here; the scholarly reproduction supplies the wording and time.

Morris describes organized removal and signals reporting it underway on July 13. Residents of לוד LOD walked eastward; residents of רמלה RAMLA were transported for part of the journey or walked. Orders also treated military-age men separately for detention. These details establish action beyond the written instruction.²

Munayyer describes Israeli soldiers entering homes and forcing residents out, including his own family. His later witness account also reports that local Arab committees had previously prevented departure to sustain resistance. That earlier restriction had different actors and aims; it does not make the later Israeli removal voluntary.³

The scholarly reconstruction describes intervention by civilian leaders and instructions transmitted late July 12 that women, children, the old and sick should not be compelled to leave. Their transmission did not end the expulsion. The orders and subsequent implementation therefore require separate treatment rather than an assumption that a revised instruction was obeyed immediately.⁴

The origin of the decision within the high command remains disputed. A 1979 JTA report records יגאל אלון YIGAL ALLON denying a later account that attributed an expulsion instruction to דוד בן-גוריון DAVID BEN-GURION. A disagreement about an oral conversation does not erase the written order. The accessible Kadish–Sela abstract contests a premeditated plan, while the full argument and archive sources remain to be inspected.^{5 6}

Residents and people already displaced from elsewhere were forced toward Arab Legion-held territory in summer heat. Witnesses describe thirst, exhaustion, deaths and loss of property. The total number expelled and deaths on the journey remain unreconciled. Some Arab residents remained; the towns were not wholly emptied.

The July 15 diary records a report of approximately 30, 000 refugees needing bread. It is evidence of distress reported to the leadership, not a census of July 13 departures. An expulsion is established here; a separate denial-of-return policy cannot be inferred for every household without its own records.⁷

The cited record supports 12 July 1948. Its daytime portion is ה׳ בתמוז ה׳תש״ח 5th 𝑜𝑓 Tamuz, AM 5708; after local sunset it is ו׳ בתמוז ה׳תש״ח 6th 𝑜𝑓 Tamuz, AM 5708. This article uses ה׳ בתמוז ה׳תש״ח 5th 𝑜𝑓 Tamuz, AM 5708. The 13:30 order on July 12 precedes sunset and anchors this retained 5 Tamuz identity. Principal implementation on July 13 belongs to 6 Tamuz and continued into July 14. The signed original and complete nominal registers remain unexamined. ⁸

• What distinguishes a written expulsion order from proof of its implementation?
• Why does disagreement about an oral decision not erase the documentary order?