| Summary/Abstract |
In 1917, towards the end of the First World War, the Ottoman Governor of the Levant, Jamal Pasha, ordered the expulsion of the communities of Jaffa and Tel Aviv, ostensibly for their safety. Moving northwards to the Lower Galilee, the Jewish deportees’ actual experiences were severe and traumatic, with many instances of great suffering, illness and death. A series of other, smaller, but no less deadly, expulsions began in the winter of 1917 following the NILI affair. In November 1917, several groups, mainly of Jews, primarily those suspected of an association with NILI, were imprisoned in Jerusalem, then moved to prisons in Damascus on foot or by train. The deportees included the Arab educationist Khalil Sakakini, and two Jews who later became prominent in the Zionist movement, N. Twersky and Yitzhak Livni. After an introduction describing the expulsion from Jaffa, this article describes the forced marches and imprisonment endured by Twersky, Sakakini, and Livni, based on their diaries.
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