The name of the Swedish diplomat, Count Folke Bernadotte, was associated with the events of 1948 AD in Palestine, and the conflict that took place and is still between the Palestinian Arabs and the Jewish immigrants who flocked to Palestine in the few decades before the Nakba.

In his book “The Assassination of the International Mediator in Palestine / Count Folke Bernadotte” (2022), whose Arabic translation was recently released with the translation of Sameh Khalaf from the Swedish language, the Swedish writer Joran Buren provides accurate and complete details about the circumstances and events that preceded the assassination, and the investigations and testimonies that followed. It sheds light on many details of what happened in Palestine at the time.

In his book, the author reveals the apparent and deep causes and motives that led to the bias of Western public opinion in general to the Israeli side at the expense of the Palestinian Arab side.

The book "The Crime of Assassination of the International Mediator in Palestine / Count Folke Bernadotte" (Al Jazeera)

And about the beginnings of his interest in the case of the Swedish Red Cross President Folke Bernadotte, Joran Boren says, "I was interested in the history of the conflict in Palestine, and then I came across the name of Count Folke Bernadotte, and it became clear to me that he made a great effort, but he was completely forgotten, and this sparked my curiosity in his case." Net "The book achieved great success when it was published in 2012 and received a good evaluation. On the other hand, it seems that the subject was not comfortable for some."

Publisher and translator Sameh Khalaf said in his interview with Al Jazeera Net, "I think this book is an important document that sheds light on aspects that may not be known regarding the stormy introductions and events that led to the assassination."

Publisher and translator Sameh Al-Khalaf considers the book an important document in dealing with the events that led to the assassination of the international mediator (Al-Jazeera)

The murdered mediator..a personal biography

The writer mentions that Count Folke Bernadotte was born in Stockholm on January 2, 1895 AD, and he was an officer in the Swedish army and head of the scouting movement, and he is a member of the Swedish royal family. His grandfather, King of Sweden and Norway, Oscar II (1829-1907 AD), was chosen by the United Nations On May 20, 1948 AD, to be a mediator in Palestine between the Arabs and the Jews after the end of the British Mandate over Palestine.

And he was able to achieve the first armistice between the two parties on June 11, 1948 AD, and the author points out that some of Bernadotte's personal qualities played a positive role in the activities that made him a globally famous personality.

The writer attributed these qualities to the environment in which he grew up, as he belongs to the upper social elite in his country.

We have executed Count Bernadotte

The writer says that Bernadotte was briefed on the conditions of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and Syria in September 1948, and adds that large numbers of Palestinian refugees fleeing the conflict are living in tragic conditions and residing in tents and the open, and everything has been taken from them except for the clothes they wear.

It should be noted that the United Nations mediator showed great interest in their situation, and had resolved to request international aid for them.

In his description of the refugees’ conditions, the writer cites what was mentioned in the novel “Morning in Jenin” by Palestinian-American author Susan Abu al-Hawa, “forty generations of memories, secrets, and scandals. All of this was swept away by other people’s sense of their entitlement to the place, people who would settle in the void and announce that everything, all that was left of the The architecture, the gardens, the wells, the flowers, the feelings of comfort, all belonged to foreign Jews from Europe, Russia, the United States and other parts of the world.”

Regarding the impact of the assassination of Count Bernadotte on the conditions of the Palestinian refugees, the author says in his talk to Al Jazeera Net, "Yes, I am convinced of that. The Israeli government realized that he would struggle vigorously for the refugee issue, a matter dear to his heart, and in my opinion, his interest in the refugee issue was the reason that He pushed the Israeli government to leave the field open to the killers of the Stern Gang. Thus, after getting rid of Bernadotte, the refugees and their cause vanished away."

The author refers to Bernadotte's proposal - through his peace plan on June 27, 1948 - that all of Jerusalem remain under Arab sovereignty and the return of Palestinian refugees who fled the fighting or were expelled by Jewish forces to their homes and restore their property.

These suggestions aroused the ire of the Jews, so the Zionist organization "Irgun", headed by Prime Minister of Israel (later) Menachem Begin (1913-1992), and "Stern" organization headed by Prime Minister (later) Yitzhak Shamir (1915-2012) agreed to assassinate the international mediator The Swedish Count Bernadotte, and the assassination was actually carried out on September 17, 1948 AD, and the Count passed away at the age of 53.

When, on the evening of September 17, 1948, New York Times correspondent Solz Berger heard the news of the assassination, he immediately and without hesitation wrote down in his diary: The Stern Organization.

Bernadotte.. the last will

Yoran Buren asserts that Bernadotte was fully aware of the dangers he was exposing himself to, and the writer says that there was a general perception within the Israeli leadership that Bernadotte posed a threat to Israel's existence.

Therefore, before his last trip to Palestine - according to the author - he agreed with his wife Estelle on all the funeral procedures;

If he does not come back alive.

According to the agreement, the funeral should be simple, attendance should be limited to a few scouts, and no speeches given, except for a speech by the priest.

The writer states that the day after Bernadotte's assassination, the press received the following message: "We consider all United Nations observers to be members of the foreign occupation forces, and they have no right to be in our lands."

Buren pointed out that the "Stern" gangs, founded by the Polish Abraham Stern (1907-1942 AD), launched military operations against the British Mandate forces, and attacked Arab villages and railways, in order to force the British to accept the establishment of a Jewish state through terrorism, and as a result the killing of Stern himself at the hands of the British in 1942, the Stern Organization responded by killing Lord Moyne in Cairo;

British Minister for the Middle East, in 1944, and as a result the most prominent representative of the Mandate power.

Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965) commented, denouncing the "shameful crime" despite his country's efforts for the future of Zionism.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations.. the suspicious role

Yoran Buren returns to talk about the role played by the United Nations Secretary-General, Trygve Halfdan-Lee, from 1946 to 1952. What Bernadotte could not have imagined was that his immediate superior would secretly work against him in cooperation with Israel.

The writer states that Trygve Lee (1896-1968) was strongly pro-Zionist, and was completely biased towards the Israeli side, and he certainly did not look with satisfaction at Fulke Bernadotte's attempt to ignore Palestine Partition Resolution No. 181.

"Long before the General Assembly adopted the partition resolution, the Secretary-General publicly sided with the idea of ​​partition, and shamelessly negotiated with the Jewish Agency, and told its delegation: There is no other solution, a Jewish state must be established," Burin added.

New Historians.. Correcting History

The author says in his book that over the 3 decades following the establishment of the “State of Israel”, there was in the Western world, as in Israel, a perception - not subject to discussion - of events according to the official Israeli narrative, which included the claim that “the United Nations decided to establish a Jewish state, so why did the United Nations decide to establish a Jewish state? The Arabs accepted this, and immediately attacked the Jews and Jewish settlements, and the Jewish forces acted consistently defensively, and did not attack the Palestinians unless they were under attack."

Burin explains that in the eighties, Israeli researchers, with the help of newly available archive documents, began to question this perception.

Among them is Benny Morris, author of the book “The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem 1947-1949,” where this historian acknowledges that the birth of the Palestinian tragedy is linked to the policy of forced displacement adopted by the Zionist movement.

As well as Ilan Pappe from the University of Haifa, who titled one of his books on the subject with “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.” Avi Shlaim, a Jew of Iraqi origin, author of “King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement and the Partition of Palestine,” and Simha Fablan, author of “The Birth of Israel: Myth and Reality,” and Tom Segev and others known as the "new historians" confirmed, in documents, a completely different story from the official Israeli version.

The writer believes that the Zionist movement began to unravel due to the role of a few "new historians" who tried to restore the introductions to the Palestinian tragedy far from the influence of the official Zionist circles.

According to the new account, Burin asserts that the Jewish forces played a prominent role in pushing the Palestinians to flee, "often blew up and flattened villages to make way for the establishment of Jewish settlements, large cities emptied of their Arab residents and Jewish immigrants occupied their homes."

For his part, Professor Khaled Al-Hroub, Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Northwestern University, says, "Unfortunately, the Palestinian voice was absent due to academic racism and the ignoring of the voice of the victim. The Israelis were the executioner and the colonizer who formulate the discourse and history of the people under occupation."

He added in his speech to Al Jazeera Net, "The Israeli occupier not only occupies the land, but occupies history and discourse, occupies the description, and exports this description to the world, and these historians dared to transfer part of the silent history."

Palestinian academic Khaled Al-Hroub believes that the Palestinian voice was absent due to academic racism and neglect of the voice of the victim (Al-Jazeera)

Bernadotte.. in oblivion

The author points out that the Swedish authorities were indignant at the Israelis because, in their opinion, they did not show the slightest interest in arresting the killers, and he believes that this is the reason why Sweden is so late than other Western countries in recognizing Israel.

In the end, the Israeli government finally made an official apology to Sweden, then normalized the relations between the two sides, and buried the Bernadotte case in oblivion. Does this mean that the impact of the Folke Bernadotte case on Swedish-Israeli relations is completely over?

"Yes, one can say that," the author answers to Al Jazeera Net.

As for the position of the Swedish royal family, has it changed from Israel?

"I think the royal family still keeps a certain distance," says Göran Boren.

The writer stresses that after more than 60 years of silence and evasiveness, it is time to correct history about the role of the Israeli government in the Bernadotte case.

The Swedish author, Göran Burén, was born in 1946 in the province of Göteborg, western Sweden. He studied sociology, literary studies and history at the Universities of Lund and Umeå.

Buren first emerged as a novelist and published a number of fictional works, before turning to writing on historical topics, and in 2012 his book, Mordet på Folke Bernadotte, was published, which became an important reference on this horrific case of assassination. Which was considered one of the most heinous crimes of political assassination.

In 2017, the author also published another book entitled "Alla människors lika värde" (Alla människors lika värde), a book that talks about the reality of Palestinian refugees.