From Arab News:
The King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives (Darah) has released a documentary, “The Call of Nobility,” about the Saudi Army in Palestine in 1948.I love revisionist history and the excuses for losing.
The film was published on the foundation’s official YouTube channel and announced on its official account in Twitter.
It tells the story of Saudi Arabia’s role in the Palestine issue and its participation with the Arab forces to save Palestine from the Zionist occupation in 1948, where the Saudis performed well and a number of them died.
The film includes interviews and meetings with Saudi and Arab historians and writers, and with Saudis who shared their memories about their participation in the 1948 war.
King Abdul Aziz had a keen interest in the Palestinian issue and had been a supporter of it and was aware of its importance from the very beginning, according to Yousef Al-Thaqafi, a Saudi historian and writer.
...Ali Majid Qabban, a retired general, explained that the Saudi forces were composed of two war brigades and were assigned to defend Gaza City along with the Egyptian forces, in a strategic location called Tabab Al-Mentar, east of Gaza City. The forces were stationed there to attack Jewish settlements on the road that links Gaza to the city of Majdal in the north.
Brig. Fayez Al-Asmari, another participant in the war, said, “The Arab soldiers were in control until the war was stopped because of the truce. Were it not for the truce that was imposed on the Arab forces, we would have prevailed. We were not satisfied with the truce because we were in control, and we assure our love for the land of Palestine and its people.”
Ali Kurdi, a retired general said, “I wrote to my father in Ramadan that we will have our Eid in Tel Aviv, we were victorious, the Jews could not defeat us, they did not have an organized army since they were extremist armed gangs, called ‘Haganah’.”
The number of Saudi volunteers was 513, 134 of whom were killed, including 34 who were seriously wounded, and 130 who received medals from the king.
After the truce the Zionist forces were able to get support from different sides, and more Jewish migrants arrived, many were well trained, and the Arab role toward the issue began to decline after negotiations began on the Greek island of Rhodes with the United Nations mediating between Israel and Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
26% of the Saudi volunteers were killed - and they are claiming that they were winning?
None of the Arab nations who fought in 1948 cared about "Palestinians." No one even used the term. They just wanted to defeat the Jews, and they were quite clear then that they mean Jews, not "Zionists"
Now, 70 years later, Saudi Arabia is pretending to be the savior of the Palestinian Arabs in 1948. It is probably not a coincidence that the Saudis are releasing this just as they are trying to push their own agenda in the Middle East, and how to handle the Palestinian Arabs.
The Arabic documentary is here.