Today, Akevot Institute publishes the key points of Plan Mole, which, until recently, remained confidential and the censor’s office forbade even mentioning its name. The plan’s key elements clearly emerge from testimonies given during closed-door hearings at the Kafr Qasim Massacre Trial, which were kept sealed until the Military Court of Appeals delivered its decision in a motion brought by an Akevot Institute researcher to release the records. Now, a thorough review and analysis of the newly released records provides a comprehensive picture of the plan’s components.

The closed-door testimonies, given by officials running the gamut from top commanders to soldiers on the ground, sketch out the plan’s four main elements: curfew, arrests both of individuals “marked” in advance and mass arrests of entire age groups, confiscation of Palestinian villagers’ means of subsistence in frontier areas, and the transfer of the entire population of these villages to other localities in the country’s interior. The written version of Operation Mole contained no instructions on expulsions to Jordan. However, the testimonies indicate that both the authors of the plan and the Border Police officers on the ground understood that the Oral Law behind the plan’s draconian measures was to encourage residents of the Triangle to flee across the border, into Jordan.

A full analysis of Operation Mole and further details are available here. Over the coming weeks, Akevot Institute will upload all the records pertaining to Operation Mole to a special online library, providing free access to the documents.