The first research notebook in Akevot Institute’s Case Studies series, Case 19/48: Shmuel Lahis and the Hula Massacre, focuses on the mass killing that took place in the village of Hula in Lebanon, on 31 October and 1 November 1948. Through excerpts from testimonies included in the military court transcripts, written orders, photographs found in the trash, unpublished diaries and other records, this notebook sketches out the contours of the only event for which an IDF soldier was tried over his part in the murder of civilians in the 1948 war. From there, the notebook branches out to other related acts and incidents.

“I want us to understand our methods of our warfare,” said in court the witness Lt. Col. Mordechai Maklef, who went on to become the third IDF Chief of Staff. This notebook seeks to contribute to a fuller understanding of the 1948 war than that allowed by the official state story.

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Case Studies is a new Akevot book series dedicated to documenting various historical events in the Israeli–Arab conflict, some known, some forgotten or erased. Turning the lens on the past helps locate the sources of present-day brutality. Each notebook is an academic montage of sorts that aids in reconstructing the events using excerpts that present different perspectives. By moving forward and backward along the timeline, the texts that make up the notebooks assist in the work of historical reconstruction. The historical records are deconstructed and broken down for readers to put together.