Plan Dalet

Plan Dalet, or Plan D, (Hebrew: תוכנית ד'‎, Tokhnit dalet) was a plan worked out by the Haganah, a Jewish paramilitary group, the main Zionist underground militia, in Palestine in March 1948. It was the fourth (dalet, ד, the fourth letter of the Hebrew alphabet), and final version of less substantial plans that had outlined what the Zionists had in mind for Palestine and its native population. Its purpose is much debated. The plan was a set of guidelines the stated purpose of which was to take control of the territory of the Jewish state and to defend its borders and people, including the Jewish population outside of the borders, in expectation of an invasion by regular Arab armies. According to the Israeli Yehoshafat Harkabi, "Plan Dalet" called for the conquest and securing of Arab towns and villages inside the area alloted to the Jewish state and along its borders. In case of resistance, the population of conquered villages was to be expelled outside the borders of the Jewish state. If no resistance was met, the residents could stay put, under military rule.

The intent of Plan Dalet is subject to much controversy, with historians on one side asserting that it was entirely defensive, while others assert that the plan aimed at an ethnic cleansing, which from the start was an integral part of a carefully planned strategy.

The implementation of the plan in the months following a decisive meeting of 10 March 1948 at the The Red House, the headquarters of the Hagana in northern Tel Aviv, saw more than half of Palestine's native population, nearly 800,000 people, uprooted, 531 villages destroyed, and eleven urban neighbourhoods emptied.