Yosef Weitz of the JNF claimed he had David Ben-Gurion's approval for a program of systematic destruction of villages. But it appears that Ben Gurion was concerned by the destruction of Baysan. On 16 June he cabled Golani headquarters: "Ask Avraham Yoffe is it true that he burned the town of Beit Shean in whole or in part, and on whose instructions did he do this?"[13] This appears to have been as a result of Agriculture Minister, Aharon Zisling, raising the issue at the Provisinal Government's Cabinet meeting on the same day: "destruction during battle ... is one thing.