Brief facts about the origin of the Palestinian Refugees
By Niv Nissenson, 18 Jan 2002
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Student of History and Political Science at Tel-Aviv University
The land of Israel was virtually deserted when the first Jewish immigrants arrived, most of the places they settled were filled with swamps and infested with malaria. All of the lands that these brave pioneers settled were lawfully purchased from local Arab residents. The arrival of Jews in the Middle East with money caused many Arab from distant countries to come to Palestine in order to work.
It is a little known fact that many of the so-called 1948 refugees weren't actually born in Palestine .The United Nations definition of "Palestinian refugee" is as follows: "Palestine refugees are persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict" This definition of a refugee also covers " the descendants of persons who became refugees in 1948."1 In contrast of the United Nations definition of a “normal” (everybody else) "refugee" which is as follows:” owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country."2 In an amazing definition a Palestinian refugee is vastly different than a "normal" refugee.
All the "Palestinians" dislocated in 1948 have not been resettled (like millions of real refugees around the world) in order to make a basis for pressure against Israel. The local Arab peoples were occupied for centuries by the Turks and had no national movement until the arrival of the British. In order for the Zionist movement to get the Balfour deceleration, local Jewish settlers in Palestine helped the allies in the first world war (the NILI underground). Sadly the British did not fulfill their promise and under Arab pressure they cut the Jewish immigration significantly. The Jewish inhabitants continued to prosper and expand by buying land for good money. No colonialism.
In 1947 there were 600,000 Jews is Palestine, The United Nations drafted a resolution dividing the land between the Arab and the Jews. The Jewish leadership accepted the U.N. proposal and the Arab rejected it. The Palestinians made no move in order to jump-start their own country in the remainder of the territory. When the British mandate was over the Jews declared independence and the formation of Israel (after nearly 2000 years in exile). The Palestinian didn't declare anything but war, along with the rest of the Arab world. During the war there were no organized deportation of the local Arab population, no acts of massacre by the Israeli side (it's important that we remember that we are talking about only 3 years after WW2 which we all know that the allies killed thousands of civilians). The local Arab inhabitants left their houses because of fear of Israeli reprisals furthermore they were asked to leave by their allies who promised them that after the victory they'll take their homes back along with the Jewish property (68% of the Arabs that left did so with ever encountering an Israeli soldier)3. The Arabs who didn't leave were not harmed and even received Israeli citizenship. The Israeli Arab people are the freest and prospering Arabs in the Middle East. After the war the Arabs deported the Jews that lived for centuries in their countries and confiscated their property (mainly in Iraq). As for the Palestinians in the West Bank, they were actually occupied by their brothers the Jordanians, They never asked them to form their own state in the west bank (important note the majority of the population of Jordan are in fact Palestinian, and I hear no problems with that).
Actually during the time of the Balfour declaration Jordan was a part of Palestine and a part of the declaration. So in fact the land was spilt and 2/3 were given to the Arabs and a 1/3 to the Jews. Israel is the only democratic state in the Middle East. Israel is surrounded by countries that are all military dictatorships with totalitaric regimes. That's the truth.
Sources:
1. http://www.un.org/unrwa/index.html (The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East UNRWA)- Palestine Refugee-
2. http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR) –The “Normal” defenition for refugee-
3. Peters Joan “From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish conflict over Palestine” Hebrew release:
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1988 (Regarding the leaving of the Arabs in 1948 war)
1 The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees
http://www.netanyahu.org/brieffacabor.html