Israel expelled Palestinian Arabs from the British Mandate Palestine.

The Israeli Response

What were the events that resulted in the Nakba?

In 1947, the UN proposed a division of the British Mandate into a Jewish state alongside an Arab state.

Jewish leaders accepted, but Arab leaders declined and launched a war to destroy the Jewish state.

The Arab leaders’ decision led to a refugee crisis:

Between 472,000 to 750,000 Palestinian Arabs became refugees as well as over 850,000 Jews who lived in Arab states

The UN inflates these numbers by using an adjusted definition of refugee tailored to Palestinians, claiming that over 5 million Palestinian refugees live in the West Bank, Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan.

Israel did everything in its power to maintain peace with the Palestinians:

Politically - Israel’s founding document (the Declaration of Independence) implored Arabs to participate in Israel as equal citizens:

"We appeal - in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months to the Arab inhabitants of the state of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the state based on full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.”

Militarily - Israeli troops removed a small minority of Arabs, mostly from strategic areas vital to the country’s survival.

Israel itself has no Palestinian refugees. It offered Arabs in its territory citizenship, and 160,000 accepted the offer.

Arab and Palestinian leaders were primarily responsible for the Palestinian refugee crisis.

They caused the refugees’ short-term displacement:

They rejected the 1947 UN Partition Plan and waged a war on the Jewish state instead, serving as the source of the Nakba.

They encouraged Palestinians to get out of the way of advancing Arab armies and join the fighting, promising they would return after a victory that never came.

This advice was given by leaders such as Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam (also known as Azzam Pasha), the Secretary-General of the Arab League at the time.: "[...] This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades."

There are Arab leaders that often speak like this, and we've seen in October 7th that there's no end to jihadist barbarism. If Jews could potentially be killed in an attack, any Palestinian dead as a consequence is a saint (or "Shahid").

Arab propaganda also manufactured or exaggerated tales of Israeli atrocities, causing widespread panic and more evacuation.

They also caused the refugees’ long-term crisis:

Arab states refused to absorb the refugees or give them citizenship and equal rights (except for Jordan)

By doing so, they broke their ethical obligation to the refugees they created

They use Palestinians as pawns in their continuing war against Israel.

There is no justification for a "Right of Return" for the Palestinians

The Arab leaders, like Azzam Pasha, pushed Palestinians to evacuate, but didn't provide them with a place to go since they hoped to win the war

When they lost the war, their false promises were not fulfilled and Palestinian suffering was inevitable.

Palestinians who adhered to the calls of Israel's enemies betrayed Israel and forfeited their rightful claim to the land.

Israeli-Arabs who have equal rights in Israel in 2023 have earned them through their actions in 1948 that strived for unity and peace instead of annihilation and destruction.

From the media

Palestinian refugees in Gaza, 2023. taken from https://www.unrwa.org/

Resources

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Fun Fact

“The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians…but instead they abandoned them, forced them to emigrate… and threw them into prisons." [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, 1976]

Conclusions

Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan are responsible for promising land and prosperity to the Palestinians if they evacuate their homes and wage war on Israel. After losing the War of Israel’s Independence in 1948, Israel's neighbors were left resentful, and the Palestinians to whom they made grand promises have only a roaring refugee crisis to show for their sacrifice.

The Israeli Response