Who Were the 1948 Refugees?
1.) 630,000 Palestinian, and 820,000 Jewish, refugees were
produced by the 1948 war, which was launched by
Palestinians, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon against
Israel.
2.) The Jewish refugees - from Muslim countries - were absorbed
(590,000 in Israel), as were millions of European refugees in
the aftermath of WWII. In contrast, Palestinian refugees have
been confined to camps, by Arab and PLO leaders, fomenting
terrorism. None of the financial aid received by the PLO, from
the US and other countries, has been directed at the refugee
camps!
4.) Many Palestinians are descendants of Egyptian, Sudanese,
Syrian and Lebanese migrants, who settled in the current
boundaries of Israel during 1830-1945. Migration by Arab
citizens of the Ottoman Empire did not require any permit until
WWI. Migrant workers were imported by the Ottoman and
(since 1919) by the British authorities for infrastructure
projects: The port of Haifa, the Haifa-Qantara, Haifa-Edrei,
Haifa-Nablus and Jerusalem-Jaffa railroads, military
installations, roads, quarries, reclamation of wetlands, etc.
Illegal Arab laborers were also attracted by the relative boom,
stimulated by Jewish immigration, which expanded
labor-intensive enterprises (construction, agriculture, etc.).
5.) The (1831-1840) conquest, by Egypt's Mohammed Ali, was
solidified by thousands of Egyptians settling empty spaces
between Gaza and Tul-Karem up to the Hula Valley. They
followed in the footsteps of Egyptian draft dodgers, who fled
Egypt before 1831. The British traveler, H.B. Tristram,
identified Egyptian migrants in the Beit-Shean Valley, Acre,
Hadera, Netanya and Jaffa. The British Palestine Exploration
Fund indicated that Egyptian neighborhoods proliferated in
and around Jaffa: Saknet el-Mussariya, Abu Kebir, Abu
Derwish, Sumeil, Sheikh Muwanis, Salame', Fejja, etc. Many
of those who fled in 1948 attempted to reunite with their
families of origin.
7.) Tristram, and other travelers, identified over 15 Arab
nationalities who settled in Jaffa. Libyan migrants and
refugees settled in Gedera, south of Tel Aviv. Algerian
refugees (Mugrabis), escaping the French conquest of 1830,
settled in Safed, Tiberias and other parts of the Galilee. Their
leader, Abd el-Kader el-Hasseini, headquartered in Syria!
Circassian refugees, fleeing Russian oppression (1878),
Moslems from Bosnia, Turkomans, Yemenite Arabs (1908)
and Bedouin tribes from Jordan (escaping wars and famine)
diversified Arab demography there.
The aforementioned data are contained in the book The Claim
Of Dispossession (Arieh Avneri, 1982) and in From Time
Immemorial (Joan Peters, Harper, 1984).
8.) Habib Issa, Secretary General of the Arab League: In 1948,
Azzam Pasha, the former Secretary General, "assured Arabs
that the occupation of Palestine, including Tel Aviv, would be
as simple as a military promenade...Brotherly advice was
given to the Arabs of Palestine to leave their land, homes and
property, and to stay temporarily in neighboring fraternal
states." (Al-Hoda Lebanese daily, New York, June 8, 1951).
acpr.org.il |
