DOCSLIB.ORG

Palestinian Refugees

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Palestinian Refugees Palestinian Refugees In 1947, the United Nations proposed a division of the British Mandate into a Jewish state alongside an Arab state. Jewish leaders accepted, but Arab leaders said no and launched a war to destroy the Jewish state. This decision was immensely tragic for both sides, as it led to 472,000 to 750,000 Palestinian Arabs and over 850,000 Jews from Arab states becoming refugees.1 Today, the UN claims that over 5 million Palestinian refugees live in the West Bank, Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. “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 Arab and Palestinian leaders were primarily responsible for the Palestinian refugee crisis. • According to historian Benny Morris, “responsibility is split among [Israel], the Palestinians and the Arab countries – with enormous responsibility lying with the Palestinians who started the conflict.” 2 • Palestinian refugees fled for several reasons: Most left to escape the fighting. Elites went first, causing others to flee as civil society collapsed. o o Arab leaders encouraged them to get out of the way of advancing Arab armies, promising they would return after a victory that never came. Arab propaganda manufactured or exaggerated tales of Israeli atrocities, causing widespread panic. o o Israeli troops removed a small minority, mostly from strategic areas vital to the country’s survival. Arab and Palestinian leaders caused the long-term displacement and suffering of Palestinian refugees. ISRAEL: Jordan: • Arab states refused to absorb the refugees, give them 1.7 million 2 million citizenship (except for Jordan), or grant them equal Arab citizens with Palestinian citizens rights and opportunities. Instead, they used Palestinians equal rights, who still retain refugee 3 as pawns in their continuing war against Israel. forming 21% of the status – something no population. other refugees have • Israel has no Palestinian refugees. It offered Arabs in its been allowed do. territory citizenship and 160,000 accepted. They became 1. Israeli citizens with equal rights West Bank & Gaza: Lebanon: The UN perpetuates this crisis through its Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) 1.9 million 426,000 Palestinians considered Palestinian refugees who • UNRWA allows Palestinians to pass refugee status to “refugees,” despite living suffer extreme forms of their descendants endlessly, inflating their numbers.4 within the borders of the discrimination, which Palestine Mandate – their some compare to • If the international criteria used for all other refugees place of origin. apartheid. were applied, there would be far fewer Palestinian refugees today. More Jews than Palestinians became refugees as a result of the 1948 War. • Almost 10,000 Jews were ethnically cleansed from the areas of the Palestine Mandate where Arab forces prevailed.5 • After the war, over 850,000 Jews fled rising persecution or were forcibly expelled from Arab and Muslim lands. Most were resettled in Israel, where they became the majority of the country’s Jewish population.6 1 JTA, “Jewish refugees bill being considered by U.S. House of Representatives,” Haaretz, August 2, 2012, at http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/jewish-refugees-bill-being-considered-by-u-s-house-of- representatives-1.455503; Benny Morris, Righteous Victims, 2001 pp. 252-258; Yoav Gelber, Palestine 1948, 2001 pp. 74-84 2 Benny Morris, Righteous Victims, 2001 pp. 252-258; Yoav Gelber, Palestine 1948, 2001 pp. 74-84; Howard Sachar, A History of Israel, 2000, pp. 395-405 3 Mitchell Bard, “The Palestinian Refugees,” Jewish Virtual Library, May 6, 2013, at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/refugees.html 1 Bard, Michael. "Israeli Arabs: Status of Arabs in Israel." Jewish Virtual Library. March 2016. Israeli Arabs: Status of Arabs in Israel. 2"Palestine refugees." UNRWA. https://www.unrwa.org/palestine-refugees. 3"Jordan." UNRWA. https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/jordan. 4 "Lebanon." UNRWA. https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/lebanon. 5"West Bank." UNRWA. https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/west-bank 5 Anita Shapira, “The Past is not a Foreign Country,” New Republic, November 29, 1999. 6 Howard Sachar, A History of Israel, 2000, pp. 395-405 .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Briefing: Labor Zionism and the Histadrut
    Briefing: Labor Zionism and the Histadrut International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network-Labor, & Labor for Palestine (US), April 13, 2010 We are thus asking the international trade unions to Jewish working class in any country of the boycott the Histadrut to pressure it to guarantee Diaspora.‖6 rights for our workers and to pressure the The socialist movement in Russia, where most government to end the occupation and to recognize Jews lived, was implacably opposed to Zionism, the full rights of the Palestinian people. ―Palestinian which pandered to the very Tsarist officials who Unions call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions,‖ sponsored anti-Semitic pogroms. Similarly, in the February 11, 2007.1 United States, ―[p]overty pushed [Jewish] workers We must call for the isolation of Histadrut, Israel’s into unions organized by the revolutionary minority,‖ racist trade union, which supports unconditionally and ―[a]t its prime, the Jewish labor movement the occupation of Palestine and the inhumane loathed Zionism,‖7 which conspicuously abstained treatment of the Arab workers in Israel. COSATU, from fighting for immigrant workers‘ rights. June 24-26, 2009.2 • Anti-Bolshevism. It was partly to reverse this • Overview. In their call for Boycott, Divestment Jewish working class hostility to Zionism that, on 2 and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel, all November 1917, Britain issued the Balfour Palestinian trade union bodies have specifically Declaration, which promised a ―Jewish National targeted the Histadrut, the Zionist labor federation. Home‖ in Palestine. As discussed below, this is because the Histadrut The British government was particularly anxious has used its image as a ―progressive‖ institution to to weaken Jewish support for the Bolsheviks, who spearhead—and whitewash—racism, apartheid, vowed to take Russia, a key British ally, out of the dispossession and ethnic cleansing against the war.
    [Show full text]
  • A Survey of Textbooks Most Commonly Used to Teach the Arab-Israeli
    A Critical Survey of Textbooks on the Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Working Paper No. 1 │ April 2017 Uzi Rabi Chelsi Mueller MDC Working Paper Series The views expressed in the MDC Working Paper Series are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies or Tel Aviv University. MDC Working Papers have not undergone formal review and approval. They are circulated for discussion purposes only. Their contents should be considered preliminary and are not to be reproduced without the authors' permission. Please address comments and inquiries about the series to: Dr. Chelsi Mueller Research Fellow The MDC for Middle Eastern and African Studies Tel Aviv University Ramat Aviv, 6997801 Israel Email: [email protected] Tel: +972-3-640-9100 US: +1-617-787-7131 Fax: +972-3-641-5802 MDC Working Paper Series Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the research assistants and interns who have contributed significantly to this research project. Eline Rosenhart was with the project from the beginning to end, cataloging syllabi, constructing charts, reading each text from cover to cover, making meticulous notes, transcribing meetings and providing invaluable editorial assistance. Rebekka Windus was a critical eye and dedicated consultant during the year-long reading phase of the project. Natasha Spreadborough provided critical comments and suggestions that were very instrumental during the reading phase of this project. Ben Mendales, the MDC’s project management specialist, was exceptionally receptive to the needs of the team and provided vital logistical support. Last but not least, we are deeply grateful to Prof.
    [Show full text]
  • Jewish-Transjordanian Relations 1921-1948
    JEWISH-TRANSJORDANIAN RELATIONS 1921-48 This page intentionally left blank JEWISH-TRANSJORDANIAN RELATIONS 1921-48 YOAV GELBER University ofHaifa ~ ~~o~;~;n~~~up LONDON AND NEW YORK Firs/ publishd in /1)1)7 bv FRANK CASS & CO. LTD. This edition published 20 13 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 1997 Yoav Gelber British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Gelber, Yoav Jewish-Transjordanian relations, 1921-48 1. Zionism 2. Jews- Politics and government 3. Israel­ Foreign relations-Jordan 4. Jordan- Foreign relations­ Israel I. Tide 327.5'694'05695 ISBN 0-7146-4675-X (cloth) ISBN 0-7146-4206-1 (paper) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gelber, Yoav. Jewish-Transjordanian relations, 1921-48 I Yo'av Gelber. p. em. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-7146-4675-X (cloth).- ISBN 0-7146-4206-1 (pbk.) 1. Jewish-Arab relations,-1917-1949. 2. Transjordan-Politics and government. 3. Palestine-Politics and government,-1917-1948. I. Tide. DS119.7.G389 1996 956.94'04-dc20 96-27429 CIP All rights reseroed. No part of this publication mt{V be reproduced in any fonn, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior penn iss ion ofthe publisher. Typeset by Vitaset, Paddock Wood, Kent Contents Acknowledgements Vll Abbreviations ix Introduction 1 1 Early Zionist interest in TransJordan 7 I 2 The turning point of the
    [Show full text]
  • Israeli Historiograhy's Treatment of The
    Yechiam Weitz Dialectical versus Unequivocal Israeli Historiography’s Treatment of the Yishuv and Zionist Movement Attitudes toward the Holocaust In November 1994, I helped organize a conference called “Vision and Revision.” Its subject was to be “One Hundred Years of Zionist Histo- riography,”1 but in fact it focused on the stormy debate between Zionists and post-Zionists or Old and New Historians, a theme that pervaded Is- rael’s public and academic discourse at the time. The discussion revolved around a number of topics and issues, such as the birth of the Arab refugee question in the War of Independence and matters concerning the war itself. Another key element of the controversy involved the attitude of the Yishuv (the Jewish community in prestate Israel) and the Zionist move- ment toward the Holocaust. There were several parts to the question: what was the goal of the Yishuv and the Zionist leadership—to save the Jews who were perishing in smoldering Europe or to save Zionism? What was more important to Zionism—to add a new cowshed at Kib- butz ‘Ein Harod and purchase another dunam of land in the Negev or Galilee or the desperate attempt to douse the European inferno with a cup of water? What, in those bleak times, motivated the head of the or- ganized Yishuv, David Ben-Gurion: “Palestinocentrism,” and perhaps even loathing for diaspora Jewry, or the agonizing considerations of a leader in a period of crisis unprecedented in human history? These questions were not confined to World War II and the destruc- tion of European Jewry (1939–45) but extended back to the 1930s and forward to the postwar years.
    [Show full text]
  • Georgetown University the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1917-2010 Spring Term 2011 Class 444: Monday, Wednesday 2:40-3:55 Pm Room ICC 104 Syllabus
    Georgetown University The Arab-Israeli Conflict 1917-2010 Spring Term 2011 Class 444: Monday, Wednesday 2:40-3:55 pm Room ICC 104 Syllabus Professor Amatzia Baram E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] Office Hours: Monday, 1.30-2.30 pm, Tuesday 2-3pm or by appointment Office: room 653, 6th floor, ICC Building Phone: (H) 202 640 1962 Office: 202 687 8389 Course Description: This course deals with the most central issues in the Arab-Israeli conflict in both historical and contemporary terms. The first and briefest part of the course deals with the growing clash between the Zionist Yishuv and Arabs of Palestine. It will follow its path since World War One from acceptance to discord and into a long-term conflict. We will begin by examining the roots of Jewish and Arab nationalisms, rival claims to Palestine, and growing conflict during the period of the British Mandate, including the growing involvement of Arab states. The second and main part of this course will cover the years 1947-1985, analyzing the causes and effects of six wars between Israel and the Arab states; those of 1948, 1956, 1967, 1969-70, 1973 and 1982, and the circumstances that made possible the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty of 1979. This stage of the course will also examine the impact of regional and global factors, such as inter-Arab rivalry and the Cold War. The third part of the course, time allowing, will begin with Israel’s withdrawal from most of the Lebanese territories (1985) that was followed by the Palestinian intifada of 1987-1993 and then deal with the Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principles of September 1993 (the Oslo Agreement) and the Israeli-Jordanian peace agreement of 1994.
    [Show full text]
  • A Comparative Analysis Between the Palestinians of Lebanon and Jordan
    Taylor University Pillars at Taylor University Global Studies History, Global & Political Studies Department Spring 2021 A Comparative Analysis Between the Palestinians of Lebanon and Jordan Kassidy Grace Hall Taylor University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://pillars.taylor.edu/globalstudies Part of the International and Area Studies Commons, International and Intercultural Communication Commons, and the Peace and Conflict Studies Commons Recommended Citation Hall, Kassidy Grace, "A Comparative Analysis Between the Palestinians of Lebanon and Jordan" (2021). Global Studies. 1. https://pillars.taylor.edu/globalstudies/1 This Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the History, Global & Political Studies Department at Pillars at Taylor University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Global Studies by an authorized administrator of Pillars at Taylor University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Comparative Analysis Between the Palestinians of Lebanon and Jordan: The History, Integration, and Role of Refugees in the Arab-Israel Conflict and Peace Process Kassidy Hall GBS 480 November 2020 Introduction In many Arab countries, Palestinian affairs are domestic affairs. This is especially true of Jordan, where the US State Department estimates that over half of the population is of Palestinian origin.1 Lebanon, Israel/Palestine’s neighbor to the north, presents a different case. There, Palestinians account for around 10% of the population and are overall poorer and met with more resentment from the government compared to other countries.2 In the wake of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Lebanon and Jordan are two countries out of many in the Middle East that absorbed these Palestinian refugees.
    [Show full text]
  • 1948 Arab‒Israeli
    1948 Arab–Israeli War 1 1948 Arab–Israeli War מלחמת or מלחמת העצמאות :The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence (Hebrew ,מלחמת השחרור :, Milkhemet Ha'atzma'ut or Milkhemet HA'sikhror) or War of Liberation (Hebrewהשחרור Milkhemet Hashikhrur) – was the first in a series of wars fought between the State of Israel and its Arab neighbours in the continuing Arab-Israeli conflict. The war commenced upon the termination of the British Mandate of Palestine and the Israeli declaration of independence on 15 May 1948, following a period of civil war in 1947–1948. The fighting took place mostly on the former territory of the British Mandate and for a short time also in the Sinai Peninsula and southern Lebanon.[1] ., al-Nakba) occurred amidst this warﺍﻟﻨﻜﺒﺔ :Much of what Arabs refer to as The Catastrophe (Arabic The war concluded with the 1949 Armistice Agreements. Background Following World War II, on May 14, 1948, the British Mandate of Palestine came to an end. The surrounding Arab nations were also emerging from colonial rule. Transjordan, under the Hashemite ruler Abdullah I, gained independence from Britain in 1946 and was called Jordan, but it remained under heavy British influence. Egypt, while nominally independent, signed the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 that included provisions by which Britain would maintain a garrison of troops on the Suez Canal. From 1945 on, Egypt attempted to renegotiate the terms of this treaty, which was viewed as a humiliating vestige of colonialism. Lebanon became an independent state in 1943, but French troops would not withdraw until 1946, the same year that Syria won its independence from France.
    [Show full text]
  • The Promise and Failure of the Zionist-Maronite Relationship, 1920-1948
    The Promise and Failure of the Zionist-Maronite Relationship, 1920-1948 Master’s Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Ilan Troen, Graduate Advisor In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Master’s Degree by Scott Abramson February 2012 Acknowledgements I cannot omit the expression of my deepest gratitude to my defense committee, the formidable triumvirate of Professors Troen, Makiya, and Salameh. To register my admiration for these scholars would be to court extravagance (and deplete a printer cartridge), so I shall have to limit myself to this brief tribute of heartfelt thanks. ii ABSTRACT The Promise and Failure of the Zionist-Maronite Relationship, 1920-1948 A thesis presented to the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Waltham, Massachusetts By Scott Abramson Much of the historiography on the intercourse between Palestinian Jews and Lebanese Maronites concerns only the two peoples’ relations in the seventies and eighties. This thesis, in contrast, attempts a departure from this scholarship, joining the handful of other works that chart the history of the Zionist-Maronite relationship in its earliest incarnation. From its inception to its abeyance beginning in 1948, this almost thirty-year relationship was marked by a search of a formal alliance. This thesis, by presenting a panoptical survey of early Zionist-Maronite relations, explores the many dimensions of this pursuit. It details the Zionists and Maronites’ numerous commonalities that made an alliance desirable and apparently possible; it profiles the specific elements among the Zionists and Maronites who sought an entente; it examines each of the measures the two peoples took to this end; and it analyzes why this protracted pursuit ultimately failed.
    [Show full text]
  • Of Benny Morris: Morality in the History of 1948 and the Creation of the Palestinian-Refugee Crisis
    The “Conversion” of Benny Morris: Morality in the History of 1948 and the Creation of the Palestinian-Refugee Crisis JOSIE GRAY The history surrounding the 1948 War and the creation of the Palestinian- refugee crisis continues to be contentious, political, and filled with questions of morality. This is especially true for Benny Morris’s historical work. As an Israeli historian, Morris has made significant contributions to the historiography of 1948, with most of his work focusing on the role that Jewish forces played in the expulsion of Palestinian Arabs in 1948 (something that the Israeli government had denied vehemently). Although celebrated for his historical work, following the collapse of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process in the early 2000s Morris publically announced his support for the expulsion of Palestinians in 1948 and argued that Jewish forces should have expelled every single Palestinian Arab. This paper discusses how a dual commitment to honest historical study and Zionism allowed Morris to announce his support for the atrocities that his own research had uncovered. On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 181, which approved the partition of Mandate Palestine, which had been under British rule since 1920. Although Arabs made up seventy-one per cent of the population, the partition plan allotted fifty-six per cent of the territory to a Jewish state with the Palestinian state receiving forty-two per cent.1 The proposed Jewish state would contain 499,000 Jews and 438,000 Arabs—a bare majority—while the proposed Palestinian state would have 818,000 Arabs and 10,000 Jews.2 The Jewish leadership accepted this plan; Arab representatives rejected it.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    Introduction IN THE COURSE of writing this book, I passed a small milestone in my life. Twenty years ago, while researching my doctoral dissertation on the theory of Zionism, I came across a newly published book on the Israel- Palestine conflict: From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab- Jewish Conflict over Palestine by Joan Peters.1 Promising to revolution- ize our understanding of the conflict, the book was adorned on the back cover with glowing praise from the Who’s Who of American Arts and Letters (Saul Bellow, Elie Wiesel, Barbara Tuchman, Lucy Dawid- owicz, and others), and it went on to garner scores of reviews in the mainstream media ranging from ecstasy to awe. Its first edition, eventu- ally going into seven hardback printings, became a national best seller. The central thesis of Peters’s book, apparently supported by nearly two thousand notes and a recondite demographic study, was that Palestine had been virtually empty on the eve of Zionist colonization and that, after Jews made the deserted parts of Palestine they settled bloom, Arabs from neighboring states and other parts of Palestine migrated to the Jewish areas and pretended to be indigenous. Here was the, as it 1. New York: Harper and Row, 1984. 1 2 INTRODUCTION were, scientific proof that Golda Meir had been right after all: there was no such thing as Palestinians. As it happened, From Time Immemorial was a colossal hoax. Cited sources were mangled, key numbers in the demographic study falsified, and large swaths plagiarized from Zionist propaganda tracts. Docu- menting the hoax and the rather more onerous challenge of publicizing these findings in the media proved to be a turning point for me.
    [Show full text]
  • UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title History in the Public Courtroom: Commissions of Inquiry and Struggles over the History and Memory of Israeli Traumas Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3vf2g7r0 Author Molchadsky, Nadav Gadi Publication Date 2015 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles History in the Public Courtroom: Commissions of Inquiry and Struggles over the History and Memory of Israeli Traumas A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In History by Nadav Gadi Molchadsky 2015 © Copyright by Nadav Gadi Molchadsky 2015 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION History in the Public Courtroom: Commissions of Inquiry and Struggles over the History and Memory of Israeli Traumas by Nadav Gadi Molchadsky Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2015 Professor David N. Myers, Co-Chair Professor Arieh B. Saposnik, Co-Chair This study seeks to shed new light on the complex web of relations among history, historiography and contemporary life. It does so by focusing on Israeli commissions of inquiry that have taken rise in the wake of major national traumas such as failed battles in the 1948 War, the Yom Kippur War, and the assassination of the Zionist leader Chaim Arlosoroff. Each one of these landmark events in the history of Israel was investigated by a state or a military commission of inquiry, whose members and audience operate as authors of history and agents of memory. The study suggests that commissions of inquiry, which have been studied to date primarily as legal, administrative, and political bodies, in fact also operate as a public historian of a unique kind.
    [Show full text]
  • Arab-Israeli Relations Dr
    Arab-Israeli Relations Dr. Daniel Zisenwine Course Number 702.2280 Class Time: TBA Class Location:TBA E-Mail: [email protected] This course introduces students to the study of the Arab-Israeli conflict, from its initial stages starting from the first waves of Zionist immigration to Palestine through the 1948 war and the establishment of the state of Israel. It will focus on the emerging features of the conflict, the struggle between the Palestinian Arab and Jewish Nationalist movements, and the regional and international involvement in these events. Subsequent sessions will focus on the wars of 1956, 1967, 1973 and later developments such as the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty (1979) and Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Moving closer to the present, the course will highlight the 1987 Palestinian Intifada, the Oslo accords and the prospects for peace leading up to the second Intifada and the breakdown of negotiations. We will conclude with a discussion of the current age of uncertainty in the region and the impact of non-state actors (such as Hizballah and Hamas) on the conflict, in an effort to bring the class up to the present as possible. A variety of scholarly studies, diverse opinions, and approaches will provide the background for class discussions. CLASS FORMAT This course uses a lecture and discussion format. Learning as a dynamic process in which the student and teacher interact over the material under discussion. You will learn best by asking questions; all questions are welcome and, if they are of interest to the class as a whole, we will stop and discuss them together.
    [Show full text]