Circumstances of Arab departure from Israel in 1948?

[Thing_Fish]

Yes, I am holding out hope that one more Great Debates thread is all that will be needed to get the Israel/Palestine issue sorted out…well, not really. I have a dream that this thread can stay focused on one specific issue and not immediately turn into a train wreck like so many of these threads do. Indeed, if I were even more pathologically optimistic than I am, I would have posted this in GQ.

In another thread, cmkeller recently wrote:

“The Palestinians who fled did so because the Arab governments told them to in order fot their armies to more easily overrun the state of Israel. The Israeli government at the broadcast requests begging the natives to stay, but most didn’t listen.”

I would like this thread to be devoted to examining that specific claim. I had been under the impression that it is generally regarded as having been pretty well debunked by the new generation of Israeli historians, most notably Benny Morris in his 1988 work* The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949*. Full disclosure: I have not actually read this book, but it is quoted extensively in Rabbi Michael Lerner’s Healing Israel/Palestine , which I highly recommend and which can be ordered from Tikkun Books.

My understanding is that the Palestinians left because they feared that they would be murdered if they did not, and that indeed the inhabitants of many Arab villages were in fact massacred and/or driven from their homes by either the IDF or irregular Zionist militias; the extent to which these actions were centrally planned by the emerging Israeli state as opposed to representing independent decisions of local commanders remains unclear.

Although I cannot locate a cite, I have heard that the alleged radio broadcasts urging Arabs to leave their homes in order to make it easier for Arab armies to sweep down and exterminate the Jewish population were entirely mythical.

Some relevant quotes from Morris by way of Lerner: (Almost every instance of Palestinian mass flight from April through June of 1948)"was the direct and immediate result of an attack on and conquest of those neighborhoods and towns. In no case did a population abandon its homes before an attack; in almost all cases it did so on the very day of the attack and in the days immediately following.

(The) uniform or at least similar nature of the massacres points to a belief among the perpetrators of central direction and authorization…almost all the massacres followed a similar course: a unit (of the IDF) entered a village, rounded up the menfolk in the village square, selected four or ten or fifty of the army-age males…lined them up against a wall and shot them"

So the question for this thread is: does any credible historian argue that Zionist military pressure was not the main impetus for the flight of the people who would become the Palestinian refugees? Is there any evidence that Arab governments actually urged the Arabs to leave voluntarily in order to expedite the destructionn of Israel? If so, is there any evidence that these urgings actually were a significant factor in the decision of significant numbers of Arabs to leave?

To be clear, I am not putting this question forth in order to promote any anti-Israel agenda. I am quite aware that Arabs also committed many atrocities during the war, that both local Palestinians and Arab governments were calling for the massacre of the Jewish population and that very few Palestinians had shown any empathy for the legitimate needs of the Jewish refugees fleeing from Hitler and the various other anti-Semitic European regimes. In light of all that, it was not unreasonable for the Zionists to see the existence of a substantial Arab minority in Israel as an existential threat to the state, and to respond accordingly. However, if we are ever to find a path to healing and reconciliation, I believe that we must strive to find the most objective possible account of the historical circumstances that led to the current mess, and it is in that spirit that I offer this thread, in hopes that one day the descendants of Abraham will be able to live together in peace and harmony.

I may not be able to check back in for a few days; I thank you all in advance for your thoughtful, well-cited and respectful contributions.

[DSeid]

@Thing Fish

So the question for this thread is: does any credible historian argue that Zionist military pressure was not the main impetus for the flight of the people who would become the Palestinian refugees? Is there any evidence that Arab governments actually urged the Arabs to leave voluntarily in order to expedite the destructionn of Israel? If so, is there any evidence that these urgings actually were a significant factor in the decision of significant numbers of Arabs to leave?

As I posted in my limited contribution to that morass of a thread referenced in your op, boths sides have myths that can be debunked and the interested reader can find good fairly objective sources if they care to actually look. To your narrow question:

As early as December, 1947, Arabs had begun abandoning their homes and leaving Palestine. The exodus began earliest in Arab neighborhoods of West Jerusalem such as Rumeima (now Romema). By the time the British left Palestine, about a quarter of a million Arabs had become refugees. Another half million, approximately, fled or were forced to leave during the war. The reasons for leaving varied. In Beersheba and Safed, the Arabs left before Jewish troops had entered. In Lod and Ramlah, the Arab population was expelled by force, as were Arabs who remained in Isdood (Ashdod) and other towns. Subsequently Israel enacted a law that forbade the return of refugees. During the war, Jews fled from areas conquered by Arabs without exception, or were escorted out as in the old City of Jerusalem. No Jews at all were allowed to return to the the West Bank areas conquered by Jordan in 1948, and all their property was turned over to a Custodian of Absentee property, as the Israeli did for property of Arabs who had fled.

Israeli partisans often assert that the Arab Palestinian refugees left because Arab radio broadcasts and Arab leaders told them to leave and make way for invading Arab armies, promising them a quick and easy return. Palestinian partisans claim this is not so, and that the Palestinians were forcibly expelled. In fact, there is evidence of expulsion, of fear of expulsion but also of encouragement by Arab leaders to leave. Perhaps the most potent factor was that in many towns the leaders of the Arab communities had already left

But as to your other statement

and that indeed the inhabitants of many Arab villages were in fact massacred and/or driven from their homes by either the IDF or irregular Zionist militias; the extent to which these actions were centrally planned by the emerging Israeli state as opposed to representing independent decisions of local commanders remains unclear.

Clearly there was fear, some real by that point and some fabricated. Many? An overstatement. Much has been exaggerated and there is good evidence that no central planning existed although early Zionist leaders were not above encouraging the fear.

There is no doubt that Jewish actions from the start of the conflict encouraged the flight of Palestinians.
<snip>
Whatever happened at Deir Yassin, the news or rumor greatly magnified it. … Hazem Nusseibeh, who worked for the Palestine Broadcasting Service in 1948, admitted being told by Hussein Khalidi, a Palestinian Arab leader, to fabricate the atrocity claims. Abu Mahmud, a Deir Yassin resident in 1948 told Khalidi “there was no rape,” but Khalidi replied, “We have to say this, so the Arab armies will come to liberate Palestine from the Jews.” In a BBC documentary marking 50 years of the conflict, Nusseibeh admitted, “This was our biggest mistake. We did not realize how our people would react. As soon as they heard that women had been raped at Deir Yassin, Palestinians fled in terror.”
<snip>
On the other hand, expulsions and massacres were not a result of consistent policy. In Haifa, the Jewish mayor and the labor leader, Abba Khoushi, pleaded with fleeing Arab residents to stay. Israel government ministers expressed shock at reports of expulsions and massacres and commissions were appointed to investigating them. Significant Arab populations remained in Acco, Lod, Yaffo, Haifa, Nazareth and Ramleh, and in the town of Abu Ghosh in the Jerusalem corridor, which had signed a pact with the Jews. In some cases, such as Acco, the remaining population was protected by the intervention of government ministers.

Mainly Arabs of the area left because leadership had left, was encouraging them to follow, and fear of harm which was exaggerated by both sides’ leaderships.

[griffin1977]

And from a purely logical point of view, it seems unlikely to me any military leader would try an convince their own people to leave en-masse, in those kind of circumstances.

What would they hope to benefit ? How would having their communication and supply routes clogged with refugees make it easier to overun Israel ?

When has one side in civil war ever done something like this ? In every similar situation I can think of (Sunni/Shai in modern day Iraq, Yugoslavia, Lebanon, etc.) one ethnic group has done their best to expel OPPOSING groups, and if possible replace them with their own people, not encourage their own side to leave.

[DanBlather]

@griffin1977

And from a purely logical point of view, it seems unlikely to me any military leader would try an convince their own people to leave en-masse, in those kind of circumstances.

What would they hope to benefit ? How would having their communication and supply routes clogged with refugees make it easier to overrun Israel ?

I have no idea why Arabs fled Israel, but the argument that they didn’t leave voluntarily because it would be illogical and against their own interests doesn’t have much pull with me. The Palestinians always seem to do the most illogical and counterproductive act they can think of. Trying to influence world opinion by kidnapping Olympic athletes, siding with the Soviets, etc.

[Thing_Fish]

DSeid, thank you very much for referring me to that website. It certainly appears to be a comprehensive resource, and the political bias appears to align with my own (also, apparently, yours), so I am happy to know it is out there. I would have liked it even better if the essays had come with references, however, and it wasn’t as helpful as I had hoped with my actual question.

In fact, there is evidence of…encouragement by Arab leaders to leave. Perhaps the most potent factor was that in many towns the leaders of the Arab communities had already left

It’s nice to hear that there is such evidence, but I would like to know what it actually is! Specifically, is there a cite from anyone who can testify to actually making, or at least hearing, such statements of encouragement? And I wonder, is there any evidence as to the question of whether the Arab leaders had left as part of some grand strategic plan as opposed to just wanting to save their skins?

Also quoting from that site,

Palestinians point out that Zionists carried out a number of massacres and terrorist operations, notably in Deir Yassin, where Irgun and Lehi forces killed about 110 villagers, and that the Haganah had formulated Plan D, which, the Palestinian partisans claim, was a plan for expulsion of the Arabs from Palestine. However, while Plan D called for expulsion of Arabs from hostile villages and towns in strategic locations, it did not deal with non-belligerents or with villages or towns that were not in strategic locations. They also point out that that Deir Yassin massacre was carried out by dissident Irgun and Lehi groups, and condemned by the Jewish agency. However, none of the participants were ever punished, and the Haganah and IDF later carried out evictions and massacres on their own.

, which does not make it sound as though the quote you objected to from the OP was substantially wrong; I suppose in the interests of being non-inflammatory we could replace “many” with “several”. As far as central planning, the phrase above which strikes me as relevant is “none of the participants were ever punished”. This is reminding me of “Well, nobody in the Bush administration ever actually said it was OK to torture prisoners!”; it seems that although there was likely no centralized conspiracy to ethnically cleanse the land, there was at least a widespread (though not universal) willingness to wink at human rights violations which promoted this end.

[DSeid]

The evidence, or at least some of it, is provided in the very page linked to. Contemporaneous sources both of the West and in Arab media, such as:

Edward Atiyah, the secretary of the Arab League Office in London, wrote in his book, The Arabs: “This wholesale exodus was due partly to the belief of the Arabs, encouraged by the boastings of an unrealistic Arabic press and the irresponsible utterances of some of the Arab leaders that it could be only a matter of weeks before the Jews were defeated by the armies of the Arab States and the Palestinian Arabs enabled to re enter and retake possession of their country.”

According to Near East Arabic Radio, April 3, 1948: “It must not be forgotten that the Arab Higher Committee encouraged the refugees to flee from their homes in Jaffa, Haifa and Jerusalem, and that certain leaders . . . make political capital out of their miserable situation . . .”

Nimr el Hawari, the Commander of the Palestine Arab Youth Organization, in his book Sir Am Nakbah (The Secret Behind the Disaster, published in Nazareth in 1955), quoted the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Said as saying “We will smash the country with our guns and obliterate every place the Jews seek shelter in. The Arabs should conduct their wives and children to safe areas until the fighting has died down.”

Habib Issa wrote in the New York Lebanese daily newspaper Al Hoda on June 8, 1951, " The Secretary General of the Arab League, Azzam Pasha, assured the Arab peoples that the occupation of Palestine and of Tel Aviv would be as simple as a military promenade… He pointed out that they were already on the frontiers and that all the millions the Jews had spent on land and economic development would be easy booty, for it would be a simple matter to throw Jews into the Mediterranean. – Brotherly advice was given to the Arabs of Palestine to leave their land, homes, and property and to stay temporarily in neighbouring fraternal states, lest the guns of the invading Arab armies mow them down."

Yup. On the scale of atrocities 110 killed by a rougue element, and probably a few dozen more elsewhere, is not “many”. Remember the context: since the 1920s massacres, pograms, and orchestrated riots against Jewish populations were policy of Arab leadership. Hebron’s Jewish population was killed off and expulsed. While Zionist leadership was mainly condemning abuses by their own, Arab leadership was calling for “a war of extermination” (Azzam Pasha, secretary general of the Arab League) and encouraging the Arab populus to “Murder the Jews! Murder them all!” (Haj Amin al Husseini, “Palestinian spirtual leader”) Now the context in no way justifies the abuses, but it does place it within a perspective of what is “many” and what is a centrally organized plan to ethnically cleanse the land and what is a few without any central plan .

[DSeid]

Also linked is this primary source, the police report from Haifa 4/26/1948

At a meeting yesterday afternoon Arab leaders reiterated their determination to evacuate the entire Arab population

(Please note that the link is careful to put this in full context that while Jewisish leadership was pleading for Arabs to stay, some Jewish groups were simultaneously looting Arab stores.)

[Thing_Fish]

Thank you very much, DSeid. Consider my ignorance on this point fought!