Israel expelled Palestinian Arabs from the British Mandate Palestine.

The Israeli Response

The displacement of Palestinians in the Nakba is the direct result of the war launched by Arab leaders to destroy the Jewish state.

Key Points

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:

472,000 to 750,000 Palestinian Arabs and over 850,000 Jews from Arab states becoming refugees.

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.”

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

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

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.

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

By adhering to the calls of Israel’s enemies, the Palestinians betrayed the state of Israel and forfeited their valid claim to the land.

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.

“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]

From the Media

Palestinian refugees in Gaza, 2023

Resources

↗Timeline of the Ancient kingdom of Israel. ↗Factsheets: The right of return ↗Factsheets: Palestinian refugees

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.

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