Perhaps it is an interesting though probably unanswerable question as to how many of those Arabs who migrated in 1880-1940 were of families who had migrated out during the previous 200 years of Turkish misrule?
Don't get me wrong, I agree there is no such thing as "Palestinians" as defined today. Its as ephemeral as most modern so-called nationalities (what is a Belgian? - there is no such people who go by that name, just Walloons and Flemings). But there certainly were native Arab inhabitants throughout the country. What's more, the Arabs always considered what we now call Syria, Jordan, Paelstine, Israel, and Lebanon to be one country called Syria. Its disengenuous to say that Arabs moving from Syria to Palestine in 1930 aren't legitimate inhabitants of Palestine because the British and French arbitrarily drew some lines on maps 10 years previous in dividing up what was one country. This is like claiming that Americans cannot move between different states within the US.
What is irrelevant is the origins 100 years ago of the people living there today. Most of the present inhabitants (Jewish and Arab) were born between the Jordan and the Sea. Its as much their homeland as any land of immigrants like Australia, the US, Canada, or S. Africa. That is the relevant point, not the origin of some Jews in Poland 50 or 80 years ago, or the origin of some Arabs in what is now Syria 50 or 80 years ago.
If Jews and Arabs living there today cannot live together within one state in that area, then they need to figure out a way to partition the land into a Jewish State and an Arab state to make as many people as possible happy. The only other solution is a continuation of the past 50 years of war and terror. The rest of the world does not view that as a viable option.
I am stating what those who came through the area did not lie when they called the land desolate, forsaken, broken-hearted, and in desperate need of population.
My argument is with Arafat who said that the land was "verdant, and supporting a thriving population." That simply is not true.
In 1947, the UN counted any Arab that had been effected by the War for Independence as indigenous population. These Arabs have grown into 5,000,000 who Arafat insists must be repatriated into Israel population.
This is a lie. Most of those Arabs who ended up in refugee camps were illegal immigrants and im-migrants from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt. There is overwhelming documentation that states that.
Its disengenuous to say that Arabs moving from Syria to Palestine in 1930 aren't legitimate inhabitants of Palestine because the British and French arbitrarily drew some lines on maps 10 years previous in dividing up what was one country. This is like claiming that Americans cannot move between different states within the US.
So now it's disegnenous to say that Arabs moving from Syria to Palestine in 1930 weren't illegal immigrants... What? Even the Syrian government agreed that they were illegal immigrants. As did the French who had the Syrian Mandate. So did the British. So did the League of Nations.
Most of the present inhabitants (Jewish and Arab) were born between the Jordan and the Sea.
So? Does that give a illegal in-migrant who migrated to Jaffa in 1936 to take a good paying job and take advantage of a health-care the right to call himself indigenous and demand that he has a right to return back to the house that he owned since time immemorial.
Does that give Arafat the right to demand that 5,000,000 indigenous people receive title to something they have no right to claim.
I have never said that there weren't Arabs in the Palestine mandate. I have never said that some of those Arabs who did own property.
I am stating the facts... the twisting of those facts by Arafat propaganda and the Arab demand that those 5,000,000's property be returned. Property that most of them can produce title to because most were just recent arrivals and not the owner of the land from time immemorial.