800,000 Arabs were either expelled or left voluntarily in the war of 1948, depending on which authority you listen to.Sorry... but: that old blood libel won't fly. Using nothing but Arab sources, it quickly becomes apparent that the Jews had nothing to do with the (so-called) "Palestinians" leaving their homes in '48. "In his 1972 memoirs, the former prime minister of Syria, Khalid al-Az, placed the entire blame for the refugee problem on the Arabs:
'Since 1948 it was we who demanded the return of the refugees... while it was we who made them leave... We brought disaster upon Arab refugees, by inviting them and bringing pressure upon them to leave... We have rendered them dispossessed.'
"Even Mahmoud Abbas, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, in 2003 has accused the Arab armies of having abandoned the Palestinians after they:
'forced them to emigrate and to leave their homes.'
"In 1980, the Arab National Committee of Haifa wrote a memorandum to the Arab states that included the following:
'The removal of the Arab inhabitants... was voluntary, and was carried out at our request. The Arab delegation proudly asked for the evacuation of the Arabs, and their removal to the neighboring Arab countries.' "
It seems apparent that you badly need a crash course in basic Middle Eastern history. Start with these:
Myths and Facts: A Guide To the Arab-Israeli Conflict, by Mitchell G. Bard
The Case For Israel, by Alan Dershowitz
From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict Over Palestine, by Joan Peters
[quotations referenced above are from these three sources]
This is so much nonsense. There are Israeli sources, there are British and American sources which corroborate the Palestinian point of view. BBC had monitored all radio broadcasts for 1948--they are in the British Museum and are open to scholars. They indicate no evidence Arab leaders urged Palestinians by radio to leave their homes and possessions. The International Red Cross, the New York Times and other organizations reported deliberate Israeli terror campaigns by Haganah and Irgun. It is absurd to think everybody lied but the Israelis. Moreover, Israel had an obligation to allow these people to return. Instead they destroyed Arab villages, confiscated Arab property in towns and cities and offered not a dime of compensation. Many of the most respected Israeli scholars now admit this happened. Moreover, within months of the exodus, Count Bernadotte of Sweden investigated and reported widespread Israeli terrorism against Arabs. A report was written-up and submitted to the UN General Assembly. This was the same Count Bernadotte who was shortly thereafter assassinated by the Israeli Stern Gang.