FACTS ABOUT ARAB REFUGEES.

FACTS ABOUT ARAB REFUGEES.

2006 - Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah:

"I have a special message to the Arabs of Haifa, to your martyrs and to your wounded. I call you to leave this city. I hope you do this. ... Please leave so we don't shed your blood, which is our blood."

1948 - Palestinian journalist describes Arab leaders action in 1948:

"To the [Arab] Kings and Presidents: Poverty is killing us... yet you are still searching for the way to provide aid... like the armies of your predecessors in the year of 1948, who forced us to leave [Israel], on the pretext of clearing the battlefields of civilians... " [Fuad Abu Higla, columnist official PA daily Al Hayat Al Jadida, in an article before an Arab Summit, critical of Arab leaders for a series of failures. Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, March 19, 2001]

"The Arab exodus from other villages were not caused by actual battle, but by the exaggerated description spread by Arab leaders to encourage the other Arab nations to fight the Jews." Yunes Ahmed Assad, A survivor of the Deir Yassin massacre, Al Urdun, 1948

“After the battle they took 14 prisoners and line them up by the quarry and mowed them down. They threw their bodies into the quarry… That is what happened.” Abu Mahmoud (resident of Deir Yassin)

“I saw 20 men taken to the quarry. They lined them up and they killed them. Just like that. Shot dead. While this was going on, Jews came from the next village (Givat Shaul) They were mainly religious. They started yelling, "Bastards! Murderers! What are you doing?" Some were shouting in Hebrew and some in Yiddish. They stopped the massacre. Meir Pail (Haganah Officer)

“We (the survivors) gathered by Hebron gate (in Jerusalem) and we checked who was missing. Then the Palestinian leaders arrived, including Dr Khalidi...” Abu Mahmoud

“I asked Dr Khalidi how we should cover the story. He said, "We must make the most of this." So we wrote a press release stating that, at Deir Yassin, pregnant women were raped and all sort of other atrocities..” Hazem Nusseibeh (Palestinian Broadcasting Service)

“We said, ‘There was no rape.’ He said ‘We have to say this so the Arab armies will come to liberate Palestine from the Jews.’ Abu Mahmoud

"This was our biggest mistake. We did not realise how our people would react. As soon as they heard that women had been raped the Palestinians fled in terror. They ran away from all our villages”. Hazem Nusseibeh,

"The Jews never intended to hurt the population of the village but were forced to do so after they met hostile fire from the population which killed the Irgun commander." Yunes Ahmed Assad a survivor of Dir Yassin in the Jordan daily Al Urdun (April 9, 1953):

"Deir Yassin has ever since been the rallying call for the Arabs and the enemies of Israel and of the Jewish people. Arafat compares it to Auschwitz. It is one of the great hoaxes of the 20th century, comparable to the libel that Jews drank Christian blood...The fight for Deir Yassin was part of the war and a necessary battle for Jewish survival. The Irgun, under Menachem Begin, warned the Arabs and asked them to evacuate their women and children. Hundreds left, but hundreds stayed. A pitched battle ensued, and when the smoke cleared, 120 Arabs were killed, 40 Jews were seriously injured and four Jews were dead...[The 'massacre' claim] has long since been discredited by the Israeli government and every other historical study. But like all libels, it stands off truth and proof."

Syndicated columnist Sid Zion, The New York Daily News, March 23, 1998:

"The fact that there are these refugees is the direct consequence of the actions of the Arab states, in opposing partition and the Jewish State. The Arab States agreed to this policy unanimously, and they must share in the solution of the problem." Emile Ghoury, an Arab commander and Palestine High Committee secretary, the Beirut Daily Telegraph 1948.

,"The Arabs did not want to submit to a truce.... They rather preferred to abandon their homes, their belongings, and everything they possessed in the world and leave the town. And this they in fact did." Acting committee chairman Jamal Husseini, speaking to the UN in 1948.

“The Arab states, which had encouraged the Palestinian Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies have failed to keep their promise to help these refugees.” The Jordanian daily paper Falastin, Feb 19th, 1949

"The Arabs of Palestine left their homes, were scattered, and lost everything. But there remained one solid hope: The Arab armies were on the eve of their entry into Palestine to save the country and return things to their normal course, punish the aggressor, and throw oppressive Zionism with its dreams and dangers into the sea. On May 14, 1948, crowds of Arabs stood by the roads leading to the frontiers of Palestine, enthusiastically welcoming the advancing armies. Days and weeks passed, sufficient to accomplish the sacred mission, but the Arab armies did not save the country. They did nothing but let slip from their hands Acre, Sarafand, Lydda, Ramleh, Nazareth, most of the south and the rest of the north. Then hope fled." Musa Alami, Middle East Journal, October 1949)

"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." Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri, [Myron Kaufman, The Coming Destruction of Israel, (NY: The American Library inc., 1970), pp. 26-27].

“Who brought the Palestinians to Lebanon as refugees, suffering now from the malign attitude of newspapers and communal leaders, who have neither honour or conscience? Who brought them over in dire straits and penniless, after they lost their honour? The Arab states, and Lebanon among them, did it.” The Beirut Muslim weekly Kul-shay Aug 19th 1951

"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 only be 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. [Edward Atiyah, the Secretary of the Arab League Office in London, “The Arabs”, (London: Penguin Books, 1955), p.183].

"The refugees were confident their absence would not last long, and that they would return in a week or two," Monsignor George Hakim, a Greek Orthodox Catholic Bishop of Galilee told a Beirut newspaper. "Their leaders had promised them that the Arab Armies would crush the Zionist gangs very quickly and that there was no need for panic or fear for a long exile." [Sada al-Janub (August 16, 1948) quoted in Samuel Katz, Battleground, pp.14-15]

"It must not be forgotten that the Arab Higher Committee encouraged the refugees' flight from their homes in Jaffa, Haifa, and Jerusalem.” The Near East Broadcasting Station (Cyprus) April 3rd 1949. [Samuel Katz, Battleground, (NY:Bantam Books, 1985) p. 15].

"The Arab States encouraged the Palestine Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies." [Jordanian Newspaper Filastin, (February 19, 1949), quoted in Katz, p.16-17].

"The mass evacuation, prompted partly by fear, partly by order of Arab leaders, left the Arab quarter of Haifa a ghost city...By withdrawing Arab workers their leaders hoped to paralyze Haifa.". [Time, (May 3, 1948) p. 25].

"The Arab National Committee in Jerusalem, following the March 8, 1948, instructions of the Arab Higher Committee, ordered women, children and the elderly in various parts of Jerusalem to leave their homes: "Any opposition to this order...is an obstacle to the holy war...and will hamper the operations of the fighters in these districts." [Benny Morris, "Operation Dani and the Palestinian Exodus from Lydda and Ramle in 1948," Middle Eastern Studies (January 1986), p. 16.]

“The departure of the women and children tended to sap the morale of the menfolk who were left behind to guard the homes and fields, contributing ultimately to the final evacuation of villages. Such two-tier evacuation - women and children first, the men following weeks later - occurred in Qumiya in the Jezreel Valley, among the Awarna bedouin in Haifa Bay and in various other places." [Morris, January 1986), p. 16].

"The Secretary-General of the Arab League, Azzam Pasha, assured the Arab peoples that the occupation of Palestine and 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 neighboring fraternal states, lest the guns of the invading Arab armies mow them down." [Habib Issa in the New York Lebanese newspaper, Al Hoda, ( June 8, 1951), quoted in Katz, p. 17].

The beginning of the Arab exodus can be traced to the weeks immediately following the announcement of the UN partition resolution. The first to leave were the wealthy Arabs who anticipated the upcoming war and fled to neighboring Arab countries to await its end. Less affluent Arabs from the mixed cities of Palestine moved to all-Arab towns to stay with relatives or friends. "This practice of avoiding trouble was by no means a novelty in Palestine: During the fierce 1936-39 riots, some 40,000 upper class Arabs also left the country. [Joseph Schechtman, The Refugee in the World, (NY: A.S. Barnes and Co., 1963) p. 184].

"The Arabs thought they would win in less than the twinkling of an eye and that it would take no more than a day or two from the time the Arab armies crossed the border until all the colonies were conquered and the enemy would throw down his arms and cast himself on their mercy." [Yehoshofat Harkabi, Arab Attitudes To Israel, (Jerusalem: Israel Universities Press, 1972), p. 369].

"The tragedy of the Palestinians was that most of their leaders had paralyzed them with false and unsubstantiated promises that they were not alone; that 80 million Arabs and 400 million Muslims would instantly and miraculously come to their rescue. [King Abdullah, My Memoirs Completed, (London: Longman Group, Ltd., 1978), p. xvi.]

“The Arab governments told us: ‘Get out so that we can get in.’ So we got out but they did not get in.” Ad Difaa, Jordan Sept 6th 1954

“For the flight- it is our leaders who are responsible. They instilled fear and terror into the hearts of the Arabs of Palestine until they fled, leaving their homes and their properties to the enemy.” Al Urdun, Jordan, April the 9th 1953.

"The Arab civilians panicked and fled ignominiously. Villages were frequently abandoned before they were threatened by the progress of war." General Glubb Pasha.

"About half probably left out of fear and panic …while the rest were forced out to make room for Jewish immigrants from Europe and from the Arab world".. www.palestinehistory.com/palst.htm

“The 15th May 1948 arrived...On that day the Mufti of Jerusalem appealed to the Arabs of Palestine to leave the country because the Arab armies were about to enter and fight in their stead.” Akhbar El Yom Oct 12th 1963.

"The Arab armies entered Palestine to protect the Palestinians from the Zionist tyranny but, instead, THEY ABANDONED THEM, FORCED THEM TO EMIGRATE AND TO LEAVE THEIR HOMELAND, imposed upon them a political and ideological blockade and threw them into prisons similar to the ghettos in which the Jews used to live in Eastern Europe, as if we were condemmed to change places with them; they moved out of their ghettos and we occupied similar ones. The Arab States succeeded in scattering the Palestinian people and in destroying their unity. They did not recognize them as a unified people until the States of the world did so, and this is regrettable". Abu Mazen, from the article titled: "What We Have Learned and What We Should Do", published in Falastin el Thawra, the official journal of the PLO, of Beirut, in March 1976

"The first group of our fifth column consists of those who abandon their houses and businesses and go to live elsewhere. . . . At the first sign of trouble they take to their heels to escape sharing the burden of struggle." Ash Shalab (Jaffa newspaper), January 30, 1948

“Jews hope poverty will cause laborers [to] return [to] Haifa as many are already doing despite Arab attempts [to] persuade them [to] keep out. Two days later, according to Lippincott, even Farid Saad of the National Committee (the official leadership body of Haifa Arabs), acknowledged that Jewish leaders had “organized a large propaganda campaign to persuade [the] Arabs to return.” In contrast, the Arab Emergency Committee employed scaremongering and threats to keep residents from returning. For example, Sheikh Abd al-Rahman Murad of the National Committee warned a number of escapees from the neighborhood of Wadi Nisnas that if they returned as they planned, the Jews would kill them all – women and children alike." The American Vice Consul, Aubrey Lippincott, April 25th 1948

"The Arab streets are curiously deserted and, ardently following the poor example of the more moneyed class there has been an exodus from Jerusalem too, though not to the same extent as in Jaffa and Haifa." London Times, May 5, 1948

"Of the 62,000 Arabs who formerly live in Haifa not more than 5,000 or 6,000 remained. Various factors influenced their decision to seek safety in flight. There is but little doubt that the most potent of the factors were the announcements made over the air by the -Higher Arab Executive, urging the Arabs to quit.. . . It was clearly intimated that those Arabs who remained in Haifa and accepted Jewish protection would be regarded as renegades." The London weekly Economist, October 2, 1948

"It must not be forgotten that the Arab Higher Committee encouraged the refugees' flight from their homes in Jaffa, Haifa, and Jerusalem." Near East Arabic Broadcasting Station, Cyprus, April 3, 1949

The Arab exodus, initially at least, was encouraged by many Arab leaders, such as Haj Amin el Husseini, the exiled pro-Nazi Mufti of Jerusalem, and by the Arab Higher Committee for Palestine. They viewed the first wave of Arab setbacks as merely transitory. Let the Palestine Arabs flee into neighboring countries. It would serve to arouse the other Arab peoples to greater effort, and when the Arab invasion struck, the Palestinians could return to their homes and be compensated with the property of Jews driven into the sea. - Kenneth Bilby, in New Star in the Near East (New York, 1950), pp. 30-31

Some of the Arab leaders and their ministers in Arab capitals . . . declared that they welcomed the immigration of Palestinian Arabs into the Arab countries until they saved Palestine. Many of the Palestinian Arabs were misled by their declarations.... It was natural for those Palestinian Arabs who felt impelled to leave their country to take refuge in Arab lands . . . and to stay in such adjacent places in order to maintain contact with their country so that to return to it would be easy when, according to the promises of many of those responsible in the Arab countries (promises which were given wastefully), the time was ripe. Many were of the opinion that such an opportunity would come in the hours between sunset and sunrise. Arab Higher Committee, in a memorandum to the Arab League, Cairo, 1952, quoted in The Refugee in the World, by Joseph B. Schechtman, 1963

"[The Arabs of Haifa] fled in spite of the fact that the Jewish authorities guaranteed their safety and rights as citizens of Israel." - Monsignor George Hakim, Greek Catholic Bishop of Galilee, according to Rev. Karl Baehr, Executive Secretary of the American Christian Palestine Committee, New York Herald Tribune, June 30, 1949

"Every effort is being made by the Jews to persuade the Arab populace to stay and carry on with their normal lives, to get their shops and businesses open and to be assured that their lives and interests will be safe. [However] ...A large road convoy, escorted by [British] military . . . left Haifa for Beirut yesterday. . . . Evacuation by sea goes on steadily. ...[Two days later, the Jews were] still making every effort to persuade the Arab populace to remain and to settle back into their normal lives in the towns... [as for the Arabs,] another convoy left Tireh for Transjordan, and the evacuation by sea continues. The quays and harbor are still crowded with refugees and their household effects, all omitting no opportunity to get a place an one of the boats leaving Haifa."" - Haifa District HQ of the British Police, April 26, 1948, quoted in Battleground by Samuel Katz

"the military and civil authorities and the Jewish representative expressed their profound regret at this grave decision [to evacuate]. The [Jewish] Mayor of Haifa made a passionate appeal to the delegation to reconsider its decision" The Arab National Committee of Haifa, told to the Arab League, quoted in The Refugee in the World, by Joseph B. Schechtman, 1963

"...our city flourished and developed for the good of both Jewish and Arab residents ... Do not destroy your homes with your own hands; do not bring tragedy upon yourselves by unnecessary evacuation and self-imposed burdens. By moving out you will be overtaken by poverty and humiliation. But in this city, yours and ours, Haifa, the gates are open for work, for life, and for peace, for you and your families." The Haifa Workers' Council bulletin, 28 April 1948

"...the Jewish hagana asked (using loudspeakers) Arabs to remain at their homes but the most of the Arab population followed their leaders who asked them to leave the country." The TIMES of London, reporting events of 22.4.48

The next day, Haifa’s remaining Arab leadership met with Stockwell and his advisers to discuss their evacuation. Almost all of the 30,000 decided to leave, and a few days later, only 3,000 remained in Haifa. After the Arabs left, Jews urged their former neighbors to return.

"As early as the first months of 1948 the Arab League issued orders exhorting the people to seek a temporary refuge in neighboring countries, later to return to their abodes in the wake of the victorious Arab armies and obtain their share of abandoned Jewish property." - Bulletin of The Research Group for European Migration Problems, 1957

"Long before the end of the British mandate, between January and April, 48, practically all my Arab Palestinian staff of some 200 men and women and all of the 1800 labor force had left Haifa in spite of every possible effort to assure them of their safety if they stayed. They all left for one or more of the following reasons:

"1. The Arab terrorism engendered by the November, 1947, U.N. partition resolution frightened them to death of their imaginative souls and they feared Jewish retaliation.

"2. Propagandists promised a blood bath as soon as the mandate ended in which the street of all the cities would run with blood.

"3. The promised invasion by the foreign Arab armies (which started on May 14, 1948, with the Arab Legion massacre of some 200 Jewish settlers at Kfar Etzion) was preceded by extensive broadcasts from Cairo, Damascus, Amman, and Beirut to the effect that any Arabs who stayed would be hanged as collaborators with the Jews.”

Harry C. Stebbens, who was in an official position in the British Mandatory Government in Palestine in 1947-48, London Evening Standard (Friday, 10 January, 1969):

One morning in April 1948, Dr. Jamal woke us to say that the Arab Higher Committee (AHC), led by the Husseinis, had warned Arab residents of Talbieh to leave immediately. The understanding was that the residents would be able to return as conquerors as soon as the Arab forces had thrown the Jews out. Dr. Jamal made the point repeatedly that he was leaving because of the AHC's threats, not because of the Jews, and that he and his frail wife had no alternative but to go. Commentary Magazine -- January 2000,

"But while they (the Arab refugees) express no bitterness against the Jews...they speak with the utmost bitterness of the Egyptians and other Arab states: 'We know who our enemies are,' they will say, and they are referring to their Arab brothers who, they declare, persuaded them unnecessarily to leave their homes." A British diplomat following a visit to refugees in Gaza. British Foreign Office Document #371/75342/XC/A/4991

IS ISLAM  A  RELIGION OF PEACE?
IS ISLAM  A PEACEFUL FAITH?
WHO STARTED THE WAR IN 1947?
WHY  DID THE ARABS LEAVE ISRAEL?
HOW MANY ARABS FLED?
ARAB HELP FOR THEIR REFUGEES.

Let’s put things into context
A  comparison with refugees worldwide
WHAT IF THE JEWS LOST ANY  WAR?
Dear Prime MinisterTO THE BRITISH PEOPLE
Three very  brave Arabs
A  Palestinian speaks out
Joseph Farah speaks
We must stop blaming Israel
Do Palestinians really  want  peace?
What  do the Palestinians  really  think about Israel?
TO THE MOSLEM ARABS

Israel’s best defence
TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE IN ISRAEL
HOW WILL IT ALL END?