Know Your History: Israel’s Offer to Repatriate Arab Refugees, July 1967

[Solomon2]

@Serpentine @500 @TaimiKhan

Know Your History: Israel’s Offer to Repatriate Arab Refugees, July 1967

A new series where I bring to you news from the newspaper archives to debunk common misconceptions about the Middle East conflict.

Something the Israel haters do not admit – heck, even people on our side don’t realize this – is that following our victory in the Six Day War, we made a real effort to repatriate Arab refugees displaced by the war.

As you can see from the below New York Times report, the Israeli government made an offer for refugees from “the west bank” to return. It was not an easy decision, and there was real debate and opposition to it based on security considerations. Also note a committee was set up to help rehabilitate the refugees (including those from Gaza), including experts in things like agriculture and industry.

Also note the reference to Arabs who “fled” the 1948 war, an acknowledgement that many fled and were not all expelled as the haters claim.



If Israel really was attempting ethnic cleaning and genocide as the haters allege, this makes absolutely no sense.

Meanwhile, refugees refused the offer.



Update: A great observation by reader Aryeh.

Note how NYT accurately describes them as refugees from the “west bank of the Jordan river”. No caps; just an accurate term for the geographical area with no agreed-upon sovereign. How this changed to common parlance of a capitalized “West Bank” (which even iPhone capitalizes automatically now!), let alone “Palestinian Territories”, rather than the correct “disputed” is a great story of the success of propaganda… and the power of the media.

 

[Talwar e Pakistan]

@Serpentine @500 @TaimiKhan

Know Your History: Israel’s Offer to Repatriate Arab Refugees, July 1967

A new series where I bring to you news from the newspaper archives to debunk common misconceptions about the Middle East conflict.

Something the Israel haters do not admit – heck, even people on our side don’t realize this – is that following our victory in the Six Day War, we made a real effort to repatriate Arab refugees displaced by the war.

As you can see from the below New York Times report, the Israeli government made an offer for refugees from “the west bank” to return. It was not an easy decision, and there was real debate and opposition to it based on security considerations. Also note a committee was set up to help rehabilitate the refugees (including those from Gaza), including experts in things like agriculture and industry.

Also note the reference to Arabs who “fled” the 1948 war, an acknowledgement that many fled and were not all expelled as the haters claim.



If Israel really was attempting ethnic cleaning and genocide as the haters allege, this makes absolutely no sense.

Meanwhile, refugees refused the offer.



Update: A great observation by reader Aryeh.

Note how NYT accurately describes them as refugees from the “west bank of the Jordan river”. No caps; just an accurate term for the geographical area with no agreed-upon sovereign. How this changed to common parlance of a capitalized “West Bank” (which even iPhone capitalizes automatically now!), let alone “Palestinian Territories”, rather than the correct “disputed” is a great story of the success of propaganda… and the power of the media.

You think Arabs would want to go back to a place filled with Jewish extremists and Militias that forced them out in the first place...? Its like North Korea offering repatriate programs for defectors.

 

[Solomon2]

You think Arabs would want to go back to a place filled with Jewish extremists and Militias that forced them out in the first place...? Its like North Korea offering repatriate programs for defectors.

Your potted history statement is woefully incomplete, to put it mildly: the overwhelming evidence is that the vast majority of these Arabs departed because they despised the thought of living under Israeli rule. Not all Arabs left: Israel is 20% Arab today. Hundreds of thousands of Arabs live in the territories Israel captured in the 1967 war - more than before the war itself.

I understand where you're coming from: during Partition and in the decades afterward millions of non-Muslims left Pakistan due to oppressive governments and populace. But just because Pakistanis behaved that way doesn't mean the Jews of Israel did. So you have every right to criticize your forebears for such deeds - but not the Jews.

 

[Talwar e Pakistan]

Your potted history statement is woefully incomplete, to put it mildly: the overwhelming evidence is that the vast majority of these Arabs departed because they despised the thought of living under Israeli rule. Not all Arabs left: Israel is 20% Arab today. Hundreds of thousands of Arabs live in the territories Israel captured in the 1967 war - more than before the war itself.

I understand where you're coming from: during Partition and in the decades afterward millions of non-Muslims left Pakistan due to oppressive governments and populace. But just because Pakistanis behaved that way doesn't mean the Jews of Israel did. So you have every right to criticize your forebears for such deeds - but not the Jews.

Ummm, please do a bit more research - you'll learn hundreds of villages were emptied by militias in order to make way for Jewish immigrants.

 

[Solomon2]

Ummm, please do a bit more research - you'll learn hundreds of villages were emptied by militias in order to make way for Jewish immigrants.

I know about the empty villages. What you may not know - and under Pakistan's education system, can not be contended - is that in the majority of cases Jewish "militias" were not responsible.

That's not to deny that Jews settled in the abandoned villages, either.

After the Independence War the surrounding Arab-ruled states started expelling their Jews by the hundreds of thousands; in less than a decade Israel's Jewish population more than doubled, while the same Arab neighbors cut off trade.

Their purpose was twofold: first, to rob the Jews (in violation of the League of Nations' Mandate Law and the Ottoman Caliph's last charge to his subjects, which required Arabs to respect Jews' existing civil and property rights) and second, to starve these Jews to death in the newly-created Jewish State, where the economy was severely disrupted by war, blockade, and the departure of over 200,000 Arabs. Many exiles ended up dumped into the abandoned villages with a cow or sheep and a few tools to scrabble at near-subsistence agriculture: Israel was very lean in the early 1950s.

 

[Talwar e Pakistan]

I know about the empty villages. What you may not know - and under Pakistan's education system, can not be contended - is that in the majority of cases Jewish "militias" were not responsible.

That's not to deny that Jews settled in the abandoned villages, either.

After the Independence War the surrounding Arab-ruled states started expelling their Jews by the hundreds of thousands; in less than a decade Israel's Jewish population more than doubled, while the same Arab neighbors cut off trade.

Their purpose was twofold: first, to rob the Jews (in violation of the League of Nations' Mandate Law and the Ottoman Caliph's last charge to his subjects, which required Arabs to respect Jews' existing civil and property rights) and second, to starve these Jews to death in the newly-created Jewish State, where the economy was severely disrupted by war, blockade, and the departure of over 200,000 Arabs. Many exiles ended up dumped into the abandoned villages with a cow or sheep and a few tools to scrabble at near-subsistence agriculture: Israel was very lean in the early 1950s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Palestinian_exodus

Arabs responded by doing the same; but no where close to the scale that Israel did.

Also; I'm an American national and study in the US as well.

 

[Solomon2]

1948 Palestinian exodus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thanks for the alert: this Wiki article is very wanting.

Also; I'm an American national and study in the US as well.

Yes, I've had Pakistani classmates. To a man they only accept facts that reinforce their prejudices and reject un-learning what they've been mis-taught before, whether the topic is politics, religion, or science. It's a kind of blinding faith...it seems to be the reason why some Pakistanis place great emphasis on education reform. I sometimes think this is an innate quality of the minds of people from the subcontinent.

 

[Talwar e Pakistan]

Thanks for the alert: this Wiki article is very wanting.

Yes, I've had Pakistani classmates. To a man they only accept facts that reinforce their prejudices and reject un-learning what they've been mis-taught before, whether the topic is politics, religion, or science. It's a kind of blinding faith...it seems to be the reason why some Pakistanis place great emphasis on education reform. I sometimes think this is an innate quality of the minds of people from the subcontinent.

Wiki is a much greater source than a one-sided Israeli source praising their own country.

Mate, even if I was not a Pakistani - my human morals and common sense would align me towards the Palestinian cause.