Nakba: 1948 Palestine Refugees - The core of the conflict in the Middle East (2 articles)
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The 61st Commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba - the Catastrophe
I. The Concept of “Transfer”/Expulsion in Mainstream Zionism, 1882-1948
Zionist historiography provides ample evidence suggesting that from the very beginning of the Zionist Yishuv (settlement) in Palestine the attitude of the majority of the Zionist groups toward the native Arab population ranged from a mixture of indifference and patronizing superiority, to outright denial of their national rights, and uprooting and transferring them to neighbouring countries. Leading figures such as Israel Zangwill, a prominent Anglo-Jewish writer, a close lieutenant of Theodor Herzl (the founder of political Zionism) and propagator of the transfer solution, worked relentlessly to propagandize the slogan that Palestine was "a land without a people for a people without a land."
More revealing, however, is the anecdote Weizmann (Israel’s first President) once told Arthur Ruppin, the head of the colonization department of the Jewish Agency, about how he (Weizmann) obtained the Balfour Declaration in 1917. When Ruppin asked what he thought about the indigenous Palestinians, Weizmann said: "The British told us that there are some hundred thousand negroes ["kushim"] and for those there is no value." [1] A few years after the Zionist movement obtained the Balfour Declaration, Zangwill wrote: "If Lord Shaftesbury was literally inexact in describing Palestine as a country without a people, he was essentially correct, for there is no Arab people living in intimate fusion with the country, utilising its resources and stamping it with a characteristic impress; there is at best an Arab encampment." [2] The same myth of "empty territory" ("a land without a people for a people without a land") runs through Zionist state education in Israel and finds strong expression in children's literature.
The 1948 Palestinian refugee exodus was the culmination of over half a century of Zionist efforts, secret plans and brute force. From the beginning of the Zionist enterprise to found a Jewish National Home in Palestine, the Zionists had been confronted with what they termed as the “Arab Problem”- the fact that Palestine was already populated. One of the proposed solutions to that problem was the “transfer” solution - a euphemism denoting the organised removal of the Palestinian population to neighbouring Arab lands. “Transfer” is the term used often by both the Jewish Yishuv and in Israel to indicate what nowadays is called “ethnic cleansing”. In the pre-1948 period, the transfer concept was embraced by the highest level of leadership, including virtually all the founding fathers of the Israeli state and representing almost the entire political spectrum. Available evidence (based on Israeli archival documents) shows that the “big three”: Weizmann, David Ben-Gurion (the first Prime Minister and Defence Minister) and Moshe Sharett, (the first Foreign Minister and second Prime Minister) endorsed “transfer” in the period between 1937-1948 and had anticipated “the clearing of the land” in 1948.
But perhaps the most consistent, extremist and obsessive advocate of “compulsory transfer” was Yosef Weitz, the director of the Settlement Department of Jewish National Fund (JNF) and the head of the Israeli government’s official Transfer Committee of 1948. Weitz was at the centre of the Zionist land purchasing activities for decades. His intimate knowledge and involvement in land purchase made him sharply aware of its limitations. As late as 1947, after half a century of tireless efforts, the collective ownership of the JNF - which constituted about half of the Yishuv total- amounted to a mere 3.5 percent of the land area of Palestine.
A summary of Weitz’s political beliefs is provided in his diary entry dated 20 December 1940: “Amongst ourselves it must be clear that there is no room for both peoples in this country. There is no room for compromise on this point ... land purchasing ... will not bring about the state; ... The only way is to transfer the Arabs from here to neighbouring countries.” [3]
From the mid-1930s onwards the transfer solution became central to the assessments of the Jewish Agency (practically the government of the Yishuv). Between 1937 and 1948 very extensive secret discussions concerning Arab transfer were held in the Zionist movement’s highest bodies. Various official and non-official secret “Transfer Committees” were established. There was a general endorsement of transfer (in different forms: voluntary, agreed and compulsory) in order to achieve two crucial objectives: a) to clear the land for Jewish settlers and would-be immigrants; b) to establish a fairly homogenous Jewish state.
II. The 1948 Exodus: Extensively Documented Expulsion Policies in 1948
Israeli revisionist/new historians (including Benny Morris, Ilan Pappe, Avi Shlaim, Simha Flapan, Tom Segev, Uri Milstein) as well as Palestinian historians and scholars (including Nur Masalha, Walid Khalidi, Sharif Kana’aneh, Nafez Nazzal) have extensively documented over the last 15 years the expulsion of the Palestinians in 1948. The available evidence shows that the evacuation of some three quarters of a million Palestinians in 1948 can only be ascribed to the culmination of Zionist transfer/expulsion policies and outright massacres.
Israeli military historian Arieh Yitzhaki states that about ten major massacres were committed by Jewish forces in 1948-49 - during military assault by Jewish troops with more than 50 victims in each massacre - and about one hundred smaller massacres (of individuals or small groups). According to Yitzhaki, these massacres (large and small) had a devastating impact on the Palestinian population, by precipitating the Arab exodus. Yitzhaki went further to suggest that almost in every village there were murders. [4] Key examples of massacres and expulsions which occurred in 1948 are:
Dayr Yasin Massacre: Dayr Yasin was the site of the most notorious massacre perpetrated against Palestinian civilians in 1948. On 9 April 1948 over 250 unarmed villagers were murdered, including women, elderly and children. Most recent Israeli writers have no difficulty in acknowledging the Dayr Yasin massacre and its effect, if not intention, of precipitating the exodus.
The Gun Point Expulsion of Lydda and Ramle: On 12-13 July 1948. Over 60,000 Palestinians were expelled from the twin towns at gun point (Ben-Gurion and three senior army officers were directly involved: Yigal Allon, Yitzhak Rabin and Moshe Dayan.). One Israeli witness described the spoor: the refugee column “to begin with [jettisoned] utensils and furniture and, in the end, bodies of men, women and children.....” [5]
Al-Dawayma Massacre: In 1948 al-Dawayma was a very large village, with a population of some 3,500, situated in the western Hebron hills. Like Dayr Yasin, al-Dawayma was unarmed. It was captured on 29 October 1948 without a fight. The massacre of 80-100 villagers was carried at the end of October 1948, not in the heat of the battle but after the Israeli army had clearly emerged victorious in the war. Various evidence indicates that the atrocities were committed in and around the village, including at the mosque and in the cave nearby, that houses with old people locked inside were blown up, and that there were several cases of the shooting and raping of women. [6]
III. After the Creation of the State of Israel
Since 1949, Israel has consistently rejected a return of the 1948 refugees to their homes and villages; it has always refused to accept responsibility for the refugees and views them as the responsibility of the Arab countries in which they reside. The Israelis did not want the refugees back under any condition because they needed their lands and their villages for Jewish immigrants. Nor did they want the repatriation of an Arab population that would question the Zionist-Jewish character of the state of Israel and undermine it demographically.
In the 1950s one key slogan coined by senior Israeli Foreign Ministry officials was: “If you cannot solve it-- dissolve it,” [7] meaning if you cannot solve the Palestinian refugee problem, as a political problem, you can try to “dissolve” the problem and disperse the refugees through economic means and employment projects. In October 1949, the Israeli Government’s Transfer Committee was reconstituted as the Compensation Committee and submitted its recommendations six months later. It recommended that in the context of an overall settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict Israel should make a single, global payment of compensation for rural refugee property, for undamaged urban property, and for bank accounts. The Committee advised against the payment of compensation for the Arab share of state land and against making individual restitution payments for individual refugees.
In 1953 the Israeli government made another attempt to work out a policy on restitution of refugee property by appointing in June a new committee. The committee’s recommendations were submitted in December 1953 suggesting that Israel should contribute $100 million, on account of the overall restitution bill, to an international fund, which would be created in order to initiate collective resettlement projects in Arab countries. This willingness to contribute a share towards the financial cost of compensation was encouraged by the anticipated increase in foreign currency liquidity as a result of the Reparations Agreement with the Federal Republic of Germany, signed earlier in September 1952. [8] About the same time various Israeli estimates of the global value of total movable and immovable Palestinian refugee property were close to $350 million. [9]
With regard to the Palestinian minority remaining under Israeli control, the creation of Israel did not alter Zionism's premises and fundamentals. Indeed, the principal objectives of the Israeli state, as defined in terms of its Zionist ideology, is the fulfillment of the Jewish majority's aspirations, and those of would-be Jewish immigrants, frequently at the expense of the aspirations of the Palestinian minority. The most influential leaders, including Ben-Gurion, supported in the 1950s various schemes aimed at further reducing the Arab minority. The Israeli State Archives in Jerusalem contain tens of official files with extensive information pertaining to Israel's policies toward the Arab minority, including what is usually described in Israel as "population transfers”. The State of Israel swiftly imposed a military government in the areas inhabited by the Arab minority, expropriated over half of the lands of this "non‑Jewish" population, and pursued various policies of demographic containment, political control, exclusionary domination, and systematic discrimination in all spheres of life.
Officially the purpose of imposing martial law and military government on Israel's Arab minority was security. However, its establishment, which lasted until 1966, was intended to serve a number of both stated and concealed objectives. The first objective was to prevent the return of the Palestinian refugees, or "infiltrators" in Israeli terminology, to their homes. "In the process other Arabs who had not infiltrated the country were sometimes driven out as well" [10]; a second goal was to evacuate semi‑abandoned [Arab] neighborhoods and villages as well as some which had not been abandoned--and to transfer their inhabitants to other parts of the country, in order to make room for Jews. [11] Only, this time, the victims were Israeli Arabs, many with Israeli residency papers. However, the Israeli authorities did not stop at transfer and expulsions of the Arab minority; several massacres were committed by the Israeli military long after the 1948 war ended.
The Expulsion of the Inhabitants of the Town of al-Majdal to Gaza: In the summer of 1950, the remaining 2,700 inhabitants of the southern Arab town of al-Majdal, which on the eve of the war had 10,000 inhabitants (now called Ashkelon), were transported to the border of the Gaza Strip over a period of a few weeks.
The Expulsion of the Negev Bedouin, 1949-1959: The Negev, which according to the 1947 UN Partition Plan, had been included in the areas allotted to the Palestinian Arab state was an early focus of expulsion activities. After its occupation, Prime Minister Ben-Gurion in particular had been anxious to populate the Negev with Jews. Benny Morris quotes an Israel Foreign Ministry report as stating that during 1949‑53 "Israel expelled all told `close' to 17,000 Negev bedouin, not all of them alleged infiltrators." [12]
The ‘Azazme Tribe Massacre: In March 1955, members of the `Azazme tribe, including women and children, suffered a massacre at the hands of the notorious "Unit 101" of the Israeli army, which had been created by Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan in 1953. [13] Commanded by Ariel Sharon and patronised in particular by Ben-Gurion, Unit 101 was considered the "bayonet" of the army and carried out numerous raids against Arab targets across the border.
The Massacre of Kafr Qassim: This most infamous massacre was perpetrated by the Israeli military in execution of the most dramatic expulsion plan of ‘Israeli Arabs’, the secret ‘Operation Hafarferet’. The essence of this secret plan, revealed for the first time on 25 October 1991 by the Hebrew newspaper Hadashot, was to expel the Arab inhabitants of the ‘Little Triangle’ (over 40,000 Israeli Arab citizens), apparently to Jordan. Hadashot established that the slaughter was carried out against the background of military plan devised by the Israeli army on the eve of the 1956 war. [14]
On 29 October 1956, the day the Israeli army launched its attack on Egypt in the south, the Israeli Border Police carried out a large massacre in the Israeli Arab village of Kafr Qassim, in the Little Triangle bordering the West Bank. Ostensibly, the cause of this extensively documented massacre was the breaking of a curfew by the victims, who were not aware that a curfew had been imposed on their village and neighbouring Arab communities.
The battalion [brigade] commander in charge of imposing the curfew [Shadmi] told the unit commander [Malinki] that the curfew must be extremely strict. When Malinki asked what was to happen to a man returning from his work outside the village, without knowing about the curfew, who might well meet the Border Police units at the entrance to the village, Shadmi replied: "I don't want any sentimentality" and "That's just too bad for him." [15] Only 30 minutes separated the announcement of the curfew from its harsh enforcement, and the villagers deliberately had been given no cause for the treatment they received. Within an hour of the curfew, between 5 and 6 p.m., 47 villagers returning from work were killed. The 43 killed at the western entrance of Kafr Qassim included seven boys and girls and nine women between the ages of 18 and 61.
Operation Hafarferet" was a contingency plan formulated under the direction of Dayan. This military plan was designed on the eve of the 1956 Sinai War to evacuate the Arab population of the Little Triangle by force, within the framework of a possible war with Jordan. In the course of the preparation for the 1956 war, "Operation Hafarferet" was taken off the shelf but its implementation canceled at the highest level in conjunction with the cancellation of the war plans against Jordan. It is not clear, however, when Operation Hafarferet was returned to the shelf and when Major Malinki received the cancellation notice. In the circumstances, Malinki later testified in Shadmi's trial, “Operation Hafarferet was most suitable, because the cancellation of the war situation in the Jordanian sector was not absolute; Shadmi said that our role is defensive, but there is room for change....If Shadmi was saying that the policy of [people] in high level was not to harm the Arab minority, and that the Arabs should be treated as citizens of the state, I would have canceled my orders immediately. But there was no trace of these words [in Shadmi's orders].” [16]
The Expulsion of Galilee Bedouin (by Yitzhak Rabin): Operation Hafarferet, although resulting in the infamous massacre of Kafr Qassim, was never implemented fully. Jordan gave Israel no pretext for full implementation. However, it must be seen as part of a general tendency among the politico‑military establishment in Israel to exploit the 1956 war to carry out large‑scale expulsions of Israeli Arab communities, particularly those situated along the borders, in the name of security. On 30 October 1956, only one day after the Kafr Qassim massacre, General Yitzhak Rabin, then Commanding Officer of the Northern Command, exploited the attack against Egypt in the south to carry out a mass expulsion of Israeli Arabs across the northern border into Syria. This little‑known episode, which was revealed by Rabin himself in his "Service Notebook", involved the expulsion to Syria of 2,000‑5,000 inhabitants of the two villages Krad al-Ghannama and Krad al‑Baqqara, to the south of Lake Hula.
IV. The 1956-1957 Occupation of the Gaza Strip and Sinai
Again, the Israeli military did not miss the opportunity of reducing the Arab minority, whether by expulsion or massacre, during its occupation of the Gaza Strip and Sinai.
The Massacres of Khan Yunis and Rafah, 3 and 12 November 1956: According to an account in The New York Times of 2 December 1956, "United Nations truce personnel said their information indicated that 400 to 500 persons were killed at Khan Yunis during the first days of the occupation, 700 at Rafah and thirty to fifty in the town of Gaza."
Other Atrocities in Sinai, November 1956: On 4 August 1995, the Hebrew daily Ma'ariv revealed some details of large-scale atrocities for the first time. In late October and early November 1956 orders were given that resulted in murdering some 273 unarmed Egyptian prisoners during the Sinai War. This figure included 49 Egyptian civilian road workers, who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
V. The 1967 Exodus: Why Did the Palestinians Leave?
In total, approximately 320,000 Palestinians were expelled from the West Bank and Gaza in the course of the 1967 hostilities or shortly after. [17]
The Israeli government, the Dayan-headed Defense Ministry, and the Mossad (the Israeli external secret service) resorted, by and large, to discreet “transfer” activities in the aftermath of the June war. This method of secret transfer activities, as well as transfer discussions at cabinet level, gradually had been revealed by Israeli journalists and researchers as well as politicians. Less than two weeks after the Israeli victory in the war of June 1967, the Eshkol cabinet convened for a number of secret meetings, held between the 15 and 19 June 1967, to discuss a major issue: What to do about the "demographic problem"--the fact that the bulk of the Arab population of the territories--contrary to 1948--remain in situ. The official transcript of the meeting remains secret. The product of the June discussions was a "voluntary" transfer plan, designed to "thin out" the population of the West Bank including the Old City of Jerusalem and Gaza, which later became known as the Moshe Dayan plan.
The Eviction and Destruction of the al-Magharbe Quarter (in the Old City of Jerusalem): The June 1967 war began suddenly and ended quickly. In his recent book Intimate Enemies (1995), Meron Benvenisti, former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, writes: “At the end of the 1967 war, there were attempts to implement a forced population transfer. Residents of cities and villages in areas near the cease-fire line were expelled from their homes and their communities destroyed; the Israeli authorities offered financial ‘incentives’ and free transportation to Palestinians willing to leave.....” [18] Among the first evictees were the residents of the ancient al-Magharbe quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem. They were turned out of their homes on 11 June, two days after the capture of East Jerusalem by the Israeli military, after 3 hours’ notice. [19] Commenting on those responsible for the deed, Uzi Benziman, a Haaaretz, journalist explained: “Those who were presiding over the destruction of the [Arab] neighbourhood assumed that their action was motivated neither by security [considerations] nor by mere town planning. They were driven that night [10-11 June] by an almost mystical feeling: that, in their eyes, they were the representatives of the Jewish people, who came to assert [Jewish] sovereignty over its most sacred site........the fate of 135 Arab families, who were the victims of these desires, was of no concern to them.” [20] Also, in the Old City's Jewish quarter and its surrounding districts, over 4,000 Palestinians were evicted to make possible the reconstruction of a vastly enlarged and completely "Jewish" quarter, excluding its former Arab residents.
The Eviction of Bayt Nuba, ‘Imwas, Yalu, Habla, Jiftlik, Bayt Marsam, Bayt ‘Awa and al-Burj: Also among the first to go were the inhabitants of the three ancient villages of 'Imwas (Emmaus of the New Testament) Yalu and Bayt Nuba, situated near the Green Line in the Latrun area northwest of Jerusalem. In 1987 these evicted villagers and their descendants who lived in Amman, Jordan numbered about 11,000, and 2,000 who lived on the West Bank, near Ramallah. [21]
In 1969, two years after the destruction of the Latrun villages, Dayan felt it was necessary to remind his compatriots, including those who were opposed to Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the Rafah area, in north Sinai--of what some of them, the younger generation, never knew. Dayan had this to say in a 1969 speech at the Technion in Haifa: “We came here to this country, which was settled by Arabs, and we are building a Jewish State .... Jewish villages arose in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names [of these villages], and I do not blame you, because those geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal [Dayan's own settlement] arose in the place of Mahlul, Gvat [a kibbutz] in the place of Jibta, Sarid [another kibbutz] in the place of Haneifis, and Kfar-Yehoshu'a in the place of Tal-Shaman. There is not one single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population.” [22]
The Operation of Haim Hertzog, Shlomo Lahat, and `Uzi Narkiss, June 1967: “Transfer of 100,000 Without Anybody Saying a Single Word”: Haim Hertzog was the army's first Military Governor of the West Bank after the June 1967 War. At a public debate on the Palestinian issue held in Jerusalem on 3 April 1970, this first Military Governor of the West Bank and an influential figure of the Labour establishment, did not refrain from revealing openly his heart's wishes: "if we had the possibility of taking one million Arabs [from the territories] and clearing them out, this would be the best.” [23] However, it was only 21 years later in early November 1991, a few days after the Madrid Peace Conference, that President Hertzog revealed publicly and proudly one of Israel's little known secrets: that he, as the first Military Governor of the West Bank, efficiently organized and carried out, in cooperation with Shlomo Lahat, the commander of Jerusalem, the operation of transferring 200,000 Palestinians from the West Bank in the immediate aftermath of the war.
This transfer operation had resulted in the total "transfer of 100,000 [Palestinians to Jordan] without anybody saying a single word. A former Israeli soldier described the "voluntary" and "humane" aspects of this operation in a November 1991 interview with Kol Ha'ir: “My job was to take their [each Palestinian's] thumb and immerse its edge in ink and fingerprint them on the departure statement....Every day tens of buses arrived. There were days on which it seemed to me that thousands were departing ....Although there were those departees who were leaving voluntarily, but there were also not a few people who were simply expelled....We forced them to sign….. When someone refused to give me his hand [for finger printing] they came and beat him badly. Then I was forcibly taking his thumb, immersing it in ink and finger printing him. This way the refuseniks were removed....I have no doubt that tens of thousands of men were removed against their will.” [24]
The Eviction of the three Large Refugee Camps Near Jericho: ‘Ayn Sultan, Nu’ayma and ‘Aqbat Jabir: Between 1949 and 1967 the Palestinian population in the West Jordan Valley was dominated by three huge refugee camps surrounding the town of Jericho: ‘Ayn Sultan, Nu’ayma and ‘Aqbat Jabir. The residents of these camps had been driven out from present-day Israel in 1948-1949. During the 1967 hostilities or shortly after virtually all residents of these camps, approximately 50,000 people, fled or were expelled to the East Bank, along with more than 50 percent of the native rural population of the Jordan Valley, reducing the region’s total population by 88 percent- to 10,778. [25]
Israel has continued to claim that the Palestinian refugee exodus was a tactic of war on the part of the Arabs who initiated the war against the Jewish Yishuv in Palestine. It denied any Israeli culpability or responsibility for the Arab exodus - denied, in fact, its own members’ roles. Research conducted by Israeli and Arab historians reveals the premeditated expulsion and outright massacre of Arabs by Israel in order to establish a Jewish homogenous state. Zionist leaders had concocted the transfer policy and had implemented it since the early stages of Zionism and have continued to implement it after the establishment of the State of Israel. To date, transfer policy can be witnessed in Israel’s attitude towards the Arabs of East Jerusalem.
[1] See protocol of Ruppin’s statement at the Jewish Agency Executive’s meeting, 20 May 1936, in Y. Heller, Bamavak Lemedinah: Hamediniyut Hatziyonit Bashanim 1936-48 [The Struggle for the State: The Zionist Policy 1936-48 (Jerusalem, 1984), p.140.
[2] I. Zangwill, The Voice of Jerusalem (London, William Heinemann, 1920), p.104.
[3] Weitz Diary, A246/7, entry dated 20 December 1940, pp.1090-91, Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem.
[4] See Guy Erlich in Ha’ir, 6 May 1992.
[5] Quoted in Benny Morris, 1948 and After (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), p.2.
[6] See Nur-eldeen Masalha, “On Recent Hebrew and Israeli Sources for the Palestinian Exodus, 1947-49,” Journal of Palestine Studies (Autumn 1988), pp.127-130. See also two articles in Hadashot, 24, 26 August 1984; Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp.222-223.
[7] See Danin, Tzioni Bekhol Tnai, vol.1, p.317.
[8] Zweig, “Restitution of Property and Refugee Rehabilitation,” Journal of Refugee Studies 6(1/4) p.59 and 62.
[9] Ibid., pp.61-2.
[10] Segev, 1949: The First Israelis, p.52..
[11] Ibid.
[12] Quoted in Morris, Israel's Border Wars..
[13] On this little known massacre, see also Adnan Amad (ed.), Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights--The Shahak Papers (Beirut: Near East Ecumenical Bureau for Information and Interpretation, n.d.), p. 99, cited by Kurt Goering, "Israel and the Bedouin of the Negev," Journal of Palestine Studies 9, no.1 (Autumn 1979), p. 5.
[14] See Rubik Rosenthal, "Operation Hafarferet: Or How the Massacre of Kafr Qassim was Really Born," Hadashot, Supplement, 25 October 1991.
[15] Quoted in Jiryis, The Arabs in Israel, pp. 140‑41. Some of the inaccuracies found in this book concerning army ranks and units may have been the result of the fact that this book originally was translated from Hebrew into Arabic and then from Arabic into English.
[16] Quoted in Rosenthal, "Operation Hafarferet."
[17] Israeli estimates range from 173,000 to 200,000 while Jordanian and Palestinian estimates range from 250,000 to 408,000 (from June 1967 until the end of 1968). Cited in Walid Salim, “The [Palestinians] Displaced in 1967: The Problem of Definition and Figures,” in The Palestinians Displaced and the Peace Negotiations (Ramallah, West Bank: Palestinian Diaspora and Refugee Centre, 1996), p.21. The real figure is probably somewhere around 300,000 people.
[18] Meron Benvenisti, Intimate Enemies (London, University of California Press, 1995), p.191.
[19] See Jerusalem Diary of Sister Marie-Therese, in Cahiers du Temoignage Chretien (Paris), 27 July 1967; D. Hirst, The Gun and the Olive Branch (London, Faber and Faber, 1984), p.225.
[20] Benziman, Yerushalayim, p.42.
[21] These figures were mentioned in a letter by the inhabitants’ Committee, cited in Reconstruct Emmaus (St-Sulpice, Switzerland, Association for the Reconstruction of Emmaus, December 1987), p.3.
[22] Haaretz, 4 April 1969, p.15.
[23] Cited in Nisan, Hamedinah Hayehudit Vehabe’ayah Ha’arvit, p.117.
[24] Ibid.
[25] Harris, Taking Root, p.9.
PLO NEGOTIATIONS AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT
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Nakba
Badil
Special Report on the 61th Anniversary of the Nakba
No. E/08/09 (14-5-2009)
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics described the Nakba of Palestine as a black period in the modern history of the Palestinian people. The Palestinians were driven out of their homeland, and their homes and property were taken away from them; they were banished and displaced all over the world to face all kinds of suffering and problems. More than three quarters of historic Palestine was occupied in the Nakba of 1948. Moreover, 531 Palestinian towns and villages were destroyed and 85% of the Palestinian population were banished and displaced.
Nakba: Ethnic cleansing and population replacement
A Nakba in literary terms is expressive of natural catastrophes such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and hurricanes. However, the Nakba of Palestine was an ethnic cleansing process as well as destruction and banishment of an unarmed nation to be replaced by another nation. Contrary to natural catastrophes, the Palestinian Nakba was the result of man-made military plans and a conspiracy of states that unfolded a major tragedy for the Palestinian people. More than 800,000 out of 1.4 million Palestinians (the Palestinian population in 1948 living in 1,300 Palestinian towns and villages) were driven out of their homeland to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, neighboring Arab countries and the remaining countries of the world. According to documented evidence, (www.palestineremembered.com), the Israelis took over control of 774 towns and villages during the Nakba and destroyed 531 Palestinian towns and villages. Israeli forces atrocities also include more than 70 massacres against Palestinians and killing 15,000 Palestinians during the Nakba period.
Demographic situation: Palestinians have multiplied 7 times since the 1948 Nakba
According to statistical data, the Palestinian population in 1948 totaled 1.4 million compared to approximately 10.6 million by the end of 2008. Hence, the number of Palestinians worldwide is 7 times the total at the time of the Nakba. Moreover, data showed that the total number of Palestinians living in historic Palestine (between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea), by the end of 2008 totaled 5.1 million compared to 5.6 Jews. In light of the new revised total population according to the results of Population, Housing, and Establishment Census 2007, it is expected that the Palestinian and Jewish population in historic Palestine will be equal by 2016.
Statistical data showed that refugees in the Palestinian Territory constitute 43.6% of the Palestinian Territory population. UNRWA records at the end 2008 showed that the number of Palestinian registered refugees in UNRWA’s five working areas totaled 4.7 million, constituting 44.3% of the total worldwide Palestinian population; The distribution is 41.8% living in Jordan, 9.9% in Syria, 9.0% in Lebanon, 16.3% in the West Bank, and 23.0% in Gaza Strip. About one third of Palestinian registered refugees live in the 59 refugee camps, of which 10 are in Jordan, 10 in Syria, 12 in Lebanon, 19 in the West Bank, and 8 in Gaza Strip.
UNRWA estimates represent the minimum estimates for Palestinian refugees since they do not take into consideration non-registered refugees. In addition the estimated figure does not include Palestinians who were displaced between 1949 and the 1967 war or the non refugees who left or were deported during the 1967 war. It also excludes the 154,000 Palestinians who did not leave their homeland in 1948 and who now are estimated to be 1.2 million Palestinians on the 61st anniversary of the Nakba. Their sex ratio is 103.7 males to 100 females. Moreover, the percentage of individuals under the age of 15 years is 40.0% of the excluded population and 3.1% for those who are 65 years old and over. This shows that their society is young, as is the Palestinian society as a whole.
The Palestinian population in the Palestinian Territory is estimated to be 3.88 million at the end of 2008, of which 2.42 million are in the West Bank and 1.46 million are in Gaza Strip. The Palestinian population in Jerusalem governorate is estimated to be 379 thousand at the end of 2008; of which 62.1% live in those parts of Jerusalem, which were annexed forcefully by Israel in 1967. The Population, Housing and Establishment census 2007 results showed that 43.6% of the population in the Palestinian Territory are refugees; while the percent of refugees are 27.2.0% in the West Bank and 67.9% are in Gaza Strip. The fertility rate in the Palestinian Territory is considered high compared to other countries. The total fertility rate in 2007 was 4.6 births: 4.1 births in the West Bank and 5.3 in Gaza Strip.
Population density: The Nakba has made Gaza Strip the most populated place in the World
The population density in the Palestinian Territory reached 645 persons/km2: 427 persons/km2 in the West Bank and 4,010 persons/km2 in Gaza Strip in 2008. In Israel, on the other hand, the population density reached 334 persons/km2 for Arabs and Jews in 2008.
Settlements: Most settlers live in Jerusalem to make it Judaized
Most Jewish settlers live in Jerusalem governorate. According to data, the number of Israeli settlements in the West Bank totaled 144 in 2008. Preliminary estimates show that the number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank totaled half a million in 2008. Data reveal that most settlers live in Jerusalem governorate, representing 54.6% of the total settlers in the West Bank, including 42% in J1 (those parts of Jerusalem which were annexed by Israel in 1967).
The Expansion and Annexation wall swallows about 15% of the West Bank area
The total length of expansion and annexation wall is 770 kilometers. 409 kilometers (53.1%) of the wall have been completed. An additional 248 kilometers is planned for construction and 113 kilometers is under construction. The wall isolates 733 square kilometers of the land. The eastern wall, which expands from the north to the south, is estimated at 200 kilometers in length. This wall allows the Israeli Occupation to isolate and control the Jordan Valley area, which is considered to be the food basket of Palestine and the main source of food for the Palestinian people.
Land use: Israeli restrictions deprive Palestinians of using more than one-third of the West Bank
The area of the Palestinian Territory is 6,020 square kilometers including 5,655 square kilometers in the West Bank and 365 square kilometers in Gaza Strip. The percentage of built-up land in Israeli settlements is 3.3% of the West Bank area (excluding areas surrounding settlements, military locations, and bypass roads, etc). Data of the United Nation Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian (OCHA) indicate that 38% of the West Bank total area is classified as beyond the reach of Palestinians.
Water: Water in the Palestinian Territory
Preliminary data from the Palestinian Water Authority for the year 2008 indicated that the amount of water purchased for domestic use from the Israeli Water Company (Mekorot) amounted to 47.8 million m3 in the West Bank. Data shows that the quantity of water purchased from the Israeli Water Company (Mekorot) increased over during the period 2005-2008 with 42.2, 43.9, 49.4, and 47.8 million m3 respectively.
The annual available water quantity in the Palestinian Territory was 335.4 million m3 in 2007. Data also show that the quantity of water supplied for domestic use in the Palestinian Territory was 175.6 million m3 in 2007, and that the daily allocation per capita of the supplied water for domestic use in the Palestinian Territory was 135.8 (liter/capita/day). It reached only 46.6 (liter/capita/day) in Tubas Governorate. Data for the year 2008 indicated that 123 localities (22.9%) in the Palestinian Territory, all of them in the West Bank, with 177,275 persons have no public water network.
Regarding the main source of water, data show that 116 localities were connected to public water networks in the Palestinian Territory in 2008, and these localities obtain their water through the Israeli (Mekorot) company with 454 thousand persons (12.1% of the total population in the Palestinian Territory).
110 of the localities connected to public water networks in the West Bank in 2008 obtain water through the Israeli (Mekorot) company, while 112 of the localities connected to the public network in the West Bank obtain water through the West Bank Water Department. However, in Gaza Strip, 17 of the localities connected to the public network obtain water through wells, and only 6 localities obtain water through the Israeli (Mekorot) company.
The results indicated that 157 localities in the Palestinian Territory depend on underground water wells as an alternative to the public water network. 421 localities in the Palestinian Territory depend on rainwater collecting wells as an alternative to the public water network. The results of 2008 also showed that 88.2% of the households in the Palestinian Territory live in housing units connected to the water network (84.2% in the West Bank, and 97.0% in Gaza Strip).
Continuous struggle to liberate the land and build the state
Martyrs
The number of al Aqsa Intifada martyrs between September 29, 2000, and December 31, 2008, reached 5,901 (5,569 males and 332 females). The number of martyrs in the West Bank reached 2,162 (2,038 males and 124 females). The number of Gaza Strip martyrs reached 3,702 (3,496 males and 206 females). The rest of the martyrs are from the 1948 land and outside the Palestinian Territory. The year 2002 was the bloodiest year of the Intifada when 1,192 Palestinians were killed followed by 2004 when 895 Palestinians were killed. The number of martyrs below 18 years of age totaled 969 (18.1%).
Detainees
According to data from the Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees published in a report on the Prisoner’s Day (April 17, 2009), Israel detained more than 68,000 Palestinians during Al-Aqsa Intifada. The report also shows that there are 11,000 Palestinians still behind Israeli bars including 68 female detainees, 400 children, hundreds of sick people, and 334 parsons detained before the signing of the Oslo Accords. The detainees also include 95 people who have spent more than 20 years in detention and dozens of Arab detainees.
The data of the Ministry also show that Israel has since 1967 detained 800,000 people which represent 25% of the population. This percentage is the highest in the world, and does not include the thousands of persons who were arrested and detained for short periods and then released.
Poverty: Palestinians suffer poverty after 61 years of Nakba
Since 1948, and due to the Israeli measures, Israeli theft of natural resources, and increasing dependency on the Israeli economy, the Palestinian economy has suffered serious damage and deterioration in all economic and social indicators of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The quality of life of the Palestinian people has worsened. According to estimates, the poverty rate among Palestinian households during 2007 in accordance with actual consumption patterns reached 34.5% including 23.6% for the West Bank and 55.7% in Gaza Strip. The monthly income of 57.3% of Palestinian households is below the national poverty line: 47.2% for the West Bank and 76.9% for Gaza Strip.
Health Status: Health specialization population ratios are still very low
According to 2008 data, the number of physicians who are registered with the physicians association in the West Bank was 2,941 or 0.8 doctor for every 1000 people. On the other hand, the number of physicians who are registered with the physicians association in Gaza Strip in 2007 was 3,452 or 2.4 doctors for every 1000 people. Moreover, according to 2008 statistics, there are 1.5 nurses for every 1000 people in the West Bank, whereas according to 2007 data there are 3.2 nurses for every 1000 people in Gaza Strip. The number of registered midwives for every 1000 people in the West Bank is 0.16, according to 2008 data, while the number of the registered midwives in Gaza Strip, according to the 2007 data, is 0.1 for every 1000 people.
On the other hand, 2007 data showed that the number of operating hospitals in the Palestinian Territory were 77: 53 hospitals in the West Bank, and 24 in Gaza Strip. Data also showed that 24 hospitals were run by MoH, 25 hospitals were run by NGOs, 25 were run by the private sector, 2 were run by military institutions and one hospital was run by UNRWA. On the other hand, 2007 data showed that the number of hospital beds in the Palestinian Territory were 5,067 beds, or 1.3 bed for every 1000 people, 2,939 beds in the West Bank and 2,128 in Gaza Strip. 2007 data also showed that the number of primary health care centers were 665 centers, 532 in the West Bank and 133 in Gaza Strip. The data showed that 414 centers were run by MoH, 198 centers were run by NGOs, and 53 were run by UNRWA.
Premature births and low birth weight were the main causes of infant mortality. Prenatal conditions constitute the main cause of mortality among under five years children. Heart diseases are the main cause for mortality among the elderly (60 years of age and above) in 2007.
According to the 2007 data of the Ministry of Health, premature births and low birth weight were the main causes of infant mortality, constituting 25.7% of infant mortality in the Palestinian Territory. The percentage is higher in Gaza Strip in comparison with the West Bank at 36.2% and 13.4%, respectively. The third highest cause of infant mortality is respiratory system infections, which causes 24.1% of infant mortality in the Palestinian Territory: 40.1% in the West Bank, and 10.3% in Gaza Strip. On the other hand, prenatal conditions constitute the main cause of mortality among under five years children, causing 44.1% of under five years children mortality: 46.7% in the West Bank and 41.9% in Gaza Strip. Heart diseases are the main cause of mortality among elderly (60 years of age and over) at 28.3% for the Palestinian Territory; 30.0% in the West Bank and 25.5% in Gaza Strip.
Agriculture: Israeli measures extend to trees, stones and animals
Estimated data show that the number of trees destroyed from September 28, 2000, until November 30, 2008, in the Palestinian Territory reached about 1.6 million trees. The destroyed area was about 2,845 dunums of greenhouses, 13,237 dunums of vegetables, and 14,310 dunums of field crops. In addition, the number of killed animals was 15,889 head of sheep and goats, 1,362 head of cattle, and 1,312 thousand poultry, in addition to the destruction of 18,508 beehives. Moreover, regarding infrastructure and agricultural businesses, destruction during the same period amounted to 471 wells with their equipment, 38,508 dunums of irrigation networks, 1,074,990 meters of main pipelines, 1,883 of irrigation pools, 930 agricultural stores and 1,866 of animal barns and stables. PCBS estimated the direct losses of agricultural land and the requirements from intermediate consumption and infrastructure to US $170 million, while daily losses to the agriculture sector, fisheries, were US $311 thousand during the Israeli aggression on Gaza Strip.
The results showed that 1,835 thousand dunums of Palestinian farm land were cultivated in the Palestinian Territory during the agricultural year 2006/2007, of which 90.1% were in the West Bank and 9.9% in Gaza Strip. Fruit trees constituted 63.5% of the cultivated area of the Palestinian Territory, while vegetables and field crops comprised 10.2% and 26.3% of the cultivated Palestinian areas respectively. In Gaza Strip 73.3% of the cultivated area rely on irrigation, compared with only 8.3% for the West Bank.
Housing conditions: Crowded housing units and high number of damaged housing units by the occupation
Total housing units that were damaged by Israeli occupation in Jerusalem from the year 2001 until the end of May 2008 was about 797 housing units, with a total area of 90,061 m2 and total number of rooms demolished were 2990 rooms. As for the losses in Gaza Strip during the Israeli aggression at the end of 2008, which lasted through the beginning of the year 2009, the number of completely destroyed housing units was about 4,100 housing units, and partially damaged buildings and housing units about 17,000.
The data indicate that the average number of persons per room in housing units in the camps was 1.8 persons in 2007, while 12.9% of the households in the camps of Palestinian Territory live in housing units with a housing density of 3 or more persons per room. The percentage of households in the camps in the West Bank was 15.7% of households, while the percentage in camps in Gaza Strip was 11.5% of households.
Labour market: High unemployment rates and low participation in economic activity
The participation rate in the labour force in the Palestinian Territory in 2008 reached 41.3% (39.8% among refugees and 42.5% among non-refugees). The participation rate in the West Bank reached 43.0% (42.4% among refugees and 43.3% among non-refugees) compared to 38.1% in Gaza Strip (37.5% among refugees and 39.5% among non-refugees). The unemployment rate in the Palestinian Territory reached 26.0% (29.6% among refugees and 23.4% among non-refugees). The unemployment rate in the West Bank was 19.0% (19.9% among refugees and 18.5% among non-refugees) compared to 40.6% in Gaza Strip (39.2% among refugees and 43.4% among non-refugees). The service sector is considered the largest employing sector for refugees in the West Bank at 30.6% followed by trade sector at 20.8%. In Gaza Strip, the service sector employs more than half of employed persons (52.0%) of refugees followed by agriculture, hunting and fishing sector at 28.4%. The average daily wage in the Palestinian Territory is NIS 91.0 (NIS 87.8 for refugees and NIS 93.3 for non-refugees). In the West Bank, the average daily wage is NIS 98.6 (NIS 100.2 for refugees and NIS 97.8 for non-refugees). On the other hand, in Gaza Strip, was NIS 60.9 (NIS 63.6 for refugees and NIS 54.7 for non-refugees). The dependency ratio in the Palestinian Territory for 2008 was 5.9: 4.9 in the West Bank and 8.5 in Gaza Strip.
Education: Palestinians invest in education as a strategic option
The primary data for the scholastic year 2007/2008 indicated that the number of schools in the Palestinian Territory was 2,430 schools, distributed by supervising authority as follows: 1,833 governmental schools, 309 UNRWA schools, and 288 private schools. Of these, 1,809 schools were in the West Bank, and 621 schools were in Gaza Strip. The number of pupils in these schools was 1.1 million, of which 549,000 were males and 549,000 were females. The number of students in the West Bank was 654,000 and in Gaza Strip 448,000 and distributed according to supervising authorities as follows: 767,000 enrolled in governmental schools, 253,000 enrolled in UNRWA schools, and 78,000 enrolled in private schools. The number of school teachers was 43,559 (19,430 males and 24,129 females), of which 27,448 were in the West Bank and 16,111 in Gaza Strip. As well, the illiteracy rate among Palestinian individuals aged 15 years and above in 2008 was 5.9% (2.9% for males and 9.1% for females). In the Palestinian Territory, there are 11 universities and 13 university colleges offering programs leading to the bachelor degree: 3 universities and 4 university colleges are in Gaza Strip, and 8 universities and 9 university colleges are in the West Bank. There are 19 intermediate community colleges; 14 in the West Bank and 5 in Gaza Strip.
Data from Al-Haq institution show that the number of schools and universities closed by Israeli military orders until May 22, 2006 was 12. Teaching at 1,125 schools and universities was hindered by Israeli acts of aggression. Moreover, 359 schools and education departments and universities were shelled by Israeli troops, who also made 43 schools unto military barracks and killed 845 students and wounded 4,780 students and employees from the education sector.
Macro-economy: a rise in prices and Gaza under siege and a decline in the performance of economic sectors
Average cost of living in the Palestinian territories increased 43.13% in 2008 compared with 2000, 45.68% in the West Bank and 36.48% in Gaza Strip. The rate is much higher than in Israel, in spite of the clear disparity in wages and salaries between Israel and the Palestinian territories, due to economic dependence of the occupation and the high proportion of imports from the Israeli market, especially food and fuel being the most consumed commodities in the market, and the Palestinian and Israeli control of quantities and prices of these commodities. The high prices increased in the Palestinian territories during the past few years, especially in the second half of 2007 and 2008, and repeated Israeli violations of the closure of the crossings, and increased barriers in the Palestinian territories, in addition to the repeated Israeli aggression on the land, rights and wealth, has had a significant impact on the Palestinian economy and thus higher prices. .
The Palestinian National Accounts 2007 at constant prices indicate that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the Remaining West Bank and Gaza Strip was US $ 4,535.7 million. The per capita share of GDP amounted to $1,297.9. In addition to that, there was a decline in the GDP in Remaining West Bank and Gaza Strip in the Hotels and Restaurants activities, Construction activity, Public administration and Defense activities and the activities of Mining, Manufacturing, Electricity and Water Supply, decreasing by 25.6%, 10.6%, 6.9%, 3.4% respectively during 2007 compared with 2006. In addition, the GDP recorded a growth rate of 1.2% at current prices compared with 2006, and a growth rate of 11.4% compared with 2000. Meanwhile the GDP per capita at current prices in 2007 amounted to $ 1,337.0 with a decrease by 1.9% compared with 2006, and also by 8.1% compared with 2000.
Tracking the structure of the Palestinian economy, we notice that the Palestinian economy is service-oriented at the top level, and the economic activities such as Agriculture and fishing, Mining, Manufacturing, electricity and Water in addition to Construction declined. The findings show Agriculture and fishing activity contribution decreased from 10.9% during 1999 to 6.3% in 2007. On the other hand, manufacturing activity contribution decreased from 14.8% in 1999 to 12.6% in 2007. The Construction activity contribution decreased from 11.2% in 1999 to 6.5% in 2007, while the contribution of service activity increased from 20.7% in 1999 to 22.1% during 2007. On the other hand, Transport, Storage and Communications activity contribution doubled from 3.9% in 1999 to 6.1% in 2007.
Trade exchange
The data available at the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reveals that the lowest value of exports and imports for the West Bank and Gaza strip was in 2001 and 2002 because of Al Aqsa Intifada and began to increase since 2003. The results reveal that the value of imported goods in 2007 totaled to US $ 3,141.3 million; on the other hand, the value of imported services for the same year totaled to US $ 104.7 million. The value of exported goods in 2007 totaled US $ 513.0 million. The value of exported services to Israel totaled US $ 121.8 million in the same period. The net trade balance on goods had a deficit of US $ 2,628.3 million in 2007, with a 9.9% increase compared with 2006. The net trade balance on services for 2007 scored a surplus of US $ 17.2 million.
Economic establishments: Defy the siege
The final results of the Establishment Census 2007 and the update to December 31, 2008 shows that the number of economic establishments in the Palestinian Territory between October 20, 2007, and November 10, 2007, totals 132,938 establishments. The figure does not include those parts of Jerusalem governorate which were annexed by Israel in 1967. The figure includes 94,270 establishments in the remaining West Bank and 38,668 establishments in Gaza Strip. There are 109,476 operating establishments in the Palestinian Territory, in the private sector, NGO sector, and government companies. These establishments employ 299,754 persons.
Information Society
According to the Business Survey on Information Technology and Communications, 2007, the results showed that 21.1% of the total enterprises in the Palestinian Territory used computers in 2007, with 23.1% in the West Bank compared to 16.3% in Gaza Strip. The percentage of enterprises that use the Internet is 12.7% of the total enterprises, 67.8% of the enterprises that use computers use the Internet (68.0% in the West Bank and 67.3% in Gaza Strip). The percentage of enterprises that have both commercial transactions electronically via the Internet or networks is 2.1% of the total enterprises.
The estimated number of employees in the private sector specialized in the field of informatics and communication is about ten thousand workers, representing 3.5% of the total of the workers. The number of students specialized in these areas is about five thousand, representing 3% of the total students in the year 2008.
From studying the trends in prevalence of information technology in the Palestinian society, use is expected to be doubled during the next five years. Infrastructure and access to information technology has developed significantly between 2000 and 2006, the percentage of households owning a computer was 33% in 2006, three times of the percentage in 2000. The availability of Internet service for households increased by ten times between 2000 and 2006 to reach 15% and owning mobile phone increased in 2006 compared with the year 2000 to reach 81%.
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