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| By israelinsider staff December 20, 2006 |
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Arab residents of Palestine in 1948 were not expelled by Israeli officials or military forces, as many claim, but were actually ordered to leave by local Arab leaders, says Palestinian journalist Mahmud Al-Habbash who writes for the official Palestinian Authority newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida.
Al-Habbash writes in his column, "The Pulse of Life," that Arab residents were explicitly instructed by their local Arab leaders to leave their homes when the 'Catastrophe' (the establishment of the State of Israel) occurred in 1948.
While creating a false but effective political problem for Israel, the Arabs leaders' instructions for residents to leave their homes has bred internal resentment and anger.
Says Al-Habbash: "...The leaders and the elites promised us at the beginning of the 'Catastrophe' in 1948, that the duration of the exile will not be long, and that it will not last more than a few days or months, and afterwards the refugees will return to their homes, which most of them did not leave only until they put their trust in those 'Arkuvian' [false] promises made by the leaders and the political elites. Afterwards, days passed, months, years and decades, and the promises were lost with the strain of the succession of events..."
Other Palestinians have noted that the local Arab leaders used tactics of intimidation and public scorn to motivate residents to leave.
A caller on a Palestinian Authority television program on April 30, 1999 told the program's host and his guest, an Arab member of Israel's Knesset, Ibrahim Sarsur, that the oral history of the events, including the policy of the Arab leadership to threaten treason if residents did not flee, had been passed down by his grandfather and father.
"Mr. Ibrahim [Sarsur], I address you as a Muslim," said the program's caller who did not identify himself by name. "My father and grandfather told me that during the 'Catastrophe' our district officer issued an order that whoever stays in Palestine and in Majdel [near Ashkelon -- Southern Israel] is a traitor, he is a traitor."
The Arab Knesset member did not refute the claim but said only that, "The one who gave the order forbidding them to stay there bears guilt for this, in this life and the Afterlife throughout history until Resurrection Day."
Today, the official Palestinian historical narrative vigorously claims that Arab residents were forced to leave by Israeli forces. Much of the justification behind Palestinian terror organizations resides in the claim that Arab residents were forced to leave, and so have legal refugee status and a legitimate claim to the right of return.
Claims to the contrary -- especially coming from within the Palestinian establishment -- could prove damaging to the Palestinian refugee status and demands for right of return since, according to international law, if Palestinians left by their own will or under orders from their own leaders they would not necessarily qualify for refugee status.
Palestinian refugee status is a hotly contested issue. The main UN refugee organization, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights (UNHCR), which has successfully aided millions of refugees to return to a relatively normal life, does not service the Palestinian refugee population.
For unknown reasons, the UN established a separate refugee organization, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), devoted solely to Palestinians -- something not done for any other refugee population in the world.
The special service, it seems, comes with benefits: whereas all other world refugees under the UN see $64 spent annually per refugee, the Palestinians benefit from $99 spent per refugee. There is no public justification for this disparity between the treatment of world refugees and Palestinians.
Additionally, Palestinians are guaranteed by UNRWA healthcare and primary education, also something not done for any other refugee population in the world.
"I'm wondering why the UN finds the Palestinians to be so much more special than the other millions of refugees in the world," asks one Middle East blogger. "It's not about who the refugees are," retorted a reader in a response comment, "it's about which state they came from."
Palestinian Media Watch contributed to this article. |
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