See also: Palestine , PLO , Hamas and Arab
Palestinians are an Arab people, whose traditions, history and ethinicity is centered on land formerlly in the British Mandate of Palestine; i.e. present-day Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories (West Bank and Gaza). Palestinians are mostly Muslim, but there are many who are from Palestine and are Christian as well (See: Palestine/Christian).
The wave of Palestinian refugees created after the creation of the State of Israel was caused in part by surrounding Arab nations, and in part by the creation of the state of Israel. In any case these refugees have never been allowed to return to their homes, and properties (many homes and properties have been expropriated from the refugees, by the state of Israel).
There can be no doubt that many fled in terror from war, whether they were misled to leave, with the expectation of return, or with the expectation of victory, these people have never been allowed to return.
At midnight on [14 May 1948]?, when the last British soldiers were departing and the new state was proclaimed, the Zionists had captured the the Arab quarters of west Jerusalem and infiltrated the old city; they had taken Jaffa and opened a corridor between the coats and Jerusalem; and they had destroyed dozens of Arab villages. In early April their most well publicized crime had been committed: the massacre of 254 civillians of Deir Yassin. ....
See: Deir Yassin incident
"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." (editorial in Jordanian newspaper "Falastin", February 19 1949, Amman, Jordan)
"It must not be forgotten that the Arab Higher Committee encouraged the refugees' flight from their homes in Jaffa, Haifa, and Jerusalem." (radio broadcast by the Near East Arabic Broadcasting Station on April 3 1949 (Cyprus)
"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, American journalist, covering the area before and during the war, in his book "New Star in the Near East", pp. 30-31, New York 1950)
"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 Said, as quoted by Nimr el Hawari (the former Commander of the stine Arab Youth Organization) in his book 'Sir Am Nakbah' ("The Secret Behind the Disaster"), 1952 (Nazareth)
"This wholesale exodus was due partly to the belief of the Arabs, encouraged by the boasting of an unrealistic Arab press and the irresponsible utterances of some of the Arab leaders that it could be only a matter of some weeks before the Jews were defeated by the armies of the Arab States and the Palestinian Arabs enabled to re-enter and retake posession of their country." Edward Atiyah (Secretary of the Arab League Office in London), as quoted in 'The Arabs', p. 183 (London 1955)
"I do not want to impugn anybody but only to help the refugees. The fact that there are these refugees is the direct consequence of the action of the Arab States in opposing partition and the Jewish State. The Arab States agreed upon this policy unanimously and they must share in the solution of the problem." Emil Ghoury (Secretary of the Arab Higher Committee), as quoted in the Daily Telegraph, September 6 1948(Beirut)
"The Secretary General of the Arab League, Azzam Pasha, assured the Arab peoples that the occupation of Palestine and of 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 daily US-published Lebanese newspaper Al Hoda, June 8 1951, New York)
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