Palestinians
That (people, language, traditions) which is of the Palestinian people.
See also: Palestine , PLO , Hamas and Arab
Palestinians are an Arab people, whose traditions, history and ethnicity are centered on land formerly in the British Mandate of Palestine: the State of Israel, The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Israeli occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza strip.
Palestinians are mostly Muslim, but there are many Christians as well. A very small number of Palestinians are humanists, atheists or agnostics. The number of Christian Palestinians in some West Bank towns has long been decreasing due to Islamist intolerance and discrimination towards Christians. (See: Palestine/Christian).
Arab view of the creation of the State of Israel
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. Most of these refugees have never been allowed to return to their homes; many of their homes and properties have been expropriated by the State of Israel. (Israelis point out that hundreds of thousands of Jews from Arab nations became refugees during this war; they too have never received compensation.)
Many of these Arab refugees 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 coast and Jerusalem; During battles with Arab armies for five Arab nations, dozens of Arab villages were destroyed by Israelie forces. In early their was an infamous battle at Deir Yassin, known as the Deir Yassin incident.
On the date of British withdrawal the Jews declared the formation of the State of Israel. On the day Israel proclaimed its independence there were already 300,000 Palestinian refugees, and Zionist forces had occupied large chunks of territory designated for the proposed Arab state as well as parts of Jerusalem intended for international administration.
It is often stated that if the Palestinians had accepted partition, they wouldn't have lost even more of their territory in the war. Eamon De Valera, president of Ireland, saw clearly that this was impossible. To one visitor who had solicited his support for partition he replied: "I read the Old Testament many years ago. I am afraid I have forgotten many things I read; but one passage I recall clearly. It is the story of Solomon's judgement of the two women who desired the same baby. I remember how when Solomon ruled that the baby be divided the real mother screamed, "No! No! Give the baby to the other woman!" That is my answer to partition. The rightful owners of a country will never agree to partition."
Arab historical statements on the creation of Palestinian refugees
At the time of the refugee crisis, for some 20 to 30 years afterwards, many Arab authorities heald that the refugee crisis was the result of Arab tactical decisions during the conflict. Some Palestinians today appear to deny the very existence of these quotes, or hold that these Arabs were somehow secretly Zionists.
"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)