Partition and Expulsion
A UN resolution in October 1947 recommended the division of Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state (55% and 45% respectively when Jewish land ownership was some 7%). This resolution was not implemented. Zionist leaders accepted the parts of it that call for a Jewish state but rejected all other parts: economic union, internationalization of Jerusalem, borders setting 55% for a Jewish state, 45% for a Palestinian Arab state, no displacement of people, according full civil and religious rights to people in both states.
In a speech addressing the Central Committee of the Histadrut on December 30, 1947, Ben Gurion commented on this resolution:
"In the area allocated to the Jewish State there are not more than 520,000 Jews and about 350,000 non-Jews, mostly Arabs. Together with the Jews of Jerusalem, the total population of the Jewish State at the time of its establishment, will be about one million, including almost 40% non-Jews. such a (population) composition does not provide a stable basis for a Jewish State. This (demographic) fact must be viewed in all its clarity and acuteness. With such a (population) composition, there cannot even be absolute certainty that control will remain in the hands of the Jewish majority .... There can be no stable and strong Jewish state so long as it has a Jewish majority of only 60%." (Nur Masalha, Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 176) The native people were not consulted on this resolution splitting the country artificially with ridiculous borders for both states and allocating sovereignity for 55% of it to 30% of the population (most of them new immigrants). Native Jews (not those arriving under the banner of Zionism were actually opposed to the concept of particition and a Jewish state. But we will not dwell on the wisdom of this recommendation as the history of what followed and the quagmire we are in speak eloquently to that. Between October 1947 and May 1948 (when the Arab Armies intervened), over half of the Palestinian refugees were driven out by Zionist forces. Benny Morris who is a Zionist historian and rejects the right of return of refugees stated:
"Above all, let me reiterate, the refugee problem was caused by attacks by Jewish forces on Arab villages and towns and by the inhabitants' fear of such attacks, compounded by expulsions, atrocities, and rumors of atrocities -- and by the crucial Israeli Cabinet decision in June 1948 to bar a refugee return." (Benny Morris, "Revisiting the Palestinian Exodus of 1948", pp. 37-59 in "The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948", E. L. Rogan and A. Schlaim (eds.), Cambridge University Press. 2001) Based on declassified Israeli documents, Morris, Ilan Pappe, Avi Shlaim, Tom Segev and other Israeli historians revealed the extent of the ethnic cleansing and its ramifications (which haunts us till today). The removal of the natives was accompanied by horrific acts of violence stretching from the 33 massacres during Al-Nakba (the Catastrophe of the 1947-1949 expulsions) to the violence in the occupied areas today. |