Bulletin
May 20, 2008 Palestinian Media Watch

The evolving Palestinian narrative:
Arabs caused the refugee problem

PA daily: Arabs left homes on their own to facilitate
destruction of Israel -- and thus became refugees
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
Palestinian Media Watch:
p:+972 2 625 4140 e: pmw@pmw.org.il
f: +972 2 624 2803 w: www.pmw.org.il

The Arabs who became refugees in 1948 were not expelled by Israel but left
on their own to facilitate the destruction of Israel, according to a senior
Palestinian journalist writing in a Palestinian daily. This plan to leave
Israel was initiated by the Arab states fighting Israel, who promised the
people they would be able to return to their homes in a few days once Israel
was defeated. The article in Al-Ayyam concludes that these Arab states are
responsible for the Arab refugee problem.

A backbone of Palestinian English-language propaganda is the myth that
Israel expelled hundreds of thousands of Arabs from Israel and created Arab
refugees. But in recent years, PMW has documented an increasing willingness
among Palestinians to openly blame the Arab states and not Israel.

Following are five such statements of blame, starting with this most recent
article and including testimony from refugees themselves and corroboration
by Palestinian leaders. Clearly, there is a growing Palestinian willingness
to blame the Arab leaders, which corroborates Israel's historical record.

1. Jawad Al Bashiti, Palestinian journalist in Jordan, writing in Al-Ayyam,
May 13, 2008

"Remind me of one real cause from all the factors that have caused the
"Palestinian Catastrophe" [the establishment of Israel and the creation of
refugee problem], and I will remind you that it still exists... The reasons
for the Palestinian Catastrophe are the same reasons that have produced and
are still producing our Catastrophes today.
During the Little Catastrophe, meaning the Palestinian Catastrophe the
following happened: the first war between Arabs and Israel had started and
the "Arab Salvation Army" came and told the Palestinians: 'We have come to
you in order to liquidate the Zionists and their state. Leave your houses
and villages, you will return to them in a few days safely. Leave them so we
can fulfill our mission (destroy Israel) in the best way and so you won't be
hurt.' It became clear already then, when it was too late, that the support
of the Arab states (against Israel) was a big illusion. Arabs fought as if
intending to cause the "Palestinian Catastrophe". [Al-Ayyam, May 13 2008]

2. Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Palestinian Journalist in PA official daily, Al-Hayat
Al-Jadida, December 13, 2006

"...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" 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..." [Term "Arkuvian," is after Arkuv - a figure from Arab tradition -
who was known for breaking his promises and for his lies."] "
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, December 13, 2006]

3. Asmaa Jabir Balasimah, Woman who fled Israel in 1948, Al-Ayyam, May 16,
2006

"We heard sounds of explosions and of gunfire at the beginning of the summer
in the year of the "Catastrophe" [1948]. They told us: The Jews attacked our
region and it is better to evacuate the village and return, after the battle
is over. And indeed there were among us [who fled Israel] those who left a
fire burning under the pot, those who left their flock [of sheep] and those
who left their money and gold behind, based on the assumption that we would
return after a few hours."
[Al-Ayyam, May 16, 2006]

4. Son of man who fled in 1948, PA TV 1999

An Arab viewer called Palestinian Authority TV and quoted his father, saying
that in 1948 the Arab District Officer ordered all Arabs to leave Palestine
or be labeled traitors. In response, Arab MK Ibrahim Sarsur, then Head of
the Islamic Movement in Israel, cursed those leaders, thus acknowledging
Israel's historical record.

"Mr. Ibrahim [Sarsur]. I address you as a Muslim. My father and grandfather
told me that during the "Catastrophe" [in 1948], 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."

Response from Ibrahim Sarsur, now MK, then Head of the Islamic Movement in
Israel:
"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."
[PA TV April 30, 1999]

5. Fuad Abu Higla, senior Palestinian, Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, March 19, 2001

Fuad Abu Higla, then a regular columnist in the official PA daily Al Hayat
Al Jadida, wrote an article before an Arab Summit, which criticized the Arab
leaders. One of the failures he cited, in the name of a prisoner, was that
an earlier generation of Arab leaders "forced" them to leave Israel in 1948,
again placing the blame for the flight on the Arab leaders.

"I have received a letter from a prisoner in Acre prison, to the Arab
summit:
To the [Arab and Muslim] Kings and Presidents, poverty is killing us, the
symptoms are exhausting us and the souls are leaving our body, yet you are
still searching for the way to provide aid, like one who is looking for a
needle in a haystack or like the armies of your predecessors in the year of
1948, who forced us to leave [Israel], on the pretext of clearing the
battlefields of civilians...
So what will your summit do now?"
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 19, 2001]

Conclusion
It is clear from these statements that there is general acknowledgement
among Palestinians that Arab leaders bear responsibility for the mass flight
of Arabs from Israel in 1948, and were the cause of the "refugee" problem.
Furthermore, the fact that this information has been validated by public
figures and refugees in the Palestinian Authority media itself confirms
that this responsibility is well-known - even though for propaganda purposes
its leaders continue to blame Israel publicly for "the expulsion."