Transcript Document

Born of War, or Premeditation?
Benny Morris and Nur Masalha debate the Palestinian Refugee Problem
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Morris’ Argument
Benny Morris
4 Options for Overcoming the Zionist Dilemma
1)
2)
3)
4)
Immigration
Apartheid
Partition
Transfer
Herzl and Transfer
“We must expropriate
gently…We shall try and spirit
the penniless population
across the border…Both the
process of expropriation and
the removal of the poor must
be carried out discreetly and
circumspectly”
Theodor Herzl
Diaries (1895)
Ben-Gurion / Transfer?
“The compulsory transfer of
the Arabs from the
proposed Jewish state could
give us something which we
never had….Any doubt on
our part about the necessity
of this transfer…may lose
us an historic opportunity
….I support compulsory
transfer. I don’t see in it
anything immoral.”
David Ben-Gurion
Diaries (1937)
Speech (1938)
Menachem Ussishkin / Transfer?
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“We must continually raise the
demand that our land be
returned to our possession.... If
there are other inhabitants
there, they must be transferred
to some other place…
We cannot start the Jewish
state with...half the population
being Arab…Such a state
cannot survive even half an
hour... It [transfer] is most
moral... I am ready to come
and defend ... it before the
Almighty.
Menachem Ussishkin
1930 / 1938
Transfer – Yosef Weitz
“There is no room for both peoples
in this country. After the Arabs are
transferred, the country will be
wide open for us…not a single
village or a single tribe must be
left…there is no other solution”
Yosef Weitz (1940)
Morris on Transfer Sentiment
“My conclusion was and remains that thinking about
the transfer of all or part of Palestine’s Arabs out of
the prospective Jewish state was pervasive among
Zionist leadership circles before 1937…the consensus
or near consensus in support of transfer…was clear.”
Benny Morris
Revisiting the Palestinian Exodus, pp. 40, 44.
Morris on Transfer Thinking and Transfer
“What is the importance of expressions of support
for transfer and how do they connect to what actually
happened…My feeling is that the connection is
subtle and indirect.”
Benny Morris
Revisiting the Palestinian Exodus, pp. 47-48.
The Refugee Problem
…the refugee problem was
essentially a product of the war,
of the shelling, shooting and
bombing, and the fears that
these generate….Above
all,…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.
Where Did Refugees Go?
Place
# (est)
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Jordan/W. Bank
Gaza
Lebanon
Syria
400,000
200,000
120,000
75,000
“There are circumstances that
justify ethnic cleansing. A
Jewish state would not have
come into being without the
uprooting of 700,000
Palestinians. Therefore it was
necessary to uproot them…. It
was necessary to cleanse the
border areas and main
roads…to cleanse the
villages…I know it doesn’t
sound nice, but that’s the term
we used at the time.”
Benny Morris
Ha’aretz Interview (2004)
In 1948 the Palestinians became a
disinherited people…. The reality was
that of an Arab community in a state
of terror facing a ruthless Israeli army
whose path to victory was paved not
only by its exploits,… but also by the
intimidation and at times atrocities it
perpetrated against the civilian Arab
community. A panic stricken Arab
community was uprooted under the
impact of massacres that would be
carved into the Arabs’ monument of
grief and hatred,…the less [sic] Arabs
remained, the better; this principle is
the political motor for the expulsions
and atrocities.
Shlomo Ben-Ami
pp. 42-43
Masalha’s Argument?
…the problem of the Arab
minority, supposed to reside
in that [prospective Jewish]
state, began to preoccupy the
Yishuv's leadership
obsessively. They were
justified in seeing the future
minority as a great danger to
the prospective Jewish
state…. The transfer
idea...was viewed by the
majority of the Yishuv
leaders in those days as the
best solution to the problem
...the Yishuv military
establishment, presided over
by Ben-Gurion, formulated in
early March 1948 and began
implementing in early April
Plan Dalet in anticipation of
Arab military operations.
According to Morris, the
essence of Plan Dalet "was the
clearing of hostile and
potentially hostile forces out of
the interior of the prospective
territory of the Jewish State.
Masalha: No Master
Plan?
Born of War, or Premeditation?
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