The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited

This seminal book, an updated version of the original published in 1988, might have been better edited. It contains several repetitions, plus, weighs down the casual reader with far too many examples and details. Much better would have been to give the essential story, and to have added an appendix containing all additional examples and details that the more avid history buffs would indeed want included. That said, the importance of this book simply cannot be overstated. It documents, with crystal-clear and unassailable clarity, what caused 700,000 Palestinians to be displaced in 1947-48. And no honest observer, after reading this volume, could deny the bone-fide case Palestinians have against Israel - even though, as the book also constantly points out, the fledgling Jewish state was emotionally and materially unable to carry out a more just policy. This has much bearing on the political situation today. For one, it means it is totally unrealistic to look for a peace solution where Palestine formally recognizes Israel - a different model (perhaps along the lines of the Bermigo Plan) will need to be found. And second, the historical record, which this book so ably sets out, shames the kneejerk, self-righteous rightwing and center-right Jewish organizations who present the conflict as a tug of war between the eminently reasonable (the Israelis) and totally unreasonable (the Palestinians). The truth is far, far more complex. Finally, let readers differentiate between this completely apolitical and superbly researched historical volume, and Professor Benny Morris's personal political views - some of which are quite whacky. He is certainly not the first professor or top-rank researcher to present his findings - and then advise on a policy that his own findings scoff at.

The strength of this book lies in its meticulous detail and the thorough research of its author. Even after two decades this work still stands as one of the most important books to cover the beginnings of the refugee problem. It is authoritative and very detailed. Whether you agree with Mr. Morris or not, his book is a must read for any serious student of Israel, the conflict or the Middle East in general. I also feel that it is a testament to the evenhandedness of the author that the work has been derided by both camps. Only an honest attempt at analysis could make both sides so unhappy. The book starts out with a brief history of the region before partition, and then moves along chronologically from the early ideas of population transfer through the war and ends with the last cease fire and the following negotiations. The main chapters are based chronologically, but within the chapters they are broken up geographically. This allows the author to focus in on each location the experienced a demographic change. With great detail the author explains each transfer, and gives the reader a detailed analysis of why these people left. This is one of the big problems in trying to understand the birth of the refugee problem. There was a great variety of reasons why these people left their villages and cities. Some were told to leave by the authorities, some were explicitly forced out by the IDF, others left out of fear, and others left due to stories of atrocities and rumors of atrocities. This is the crux of the problem that was tackled by the author in this work, why each group of refugees left. The author structured his book perfectly to give readers the most detailed analysis of why each group left each specific area. He gives the Israeli response to each exodus, and gives an account of Israeli actions that may have precipitated that flight out of design and sometimes as an unintended consequence. Whether pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian or just someone trying to make sense out of this complicated area, Mr Morris' work is essential reading. It is a definitive work on the refugee problem. If you are interested in this topic you can't skip on this work. With that said I did have some major problems with the book. The way it was structured had some major benefits, but also some major drawbacks as well. The problem with structuring the work around each geographic location rather than using chronology is that it creates only isolated pictures of each location. Instead of understanding each exodus on the macro level the reader sees only the micro. This allows the author to go into great detail, but it also minimizes what was happening all over the country, and how those happenings affected the other areas. The author had to make a decision of how to structure this book, and he was going to encounter problems however he went about it so I don't take off for that, but I feel it incumbent to air my problems. Next I have never in my life e

Morris is a unique seeker of truth and a punctilious historian and scholar who is not encumbered with the usual agenda that accompanies the vast majority of writers on this topic. Interestingly, Morris, an Israeli historian, is frequently quoted by Arab and anti-Israeli authors and sources, such as, the pseudo-academic, Norman Finkelstein, most often entirely out of context (as one examines the quotes), and he provides a breathtaking perspective of truth that embodies the absolute pathos of the dramatic history of this region, in stark contrast to the various fantasies that have been generated by both sides of the conflict. This book is an absolute must for any true student of this conflict

Review of The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, by Benny Morris Israeli historian Benny Morris largely succeeds in his intention to present a "complex and nuanced" history of the birth of the Palestinian refugee problem. His extensive research, which led to the first version of this work published in 1988, was derived from archived records in Israel, England, the United States and the United Nations. Given the lapse of time since 1948 he found oral recollections inadequate and of dubious reliability. There is a torrent of detail in the book and there are hundreds of endnotes following each chapter. Many readers will be shocked by the numerous detailed descriptions of the violence exercised on Palestinian non-combatants by Zionist forces. Even the most pro-Zionist readers will no longer be able to deny that a massive ethnic cleansing occurred in 1948. In fact, there are repeated references to "cleansing" in orders given to Haganah units, sometimes explicitly giving instructions to kill adult males, expel the women and children and destroy their homes to prevent return. Often units were not faced with the onerous task of killing and expelling because the Arabs had fled in anticipation of violence. The infamous massacre at Deir Yassin was not unique; Morris states that there were some 20 massacres, two of which were revealed for the first time in the 1988 version of this book. About 700,000 persons (Morris's estimate) were displaced beyond the boundary of the part of Palestine allotted to the new state of Israel and beyond the additional area taken by Zionist arms. Figure 2 in the book is a map with some 392 numbered dots representing the Palestinian villages evacuated and destroyed. The legend to the map gives the Arab names of these former villages with estimates of the motivation for their abandonment. Morris recognizes that the motivation for Arab flight varied among different segments of the Palestinian population. In December 1947 and early 1948 the exodus began when those of the upper classes who had resources fled to safety in Arab cities outside Palestine. The loss of actual and potential leaders undermined Palestinian morale, already suffering deep divisions from the 1936-39 revolt against British rule. In spring 1948, Haganah, Irgun and Stern Gang operations began to terrorize the Arab population, and the massive outflow of all classes began. (Menachem Begin boasts in his book, Revolt, that without the instructive example of the Deir Yassin massacre by his Irgun boys there would be no Israel.) Murder, raping and looting by Jewish combatants shocked both Arabs and many Jews who witnessed it. Morris could find no evidence for the often-repeated claim that Arab leaders broadcast appeals to Palestinians to leave their homes to expedite the killing of Jews by Arab forces. The appeals from the largely feckless Arab leaders were contradictory and had little effect. Morris that argues that forced expulsion and de

In short, this book, by precisely detailing the exact origins of the Palestinian crisis-town by town-,holds Israel at least partially or perhaps fully responsible for the refugee crisis and, by implication, the entire war on terrorism. It has particular impact because Benny Morris is a tenured Jewish Israeli scholar and therefore cannot be summerly dismissed as anti-Semitic. Moreover it makes us wonder why it is that America, despite virtually no international support, came to so blindly enable and supply Israeli aggression rather than to support, with an easily assembled and very powerful international coalition, an imposed wall or peace fence at the UN established and internationally recognized 1948 or 1967 borders. The book is a long, detailed, and fully footnoted 600 pages, but if it makes us wonder if we should rethink or, more accurately, be brave enough to think for the first time about Israel and the war on terrorism, then it is well worth every page. Please write to me if this doesn't make perfect sense.