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Benny Morris

The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949 (Cambridge Middle East Library) Reprint. Edition

by Benny Morris (Author)

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This book is the first full-length study of the birth of the Palestinian refugee problem. Based on recently declassified Israeli, British and American state and party political papers and on hitherto untapped private papers, it traces the stages of the 1947–9 exodus against the backdrop of the first Arab-Israeli war and analyses the varied causes of the flight. The Jewish and Arab decision-making involved, on national and local levels, military and political, is described and explained, as is the crystallisation of Israel's decision to bar a refugee repatriation. The subsequent fate of the abandoned Arab villages, lands and urban neighbourhoods is examined. The study looks at the international context of the war and the exodus, and describes the political battle over the refugees' fate, which effectively ended with the deadlock at Lausanne in summer 1949. Throughout the book attempts to describe what happened rather than what successive generations of Israeli and Arab propagandists have said happened, and to explain the motives of the protagonists.

ISBN-10

0521338891
ISBN-13

978-0521338899
Edition

Reprint.
Publisher

Cambridge University Press
Publication date

February 24, 1989
Language

English
Dimensions

6.25 x 1 x 9 inches
Print length

400 pages
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Editorial Reviews

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'This excellent myth-debunking book … deserves a wide readership among those who want to understand what has happened in Israel over the last 40 years rather than repeat discredited propaganda which serves only to prolong the war.' The Spectator

'This latest addition to the Cambridge Middle East Library is a book of exceptional importance. It will be required reading for anyone who professes a serious interest in the Arab-Israeli conflict over Palestine. Its conclusions, which invalidate many of the assumptions commonly made about the origins of the conflict, need to be taken into account in any attempt to devise a solution to it.' Arab Affairs

'… the most comprehensive and detailed study yet published on the Palestinian refugees.' The Economist

Book Description

This book is the first full-length study of the birth of the Palestinian refugee problem.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge University Press; Reprint. edition (February 24, 1989)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0521338891
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0521338899
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.22 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,834,651 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #369 in Middle Eastern History (Books)
- #1,834 in Israel & Palestine History (Books)
- #11,213 in Political Science (Books)

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3.9 19 ratings

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K. Thurm

Excellent History, BUT Ridiculous Conclusions!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 16, 2014

When it comes to the history of Israel and Palestine, it's hard to find good authors. Morris is one of the best.

This book should be mandatory reading for anyone seriously interested in this topic. It's not a particularly easy read, but it is shorter and more readable than Morris' "Righteous Victims" (which covers a much longer time period). Morris is VERY thorough with this history book. Some would probably say too thorough, but considering the subject matter, I think the thoroughness of this book is welcome.

I take serious issue with Morris' conclusion that the ethnic cleansing of 1947, 48 and 49 was not directed from the highest levels. Frankly, Morris' own detailed reporting even says otherwise. There are many times in this book where Morris talks about Ben Gurion not wanting to put anything in writing when it came to ethnic cleansing. Why? Because Ben Gurion knew that this could come back to haunt both him and the future generations of Israeli Jews. For Morris to then conclude that the atrocities were not directed from the people highest up in the Jewish government, is just beyond ridiculous. He couldn't find any written orders, but he says that Ben Gurion was very careful to not put anything in writing. That certainly doesn't prove that Ben Gurion and his cronies didn't order the ethnic cleansing. Morris' own Jewish/Israeli bias has definitely overcome his sense of reasonable commentary.

Despite the silly conclusion chapter, I found this book to be very worthwhile.

5 people found this helpful

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Alyssa A. Lappen

Not the whole picture

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 30, 2004

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Readers interested in Benny Morris should read Israeli historian Yehoshua Porath's "War and Remembrance" in the summer 2002 issue of Azure. Porath adds to the Oct. 1995 and April 1990 discussions by Robert Satloff and Shabtai Teveth in Middle Eastern Studies and to Efraim Karsh's excellent book, Fabricating Israeli History . Don't read this book without looking at these critiques.

Why? Morris et al tell readers they have written "new" history of Israel, considering the entire previous historical record as if it were solely propaganda for the Zionist cause. Here, Morris considers Jewish conduct in the 1947 and 1948, and why the Arabs fled.

Morris claims to be the first person to have looked at Israeli archives on the Dalet Plan, a plan to move populations in certain areas. Nevertheless, other scholars show that Morris and his peers in this book misrepresent themselves and the facts.

Firstly, Yigael Alon and Israel Galili, in The Book of the Palmah, gave Walid Khalidi material to argue in 1959 that the Dalet Plan was "the master plan of the Zionists" to expel Palestinians wholesale. Furthermore, Uri Millstein's 1973 History of the Hagana included the entire Dalet Plan text. Official or not, these 1959 and 1973 Israeli Jewish histories, very shortly after the the 1948 war, did not hide what happened, as Morris claims here. Furthermore, Uri Millstein also revisited the topic in his five-volume History of the War of Independence.

Morris also writes that Arab government archives were closed to his research and and to other historians writing on the Israeli-Arab conflict before him. He writes that he relied on Israeli and Western archives. But Porath, Karsh, Satloff and Teveth all show that this is not the case.

Furthermore, Morris did no research at the Hagannah archives or those of the IDF, a fact underlined by Efraim Karsh in 2002, and one which he admits in a more recent book (The War for Palestine). Morris now writes that in the mid 1980s both those archives were closed to all researchers after all. He writes, he was limited to few first-hand military materials, indicating that there is no "new" research here at all.

Morris' charge that Israel carried out a deliberate and systematic expulsion of the Palestinian Arabs isn't even remotely substantiated by extensive research done since the mid 1980s. On the contrary, Morris takes material very selectively, from Israeli archive fringes and makes what Porath terms "outrageously false claims"-- that Israel's victory resulted from "an imperialist conspiracy or an overwhelming advantage in manpower and arms."

Indeed, Morris writes here that Arabs left Israel because of many factors, their departure was not the fault of the Jewish people alone. Then, he contradicts himself, giving those who hate Israel grounds to blame Israel for the exodus, without considering the other circumstances.

This book also details a so-called "massacre" in 1948 of Arabs at the village of Deir Yassin, but not enough to mention that the incident was actually a battle--in which most Arabs killed (like those in Jenin in March and April 2002) were armed.

Finally, Morris does not note (by comparison) other massacres in 1948--of Jews, by Arabs. On December 30, 1947, for example, Arabs murdered some 50 Jewish co-workers at the Haifa refinery. On April 13, 1948, they massacred over 80 Jewish doctors, nurses and Hebrew University workers on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem.

Additionally, nearly all of the 131 people who surrendered at the Etzion Bloc were also murdered by Palestinian Arabs. Only two survived.

These latter Arab massacres of Jews do not fit the blame that Morris seeks to lay at Jewish feet. Nor does the fact that Jews did not afterward flee, as occurred on the Arab side following the battle at Deir Yassin. So Morris omits them.

I also find it disturbing that the book nowhere mentions the equal refugee claim of 1 million Jewish refugees from 22 Arab nations, who were expelled with nothing but the shirts on their backs , and rebuilt their lives in Israel, the U.S., and Europe.

The number of Jewish refugees was actually larger than that of Arab refugees (counting only those who fled, not their descendants). Honest history would have noted these parallels as well as the entire context of the war.

--Alyssa A. Lappen

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Amazon Customer

Morris hits another home run with this superb effort!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 25, 2002

What makes this and other similar works by Israel's "new" historians significant is that they are coming around to what academics in Europe and some even in America have known for decades, that Israel forced the majority of Palestinians out of Israel through the use of terrorism, mass murder, and forced expulsions. Morris has joined the growing number of Israelis and Jewish Americans who are coming out and looking at Israel's past without rose colored glasses and this is, of course, angering Israel's supporters who hold to such laughable notions that the Arabs left of their own accord or were instructed to leave by other Arab leaders for some reason that remains mysterious. One might as well claim that the Native Americans moved to reservations because they wanted a change of scenery. The criticism aimed at this book is part of the usual obfuscation process to make it seem as if "there are two truths" or that Morris and the multitude of Israeli historians like him are all prone to hyperbole." This is nonsensical to say the least. Neutral academics who aren't involved in this conflict and Israeli Jews such as Morris receive nothing but constant "criticism" for revealing the truth about this conflict to wider audiences in Israel and America (the Europeans and others in the world don't require "new" or "revisionist" history as they have been aware of the Palestinian refugee problem and what caused it since it happened). The declassified information found in Israeli official archives is nothing new to much of the world, but it does help those people who know very little about this conflict or have the wrong idea in Israel and the US. Many of the critics who have attempted to "pan" Benny Morris' work are the same "academics" who support such charlatans as Joan Peters. They don't want people to learn the obvious truth and see past the propoganda. This is especially important here in the United States where pro-Israeli sentiments run high and blind support for that apartheid regime is unwavering. Also, the critics don't note some of the interesting insights Morris gives such as pointing to some Israeli actions as purely military and not meant to drive out Palestinians (and thus supporting pro-Israeli views), but they still had that effect anyway. Morris doesn't protray the Zionists as some evil army, just a well organized one that planned for and carried out an expansionist campaign designed to disenfranchise the Palestinians of their lands. The war was fought weeks before an Arab armies even announced their intentions to "attack" Israel and yet strangely all the fighting took place in Palestinian designated regions. We also get some interesting insights into the major players like David Ben-Gurion who was one of the master planners of the Zionist plot to conquer Palestine. Morris, contrary to what some reviewers claim, is actually quite balanced and neutral and isn't as harsh towards the Israeli side as purported (he's actually a Zionist himself). Morris is just not interested in living in some fantasyland that has been built up largely in Israel and the United States that the Arabs were all rabid anti-Jewish masses waiting to attack the Jews and that the fledgling Zionists did what they had to do to survive. It was not survival which they sought, it was conquest and expansion. And even many Israeli academics have arrived at what has been obvious to the rest of the world. Highly recommended.

38 people found this helpful

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