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 destruction of homes and villages was not pre-planned by Zionist leaders, saying that Plan D of the Haganah, which prescribed exactly such measures, was not implemented until April 1948 in anticipation of attack by surrounding Arab states after the British leaving on May 15. He believes that it was opportunism driven by events, the seizing of a one-time chance to cleanse the new state of Arabs. Arabs, and some other Israeli historians, believe it was pre-planned. I'm not sure that there is an ethical difference whether ethnic cleansing was pre-planned or improvised. Certainly the idea of transfer of Arabs from Palestine was rife in Zionist circles before partition and Morris includes a chapter documenting this thinking.
On the Zionist left voices were raised against the policy and there are diary entries of horrified Jewish observers, one of whom concluded, " I hide my face in shame." However, David Ben-Gurion kept national unity intact by being careful not to expose in writing any draconian intentions and by telling different things to different people. In the case of the violent wholesale expulsions from Lydda and Ramle, a hand gesture to his staff conveyed his real intention.
The Israelis were so taken with the success of Arab removal that they adopted a resolute policy of no return of the refugees. United Nations Moderator Count Folke Bernadotte was dismayed that Jews with their history of persecution would themselves act so unjustly. Morris reports a conversation in which Bernadotte was trying to persuade Moshe Sharett, then Israel's Foreign Minister, to make at least a gesture of conciliation by allowing a partial return. Sharett replied that such idealism had no place in a world dominated by men of action (such as himself, presumably), and that Israel would be regarded as foolish by such men if it discarded the favorable situation created by war. A day after the release of Bernadotte's report on refugees, men of action from the Stern Gang murdered him.
This is not a history of the 1948 war, but Morris in summary blames the victims for their disastrous fate because, "They started the war", certainly a contentious conclusion considering that the refugees were mostly non-combatants, and furthermore had no voice in the partitioning of their country.
It appears to this reader that Morris makes a strong case that the refugees were victims of Zionist drives for exclusivity and expansion of territory. As an historian Morris deserves great credit for his diligence in bringing light to this dark event whose legacy still troubles the region. An IDF intelligence officer observing the pathetic stream of refugees fleeing Lydda wrote, Occasionally you encountered a piercing look from one of the youngsters in the column, and the look said, "We have not surrendered. We shall return to fight you."
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Top reviews from other countries
Andy Dyer
The book that Benny Morris must really regret writing.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 30, 2012kevin scholes
but great insight into what happened to cause all the refugees
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 23, 2016
