The Palestinian Issue – Core Data – Yoram Ettinger
(Daily Alert)

According to a Ford Foundation report, by 1950 the majority of the Palestinian refugees began evacuating the refugee camps and non-refugees moved in to benefit from UNRWA’s services.

    Before the 1948-1949 War of Independence, 800,000 Arabs (per inflated numbers) resided within the boundaries of “pre-1967 Israel.” At the end of that war, 170,000 Arabs stayed in Israel. Of the remaining 630,000 Arabs, 100,000 were absorbed by Israel’s family reunification gesture; 100,000 middle- and upper-class Arabs left before the beginning of the war and were absorbed by neighboring Arab states; 50,000 migrant laborers returned to their Arab countries of origin; 50,000 Bedouins joined their brethren-tribes in Jordan and Sinai; and 10,000 were war fatalities. Thus, the actual total number of Palestinian refugees was 320,000.

    Most of the refugees followed their political, economic and social leadership, which left before the eruption of the war. Many were enticed to depart by Arab leaders, who promised a quick devastation of the Jewish state that would provide the evacuees with Jewish property. British authorities influenced others, pressuring the minority in mixed Jewish-Arab towns to evacuate: Arabs evacuated but Jews did not. (Israel Hayom)