Born of War, or Design? Reading Benny Morris and Debating the Palestinian ‘Exodus’ of 1948

A Problem Born of War

“The refugeedom of the 700,000 Palestinians was essentially a product of the war, of the shelling shooting and bombing, and of the fears that these generated.”

Benny MorrisRevisiting the Palestinian Exodus of 1948 (p. 37)

A Problem Born of War

“Above all, let me reiterate, the refugee problem was caused by attacks by Jewish forces on Arab villages and towns and by the [Palestinian] inhabitants fears 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.

Benny MorrisRevisiting the Palestinian Exodus of 1948 (p. 38)

Morris and Transfer Thinking“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…how exactly this thinking affected Zionist policy and actions remains more complicated than [Masalha suggests].

Benny MorrisRevisiting the Palestinian Exodus of 1948 (pp. 40-41.)

The Debate – Was Expulsion Premeditated?

Among my critics (such as Nur Maslha) was that I ignored or underplayed the role of pre-1948 proposals and thinking about transfer among the Zionist leadership…The controversy is really about the nature of Zionism and about the degree of premeditation in what occurred in 1948.

Benny MorrisRevisiting the Palestinian Exodus of 1948 (p. 39)

Zionist Dilemma

1881 Population

21,000 Jews 4.2% 470,000 Arab 95.8%

“The bride is beautiful but she is married to another man.”

4 Options To Overcome Dilemma and Build the Jewish State

1) Immigration2) Apartheid, that is a Zionist minority lording it over the Palestinian majority3) Partition (Create a Jewish state and an Arab State)4) Transfer the Palestinians from Palestine

Benny Morris“Revisiting,” pp. 39-40

Morris and Transfer Thinking

“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)

Berl Katznelson “The matter of population transfer has

provoked a debate among us: My conscience is absolutely clear in this respect. A remote neighbor is better than a close enemy. They will not lose from being transferred and we most certainly will not lose from it…. I have always believed and still believe that they were destined to be transferred to Syria or Iraq.”

1938

Menachem Ussishkin / Transfer?• “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

Ben-Gurion a ‘Transferist’?“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)

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 Thinking and Transfer

“What is the importance of expressions of support for transfer and how do they connect to what actually happened…Some researchers such as Masalha will have us believe that there was a direct, causal, one-to-one link between the earlier thinking and the subsequent actions. My feeling is that the connection is subtle and indirect.”

Benny Morris

Revisiting the Palestinian Exodus, pp. 47-48.

What is the Relationship between Transfer Thinking and Transfer?

“Nothing I have seen in Israeli archives indicates the existence of a Zionist Master Plan to expel the Arabs of Palestine.”

Benny MorrisRevisiting the Palestinian

Exodus of 1948 (p. 48)

Nur MasalhaWhat is the Relationship of Thinking and Doing?

“Can [Morris’] claim that there was no transfer design and expulsion policy in 1948 be sustained? Does the fact that there was no "master plan" for expelling the Palestinians absolve the Zionist leadership of responsibility for the refugee problem…? Is it conceivable that such a transfer policy was based on an understanding between Ben-Gurion and his lieutenants rather than a blueprint?”

Nur MasalhaCritique of Morris, pp. 91-92

No Master Plan?Is Morris's conclusion that a Zionist transfer/expulsion policy was never formulated borne out by his own evidence?...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.”

Nur MasalhaCritique of Morris (p. 94)

Plan Dalet(April, 1948)

“The objective of this plan is to gain control of the areas of the Hebrew state and defend its borders. It also aims at gaining control of the areas of Jewish settlements and concentrations which are located outside the borders (of the Hebrew state) against regular, semi-regular, and small forces operating from bases outside or inside the state.”

Opening to Plan Dalet (1948)

Masalha A De Facto Policy of Transfer

“It is difficult, using Morris's own evidence, not to see on the part of the leaders of mainstream labor Zionism a de facto, forcible transfer policy in 1948.”

Nur MasalhaCritique of Morris, p.

96

Where Did Refugees Go?

Place # (est)-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jordan/W. Bank 400,000Gaza 200,000Lebanon 120,000Syria 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)