Benny Morris and Historical Revision

Benny Morris is a Jewish author who makes the claim that the land taken during the 47 war was stolen from hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who were pushed from their property with threats of massacre and rape.

That is being extremely facile about a very contentious subject. Morris is but one revisionist historian who admits he can’t document what he asserts. His is a minority position among historians. Other historians claim that most Arabs left because they expected Israel to lose the 1948 war, and they could return to a land free of Jews. If Israel forced the Arabs to flee then why did so many remain behind? That didn’t happen in Europe. That didn’t happen to the Jews in Arab counties. In a true expulsion virtually everyone goes. At that time about the same number of Jews left Arab countries for Israel, many leaving behind valuable property. They claim they were forced to leave and almost all of them did. By contrast so many Arabs remained in Israel they can elect their own representatives in the Knesset. Can you provide the name of one Arab who lost title to his land in the same way the Sudeten Germans did? Where are the Israeli decrees confiscating Arab property?

Lets also be clear that the migrations in the Middle East and Europe occurred at about the same time, the second half of the 1940s. So any “historical fading” applies just as much to the Middle East as it does to Europe.