The precise number of Palestinian refugees, many of whom settled in Palestinian refugee camps in neighboring states, is a matter of dispute.[5] Around 80 percent of the Arab inhabitants of what became Israel (half of the Arab total population of Mandatory Palestine) left or were expelled from their homes.[6][7] About 250,000–300,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled during the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, before the termination of the British Mandate on May 14 1948. The desire to prevent the collapse of the Palestinians and to avoid more refugees were some of the reasons for the entry of the Arab League into the country, which began the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.[8][9]
The causes of the 1948 Palestinian exodus are also a subject of fundamental disagreement among historians. Factors involved in the exodus include Jewish military advances, destruction of Arab villages, psychological warfare, fears of another massacre by Zionist militias after the Deir Yassin massacre,[10]: 239–240 which caused many to leave out of panic, direct expulsion orders by Israeli authorities, the demoralizing impact of wealthier classes fleeing,[11] the typhoid epidemic in some areas caused by Israeli well-poisoning,[12] collapse in Palestinian leadership and Arab evacuation orders,[13][14] and a disinclination to live under Jewish control.[15][16]
Later, a series of land and property laws passed by the first Israeli government prevented Arabs who had left from returning to their homes or claiming their property. They and many of their descendants remain refugees.[17][18] The expulsion of the Palestinians has since been described by some historians as ethnic cleansing,[19][3][20] while others dispute this charge.[21][22][23] Nevertheless, the existence of the so-called Law of Return allowing for immigration and naturalization of any Jewish person and their family to Israel, while a Palestinian right of return has been denied, has been cited as an evidence for the charge that Israel practices apartheid.[24][25]
The status of the refugees, and in particular whether Israel will allow them the right to return to their homes, or compensate them, are key issues in the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The events of the Palestinian expulsion are commemorated 15 May, a date known as Nakba Day.
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^Gelber 2006, p. 137: "Drawn into the war by the collapse of the Palestinians and the ALA, the Arab governments' primary goal was preventing the Palestinians’ total ruin and the flooding of their own countries by more refugees."
^Matthew Hogan (2001). The 1948 Massacre at Deir Yassin Revisited: "Meanwhile, the subsequent May 1948 outbreak of regional war between the newly declared state of Israel and the Arab states, beginning the prolonged Arab-Israeli conflict, was contemporaneously explained by Arab League chief Azzam Pasha in terms of the Deir Yassin incident: "The massacre of Deir Yassin was to a great extent the cause of the wrath of the Arab nations and the most important factor for sending [in] the Arab armies."
^Benny Morris, Benjamin Z. Kedar, 'Cast thy bread': Israeli biological warfare during the 1948 WarMiddle Eastern Studies 19 September 2022, pages =1-25 p.8:'The SHAI, in its report from the end of June 1948 on the causes of the Arab flight from Palestine, mentioned ‘the typhus epidemic’ as ‘an exacerbating factor in the evacuation’ in certain areas. ‘More than the disease itself, it was the panic induced by the rumours of the spread of the disease in the area that was a factor in the evacuation’, stated the report. In its site-by-site breakdown of the Arab flight, the report mentioned ‘harassment [by the Haganah] and the typhus epidemic’ as the causes of the partial exodus of the population from Acre on 6 May.'
^Pittsburgh Press (May 1948). "British Halt Jerusalem Battle". UP. Retrieved 17 December 2010. The British spokesman said that all 12 members of the Arab Higher Committee have left Palestine for neighboring Arab states… Walter Eyelan, the Jewish Agency spokesman, said the Arab leaders were victims of a "flight psychosis" which he said was sweeping Arabs throughout Palestine.
^Human Rights Watch. "A Threshold Crossed," April 27, 2021. A Threshold Crossed.
^Amnesty International. "Israel's Apartheid against Palestinians: A Cruel System of Domination and a Crime against Humanity," February 1, 2022. Israel's Apartheid against Palestinians.