Did the Zionists Ethnically Cleanse Palestine from Arabs?

Excerpts of a talk by Prof. of history Benny Morris, about the actual number of Arabs expled from Palestine during the 47-48 war. The Israeli policies and actions that lead to the Palestinian refugee problem.
To see the lecture in its entirety, with supplements and Q&A (about 10 videos) click here to start: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNjK2HUUBEs
For links to related information go to the end of the description, after the "enclosed texts" part.

***The four stages of the creation of the Palestinian Refugee Problem***

** Stage #1 **
Started: November 1947 (after the announcement of the Partition Plan for Palestine after which the Arabs started the civil war against Jews in Palestine).
Ended: March 1948.
Population: Mainly middle and upper class.
Reason: Moved to be out of harm's way (not expelled!).
Number: ~75,000
Actually expelled by Jewish forces: None.

** Stage #2 **
Started: April 1948 (Roughly coincides with the creation of Israel and the invasion of neighboring Arab countries)
Ended: June 1948 (Beginning of first truce)
Population: Lower middle class town and village inhabitants.
Reason: Fled due to fear and lack of leadership.
Number: ~300,000
Actually expelled by Jewish forces: Almost none.

** Stage #3 **
Started: July 1948 (After the end of the first truce during the most intense fighting)
Population: Lower class.
Reason: Expulsion and mass flight.
Number: ~100,000
Actually expelled by Jewish forces: ~50,000 mainly from Lod and Ramle.

** Stage #4 **
Started: October 1947 (During another escalation in fights as Israel goes into the offensive)
Population: Mainly northern inhabitants.
Reason: Mainly mass flight with some expulsions
Number: ~200,000

*** Were There Israeli Expulsion Policies? ***
- When looking at Israeli internal documents we clearly find that (In accordance with original Zionistic principals) there was NO Jewish institutional policy of expelling the Arabs.
- In a military directive from March 1948, there was a specific order that commanders should treat the Arab population with dignity and NOT expel inhabitants, except for military objectives.
- At the point in April 1948, when it seemed to Jewish leadership that an existential threat hangs over the Jewish "yeshuv" there was a change in atmosphere, nevertheless no specific expulsion policy was adopted and no directive given.
How do we know there was no Israeli expulsion policy?
- About 50% of Arabs stayed in Israel, which is the reason why Israel till today consists of 20% Arab citizens.
- No Israeli officer at the course of the 48 war was put to trial for expelling, or not expelling Arabs.
- According to documents we see an inconsistency in expulsions. In some cases there were expulsions and some there weren't.
NOTE: When the civil war escalated to the point that Arab armies invaded Israel, more field commanders took action in actually clearing Arab settlements to prevent attacks from both sides (i.e. entering Arab armies in the front and Arab inhabitants at the back).
The Reason: Left wingers in the army, civil population and leadership.

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More information:

Benny Morris - The 1948 War:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2042542522701200384#

Einstein Zionism 1940-1949:
http://dancutlermedicalart.com/AlbertEinstein%27sZionism/07Einstein%27sZionis...

United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Partition_Plan_for_Palestine

1948 war:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_war

Timeline (Chronology): Israel War of Independence:
http://www.zionism-israel.com/his/Israel_war_independence_1948_timeline.htm

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[Joniversity]

@samibh100 "Norman Finkelstein" and "Truth" - what an oxymoron.

You want to know history listen to the historians Norman Finkelstein quotes out of context (i.e. Benny Morris and Tom Segev) and adds his own biased interpretation to. Norman Finkelstein is almost a sad a joke as Noam Chomsky is.

[americaisnotevil]

Since there has never in the history of the world been a country called Palestine, my answer would be no.

[aleksei4321]

arabs go home

[kalumnist]

Fortunately the "invading Arab Armies" were able to put a stop to a lot of the cleansing in the north in time for UN observers to arrive. And together all of these "Max Shindlers" were able to trick the Zionists long enough so the Palis managed to avoid getting cleansed.

[FoolishOrc]

If you are tired of israel's lies search "Israeli Myths & Propaganda. Ilan Pappe".

On the other hand you have the Israeli narrative which changes every decade or so, pathetic.

[FoolishOrc]

I wouldn't believe to a guy who changed his mind too many times about key issues.

Norman Finkelstein and biased interpretation? don't make me laugh, did you even listen to the man? Morris is the one who made his whole research with a bias... "If all the palestinian were expelled to the other side of the river, it would be better" what a moron and if hitler finished killing the jews it would be better? sick logic of this little man who calls himself a historian.

[SatchmoSings]

Morris speaks with intellectual honesty about facts; no wonder both sides of the political spectrum don't like him.

Instead of hating someone like him, he's actually one of the 15% that take positions this way; in my own country we have John Batchelor of "The John Batchelor Show;" I view him as I do Morris; intellectually honest without being an ideologue; we need more of this.

[MrViTopol]

@Joniversity if you select to stick with more concervative theories, here's one,

Baleshet, or Paleset is ''thieves'' / ''marauders'' in Aramaic . Palashia in modern Syriac.

land of Paleset is mentioned in Egyptian sources since Canaan was a Egyptian province.

the Ethiopians brought to Israel recently call themselves ''Falashas'' although in Ge'ez and Amharic it means - ''the expelled ''... anyway, the land of marauders is the original meaning.

[Joniversity]

@MrViTopol Etymology is more than just saying these words sound alike so they got to be related. When i say i didn't find any corroboration it doesn't mean i didn't look in dictionaries, it means i looked in etymology indexes and found Philistines to have a completely different possible roots - non mention your hypothesis. Furthermore the fact that we know Philistines didn't have a monopoly on steel casts further doubt on you suggestion. All the other words you've mentioned are irrelevant.

[MrViTopol]

@Joniversity I looked. any online Arabic Engles dictionary has both Fulaz & Tin.

btw, French templars borrowed tons of Arabic words after they were thrown out of the Holy Land. particularly it's seen in Tarot and regular playing cards they took from Arabs who used them for divination. french names for cards are Arabic - ''naip'' = ''king'' comes from Arabic ''Naib'', ''valet'' = ''jack'' is from Arabic ''Waled'' - ''boy'', even ''english'' card of ''spades'' is from ''Saif'' = ''sword''...