The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited

by Benny Morris

Overview

Benny Morris' The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem was published in 1988. Its startling revelations about how and why 700,000 Palestinians left their homes and became refugees during the Arab-Israeli war in 1948 undermined traditional interpretations as to whether they left voluntarily or were expelled as part of a systematic plan. This book represents a revised edition of the earlier work, compiled on the basis of newly-opened Israeli military archives. While the focus remains the 1948 war and the analysis of the Palestinian exodus, the new material contains more information about what happened in Jerusalem, Jaffa and Haifa, and how events there led to the collapse of Palestinian urban society. It also sheds light on the battles and atrocities that resulted in the disintegration of rural communities. The story is a harrowing one. The refugees now number four million and their existence remains a major obstacle to peace.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107385665
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	01/05/2004
Series:	Cambridge Middle East Studies , #18
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	586,778
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Benny Morris is Professor of History in the Middle East Studies Department, Ben-Gurion University. He is an outspoken commentator on the Arab-Israeli conflict, and is one of Israel's premier revisionist historians. His publications include Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881–1999 (2001), and Israel's Border Wars, 1949–56 (1997).

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Background; 2. 'Transfer': thinking in Zionism before 1948; 3. The first stage of the exodus, November 1947–March 1948; 4. The second stage of the exodus, April-June, 1948; 5. The third stage of the exodus,'The Ten Days', July 1948; 6. Deciding against a return of the refugees; 7. Preventing a return; 8. The fourth stage of the exodus, October- November 1948; 9. Clearing the borders; 10. Solving the refugee problem: the failure to reach agreement and a solution, 1949; Conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

"The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, a book of extraordinary power and integrity written by a young Israeli scholar and journalist, Benny Morris, takes that great tale of flight and conquest and tells it as it has never been told before: with precision and moral economy, with awesome detail and honesty." The Washington Post Book World

"The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, a book of extraordinary power and integrity written by a young Israeli scholar and journalist, Benny Morris, takes that great tale of flight and conquest and tells it as it has never been told before: with precision and moral economy, with awesome detail and honesty." The Washington Post Book World

"The book remains a seminal work on the evacuation of Palestinians between 1947 and 1949. this extremely readable book narrates a powerful story of the uprooting of a people, even if the very voice of the uprooted is absent from it." Political Science Quarterly

From the Publisher