Benny Morris - Analysis of the Causes and the Character of the Arab Exodus from Palestine

The paper provides an in-depth analysis of the causes and the character of the Arab exodus from Palestine made by Benny Morris in his book 1948, explores the author's main argument he provides in his article, as well as explores the type of sources the author uses and relies on, advances a hypothesis on why is the author writing this article, and how does this fit into the history of the Middle East course. Finally, the paper presents personal opinion concerning Benny Morris and his discussion about the causes and the character of the Arab exodus from Palestine, as well as criticism.

Benny Morris - "The Causes and Character of the Arab Exodus from Palestine: The Israel Defense Forces Intelligence Service Analysis of June 1948"

Benny Morris is a famous Israeli historian, journalist and scholar. In this article, first published in Middle Eastern Studies on January, 1986, he explores the issues of the Palestinian refugees and the most challenging aspects of the Arab exodus from Palestine in 1948. The author places high emphasis on Israel decision-making as well as the causes of the Arab mass exile, thus providing probably, the most disputable, doubtful, and, probably, the most powerful story that has never been told or discussed before. His work directly relates to our class, as it is obviously interconnected with the subjects we study during the history of the Middle East course.

Benny Morris reveals the secrets and realities of how about 700,000 Palestinians became refugees during the Arab-Israeli war in 1948. He focuses the readers' attention on such important things like the causes and the character of the Arab exodus from Palestine, the historical, political, and social events that led to the collapse of Palestine, the archival information about what happened in Jaffa, Jerusalem, and Haifa, the atrocities and battles as well as the way they affected the Arab exodus from Palestine, and many other important events.

Benny Morris' article is based on the document "The Emigration of the Arabs of Palestine in the Period 1/12/1947/- 1/6/1948" that was produced by Israeli Defense Forces Intelligence Service. The historian provides his analysis on the basis of the document's 15 page appendix in the capacity of the statistical breakdown in Morris' article. As it is claimed by Morris, the author of the document is Moshe Sasson, the assistant to the director of the Arab Department. The copy of this document was found out in Aharon Cohen's papers that were provided to the Israeli Hashomer Hatza'ir Archive.

According to Benny Morris, there were 219 Arab villages and 4 Arab towns in the geographic areas that were earmarked for Jewish statehood, as it was written in the UN Partition Plan Resolution of 29 November 1947, with total Arab population about 342 thousand people. However, by June 1948 180 villages were evacuated, and, as it was written in Morris' article, the total number of Arab refugees was 391,000 +/- 10-15%.

The Arab exodus from Palestine can symbolically be divided into four main stages, with the fourth stage that took place on May 1948, as the most decisive one. Benny Morris also provides ten factors that played crucial role in Arab exodus from Palestine, as they were the causes of it, and enumerates them in order of importance. So, according to the document, the first factor is related to direct and hostile Haganah/IDF operations against Arabs and their villages and towns. The second cause is the effect of Israeli Haganah/IDF operations against nearby Arabi settlements. Operation of Jewish dissidents, such as Lohamei Herut Yisrael and Irgun Zwaí Leumi is the third cause, and the decrees, orders, and regulations by Arab irregular gangs and Arab institutions is the fourth cause of Arab exodus from the Palestine territories. Fifth, Israeli whispering operations, such as psychological warfare, that was aimed to frighten away Arabs. Other causes of Arab exodus from Palestine list ultimate expulsion orders issued by Israeli forces, the fear of possible invasion of Arabs in the nearest future, as well as the negative and dramatic consequences of it (especially near the borders), isolated Arabi villages in the areas populated by Jews, and other insignificant factors of local character as well as general fear of the future. So, as the report asserts, "at least 55% of the total of the exodus was caused by Haganah / IDF operations and by their influence" (Morris), while the activities of the dissident Israeli organizations directly caused about 15 percent of the Arab emigration. These activities were more likely to occur in Jaffa-Tel Aviv areas, as well as in the coastal areas to the north of the country and in the near-Jerusalem territories. Finally, Benny Morris considers that this report emphasizes on the fact that the Arab exodus from the Palestine was "contrary to the political-strategic desires of both the Arab Higher Committee and the governments of the neighboring Arab states".

It seems that the article is quite impressing, as it is based not on mere assumptions, but on reliable documents, providing the most remarkable, in-depth, detailed, and comprehensive analysis of the historical events thus providing the reliable research in the field. Probably, the author may be accused of being dangerous and anti-Semitic; however, before leveling this sort of accusation against him, one should dare to read this book from the very beginning to the very end.

Works Cited

Morris, B. 1948 and After: Israel and the Palestinians. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.