The June 1967 War and the Palestinian Refugee Problem

2007 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 6-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Segev
Keyword(s):  
Palestinian Refugees ◽  
Military Involvement ◽  
Israeli Government ◽  
Palestinian Refugee ◽  
The Government ◽  
Refugee Problem

This article, excerpted from a chapter of a new book on the 1967 war, focuses on the debates within Israel, especially within the government, regarding the fate of the Palestinian refugees (particularly in Gaza) who came under Israeli control in the wake of the war. The article explores Israeli government and military involvement, including that of the prime minister's office, in soliciting and crafting a number of plans to bring about the out-migration of Palestinians from Gaza.

Ben-Gurion and the Palestinian Refugees

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-55
Author(s):  
Yossi Goldstein
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
Dynamic Nature ◽  
Palestinian Refugees ◽  
War Of Independence ◽  
Palestinian Refugee ◽  
Arab States ◽  
Refugee Problem ◽  
Over Time

A prominent aspect of the Jewish-Arab conflict over Palestine has been the Palestinian ‘catastrophe’ or ‘Nakba’—the displacement of some 750,000 Palestinians during Israel’s War of Independence. David Ben-Gurion, the Yishuv’s pre-state leader and Israel’s first prime minister, was an influential figure in this process. This article investigates Ben-Gurion’s attitude toward the Palestinian refugee problem, highlighting its dynamic nature and its linkage to military developments. Contrary to the conclusions of previous research, only after the Arab states’ invasion and the war’s expansion in late May and early June 1948 did Ben-Gurion decide to oppose the refugees’ return. Undeterred by his own ethical misgivings and international efforts to secure repatriation, his view was reinforced over time, as Israel’s victories on the battlefield became unequivocal.

Israeli war veterans’ memory of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafi Nets-Zehngut
Keyword(s):  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Palestinian Refugees ◽  
The Past ◽  
Palestinian Refugee ◽  
Refugee Problem ◽  
First Time

Purpose This paper aims to explore, for the first time over a long period of time, the autobiographical memory of Israeli veterans of the 1948 War, pertaining to the 1948 Palestinian exodus that led to the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem. Does this memory include the Zionist narrative (i.e. willing flight of the Palestinian refugees) or a critical narrative (i.e. willing flight and expulsion)? One of the primary sources to influence the collective memory of conflicts is the autobiographical memory. This memory is also one of the primary sources for research of the past. Thus, autobiographical memory is of importance. Design/methodology/approach Methodologically, this is done through an analysis of all 1948 veterans’ memoirs published between 1949 and 2004. Interviews were also conducted with various veterans, to understand the dynamics of their memoir publication. Findings Empirical findings suggest that during the first period (1949-1968), this memory was exclusively Zionist; during the second (1969-1978), it became slightly critical; and during the third (1979-2004), the critical tendency became more prevalent. Onward, the nine empirical causes for the presentation of exodus the way it was presented are discussed. Theoretical findings relate, inter alia, to the importance of micro factors in shaping the autobiographical memory, assembles seven such theoretical factors, suggests that these factors can influence in two ways (promoting collective memory change or inhibiting it), and that their impact can change over time. Originality/value Taken together, the paper contributes empirical and theoretical findings that are based on a solid and wide scope research.

Palestinian Refugees and Their Legal Status: Rights, Politics, and Implications for a Just Solution

2002 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 36-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan M. Akram
Keyword(s):  
Legal Status ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Real Solution ◽  
Palestinian Refugees ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The World ◽  
Political Problem ◽  
Palestinian Refugee ◽  
Refugee Problem

The Palestinian refugee problem is one of the longest-lasting refugee crises in the world——now exceeding fifty-three years——without a real solution in sight. Although at its core a political problem, the Palestinian refugee crisis is also a problem of legal distortion: Palestinian refugees fall into a legal lacuna that sets them outside minimal international protections available for all other refugee groups in the world. This paper provides background to the legal anomaly that sets Palestinian refugees apart; discusses the legal, practical, and political implications of that status; and proposes a framework and mechanisms aimed at promoting a rights-based solution for the Palestinian refugee problem.

Memories for the Return? Remembering the Nakba by the First Generation of Palestinian Refugees in Syria

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anaheed Al-Hardan
Keyword(s):  
First Generation ◽  
Palestinian Refugees ◽  
Oslo Accords ◽  
Right Of Return ◽  
Palestinian Refugee ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
The Right ◽  
Political Realities ◽  
The Way

The 1948 Nakba has, in light of the 1993 Oslo Accords and Palestinian refugee activists' mobilisation around the right of return, taken on a new-found centrality and importance in Palestinian refugee communities. Closely-related to this, members of the ‘Generation of Palestine’, the only individuals who can recollect Nakba memories, have come to be seen as the guardians of memories that are eventually to reclaim the homeland. These historical, social and political realities are deeply rooted in the ways in which the few remaining members of the generation of Palestine recollect 1948. Moreover, as members of communities that were destroyed in Palestine, and whose common and temporal and spatial frameworks were non-linearly constituted anew in Syria, one of the multiples meanings of the Nakba today can be found in the way the refugee communities perceive and define this generation.

From Propaganda to Scholarship: Dr Joseph Schechtman and the Origins of Israeli Polemics on the Palestinian Refugees

2004 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nur Masalha
Keyword(s):  
Right Wing ◽  
Population Transfer ◽  
Arab Population ◽  
Palestinian Refugees ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
Arab States ◽  
Refugee Problem ◽  
Secret History

In 1948 an official ‘Transfer Committee’ was appointed by the Israeli Cabinet to plan the Palestinian refugees' resettlement in the Arab states. Apart from doing everything possible to reduce the Arab population in Israel, the Transfer Committee sought to amplify and consolidate the demographic transformation of Palestine by: preventing the Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes; the destruction of Arab villages; settlement of Jews in Arab villages and towns; and launching a propaganda campaign to discourage Arab return. One of the Transfer Committee's initiatives was to invite Dr Joseph Schechtman, a right-wing Zionist Revisionist leader and expert on ‘population transfer’, to join its efforts. In 1952 Schechtman published a propagandists work entitled The Arab Refugee Problem. Since then Schechtman would become the single most influential propagator of the Zionist myth of ‘voluntary’ exodus in 1948. This article examines the leading role played by Schechtman in promoting Israeli propaganda and politics of denial. Relying on newly-discovered Israeli archival documents, the article deals with little known and new aspects of the secret history of the post-1948 period.

Sustainable Well-Being in Israel

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Menahem Yaari ◽  
Elhanan Helpman ◽  
Ariel Weiss ◽  
Nathan Sussman ◽  
Ori Heffetz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Central Bureau ◽  
Expert Committee ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Statutory Authority ◽  
Israeli Government ◽  
The Government ◽  
National Significance ◽  
Academy Of Sciences

Well-being is a common human aspiration. Governments and states, too, seek to promote and ensure the well-being of their citizens; some even argue that this should be their overarching goal. But it is not enough for a country to flourish, and for its citizens to enjoy well-being, if the situation cannot be maintained over the long term. Well-being must be sustainable. The state needs criteria for assessing the well-being of its citizens, so that it can work to raise the well-being level. Joining many other governments around the world, the Israeli government adopted a comprehensive set of indices for measuring well-being in 2015. Since 2016, the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics has been publishing the assessment results on an annual basis. Having determined that the monitoring of well-being in Israel should employ complementary indices relating to its sustainability, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Bank of Israel, the Central Bureau of Statistics, and Yad Hanadiv asked the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities to establish an expert committee to draft recommendations on this issue. The Academy's assistance was sought in recognition of its statutory authority "to advise the government on activities relating to research and scientific planning of national significance." The Committee was appointed by the President of the Academy, Professor Nili Cohen, in March 2017; its members are social scientists spanning a variety of disciplines. This report presents the Committee's conclusions. Israel's ability to ensure the well-being of its citizens depends on the resources or capital stocks available to it, in particular its economic, natural, human, social, and cultural resources. At the heart of this report are a mapping of these resources, and recommendations for how to measure them.

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