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Evening Star · 12 September 1948

CP-1948-086

Israel Faces Problem Of Arab ‘Refugees’ Who Stayed At Home

By the Associated Press, Haifa

Israel Faces Problem Of Arab ‘Refugees’ Who Stayed At Home — Evening Star, 12 September 1948
Evening Star · 12 September 1948

Transcribed from the clipping

“HAIFA, Israel, Sept. 11.—The problem of tens of thousands of Arabs who never left home is becoming nearly as grave in the Middle East as that of the nearly half million who did. The displaced Arabs, scattered through neighboring countries as a result of fleeing from the Palestine war, have become an international issue. But throughout Northern Palestine—inscide Israel and out—Jewish authorities are having to cope with Arab ‘refugees’ who stayed put as Isareli armies swept over them. War smashed their economy. Jewish occupation made them virtual prisoners. The flight of some split families. The Israeli military government is ruling the remaining Arabs with a lenient hand, but a watchful eye. Those without money are fed. Those who want work are employed. In Acre 4,000 Arabs remain of the town’s 16,000. Only a few hundred have jobs. The rest idle beneath historic battlements from which flutter Israeli flags. The port of Haifa, once one of the Middle East’s busiest harbors, echoes daily with the rumbling of dynamite in a Jewish slum clearance program. Arab quarters are being leveled. Undoubtedly Haifa will be improved by removal of the shantytown, but another result of the dynamiting is the removal of homes to which displaced Arabs could return. About 4,000 of Haifa’s 40,000 Arabs remain. They walk about freely. Few have reopened their shops. They show no animosity toward their Jewish conquerors. There is work for all of them in Haifa and they buy their food as Haifa Jews do. Life is normal for these Arabs except for absence of their compatriots, the fact they can’t leave Haifa and the methodical destruction of that part of the city they once built and held. Nazareth, sacred to Christendom as the home of Jesus, appears normal. There was no mass flight there. Israeli officers have erected signs over all church doors saying in Hebrew: ‘Holy place. Do not enter.’ Two or three souvenir shops have reopened in Nazareth. The main coffee shop serves Jewish beer and Arab food. But between Haifa and Nazareth there are dozens of villages deserted and in ruins. Homes of those half—”

Context added by this archive

The Palestinians who stayed, four months in. Military rule, in newspaper voice, in September 1948: Jewish occupation made them virtual prisoners. The demolition of the Arab quarters of Haifa is described as slum clearance and then explained — it removes the homes displaced Arabs could return to. The sentence beginning “Life is normal for these Arabs except for” takes the whole claim back in one line. “inscide” and “Isareli” are the paper’s. The subheadings are “Workers Are Given Jobs” and “Nazareth Appears Normal.”

Cite this item

"Israel Faces Problem Of Arab ‘Refugees’ Who Stayed At Home," Evening Star, 12 September 1948. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1948-086. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1948-086

Elsewhere in the archive

This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American and Anglophone newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1812 to 2022. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.

The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the wire service that supplied the copy. It is reproduced here for research, criticism and commentary.

Something wrong here, or something you know about this clipping? The archive is still being built and corrections are wanted: maria@rozumstudio.com, quoting CP-1948-086.

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