Star Herald · 21 October 1949

CP-1949-011

Claim Jews Are Forcing Arabs to Quit Israel

Official Says Less Than 100,000 Arabs Remain of Over 785,000 Before War.

By Fred J. Zusy, The Associated Press, Jerusalem

Transcribed from the clipping

“Jerusalem, Oct. 20—(AP)—Arab sources say the Arab population of Israel is now less than 100,000 and claim that the Jews are forcing small numbers of Arabs to leave the country almost every day. Hundreds of thousands of Arabs who fled Israel after the start of Palestine hostilities now live in refugee camps in the Arab border area surrounding the Jewish state or are crowded into nearby Arab villages and towns. Ahmad N. Sabi, external liaison officer for the Hashemite Jordan government in Arab Palestine, estimates the Arab population of what is now Israel at 785,000 before the fighting started. ‘The most tragic and ironic part of the picture,’ he said, ‘is that for every Jewish refugee or emigree brought into Israel, an Arab refugee was created—forced out of his homeland.’ Sabi told a reporter that Israel is pushing small numbers of Arabs out of the country almost daily—chiefly on the ground that they have illegally infiltrated across the border… He said an official protest had been made to the United Nations Security Council over an incident at Qalqilya last June in which four Arabs were killed. As Sabi told the story, this is what happened: Three cousins operating an orange grove and a young neighbor were ordered into a jeep by unknown Israelis, taken to the border, ordered to ‘get out’ and machine gunned as they crossed the line. Then, Sabi said, other Arabs running orange groves in the vicinity, were told that ‘irresponsible’ persons had killed these four and warned that the Israel government could not guarantee protection to those remaining. As a result, Sabi said, about 100 other Arabs fled.”

Cite this item

"Claim Jews Are Forcing Arabs to Quit Israel," Star Herald, 21 October 1949. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1949-011. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1949-011

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