The New York Times · 7 July 1988

CP-1988-098

Why the Palestinians Left

There Was No Plot, Israeli or Arab

KARL E. MEYER

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Transcribed from the clipping

In “The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949,” (Cambridge University Press), Mr. Morris offers little comfort to adherents of either view. His volume is a case study in the fallibility of memory. Mr. Morris relies chiefly on documents of the time, which can distort or lie.

But, as the author found, they do so far less than interviewees recalling controversial events 40 years later. Such interviews “revealed enormous gaps of memory, the ravages of accepted wisdom, prejudice and political beliefs and interests.” Mr.

Morris, The Jerusalem Post's diplomatic correspondent, dug into recently declassified state papers in Israel, Britain and the United States. He has pieced together, with clinical detachment, what happened in hundreds of cities and settlements.

Here is the story that emerges: This exodus began after November 1947, when Arabs rejected a United Nations plan for partitioning Palestine, then under British rule. It was at first a confused, uncoordinated flight from big cities. Most evacuees belonged to better-off urban families, and many left hoping to return after a successful Arab intervention.

Then in the spring of 1948 came the main emigration, 200,000 to 300,000 Arabs, in the wake of a British pullout and Israel's proclamation of independence. Did Arabs flee, as is often asserted, after hearing broadcast instructions from Arab armies preparing to invade? Mr.

Morris found no evidence of such broadcasts — nor, for that matter, of orders reaffirming earlier appeals to stay put. The absence of public instructions, especially during a massive movement from Haifa, is to the author telltale evidence of ambivalence among Arab leaders reaching for reasons to justify armed intervention.

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