The New York Times · 20 July 1988
CP-1988-099
Doomed Arab Refugees
STANLEY B. JUDD
Transcribed from the clipping
To the Editor: In “Why the Palestinians Left” (Editorial Notebook, July 7), Karl Meyer comments on a book by Benny Morris that purportedly addresses two questions: “Were Arabs expelled from Israel as part of a predetermined Zionist plan?
Or did Palestinians flee voluntarily as instructed, in the expectation that they would return after invading Arabs had driven Jews into the sea?” Mr. Meyer, after asking, “Did Arabs flee, as is often asserted, after hearing broadcast instructions from Arab armies preparing to invade,” reports Mr. Morris found “no evidence of such broadcasts.”
In “Semites and Anti-Semites” (New York, 1986), Bernard W.
Lewis quotes (page 270) from the memoirs of Khalid al-Azm, Prime Minister of Syria in 1948-49, listing the factors that led to Israel's success: “Fifth: the summons of the Arab governments to the population of Palestine to leave the country and take refuge in the neighboring Arab countries... this collective flight served the Jews and strengthened their position without effort. ...
Since 1948 we have been demanding the return of the refugees to their homes when we ourselves were the ones who induced them to leave them. ... We doomed a million Arab refugees, by calling on them and insisting that they abandon their land, their homes, their work and their occupations, and we made them unemployed and homeless.” Is this not evidence?
Is the Morris book then really, as Mr. Meyer states, careful “about the origins of Israel's endless conflict with Palestinian refugees”?
Cite this clipping
"Doomed Arab Refugees," The New York Times, 20 July 1988. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1988-099. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1988-099
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Last updated 2 November 2026
This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1724 to 2023. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.
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