Increasingly, this false argument you pose above in this question has become the response of many Israelis and Zionists to the Palestinian Right of Return. Slowly, but surely, the argument that Palestinians left their homes based on their free will (debunked Here) has been losing ground to newly discovered historical facts in the Zionist sector (old facts for Palestinians), thanks to Israeli revisionist historians, who based their research on declassified Israeli and Zionist archives. It’s misleading to compare the population transfer that occurred in the aftermath of WWII to the one that came upon the Palestinian people for the following reasons:
1- It is true that population transfer occurred in Europe in the aftermath of WWII, however, it was neither politically motivated nor enforced by armed might. It should be noted that many Displaced Persons (D.P.) refugee camps sprang up all over Europe soon after the war. However, that was mostly done for economic and not for political reasons. Soon after the war, Europe’s economy and infrastructure were devastated, and to stabilize it, the U.S. sponsored the Marshal Plan to help Europe help itself.
Non-politically motivated population transfer was and still is happening around the world, and it is not restricted to Europe only. On the other hand, “transferring” a whole minority (actually, in the case of Palestinians it was the 2/3 majority that was “transferred” by the “Jewish minority”) to achieve political objectives is nothing but sheer TERROR. If this is not accepted, then:
What were the war crimes perpetrated in Bosnia and Kosovo?
Why, when Slobodan Milosevic used such excuses, was he condemned and tried as a war criminal?
Since “population transfer” allegedly occurred in Europe during WWII, and it’s excusable for the “Jewish minority” in Palestine to use such forced “transfer” of a people in order to become the majority, then:
Why the same excuse can’t be used by the Slavic majority to “transfer” the “unwanted” Albanian Muslim minority?
2- Soon after the 1948 war, the Palestinian people lost almost everything they owned, such as farms, businesses, buses, factories, railroads, boats, banks, … etc., and above all, they lost their political and civil rights. Al-Nakba/catastrophe is what Palestinians call it. Note that none of the European nations (such as the German, French, Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian, Romanian, etc. nations) had their political, economical, and civil rights removed. What’s fundamentally unique about what happened to the Palestinian nation is that their political, civil, and economic rights as a people have been all removed in favor of the “Jewish minority”.
3- Assuming that forcible population transfer really occurred in Europe, the questions which beg to be asked are:
Should such policies be the norm, or the exception?
If the alleged forcible population transfer really happened in Europe, is it excusable to practice such polices?
Is “forcible population transfer” a war crime?
4- Assuming for the moment that the act of forcible population transfer is not a war crime, then would you condone such practices against other people? If the conundrum has not been yet comprehended, then would you accept such policies against the Jewish citizens of Russian, Poland, Germany, … etc.?
It’s worth noting that when Israel tried Adolf Eichmann for atrocities committed as a Nazi leader, it included charges of forcible expulsion (ethnic cleansing) which was classified as a war crime and a crime against humanity.
It should be emphasized that, even prior to the population transfer which resulted from WWII, the Zionist leaders were keen on creating a “Jewish State” based on a “Jewish majority” by mass immigration of Jews to Palestine, primarily European Jews fleeing from anti Semitic Tsarist Russia and Nazi Germany. When a “Jewish majority” was impossible to achieve, based on Jewish immigration and natural growth, Zionist leaders (such as Ben Gurion, Moshe Sharett, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, Chaim Weizmann and many others) concluded that “population transfer”was the only solution to what they referred to as the “Arab Problem.”
Often Israelis and Zionists view WW II population transfer as a legal precedent, however, when asked to put up the details, they fail to come up even with one example which is not already a war crime. On the contrary, after considering the compulsory population transfer that Josef Stalin perpetrated against the people of the Caucasus during WWII, the truth cannot be more of a paradox. In 1943-44, Stalin ordered the whole population of the Caucasus to be expelled to Siberia as a collective punishment for their collaboration with the Nazis. However, the same people were allowed to return home in 1958 when the scale of the war crime became known to the Soviet premier at the time. So if the people of the Caucasus were allowed to return to their homes under Communist rule, how come Palestinian refugees (who had nothing to do with Nazi atrocities) cannot use this return as a legal precedent to return to their homes, farms, plantations, businesses, boats, banks, ports, …etc. under Israeli rule?
Finally, it must be emphasized that the “Jewish people”, of all peoples, should deplore such lame arguments. Ironically, European Jews were the first victims of politically motivated population transfer (Ethnic Cleansing), and it’s the ultimate hypocrisy when Israelis and Zionists use such an excuse to justify, practice and promote Ethnic Cleansing. If such war crimes were practiced against Jews in the past, that’s no excuse to practice or attempt to justify similar war crimes against the Palestinian people.
Featured Latest Twitter Facebook Top Tags Donate to the IMEU Quick Facts: The Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe) April 05, 2023 IMEU The Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic) refers to the violent expulsion of approximately three quarters of all Palestinians from their homes and homeland by Zionist militias and the new Israeli army during the state of Israel’s establishment (1947-49). The Nakba was a deliberate and systematic act intended to establish a Jewish majority state in Palestine. Amongst themselves, Zionist leaders used the euphemism “ transfer ” when discussing plans for what today would be called ethnic cleansing. The roots of the Nakba and the ongoing problems in Palestine/Israel today lie in the emergence of political Zionism in the late 1800s when some European Jews, influenced by the nationalism then sweeping the continent, decided that the solution to antisemitism in Europe and Russia was the establishment of a state for Jews in Palestine. They began emigrating to Palestine as colonists, where they started dispossessing indigenous Muslim and Christian Palestinians. In November 1947, following World War II and the Holocaust, the newly-created United Nations approved a plan to divide Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, against the will of the majority indigenous Palestinian Arab population. It gave 56% of the land to the proposed Jewish state, despite the fact that Jews owned only about 7% of the private land in Palestine and made up only about 33% of the population, a very large percentage of whom were recent immigrants from Europe. The Palestinian Arab state was to be created on just 42% of Palestine, even though Muslim and Christian Palestinians made up a large majority of the population and were indigenous to all of the land. Jerusalem was to be governed by a special international administration. (See here for map of the partition plan and 1949 armistice lines.) Almost immediately after the partition plan was passed, the expulsion of Palestinians by Zionist militias began, months before the armies of neighboring Arab states became involved. By the time these militias and the new Israeli army finished, the new state of Israel covered 78% of Palestine. The remaining 22%, comprising the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, fell under the control of Jordan and Egypt, respectively. In the 1967 War , the Israeli military occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, which Israel began colonizing shortly afterwards. The Nakba by the numbers Between 750,000 and one million : The number of Palestinians expelled from their homeland and made refugees by Zionist militias and the new Israeli army during Israel’s establishment (1947-49), amounting to approximately 75% of all Palestinians. Between 250,000 and 350,000 : The number of Palestinians driven from their homes by Zionist militias between the passage of the UN partition plan on November 29, 1947 and the establishment of Israel on May 15, 1948, prior to the outbreak of war with neighborin