THE OTHER EXODUS
SIR,—It should by now be obvious to anyone who has been following the correspondence in these columns concerning the events of 1948 in Palestine, that the Zionists haven't a scrap of evidence to sub- stantiate their ex post facto allegation that the Palestine Arab refugees were ordered or told by their leaders to leave the country. In particular, the main , Zionist contention that such Arab orders were broadcast from Arab capitals stands finally refuted.
The central aspect of.the events of 1948 in Pales- tine is not of course the question of whether Arab evacuation orders were given or not. It has been necessary to go in detail into this question only in order to meet the Zionists on their own ground and because it was the Zionists themselves who have seen fit to invent this myth of, Arab 'evacuation orders 'by way of diverting attention from what actually happened in 1948. The Zionist expulsion of the Arabs from Palestine in 1948 must be seen against the background of six years of mounting Zionist terrorism and propaganda warfare against the British authorities in the country : once the British declared in 1947 their intention of leaving Palestine the Zionist paramilitary organisa- tions turned their main attention to the Arabs. The same leadership, using the same combination of psychological and terroristic warfare and the same ambivalence in the manipulation of the 'dissident' Zionist forces which had been so successful against the British authorities, now applied itself to the task of mastering the Arabs. The fantastic UN partition decision which 'gave' the Zionists 55 per cent, of a country of which they occupied less than 7 per cent. and which the Arabs naturally opposed was the signal for the all-out Zionist offensive.
A Zionist master-plan called Plan Dalet for the forceful occupation of Arab areas both within and outside the Jewish State 'given' by the UN to the Zionists was put into operation. This plan aimed at the de-Arabisation of all areas under Zionist control. A major incentive for the speedy imple- mentation of Plan Dalet was the remarkable re- sistance put up by the Palestine Arabs in the period November, 1947, to March, 1948. The Zionists were also alarmed by two political developments; (1) the preparedness of the Arab countries to discuss a moderate solution along federal lines and (2) the American and UN change of heart with regard to partition which was not unconnected with the Arab federal proposals.
Plan Dalet aimed at both breaking the back of Palestine Arab resistance and facing the UN, the US and the Arab countries with a political and military fait accompli in the shortest time possible—hence the massive and ruthless blows against the centres of Arab population. As Plan Dalet unfolded and tens of thousands of Arab civilians streamed in terror into the neighbouring Arab countries Arab public opinion forced their shilly-shallying governments to send the regular Arab armies into Palestine. It is the considered opinion of this writer that it was only the entry of the Arab armies which frustrated the more ambitious objectives of Plan Dalet which were no less than the military control of the whole of• Palestine west of the Jordan.—Yours faithfully,
WALID KIIALIDI Research Associate, Near Eastern Program Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
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