ABSTRACT

On the eve of the 1948 war and the establishment of the state of Israel, close to two million inhabitants lived in Mandatory Palestine-two-thirds of them Palestinian Arabs and one-third Jews. The vast majority of the Palestinians (nearly 940,000) and almost all of the Jews lived on the territory that later became Israel. As a result of expulsions and mass flight,1 only about 160,000 Arabs, who accounted for ten per cent of the Palestinian population at the time, stayed in Israel at the conclusion of hostilities. Nearly 780,000 Palestinians became refugees in the ‘West Bank’ which was annexed to the kingdom of Jordan, in Gaza Strip, which was put under Egyptian military government and in neighbouring Arab countries.2