The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited

by Benny Morris

Overview

Morris' earlier work exposed the realities of how 700,000 Palestinians became refugees during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. While the focus of this edition remains the war and exodus, new archival material considers what happened in Jerusalem, Jaffa and Haifa, and how these events led to the collapse of urban Palestine. Revealing battles and atrocities that contributed to the disintegration of rural communities, the story is harrowing. The refugees now number four million and their cause remains a major obstacle to regional peace. First Edition Hb (1988): 0-521-33028-9 First Edition Pb (1989): 0-521-33889-1

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521811200
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/11/2003
Series:	Cambridge Middle East Studies , #18
Edition description:	Revised Edition
Pages:	666
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 1.61(d)

About the Author

Benny Morris is Professor of History in the Middle East Studies Department, Ben-Gurion University. He is an outspoken commentator on the Arab-Israeli conflict, and is one of Israel's premier revisionist historians. His publications include Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881–1999 (2001), and Israel's Border Wars, 1949–56 (1997).

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Background; 2. 'Transfer': thinking in Zionism before 1948; 3. The first stage of the exodus, November 1947–March 1948; 4. The second stage of the exodus, April-June, 1948; 5. The third stage of the exodus,'The Ten Days', July 1948; 6. Deciding against a return of the refugees; 7. Preventing a return; 8. The fourth stage of the exodus, October- November 1948; 9. Clearing the borders; 10. Solving the refugee problem: the failure to reach agreement and a solution, 1949; Conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

"The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, a book of extraordinary power and integrity written by a young Israeli scholar and journalist, Benny Morris, takes that great tale of flight and conquest and tells it as it has never been told before: with precision and moral economy, with awesome detail and honesty." The Washington Post Book World

"The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, a book of extraordinary power and integrity written by a young Israeli scholar and journalist, Benny Morris, takes that great tale of flight and conquest and tells it as it has never been told before: with precision and moral economy, with awesome detail and honesty." The Washington Post Book World

"The book remains a seminal work on the evacuation of Palestinians between 1947 and 1949. this extremely readable book narrates a powerful story of the uprooting of a people, even if the very voice of the uprooted is absent from it." Political Science Quarterly

From the Publisher