Refugees

• 1947-1948 Civil War: 300,000 Palestinian Arabs fled following Plan D and Deir Yassin. Israelis said they went voluntarily to re-group to invade, 1948-1949 War: 700,000 more fled (Naqba)
• Mainly fled to Gaza, West Bank, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon (some to Egypt, Iraq and rest of Arab world); today, UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) says there are around 5mil Palestinian refugees
• Refugee descendants are also classed as refugees; many are still in camps in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, West Bank, Gaza (internal and external); most densely populated in Jordan and Gaza
• UNRWA first set up tented refugee camps; appalling conditions, then switched to huts of mud, iron or concrete; UN wanted to repatriate them but Israel refused
• Israeli “Law of Return” forbids returning Arabs and insists Arab states should “absorb” Palestinians, as Israel had absorbed 300,000 Jews from Arab States by 1953
• Some refugees made new lives whilst most lived in camps, awaiting return opportunity, many deemed ‘stateless’