The New York Times recently published an erroneous claim regarding the 1948 War and the making of the Palestinian refugee problem. In an Oct. 5, 2026, guest essay entitled “AIPAC Has Failed,” Eric Alterman writes:
The U.S. State Department consistently tried to pressure Israel to take a more generous attitude toward the roughly 750,000 Palestinians it had expelled before and during its war of independence — what Palestinians call the Nakba, or “catastrophe.” [Emphasis Added]
That all 750,000 Palestinians were expelled, as opposed to fled, is a false claim. Many researchers, including both Israeli and Palestinian historians, have demonstrated this.
Benny Morris, a top historian on the subject, notes that the refugee problem was created out of war, not out of some grand Israeli master plan. There were some limited expulsions of Arabs by Israeli forces, but many Arabs fled out of fear and uncertainty that war causes. Aside from Israeli actions and intentions, Morris writes:
It is also worth remembering that a large proportion of those [Palestinians] who became refugees fled their towns and villages not under direct Israeli threat or duress. Tens of thousands – mostly from well-to-do and elite families – left the towns in the war’s early months because of the withdrawal of the British administration, the war-filled chaos that followed and the prospect of Jewish rule. And, in the following months, hundreds of thousands fled not under Jewish orders or direct coercion though, to be sure, most sought to move out of harm’s way as Zionist troops conquered town after town and district after district. And most probably believed that they would be returning home in a matter of months if not weeks, perhaps after the Arab armies had crushed Israel.
Morris’ work is highly influential and other historians have echoed it.
The scale of the Palestinian departure had taken Israeli leaders, including hardliners, by surprise. Despite whatever attitudes they had towards the Arabs, “Palestinian flight during the first stage of the war left the Israelis aghast.” To Israelis, the events were simply unfathomable.
Israel did not allow the Palestinian refugees to return during or after the war, but refusal of return is not the same as expulsion, which is what Alterman claims happened to all refugees.
Detractors would point out that Israel activated Plan D/Tochnit Dalet around April and May of 1948. It called for the Israeli forces to conquer Arab villages. Expulsion and destruction of villages was to take place only if the inhabitants and whichever fighting forces residing among them would resist, unless they surrendered.
Morris writes, “Townspeople and villagers usually fled their homes before or during battle and Haganah commanders rarely had to decide about, or issue, expulsion orders.”
Even when Plan D was in effect, “mass exodus of the Arabs was neither intended nor expected by either the Arabs or the Jews.” There is no evidence of a master Israeli plan for mass expulsion of Arabs and Plan D never was an official decision of any Israeli body.
Furthermore, by the time Israel activated Plan D, at least 70,000-75,000 Palestinians, often belonging to urban elite circles, had left the country in fear of the oncoming conflict and in the hope of returning to a calmer Palestine.” This mass departure, taking place between September 1947 and March 1948, produced even more anxiety and insecurity among the Palestinian population that already seeing the fighting and the withdrawal of the British rule. The situation was chaotic. It is no wonder why many others followed the elites and left in the following months.
It is true that 750,000 Palestinians became refugees and that Israel did not allow their return. But it is not accurate that Israel expelled all the refugees. This argument ignores the realities of war and the twilight of British rule. The Times should correct the article. The outlet did not respond to a correction request and a follow up email from CAMERA.