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Tomaž Vargazon
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Practicing atheist9h
Were the Palestinians who had to move upon the creation of Israel ever
given any sort of compensation for their lost property and inconvenience
or just forced out with nothing?
Here’s the problem: Palestinians didn’t lose much property.


Ottoman Empire

While Palestine (or however you want to call it) was an Ottoman province
the land was owned by the Ottoman state (or wealthy Ottoman landholders)
and Arabs there leased it in exchange for a fee. A similar setup was
used all over Europe at the time actually, Ottoman empire was nothing
special. Everyone was happy, tenant farmers produced value to the
economy and lived off the rest.

In late 19th century wealthy European Jews began to buy that land from
the Ottomans. This greatly accelerated after Ottoman empire collapsed
and the area came under British rule and Brits kinda agreed to let Jews
create a state in Palestine. The area was sold to the Jews who became
new landholders. Then these landholders decided they wanted the land to
be used differently and evicted the tenants.

This was perfectly within the rights of the landholders. There was no
law stipulating landholders are obligated to take any special care for
their tenants and evictions like this were not rare in Europe at the
time. Peasants were expected to move to the cities and died a slow death
there, or emigrate to USA or one British overseas territory or another.
The English alloweed the Jews to do to Arabs what they allowed English
to do to other English every single day, so this was not seen as
particularily immoral or unjust and indeed it wasn’t.

However it went against the local norms at the time. Unlike the British,
the Arabs didn’t have cities to go to en masse or somewhere to emigrate
quite as easily. Americans weren’t keen on taking non-European migrants
and imposed limits and while Palestinians could theoretically move to
some other place in the British empire it wasn’t exactly desirable or
easy. Furthermore there were cultural barriers as well, in an
agricultural economy land is seen as the cornerstone of wealth and
farmers who never knew of any other life can’t be easily persuaded there
is an alternative at all. It took Europeans the better part of a century
to internalise an alternative exists, you can’t expect it to be a lot
easier for other peoples. To make matters worse they doubled down on
demands of land ownership in 1947 and only hardned their stance ever since.

Yet Israel wasn’t the only country in the region to use this path. Arab states gleefully forced their Jews out and took over their property in
the 1948–65 period and also offered no compensation. It’s not like
Israeli actions are uniquely villanous, all the players in the region
did much the same and others never apologized or paid out compensation.

The best thing to do would be for Arab states that chased out their Jews
to take Palestinians in and make them their citizens, but it’s probably
60 years too late for that. Still, this remains the closest thing to a
just solution to the problem.

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144 comments from
Niklas Gustavsson
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Niklas Gustavsson
· 8h
Ask Jordan, they invited them and tried. 5 years later they tried to
kill the king and make a coup. Then they were thrown out, a small war
with Israel and Syria was also part of the result.

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Sven Pandaman
· 7h
You could also ask Lebanon, they also took them in and Palestinians
practically single handedly started the civil war there.

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Sam Antonio
· 6h
There’s millions of Palestinians currently living in Jordan and other
Arab countries with no issue, all countries in the region have a a
portion of extremists including Israel. The Irgun and hilltop youths for example

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Niklas Gustavsson
· 3h
There are currently around three million Palestinians in Jordan. The UN
Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)
has registered 2.2 million Palestinians, though the total number is
thought to be higher. They have no status as citizens of Jordan.

T Michael Lutas
You are contradicting the UNRWA here: https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/jordan “More than 2 million
registered Palestine refugees live in Jordan, the largest number of
Palestine refugees of all UNRWA fields. Most, but not all, have full citizenship.” I don’t hold that you must be wrong and the UNRWA is right but provide a little evidence to support your contrary opinion, please.
It is utter BS that someone born in Jordon, a citizen of Jordan, with
full political and economic rights in Jordan, is a refugee because
grandpa was displaced in 1948. That’s also putting aside that if grandma
was displaced, you’re not a refugee. It is only inheritable via the male line. Do not ask for me to weep for such people. What the Hungarians did
to my great-grandfather is still deplorable, but I don’t expect anything
from anyone for his pain and suffering. I let it go and keep the story
alive merely as an illustration that, yes, our family stock comes from a
line of tough SOBs. In the 21st century, Hungarians are decent,
hardworking people who are not obsessed with revenge and irredentism. I
do not worry about them. The Palestinians in such circumstances are not
due refugee funds and outsized international attention. They no more
deserve it than I do.
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Jay Rosloff
· 3h
You’ve inadvertently hit on a problem when you said that there are “…millions of Palestinians living in Jordan and other Arab countries...” They are considered refugees, aliens, not members of those countries.
Some are still living in UN refugee camps after how many year, how many generations?

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Richard Levine
· 3h
None of which is Israel's fault or responsibility. If the Palestinians
in Jordan and Lebanon and Syria and Egypt had behaved better, there
would be no Palestinian refugees. There would simply be more citizens in
Jordan and Lebanon and Syria and Egypt. The problem here is not what
Israel did to the Palestinians in 1948. The problem is what the
Palestinians did to themselves since then.

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T Michael Lutas
· 1h
A “problem is what the Palestinians did to themselves since” is true but it’s not the only problem.

You’re skipping over a problem here and it’s leading you to give an undeserved pass to the UNRWA. Jordan’s done the right thing and largely
gave them citizenship. The problem is that despite being Jordanian
citizens, they are still UNRWA registered refugees as well and will
continue to be forever as long as they have boy kids.

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T Michael Lutas
· 1h
Most Palestinian registered refugees in Jordan have Jordanian
citizenship. That fact does not affect their eligibility for UNRWA
benefits. This is according to the UNRWA, a fact I just posted on this
thread in response to Niklas Gustavsson saying nearly the same thing.

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