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Source: http://www.pmw.org.il/LatestBulletins.htm#b300506
Who Caused the Arab Refugee Problem? Refugee: Arab Leaders Told Us to Flee in 1948
(Palestinian Media Watch) Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook - In another corroboration by an Arab refugee that it was Arab leaders who were responsible for the flight of Arabs from the new State of Israel in 1948, an elderly woman, Asmaa Jabir Balasimah Um Hasan, told the PA newspaper Al-Ayyam on May 16, 2006, that it was Arab leaders and not Israel who told her and her neighbors to flee, for tactical military reasons. "They told us: 'The Jews attacked our region and it is better to evacuate the village and return after the battle is over.'" This confirms earlier statements that have appeared in the PA press. On April 30, 1999, an Arab viewer called PA TV and quoted his father and grandfather, complaining that in 1948 the Arab District Officer ordered all Arabs to leave Palestine or be labeled traitors. On March 19, 2001, columnist Fuad Abu Higla wrote in the official PA daily Al Hayat Al Jadida of Arab leaders "in the year of 1948, who forced us to leave, on the pretext of clearing the battlefields of civilians." It is well-known among Palestinians that Arab leaders bear responsibility for the mass flight of Arabs from Israel in 1948, and were the cause of the "refugee" problem.