To Health, See also:
F Gottheil (2013). “The Smoking Gun: Arab immigration into Palestine – 1921-1933.”
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Chicago Tribune, July 8, 1983 – “Palestine’s Lies and Facts.”
… But a lie is still a lie.
Lie No. 1: The Palestinians were a sovereign people and nation until they were “expelled” in 1948.Facts: The area known as Palestine was a province of the Ottoman Empire from the 16th Century until the British took control in 1917. From 1917 until 1948, the area was under British operational control and, later, mandate.
There was never a Palestinian nation.
Further, the population of the entire area, according to a 1879 Encyclopedia Britannica, was never substantial and was ethnically diverse. Any inhabitants there were concentrated in two cities, Jerusalem and Jaffa, and in the nomadic Bedouin tribes.
There was also a constant Jewish community. From the time of the first census in 1844 to the present, there have always been more Jews in Jerusalem than Moslems. Large-scale Jewish immigration during the Ottoman period made the Jewish community. From the time of the first census in 1844 to the present, there have always been more Jews in Jerusalem than Moslems. Large scale Jewish immigration during the Ottoman period made the Jewish community a significant presence.
It was only after the Jewish settlers bought land and made the area economically productive that the Arabs returned in significant numbers. Between the World Wars, the Arab population in predominantly Arab towns rose only insignificantly, e.g. 16,000 to 23,000 in Nablus. The population trends in the three major Jewish cities show a different story. The Arab population increased in Jerusalem by 97 percent, from 28,500 to 56,400, in Jaffa by 134 percent, from 27,400 to 62,600 and in Haifa by 216 percent, from 18,400 to 58,200.
The massive Arab immigration into Palestine during the Mandate period accounts for roughly 75 percent of the supposedly “Palestinian” population present at the time of the partition in 1948.