There were 65,000 Arabs in Haifa before the Battle for Haifa in 1948. After the Haganah won, the Arab leaders fled and the remainder were pressured to leave by the Arab Higher Committee.
Only 4,000 Arabs remained in Haifa after the breakdown of their community.
This was the real nakba - the external Arab leaders told their people to leave, the local Arab leaders led the flight instead of acting like real leaders, and the remaining Arabs were leaderless. This pattern was repeated in other major cities with large Arab populations.
One of the Arabs who remained in Haifa throughout the :fighting and after has written me explaining why he decided to stay. He writes:"At the very beginning we too were bewildered, and were about to leave town. The chaos among our neighbours when the battle began, the wild rumours spreading through the streets and among the Arab National Guards, who rushed around madly before escaping themselves and announced that our leaders had ordered immediate evacuation — all these caused us a great deal of confusion."The writer is a member of an old and well-established Moslem family, with whom I have always maintained the most cordial relations. These have not been disturbed even during the past few months. His letter continues:"We held a family council presided over by my uncle, and it soon became clear that most of us wanted to stay."Thanks to Allah, our family elders used their common sense, and derided not to evacuate. In spite of the threats of the. National Guards, and the panic among our neighbours, who streamed down to the harbour area leaving their household belongings unattended, we remained here, in the Herzlia quarter."The first two days were difficult, but we believed our Jewish neighbours would protect us. Why should we evacuate the town we were born in and where we had grown up? We know the Jews and they know us. There was no reason for fear."Now we have re-opened our shop near Wadi Nisnas. Please don't worry about us, we are all well. Many of our neighbours and customers have disappeared, but we are carrying on — business as usual."Dozens of our Jewish customers have returned to us. They had stayed away for a time because of the Arab boycott, but now they once again visit our shop. Believe me, we are quite confident about the future. May Allah soon restore peace to our beloved country."
The nakba was self-inflicted. The Palestinian leaders and followers consistently made the wrong decisions, decisions based on blind hate of Jews rather than what is best for them.
And as we see today, nothing has changed.
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