Assess who or what is to blame for the Palestinian refugee problem

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There has been a significant Palestinian refugee problem for the last fifty years. It started during the fighting in 1948-49 between Israel and neighbouring Arab states, when around 700,000 Arabs fled from their homes in Palestine. Most of them went to the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. Large numbers also went to Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. It is estimated by the United Nations that today there are about 2,500,000 Palestinian refugees. In this essay I am going to assess who or what is to blame for the Palestinian refugee problem.

Source A (written by the PLO in 1984) explicitly blames Israel. It says that the Jewish government deliberately murdered the population of Deir Yassin in order to scare Arabs into leaving their homes. It names the groups that were involved and their leaders; the Irgun lead by Menachim Begin, the Stern gang lead by Yitzhek Shamir and the Haganah. The source is reliable because it includes facts and is a secondary source (so it's taken from a wider scope and perspective). It is also reliable because it's from an official spokesperson and appears to have a logical sequence of events so isn't suspicious. The source is unreliable because it has extreme partisan towards the Israelis, and leaves us wondering whether the intention of the source is to question Israel's rights to the state considering they are being accused of war-crime. The Source is useful because it includes true facts, gives names of groups and leaders and says WHY they did it. The source is not useful because of its obvious bias and limitations in that it has no reference to the wider scope (eg. Arab invasion). This source could help us to reach a conclusion about who is responsible for the refugee problem because it tells us about Deir Yassin and the people who were involved, and these facts can be proven. However, the source only mentions Deir Yassin and doesn't discuss other aspects of the problem such as the Arab invasion.

Source B (from a speech by Golda Meir, Israel's foreign minister in 1961) blames Arab leaders for the Arabs leaving their homes. It says that the leaders were telling Arabs to leave their homes so that their armies could enter. It also mentions Deir Yassin, saying that Jewish dissidents were responsible and that it was nothing to do with the government (which goes against what Source A said about the numerous groups involved). The source is seen as being reliable because it's a secondary source and is spoken by an official spokesperson who is talking to the world and her facts are definitely going to be checked. The source is not reliable because Golda Meir is obviously making excuses for Israel because she is embarrassed by the refugee situation. The source is useful because it says WHY the Arabs are in the wrong, but also admits that some Jews are responsible. The source is not useful because she claims that it is "historically incorrect" to blame Deir Yassin but doesn't say why. Also there is an extreme bias towards the Arabs and there are limitations in that she doesn't say much about why Deir Yassin happened. This source could help us to reach a conclusion about who is responsible for the refugee problem because it tells us about the Arab invasions and that refugees left as a consequence of war. However, as you will see when you read on, Golda Meir's argument has been proven wrong by Source C so we cannot trust it. This leaves us wondering why she has lied and could it be because Israel has a guilty conscience and something to hide?
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Source C (written by Erskine Childers, an Irish journalist) doesn't really blame anyone. It implicitly says that Israel has lied about Arab leaders telling Arabs to leave their homes, so they may have something to hide. This is against what Golda Meir has said in Source B. The source is very reliable because it includes no opinions, only facts, and Childers tells us exactly where he got his facts from and how they can be checked. Also, being an Irish citizen, Childers isn't a participant in the war so there is no obvious reason why he would have ...

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