I have an interest in both sides of the debate.
And I still don't have an opinion on the Law of Return, mostly because I don't really care.
I'm not sure why you find that unbelievable, not everyone takes an interest, or expends energy, for the same reason, or for any reason at all.
I don't find that believable because it simply isn't, how can you read most of the exhaustive (ly boring I might add) life work of Benny Morris, something a very interested scholar might do, under the pretense that you want to know 'both sides' (insinuating that you spend even more time studying the conflict from other sides) and claim that you are "not interested" in the whole basis for which Israel is founded and the main reason there was and will continue to be a conflict (though am not sure what side unapologetically Zionist Benny Morris who openly wishes Israel had kicked all Palestinians supposed to be representing to you)
Seriously you're insulting people's intelligence (obviously not the ones that liked your post ;D) by claiming that you are "not interested". You either formed an opinion and you don't want to share it, or you don't have one because you are truly "not interested" at all in the conflict and haven't read anything about it outside of google criticism of Benny Morris.
Heres the beginning of the Israeli declaration of independence
"ERETZ-ISRAEL was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books."
After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom.
Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned in their masses."
So I'll ask again, since you seem to have formed an opinion about the Palestinian right of return, what do you think about the pretext Zionists use to justify colonizing Palestine which they claim is acceptable since they have a "natural right" to a "Jewish state"? and their refusal to allow the actual refugees back in for so long because it would be a demographic threat?.
As for whether or not the Palestinians were told to flee by Arab leaders, by whatever medium. There's a litany of quotes from Arab leaders and daily's, antiquated and contemporary, confirming they were told to leave, and the Arab armies would ensure their return in short order. Once the Jews were expunged from the region.
An excellent example being...
Khaled al-`Azm, who served as Prime Minister of Syria in 1948 and 1949, wrote in his memoirs, Beirut 1973 (Part 1, pp. 386-387). that among the reasons for the Arab failure in 1948 was . . .
Well since I have the actual memoir of al-Azm at hand I'll indulge. As you'd expect his memoir as a Syrian leader is mainly about Syria but he does mention the conflict at the end of the book on page 379 he begins
"If this memoir is considered a history book, then it cannot be allowed for me not to mention the Palestinian cause. But since this is a memoir recording my own actions and what I witnessed, heard and what I had a role in, It is better for those who did play a role in what happened in Palestine to subject themselves to public opinion and publish their own memoirs so that historians can in the future write a correct history of Palestine"
He then goes on describing the events after the war and criticizes pretty much every single Arab leader (bar himself) for almost everything that happened, which is a recurring theme , this is expected of course, Arab people were legitimately pissed at their leaders and their failure, him blaming them is the easy way out. He mentions a suggestion he made that Syria should not give up the areas it occupied during the war as to better its defense in the future but that the leaders negotiating (he names Hussni al Za'em) were eager to please the US and gave up everything.
and then he goes back to the war and he again begins by saying
"And I am not, as I've said earlier, qualified in telling the story and facts of the war in Palestine, that's because I was in Paris, away from Syria" then he goes on to say that there is no harm in him stating his "different opinions" as to why the war was lost and he lists his different reasons. And finally the quote;
you cite;
“the call by the Arab Governments to the inhabitants of Palestine to evacuate it and to leave for the bordering Arab countries, after having sown terror among them…"
the actual quote ;
"#5 the Arab governments' invitation to the people of Palestine to escape from it and seek refuge in nearby Arab countries, after terror had spread among their ranks in the wake of the Deir Yassin incident. This mass flight has benefited the Jews and the situation stabilized in their favor without effort. Since 1948 we have been demanding the return of the refugees to their homeland, while it is we who facilitated their exodus. Between the invitation extended to the refugees and the request to the United Nations to decide upon their return, there elapsed only a few months"
What we can deduce from all that is that
1) As he admits he wasn't there, and as he admits he isn't qualified to "cite the facts" of what happened during that period in Palestine
2) The word he used (or claims the governments used) is "invite" which is miles away I think from 'order' and 'force' the official claim made by Zionists and by Israel.
3) He attributes this exodus to wide spread panic and fear of terrorism amongst Palestinians in the wake of the Deir Yassin massacre, claiming that it is Arab governments that are "sowing terror" is a blatant distortion of the quote.
what he is implying I think is that he wanted the governments to take a harsher stand and force Palestinian refugees back and deny them entry (evidence shows that certain governments did just that, check the link at the end of the post)
More likely when one has no evidence to support their claim they resort to silly heavily debunked myths.Producing the narrative is not required, when the culprits admit the act.
Morris claims 5% left due to Arab orders (I think the actual number of people who left due to orders is less than that but then again Benny is a Zionist "fraud" who favors mass expulsion so its not that surprising), maybe you can find more quotes (and this time who knows, they could be legitimate ones) of a random leader who "invites" or urges or whatever, the Arabs of Palestine to leave but the number of those who were ordered to or left because of that is insignificant.
Actually, given the fact that the Arabs that didn't leave, became citizens of Israel, in peace. Your theory develops a fairly decent hole.
Again, disingenuous. Even with a tenth of the native Arab population within its borders Israel and Israelis are scarcely getting along with them, as you'd expect, Israeli Jews are weary of demographics, with nearly half of them openly wanting the government to "encourage" Arabs to leave, If i remember the wording of the study correctly. it could have been 'urge' 'plead' or 'facilitate' though ;D. Moreover if Israel could have existed peacefully with them then there is no reason why Palestinian refugees can't return no?
Palestinians mostly kept to themselves, my grandfather is zealous about marrying a non Palestinian, The refugees would still have had the same descendants if they weren't kicked or have they not had their homes and villages immediately destroyed after they fled and their return made illegal, the Jewish state couldn't allow the natives back 60 years ago for the same reason it can't allow them and their descendants back today.
the only difference between those that stayed and those who didn't is that the former should be praised for their "courage, heroism, and endurance." as Kind Abdullah during the war puts it in his message to Palestinians asking them to stay.
Khalidi, Why Did The Palestinians Leave?
its on page 47 (or page 6 on Adobe reader), its just 13 pages long am sure you can spare some time for it even if you're not interested ;D.
Am sure the memoir is available online in Arabic (I can find a link for it if you want) am not sure if there's a complete English translation though.