Quotation from Moshe Sharett “But they do not return. And this is our policy: they do not return” — June 16 1948

2nd "moderate" president of Israel.

Author : Thematic :
 During the same ministerial meeting where Ben Gurion said "I don't want those who run away to come back ... I will be for them not to come back, even after the war". 
" To my mind this is the most surprising thing: the emptying of the country by the Arab community. In the history of the land of Israel this is more surprising than the establishment of the Hebrew State itself . . . This has happened amidst a war that the Arab nation declared against us, because the Arabs fl ed of their own accord—and their departure is one of those revolutionary changes after which history does not revert to its previous course, as we see from the outcome of the war between Greece and Turkey. We should be willing to pay for land. This does not mean that we should buy holdings from each and every [Arab]. We shall receive assets and land, which can be used to help settle Arabs in other countries. But they do not return. And this is our policy: they do not return.
This is our policy : they are not coming back. "

Yigal Elam, The Executors , Keter, 1990 (heb), p. 31

Sandy Tolan The Lemon Tree , Bloomsbury, 2006, p.92

Gabriel Piterberg Lien 

#C233 Report a problem