1948 and After

Israeli decisions and the reasons for the mass Arab exodus from Palestine in 1948 form the collection's central subjects.[1] The essays also examine why some Arabs remained in their villages, how Palestinian refugees were initially absorbed in Arab host countries in 1948–1949, and attitudes toward Palestinian Arabs from the war onward.[1]

The book combines studies of particular communities with examinations of political figures, military intelligence, and historical interpretation.[2] Its treatment of Israeli politics includes differing perspectives held by Israel's two main political parties.[1]

The first edition appeared in Oxford under the Clarendon Press imprint in 1990, with 284 pages and ISBNs 0198287844 and 9780198287841.[1] A revised and expanded edition followed from the same publisher in 1994, comprising 366 pages and carrying ISBNs 0198279299 and 9780198279297.[3]

Three essays appeared for the first time in the revised edition, which also includes bibliographical references and an index.[2] The expanded edition retained the original collection's main themes, including its examination of older official histories and newer historical writing.[3]

The collection's chapters address Israeli historiography and the “Arab problem” in 1948, an Israel Defence Forces Intelligence Service analysis of the exodus, and the roles of Yosef Weitz, transfer committees, and Yosef Nahmani.[2] Other chapters examine the displacement and concentration of Haifa's Arabs, the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem, and four villages whose residents remained.[2] The geographical and chronological scope also encompasses refugees' initial absorption in Arab host countries and the transfer of Al Majdal's remaining Arabs to Gaza in 1950.[2]

In its account of Haifa, the book describes the Arab delegation's decision on April 22, 1948, to evacuate the city after rejecting a proposed ceasefire.[4] Morris recounts that Jewish mayor Shabtai Levy and British commander Major-General Hugh Stockwell pleaded with the delegation to reconsider, but it maintained its decision.[4]

Passages attributed to page 100 describe reported orders in early May 1948 for women and children to leave Beisan and for residents of Fureidis to prepare to evacuate.[5] Morris also discusses how the departure of women and children could weaken the morale of men who remained, with two-stage departures occurring in Qumiya and among Ghawarina Bedouin in Haifa Bay.[5]

The essays examine points of disagreement between older official Israeli histories and the “new” histories associated with the 1980s, with Morris identified as a “new historian.”[1] The revised edition extends that framing to newer histories of the 1980s and beyond.[3]

In the opening chapter, Morris writes: “The Yishuv did not enter the 1948 war with a master plan for expelling the Arabs, nor did its political and military leaders ever adopt such a master plan,” adding that events were “largely haphazard and a result of the war.”[6] Another passage states that Jewish commanders were rarely faced with deciding whether to expel an overrun community because “most villages and towns simply emptied at the first whiff of grapeshot.”[6]

The book was among the works addressed in Morris's article “Response to Finkelstein and Masalha,” published in the Journal of Palestine Studies, volume 21, issue 1, in 1991, on pages 98–114; that article also addressed The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947–1949.[7] Efraim Karsh's curriculum vitae lists a review of 1948 and After alongside Morris's Israel's Border Wars 1949–1956 in Political Studies in September 1996, on pages 778–780.[8]

The book's explanations of the exodus form part of the debate over whether Palestinian displacement resulted from a deliberate, systematic expulsion policy.[6] Its treatment of these questions also belongs to the broader disagreement between older official Israeli histories and newer historical interpretations examined within the collection itself.[1]