By the end of the 1948 war, Israel had seized vast areas populated with Palestinian villages and tribes. Several forums were set up to address this issue and discuss the possibility of relocating Palestinian communities in order to clear the area for future Jewish settlement. A document from December 1948 contains a detailed proposal for the transfer of villages and Bedouin tribes that remained in the eastern Galilee to Palestinian villages where “room has become available” following the war.

During the second half of 1948 and throughout 1949 (and to a lesser degree in 1950), several official forums discussed the possibility of relocating Palestinian communities within Israel. The central body working on this issue in the final months of 1948 and early 1949 was the “Committee for the Transfer of Arabs.” There was also the “Military Government Adjacent Committee,” made up of representatives from the military and civilian governments that also discussed broader issues (such as allowing Arab residents to vote, budget allocation, etc.), as well as establishing settlements in depopulated Palestinian villages. Other committees worked on an ad-hoc basis, such as the “Committee on Nazareth Refugees.”

The plan posted here under the heading “Transfer of Arab Population” was drafted in December 1948, as fighting in the north subsided. It discusses the future of the Arab population living in the Jezreel Valley and eastern Galilee area of the Military Government (Military Government North), which was established shortly before. A reading of the plan indicates it was used as background material in discussions held by the aforementioned committees. In the months that followed, similar proposals and plans were made with regards to other parts of the country, particularly the Triangle.

The plan details the intended trajectories for the development of Jewish settlements after the war. It centers on the forcible transfer of Palestinians living in areas designated for Jewish settlement and their concentration in areas that would not inhibit the plan. These could be fully or partially depopulated Palestinian villages where “room has become available,” according to the people behind the plan. For instance, the plan suggested relocating five tribes living on the western edge of the Emek and Eastern Galilee Military Government Zone – ‘Arab al-Hajajra, ‘Arab al-K’abiya, ‘Arab al Khulf, ‘Arab al-Sa’adiya and ‘Arab al-Zbidat – which had a combined total of 950 members, to Shfar’am. Shfar’am was chosen as it had about 5,000 residents before the war, a number that was down to about 4,000 after the war, including refugees who had settled there.  Meaning that, by simple calculation, “this location can absorb about 1,000 people.”

The document also provides a list of Palestinian villages that should not absorb the forcibly displaced populations as they had more residents than before the war. It also listed depopulated villages near Beit She’an, Tiberias and in the eastern Galilee that should not be used to resettle Palestinians in order to control the demographics of these areas. With respect to the Beit She’an area and Palestinians living there, the plan notes that “Settling or resettling refugees and/or residents in these villages is out of the question so as not to interfere with settlement development in a purely Jewish area and near the country’s borders.”

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Plan by the Ministry of Minority Affairs, December 1948