of Shafa’amr, Ma’ilya and Tarshiha who tried to return to their homes were met with hostility as Israeli forces detained them, confiscated their passports and money, and loaded them on trucks, drove them to the border, and forced them to cross into Jordan.53 Israeli forces transferred other Palestinians to new areas within the state in order to break up the concentration of Palestinian population centers, and to open up further areas for Jewish settlement. Many of the government records from this period remain sealed. Following the 1948 War, Israel imposed military rule in the Galilee, the “Little Triangle,” the Naqab, and the cities of Ramleh, Lydd, Jaffa, and Majdal-‘Asqalan to control the Palestinian population remaining inside Israel and prevent the return of Palestinian refugees.54 In contrast, a civilian government managed the affairs of the Jewish population. Freedom of expression was severely restricted, and Palestinians were confined to controlled areas. For example, Palestinians leaving their towns and villages needed written permission from the military commander.55 A web of new land laws was adopted to facilitate both the expropriation of refugee property and its transfer to the state and the Jewish National Fund (JNF). Between 1949 and 1966, Israel expropriated some 700 km2 of land from Palestinians who remained within the territory of the new state. In this period, Israel displaced 35,000 to 45,000 Palestinians. Tens of thousands of Palestinians lost their homes and lands, the majority during the 1950s. By the mid-1950s, Israel expelled 15 percent of the Palestinian population in Israel, and approximately 195,000 Palestinians remained.56 The 1967 War The 1967 War witnessed Israel launching a surprise attack against Egypt, Jordan and Syria.57 Israeli plans to control and colonize the remainder of British Mandatory Palestine (Jordan controlled the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip), existed since 1948, and preparations for instituting a military rule there had been ongoing since 1963.58 53 State Archives, Foreign Ministry, Arab Refugees 2444/19, cited in Segev, Tom, 1949: The First Israelis. New York: The Free Press, 1986, p. 19. 54 For a detailed description, see Jiryis, Sabri, 1976. 55 Ibid., p. 16. 56 Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Abstract of Israel, No. 52 (2001). 57 “To Live or Perish: Abba Eban ‘Reconstructs’ the June 1967 War,” in Finkelstein, Norman Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict (London: Verso, 2001), p.123-49. Also see “Rethinking Israel’s David-and-Goliath past”, Sandy Tolan, Salon 4 June 2007. 58 See Segev, 1967 Israel, the War, and the Year that Transformed the Middle East, Metropolitan Books, 2007, p.458. 21