the first Arab-Israeli war began. Ultimately, 85 percent of the indigenous Palestinian population who had been living in the territory that became the state of Israel were displaced.48 Most refugees fled to what became the West Bank and Gaza Strip (22 percent of historic Palestine) or in neighboring Arab countries following the cessation of hostilities. Israeli Military Rule (1949-1966) After the war, more Palestinians were expelled from their homes and lands primarily during military operations which aimed to optimize Israel’s demographic and strategic positioning, border corrections resulting from armistice agreements, and by policies and practices of the Israeli military rule. Palestinian communities in the Galilee, the Naqab, the “Little Triangle” (an area ceded to Israel under the armistice agreement with Jordan), and those in villages partially emptied during the war were amongst those most significantly affected by internal population transfer and expulsion. The war ended in 1949 and armistice agreements were signed with Egypt in February, Lebanon in March, Jordan in April, and Syria in July. Within days of the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli General Armistice Agreement, between 2,000 and 3,000 Palestinians from the villages of Fallujah and Iraq al-Manshiya were beaten, robbed and forced to leave their homes by Israeli forces, despite stipulations in the armistice agreement that nothing would befall their population after the Egyptian troop withdrawal.49 In 1950, Israeli forces expelled the remaining 2,500 Palestinian residents of the city of al-Majdal (today’s Ashqelon) into the Egyptian-controlled Gaza Strip.50 More than 20,000 Palestinian Bedouin were expelled from their traditional tribal areas between 1949 and 1956.51 The majority of these were from the Naqab in the south; some 5,000 Palestinian Bedouin’s in the north were expelled to Syria. Israeli police carried out raids on Palestinian villages searching for refugees who had returned to their homes or lands. Returnees (referred to as “infiltrators” by Israel) were subsequently transported to the border and expelled.52 In January 1949, for example, refugees from the Palestinian towns and villages 48 Ibid. 49 Morris, Benny, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, p. 243. 50 Morris, Benny, 1948 and After: Israel and the Palestinians. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990, p. 257–69. 51 Israeli Foreign Ministry reports indicate that some 17,000 Bedouin were expelled from the Naqab between 1949 and 1953. “Investigation Report,” Simon and Vermeersch, UNA DAG-13/3.3.1–18, cited in Morris, Benny, Israel’s Border Wars, p. 170. 52 Reviewing official Israeli government documents, Morris estimates that 30–90,000 Palestinian refugees attempted to return to their homes and villages between the middle of 1948 and 1953. Most were expelled. Morris, Benny, Israel’s Border Wars, p. 152, p. 39. 20