First Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion begs to differ.
"There is a reason to believe that what is being done . . . is being done out of certain political objectives and not only out of military necessities, as they claim sometimes. In fact, the transfer of the Arabs from the boundaries of the Jewish state is being implemented . . . the evacuation/clearing out of Arab villages is not always done out of military necessity. The complete destruction of the villages is not always done only because there are no sufficient forces to maintain a garrison." (Benny Morris, Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 181)
Yosef Weitz, director of the Land and Afforestation Department of the Jewish National Fund also disagrees:
"[...] question of evacuating/clearing out the [Palestinian] Arabs. ...[ten days later] [we] must direct our war towards the removal of as many Arabs as possible from boundaries of out state. The guarding of their property after their removal is a secondary question. Finally it was agreed that I would submit a proposal for [Arab] removal from localities based on my considerations." (Benny Morris, Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 186)"
"...the transfer of [Palestinian] Arab population from the area of the Jewish state does not serve only one aim--to diminish the Arab population. It also serves a second, no less important, aim which is to advocate land presently held and cultivated by the Arabs and thus to release it for Jewish inhabitants." (Benny Morris, Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 94-95)
"The creation of the Hebrew State in part of the country [Eretz Yisrael] is the beginning of complete redemption. ....How should we solve the question of the Arabs who constitute half of the state population? ..... I have been working day and night in these days on the calculation of the land in the Hebrew state ..... Indeed we still need to redeem much until most of the cultivated land will be our property." (Benny Morris, Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 182)
So does Moshe Dayan, the fourth chief of staff of the IDF (and also defence minister and foreign minister):
"Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population." Moshe Dayan, address to the Technion, Haifa, reported in Haaretz, April 4, 1969.
"[houses were destroyed] not in battle, but as punishment [...] and in order to chase away the inhabitants [...] contrary to government policy." (Benny Morris, Righteous Victims, p. 328)
These quotes are accurate, I've checked and rechecked them several times, no one denies their authenticity.
Back in the first half of the 20th century, the conquest of land was perceived as an achievement, and the conquest of the southern Levant was a source of pride for the creators of the State of Israel. And who can blame them, it was a time when the mentality of colonialism was still widespread amongst world leaders. In the late sixties and early seventies however, leaders of Israel started to realize that the story had to change, that what they had done would not be so popular in the new world of hippies, civil rights activism, ethnic equality, etc. So the story changed: the land was no longer conquered, it had been empty, waiting for the arrival of the Jews. The entire history and identity of the original population was attempted to be deleted. Golda Meir made here famous quote:
"There is no such thing as a Palestinian people... It is not as if we came and threw them out and took their country. They didn't exist."
(Mrs. Golda Meir. Statement to "The Sunday Times", 15 June, 1969.)
It is this new public relations policy that's being echoed when Mr. pheromone says
"The fact is that much of the "Palestinian" land is occupied by immigrants from other Arab countries." He says this in spite of the fact that Ottoman and British population counts show that there was indeed a substantial population living in the land way before Jews arrived, and that it, together with the birthrate of this population shows that there was, if any, very little immigration from other Arab countries during this period. There's also genetic evidence as well as cultural, historic and linguistic references to document and confirm that the population did indeed exist. Sources may be provided if needed.
This attempt to change history by Israel failed miserably and backfired, the result was the strengthening of the modern Palestinian national identity.
That's only partially accurate. In Europe it was indeed the case that when speaking about Jews living in the area, one called them "Palestinians". However, that was not the only use of the word. This issue is so basic that I will simply refer you to some Wikipedia articles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Palestinian_people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_nationalism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Palestinian_nationality
Facts are never a bitch, if you have any, please come forth with them. It would be wise of you to try and document them though, as the "facts" you've presented so far are mostly fiction from the books of Joan Peters, Alan Dershowitz and Efraim Karsh. And you don't even bother to use the fallacious documentation they provided, which I'd sure like to debunk.
You might be mistaking me for someone else, I don't recall having said anything about mass genocide. I don't even recall having conversed with you previously. If you're referring to the massacres mentioned by Israeli leaders prior to the change in PR policy by Golda Meir, I'd be happy to document that for you. But I sincerely believe that is a can of worms you do not want to open, as you're here mainly to protect and defend the name of Israel, and not to talk about truth and reality.
