UN General Assembly
1951

35. In the end the numbers of refugees reached the very large number of between 800,000 and 1 million. Before this crisis Palestine had 1,250,000 Arab inhabitants and 600,000 Jews. Now in the Jewish territory there are about 500,000 Arab owner-inhabitants. The Arabs were all expelled from their homes before the termination of the Mandate. After it, the Jews seized on a dispute with the Arab States to attack other territories inhabited by Arabs, allotted to Arabs in the partition plan. I refer to western Galilee, including the districts of Acre and Nazareth which were occupied without resistance because there were no Arab forces at all in that neighbourhood. The Jews also attacked the districts of Lydda, Ramie and Beersheba, occupying them practically without resistance because there were no Arab forces there either, and they expelled the rightful Arab inhabitants and so increased the number of refugees to about 800,000 or 1 million — I am not sure of the number now, but the relief agency which is working: on this subject puts the figure at over 800,000. Some are scattered in the Lebanon, some in Syria and others in Jordan and Gaza which is now controlled by the Egyptian forces.