Arab evacuees did not leave voluntarily

PROFESSOR Michael Wald (Irish Examiner letters, September 6) claims that in 1947, “700,000 Arabs left the areas they lived in” of their own free will because of “the promise by the Arab invaders that they would soon regain their own homes as well as taking those of the Israelis when they were driven back into the sea”.

This is a remarkable fantasy. Those Arabs who fled their homes did so because they were terrorised by the massacres perpetrated by the advancing Jewish forces.

The “promise by the Arab invaders” actually accords with international law. Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrines the right of all people to leave and return to their own homes at will.