On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 13:06:19 -0800, MPerel mperel@gmail.com wrote:
Bjourne, If the number is sourced with all the caveats explained, I don't understand the problem including it.
Me neither! That is why I tried to explain all the caveats with a footnote as I described in my earlier posting to this mailing-list:
1: Mitchell Bard alleges that the UN official record "Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine" estimates that the number of refugees was 472,000. The progress report was published on September 16, 1948, ten months before the hostilities and the refugee flight ended. Large parts of the report is availible here (http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/ab14d4aafc4e1bb985256204004f55fa?OpenDocu...). It is estaminated that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians left in the months after September, 1948. The number 472,000 should therefore not be seen as an estimate of the total number of refugees, rather as an estimate on how many Palestinian refugees there were in September 1948.
But this footnote which explains all the caveats wasn't acceptable to Jayjg and Viriditas who reverted it.
Also, "I wrote him and he didn't answer" is not a proof that the citation is false.
He answered, but he did not answer my question. Doesn't that smell fishy? :)