The population of what exactly? Prior to the increase of jewish immigration, most of the region was a sparesly populated barren wasteland which no one really cared about until the Jews wanted to have a state there.

You’ve literally pulled out every blatant lie from the quintessential hasbara text book, it’s astonishing. “Palestine was destitute, it was sparsely populated, it was filled with swaps cultivated by Zionists”. What sort of bizarre historical negationism is this?

Jews have consistently constituted a minority in Palestine for centuries. The overwhelming majority were Palestinian Muslim arabs. That’s the demographics of that region when European nationals started flowing into Palestine setting up their ‘Jewish Colonial Trust’ in (1898). The ‘Colonization Commission’ in (1898). The ‘Jewish National Fund’ in (1901) and the ‘Palestine Office’ in (1908). As part of their settler colonial project.

And that somehow automatically delegitimizes their claim to the land that they not only purchased legally for a pretty penny, but also cultivated and developed it from sodden swamplands and arid sand dunes into fertile vineyards and lush orange groves?

The idea of an “empty land” was a political and ideological tool to frame Zionist settlement as a civilizing mission, ignoring the existing Palestinian population and their connection to the land. That’s precisely the outrageous lie you’re currently propagating to negate the existence of a Palestinian identity. Many early Zionist leaders, including Ahad Ha’am, acknowledged that Palestine was already populated and that the notion of an uninhabited land was a myth. Historical records, travel accounts, and Ottoman-era documents show that Palestine was inhabited, with a functioning society, agriculture, trade, and cultural life long before Zionist settlement.

What do you mean by “their own house”? What exactly makes all of it their house? Is it the mere circumstance that they already lived somewhere in the broader vincinity of the formerly desolate lands that they happily sold off to the Jews, before those Jews arrived?

Land had cities like Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa, and Nablus, with thriving economies and diverse communities literally existed in that “desolate” land you’re referring to. The rural areas had extensive agriculture, including citrus groves, olive trees, and wheat fields. The Ottoman Empire conducted land censuses and taxation, proving that people were living and working on the land.

You can’t “give away” what you never actually owned in the first place. They didn’t have any say over the territory when it was ruled by the Ottoman Empire, so why would they suddenly be entitled to sovereign authority over it, once the Ottomans lost it to the Brits?

The Brits never owned the land. Have you ever read what the mandate extended to the British under the League of Nations?

• The objective of the mandates over former territories of Ottoman Empire was to provide “administrative advice and assistance by a Mandatory until such time as they are able to stand alone”.

So they had no right to give away lands that didn’t belong to them. And they also recognized that relatity when they passed the White Paper policy in 1939.

His Majesty’s Government believe that the framers of the Mandate in which the Balfour Declaration was embodied could not have intended that Palestine should be converted into a Jewish State against the will of the Arab population of the country. [ ... ] His Majesty’s Government therefore now declare unequivocally that it is not part of their policy that Palestine should become a Jewish State. They would indeed regard it as contrary to their obligations to the Arabs under the Mandate, as well as to the assurances which have been given to the Arab people in the past, that the Arab population of Palestine should be made the subjects of a Jewish State against their will.

Remember the Arabs? The actual existing population that has lived there for centuries with a clear sense of continuity? They didn’t travel to Palestine in ships, unlike European nationals.

That seems like a pretty significant part of the story, doesn’t it?

Which brings me back to the point I’ve mentioned earlier.

Any examples or proof for that?

The Transfer Committee?

Lyyda and Ramle?!

How would that be any more bizarre than the creation of an “Arab state” with Palestinian Arab majority in spite of the existing Jewish population in the the tiny area that make up the Jewish ancestral home land? Especially considering the number and sizes of the Arab states that already exist everywhere around it.

We’ve already established that those Jews were a minority. At the time of Israel’s creation after several waves of European migrations they still constituted a mere third of the population. And those European nationals who had no affiliation to Palestine were mere colonizers. It’s literally no different from the French Société Générale Algérienne (1865) that acquired and distributed lands for French settlers in Algeria. Arguing that settlers are entitled to Palestine because some Jews lived there 3000 years ago is not a serious argument.

Well, what are you gonna do with a population of 750K Arabs when you are literally at war with the entire Arab world? Seems like an intolerable security risk and potential existential threat to have that many people with a likely allegiance to the enemy forces already within your borders.

Justifying ethnic cleansing and the depopulation of an entire existing population?! Arguing with this kind of despicable mindset is categorically pointless.

Try to detain them all while also fighting off multiple invading armies simultaneously. Kill them all as fast as possible. Or you simply make them leave. Do you have any better ideas for that situation?

Disgusting.