The initial absorption of the Palestinian refugees in the Arab host countries, 1948-1949

The Palestinian Arab exodus began in December 1947, within days of the UN General Assembly passage of the Partition Resolution for Palestine and the start of Arab-Jewish hostilities around the country. The US vice-consul in Amman, Wells Stabler, towards the end of July reported that the Transjordanian estimate of Palestinian refugees in Transjordan stood at '80-100, 000', and Abdullah had felt obliged to close the kingdom’s frontiers to additional refugees. By the end of July, only some 200 Palestinian refugees had reached Iraq. Although the refugee concentrations in Trans Jordan and Transjordanian-held parts of Palestine had not been substantially increased by further fighting after the summer of 1948, conditions there too had deteriorated, mainly because of the advent of winter. Similar resistance to the permanent absorption of Palestinian refugees was expressed by Lebanon, which by the start of 1949 had 90-120, 000 on its soil.