A 3 May 1948 '' Time '' magazine article attributed the exodus from the city of Haifa to fear , Arab orders to leave and a Jewish assault . '' The Economist '' attributed the exodus from Haifa to orders to leave from the Higher Arab Executive as well as expulsion by Jewish troops . According to Childers , the journalist responsible for the article was not present in Haifa , and he reported as an eyewitness account what was second-hand . The article is only cited for this passage , though the same correspondent states therein that the second wave of destitute refugees , were given an hour by Jewish troops to quit the areas . In what has become known as " The Spectator Correspondence " , Hedley V. Cooke quote from Time Magazine ( 18 May 1961 ) " Mr , Ben-Gurion , the Israel ( sic ) Prime Minister . . . denied in the Knesset yesterday that a single Arab resident had been expelled by the Government since the establishment of the State of Israel and he said the pre-State Jewish underground had announced that any Arab would remain where he was . '' He said the fugitives had fled under the orders of Arab Leaders '' " . In the same " Spectator Correspondence " ( page 54 ) , Jon Kimche wrote " But there is now a mountain of independent evidence to show that the initiative for the Arab exodus came from the Arab side and not from the Jews " . In the same " Correspondence " the views of Ben-Gurion and Kimche are critiqued by Childers and Khalidi ( see - Criticisms of the " Arab leaders ' endorsement of flight " explanation - below ) In the case of the village of Ein Karem , William O. Douglas was told by the villagers that the cause of their flight was twofold : first , it was caused by fear that came out of the Deir Yassin massacre , and second because " the villagers were told by the Arab leaders to leave . It apparently was a strategy of mass evacuation , whether or not necessary as a military or public safety measure . " Khalid al - ` Azm who was prime minister of Syria from 17 December 1948 to 30 March 1949 , listed in his memoirs a number of reasons for the Arab defeat in an attack on the Arab leaders including his own predecessor Jamil Mardam Bey :
Deir Yassin massacre
Deir Yassin massacre
Causes of the 1948 Palestinian exodus