<P> During the 1947--1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine and the 1948 Arab--Israeli War that followed, around 750,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes, out of approximately 1,200,000 Arabs living in former British Mandate of Palestine . In 1951, the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine estimated that the number of Palestinian refugees displaced from Israel was 711,000 . </P> <P> This number did not include displaced Palestinians inside Israeli - held territory . More than 400 Arab villages, and about ten Jewish villages and neighborhoods, were depopulated during the Arab--Israeli conflict, most of them during 1948 . According to estimate based on earlier census, the total Muslim population in Palestine was 1,143,336 in 1947 . The causes of the 1948 Palestinian exodus are a controversial topic among historians . After the war, around 156,000 Arabs remained in Israel and became Israeli citizens . </P> <P> Displaced Palestinian Arabs, known as Palestinian refugees, were settled in Palestinian refugee camps throughout the Arab world . The United Nations established UNRWA as a relief and human development agency tasked with providing humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees . Arab nations refused to absorb Palestinian refugees, instead keeping them in refugee camps while insisting that they be allowed to return . </P> <P> Refugee status was also passed on to their descendants, who were also largely denied citizenship in Arab states, except in Jordan . The Arab League instructed its members to deny Palestinians citizenship "to avoid dissolution of their identity and protect their right of return to their homeland ." More than 1.4 million Palestinians still live in 58 recognized refugee camps, while more than 5 million Palestinians live outside Israel and the Palestinian territories . </P>

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