There was no “systematic expulsion”. The expulsion was a one time event and it happened when the situation deteriorated to the war of “expel or be expelled”. I do agree that any expulsion of that sort is disaster. But I also stipulate that the Jews tried to avoid this scenario all along and resorted to expulsion only when it became clear that the only alternative was their own expulsion.
You are also inaccurate when you say “expelling an entire people”. First, because many Palestinian Arabs were not expelled and remained in Israel. Second, because the Palestinian people is a relatively recent formation. At that time the portion of Levantene Arabs who lived in what would become Israel were not “an entire people” of any kind. They have become a people with a distinct national identity as a result of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
And finally, “time immemorial” is also very inaccurate. The Jews were not the only ones who migrated to Palestine. The Arabs were also coming in. In fact, during the 50 years of the Zionist immigration to Palestine, the Arab population of Palestine increased by approx. 3 folds – from ~450,000 to 1.3 millions. So, 2/3 of the Arabs living in Palestine in 1948 did not live their longer than the Zionist Jews.
Let’s leave the goals of political Islam aside. It is a different topic. I also don’t want to speculate about what is going to happen in those areas of Europe where the Muslim immigrants eventually reach the demographic majority, purposefully or not.
My point is that your arguments of the right to resist uncontrolled immigration of “foreigners” who pose a demographic threat are very popular among the Western right. They looked as they were taken verbatim from their writings.
Regrading the question of the demographic threat itself, I’m not sure what is more real. The Muslim immigrants created multiple enclaves throughout Western Europe, mostly in major cities. In some of these enclaves they have become a dominant population, in others they make up a very large minority. The percentage of Muslims of the total European population is still low.
The Jews created a single enclave in the Arab Middle East, where they intended to create a demographic majority. They had no aspirations to the lands beyond the limits of that enclave. The territory of the enclave was very small compared to the total Arab Middle East. The percentage of the Jews out of the total Arab Middle Eastern population was also low. As I wrote in another post, even the devoted Arab nationalist Emir Faisal wrote that the Jewish aspirations were moderate and just.
Well, we were talking about the city of Jerusalem, but if you want to expand the area, no problem. Let’s also take into account 900,000 Jewish refugees who fled the Arab and Muslim countries in the aftermath of the 1948 war. You may argue that Israel benefited from their arrival and that most of them were planning eventual immigration to Israel as good Zionists anyway. But they definitely did not plan to be expelled and having to flee leaving all their property behind. Was it a war crime? Are they entitled to the proper compensation?
When the British agreed to the idea of the Jewish homeland in 1918, it made things easier for the Jewish, at least temporarily. Beyond that, their agreement had no other significance.
If you are interested in the question of forceful Arabization, you can ask the Kurds, the Berbers of Northern Africa, or the people of Darfur.
It is actually a very good description of the Arab Middle East in the beg. 20th century.