The fable that the Palestinian refugees left Palestne on the broadcast orders of their Arab leaders was conclusively demolished by Erskine Childers, who examined all the American and British monitoring records of all Middle East broadcasts throughout 1948 and reported in The Spectator , May 12, 1961 : "There was not a single order or appeal or suggestion about evacuation from Palestine or any Arab radio station, inside or outside Palestine, in 1948. There is repeated monitored record of Arab appeals even flat orders, to civilians of Palestine, to stay put."

Israeli journalist, Guy Erlich, reported in the Tel Aviv newspaper, Hair, of May 6 1992, quoting Israeli history researcher Ariyeh Yitzhaki :"For many Israelis it was easy to cling to the false claim that the Arabs left the country because that was what their leaders ordered. That is a total lie. The fundamental cause for the flight of the Arabs was their fear of Israelis' violence, and that fear had a basis in reality".