To the outside world, Israel had made it clear, once and for all, that it would never grant the Palestinian refugees the right of return. The year before, the Israel Lands Administration had destroyed some of the last remaining Arab villages in a campaign known as "Leveling Villages," and Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, in response to criticism from an Arab Knesset member, replied, "Not destroying the abandoned villages would be contrary to the policy of development and revitalization of wasteland, which every state is obliged to implement."
