"In 1948, at the moment that Israel declared itself a state, it legally owned a little more than 6 percent of the land of Palestine. After 1940, when the mandatory authority restricted Jewish land ownership to specific zones inside Palestine, there continued to be illegal buying (and selling) within the 65 percent of the total area restricted to Arabs...

...Thus when the partition plan was announced in 1947 it included land held illegally by Jews, which was incorporated as a fait accompli inside the borders of the Jewish state. And after Israel announced its statehood, an impressive series of laws legally assimilated huge tracts of Arab land (whose proprietors had become refugees, and were pronounced 'absentee landlords' in order to expropriate their lands and prevent their return under any circumstances)."  Edward Said  "The Question of Palestine"

"In internal discussion in 1938, David Ben Gurion stated that `after we become a strong force, as a result of the creation of a state, we shall abolish the Partition and expand into the whole of Palestine'. In 1948, Menachem Begin declared that: `The partition of the Homeland is illegal, it will never be recognized. The signature of institutions and individuals of the partition agreement is invalid. It will not bind the Jewish people. Jerusalem was and will forever be our capital. Eretz Israel (the land of Israel) will be restored to the people of Israel, All of it. And forever'."  Noam Chomsky  "The Fateful Triangle"

"In December 1947, the British announced that they would withdraw from Palestine by May 15, 1948. Palestinians in Jerusalem and Jaffa called a general strike against the partition. Fighting broke out in Jerusalem's streets almost immediately. Violent incidents mushroomed into all-out war. During that fateful April of 1948, eight out of thirteen major Zionist military attacks on Palestinians occurred in the territory granted to the Arab state."  "Our Roots Are Still Alive"  by the People Press Palestine Book Project.

Arab reaction to the announcement of the creation of the state of Israel

"The armies of the Arab states entered the war immediately after the State of Israel was founded in May. Fighting continued, almost all of it within the territory assigned to the Palestinian state...About 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled in the 1948 conflict."  Noam Chomsky  "The Fateful Triangle"

"The Arab League hastily called for its member countries to send regular army troops into Palestine. They were ordered to secure only the sections of Palestine given to the Arabs under the partition plan. But these regular armies were ill equipped and lacked any central command to coordinate their efforts. Jordan's King Abdullah promised the Israelis and the British that his troops, the Arab Legion, the only real fighting force among the Arab armies, would avoid fighting with Jewish settlements. Yet Western historians record this as the moment when the young state of Israel fought off 'the overwhelming hordes' of five Arab countries. In reality, the Israeli offensive against the Palestinians intensified."  "Our Roots Are Still Alive"  by the Peoples Press Palestine Book Project.

"The acceptance of partition does not commit us to renounce Transjordan; one does not demand from anybody to give up his vision. We shall accept a state in the boundaries fixed today. But the boundaries of Zionist aspirations are the concern of the Jewish people and no external factor will be able to limit them."  David Ben Gurion, quoted in Noam Chomsky  "The Fateful Triangle"