Regarding your argument that my example of foreigners taking a large of slab of Australia is irrelevant because Palestine was not an official country: I dispute your argument. Palestine was not an official country, but it did have a national flag, a national currency, and passports, and "Palestinian" was a full-fledged nationality. And Palestinians were living in long-established communities, such as villages and cities. And the Palestinians were clamouring for nationalist independence. But let's go with your argument that Palestine was not an official country. Okay, what if, just prior to South Sudan or Timor-Leste becoming independent, a group of foreigners decided to claim a large chunk of South Sudan or Timor-Leste for themselves?

About that article by Benny Morris that you posted a link to: I started to read it. I was going to examine it. But then I realised that if I were to do that, I would have to access a copy of Ilan Pappe's book "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine". That would take a couple of weeks. Then I would have to read the book and find out exactly where the passages are that Morris cites. Then I would also have to access the sources that Morris claims Pappe misrepresents. I figured I will not bother doing this. So, we could just take Morris' word for it all. Or we could do what I just did: personally e-mail Pappe a link to Morris' article and recommend Pappe respond to it himself.

The difference between Benny Morris on the one hand, and Ilan Pappe and Norman Finkelstein on the other, is that they disagree on whether or not the mass exodus of Palestinian Arabs was a planned, centralised operation by the Zionists. What they do not disagree on is that Zionist militias subjected the Palestinian Arabs to massacres, forced expulsions, and rapes, and confiscated their property.

Correction to one of my earlier posts in this thread:

I just re-read that interview with Benny Morris that I posted a link to. It has been a number of years since I read it. In the interview he claims that the rapes and massacres were unjustifiable, but that the forced expulsions were perfectly justified.