Does anybody know the source for this claim?

There is no credible or original source for this claim simply because it is not true. People have been spreading this lie for years. The only sources ever provided were some Zionist propaganda blogs. All British official reports from 1922 to 1945 said that Palestinian Arab population growth was natural.

The Peel Commission report, pages 125,282 : "unlike the Jewish, the rise [of the Arab population] has been due in only a slight degree to immigration." 

Survey of Palestine pp. 210: "Arab illegal immigration is mainly casual, temporary and seasonal". pp. 212: "The conclusion is that Arab illegal immigration for the purpose of permanent settlement is insignificant". So even this slight degree of Arab immigration was temporary and did not effect the population growth. 

The purpose of this lie is to justify ethnic cleansing - Palestinians are Arab immigrants, we didn't expel them, we just sent them back - I understand why people who support Israel need to make up lies, but what I can't understand is why repeating a lie that has been put into shame so many times before. Or why insisting on a lie that is so ridiculous - Is it possible that 500,000 Arabs entered and lived in Palestine unnoticed? This will only make their case worse

Edit:

Well, there is a reason why D.Rivka, the so-called historian, showed no references for her so-called researches. For example, the claim that from 1870 to 1945 the Palestinian Arab population growth was 270%. Why didn't Rivka or @Esther actually explain this by real statistics (i.e how many Arabs in 1870 comparing to 1945 and then compare this to the natural population growth in Palestinian territories today or in Egypt). The answer is because they use false population statistics. @Esther claims that Arab population was 250,000 around the turn of the century. Official Ottoman statistics provided by McCarthy on the other hand say there were 564,000 Arabs in the year 1900. So they are using low, non-official estimates (and I have pointed this out so many times before, but this propaganda never stopped). Another amusing thing is that Dr. Rivka, despite all her "beyond imagination researches", failed to mention that her own source in the 1931 census says that 98% of Muslims were born in Palestine ( Government of Palestine (1933). E. Mills. ed. Census of Palestine 1931. I. Palestine Part I, Report. Alexandria. pp. 59, 61–65 ). Where is the source of 50 or 30 different languages spoken in Palestine as of 1931 and what PERCENTAGE were Arabic speaking? Of course, they can't post such important details,and I challenge Esther to do that, as it will ruin the whole propaganda.

Where does Churchill say that "the Arab immigration to Palestine during the British Mandate was so large"? Yes, I am asking them to quote the part where Churchill says immigrated, not multiplied.

Also, how is the 2.6 annual population growth from 1922 to 1945 not possible by a natural birth rate? Here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandatory_Palestine#D...

(see the demographic table)

This is less than the current population growth in Gaza and West Bank!

http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?c=we&v=24

http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?c=gz&v=24

I guess now we know the reason why people who support this ridiculous lie never use real numbers and statistics.

Here is a scanned page from the Survey of Palestine- the official Mandate report - that shows Arab and Jewish immigration between the years 1922 and 1945:

http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Books/Stor...

According to the same source, Arab immigration was seasonal and temporary, not for permanent residence. Something Dr. Rivka and her supporters deliberately left out.

Absurd overstatement.

Between 1919 and 1939 there was approximately 50 - 60,000 legal Arab immigrants to Mandatory Palestine. (The Routledge Atlas of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, p16 "Allied plan for Palestine").

The 1931 census (following the first in 1922) also recorded between 4,000 - 6,000 illegal Arab immigrants (and 9,000 Jewish). (Census of Palestine 1931, Vol. 96, No. 4, Royal Statistical Society).

Does anybody know the source for this claim?

"According to the British mandate estimates in years 1922-1947 about 500,000 Arabs entered Palestine illegally."

Sure. The source seems to be the British mandate estimates.

Thanks for the 2 points for asking me to answer a question you gave the answer to IN the question.

Everyone knows about the massive Arab immigration to the land which was heaviest after WWI, including Dr. Rivka Shpak Lissak, an Israeli historian and expert in her field. She's not "some blogger." She's written numerous articles on this very topic after far more research than you could ever imagine and is a published author. And furthermore, she was born in Israel during the Mandate period. So in other words, she was there.

"The second part of the largest wave [of Arab immigration] came during the British Mandate occupation, between 1917 and 1948 when Israel was established. Arabs and Muslims from Arabic and Muslim countries entered illegally the country under the Turks and latter the British mandate from the eastern, northern and southern borders looking for jobs created by the Zionist movement and latter by the British Mandate (1918 – 1948).

The Arab population of the Sharon area (between Tel Aviv and Haifa, the center of Jewish settlements) grew from 10,000 to more than 30,000 from 1922 – 1940s.

The Arab population of the south (between Jaffa and the Egyptian border) grew by more than 200% between 1917 – 1940s. About 35,000 Arabs from the Haurain, South Syria came looking for work.

From 1870 to 1948 the Arabic population grew by 270%. Even in Egypt, the Arab country with the highest birth rate, the rate was only 105%, which proves that a significant part of the Arabic population growth came from immigration. By 1921when the British government performed its first census the number of Arabs and Muslims amounted to about 500,000. The 1931 British Census included about 30 different languages spoken by the Muslim population in Palestine. They were illegal immigrant workers from Arabic and Muslim countries. The high rate of children's deaths, law life expectancy and the lack of health services in the country made it impossible to reach 270% as a result of birth rate.

In Short, from about 250,000 around the end of the 19th century, many of them bedouins, the Arabic population grew to about 1,250,000 in 1948. The Palestinian claim that they are the ancient population of the so called Palestine has no ground.

Winston ChurchilL, said in May 22, 1939 that the Arab immigration to Palestine during the British Mandate was so large that their numbers grew in such proportion that even if all Jews immigrated to Palestine they could not reach that number.

Franklin D.Roosevelt, said in May 17, 1939 that the Arab immigration to Palestine since 1921 was much greater that Jewish immigration.

A significant part of the 1948 Palestinian refugees were first or second generation illegal immigrant workers."

http://rslissak.com/content/arab-muslim-waves-immi...

And it continues, specifically regarding Mandate numbers:

"The total data published by the Mandate government show that the number of Arabs grew from 752,048 in 1914 to 1,294,000 in 1944. The Arabic population nearly doubled in 30 years.

Data on natural increase published by the Mandate government show a significant natural increase in the Arabic population. Among the Muslims, the natural increase rose from 10 children per 1000 population to 29.1 children per 1000 population. Among the Christians, the natural increase reached 30.1 children per 1000 population by the end of the British Mandate. The main reason for this increase was the decrease in mortality rate from 25-30 per 1000 to 20 per 1000."

Now Michardav, a simple subtraction problem shows that 1,294,000 minus 752,048 equals 541,952. Hmm... sounds like even more than 500,000. That's the amount by which the Arab population grew in such a short period of time-- not all by immigration, but the illegal immigration was significant! Imagine 250,000 Arabs around the turn of the century to 1,250,000 in less than 50 years. The Arab population grew to ONE MILLION MORE in less than 50 years! That is impossible by a natural birth rate. They were immigrants, NOT natives.

If Simon's answer regarding this was deleted, I wonder if mine will be now too. Or will you simply delete your question?

@Michardav: Math is not your strong suit.

@Michardav: You take one sentence and take it out of context, forgetting all the paragraphs which follow, all of which clearly explain a more careful study of the statistical data for specific villages demonstrating issues which you'd clearly like to ignore. And what about this? "The Arabic population nearly doubled in 30 years." That was according to the Mandate numbers. Doubling in 30 years? That is not natural!

This is a baseless claim. It got no reference anywhere.

The growth of the Palestinian population during that period from 700,000 in 1922 to 1.3 millions in 1947 (185%) is normal if not less than normal. You can easily discover that when you compare it to population growth for the next 25 years from 157,000 in 1948 to 493,000 in 1972 (300%)

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Societ...

It is the opposite which is true.......

During the period of British mandate many Palestinians were forced to abandon their agricultural land .......Importing cheap wheat from Australia......forced the Palestinian Falahin to abandon their land.......leaving them without jobs.......seeking labor jobs in the cities.......migrating WITHIN Palestine from their villages to main cities..........

A story that were happening in MANY COUNTRIES in the world at the turn of the twentieth century .......Palestine was on exception.....

My guess would be a Zionist fabricator.