In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “palestinian who fled or was expelled from his home in palestine by jewish or israeli forces”. Today it says “rab internally displaced persons”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-02. In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “palestinian who fled or was expelled from his home in palestine by jewish or israeli forces”. Today it says “rab internally displaced persons”.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the October 6, 2023 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in October 6, 2023
Present absentees are Arab internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled or were expelled from their homes in Mandatory Palestine during the 1947–1949 Palestine war but remained within the area that became the state of Israel . The term applies also to the descendants of the original IDPs.1 In 1950, 46,000 out of the 156,000 Israeli Arabs in Israel were considered Present absentees. According to 2015 estimates from Palestinian NGO BADIL , there are 384,200 IDPs in Israel and 334,600 IDPs in the Palestinian territories . IDPs are not permitted to live in the homes they formerly lived in, even if they were in the same area, the property still exists, and they can show that they own it. They are regarded as absent by the Israeli government because they were absent from their homes on a particular day, even if they did not intend to leave them for more than a few days, and even if they left involuntarily. There are two categories of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Mandate Palestine. The first type is composed of 384,200 Palestinians who have been internally displaced inside Israel since 1948 while the second category consists of 334,600 internally displaced Palestinians in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1176249934.
The opening as it stood in 2010
A present absentee is a Palestinian who fled or was expelled from his home in Palestine by Jewish or Israeli forces, before and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war , but who remained within the area that became the state of Israel. Present absentees are also referred to as internally displaced Palestinians (IDPs). The term applies to the present absentee's descendants too. Present absentees are not permitted to live in the homes they were expelled from, even if they live in the same area, the property still exists, and they can show that they own it. They are regarded as absent by the Israeli government because they left their homes, even if they did not intend to leave them for more than a few days, and even if they did so involuntarily.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 360358347.
The opening as it stood in 2015
A present absentee is a Palestinian who fled or was expelled from his home in Palestine by Jewish or Israeli forces, before and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war , but who remained within the area that became the state of Israel. Present absentees are also referred to as internally displaced Palestinians (IDPs). The term applies to the present absentee's descendants too. In 1950 these were 46,000 of the 156,000 Palestinians in Israel.Present absentees are not permitted to live in the homes they formerly lived in, even if they were in the same area, the property still exists, and they can show that they own it.They are regarded as absent by the Israeli government because they were absent from their homes on a particular day, even if they did not intend to leave them for more than a few days, and even if they left involuntarily.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 669150714.
The opening as it stood in 2020 3 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Present absentees are Arab IDPs , who fled or were expelled from their home in Mandatory Palestine by Jewish or Israeli forces, before and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war , but who remained within the area that became the state of Israel.The term applies to the IDP's descendants too.In 1950, 46,000 out of the 156,000 Israeli Arabs in Israel were considered Present absentees.According to 2015 estimates from Palestinian NGO BADIL, there are 384,200 IDPs in Israel and 334,600 IDPs in the Palestinian territories . IDPs are not permitted to live in the homes they formerly lived in, even if they were in the same area, the property still exists, and they can show that they own it. They are regarded as absent by the Israeli government because they were absent from their homes on a particular day, even if they did not intend to leave them for more than a few days, and even if they left involuntarily. "Children of "absentees", whether born inside or outside of the State of Israel, are similarly classified as "absentees"." BADIL (2015).There are two categories of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Mandate Palestine.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 955959214.
The opening as it stood in 2025 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Legally dispossessed Palestinian internal refugees Present absentees are Arab internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled or were expelled from their homes in Mandatory Palestine during the 1947–1949 Palestine war but remained within the area that became the state of Israel . In 1950, 46,000 out of the 156,000 Israeli Arabs in Israel were considered present absentees. According to 2015 estimates from Palestinian NGO BADIL , there are 384,200 IDPs in Israel and 334,600 IDPs in the Palestinian territories . IDPs are not permitted to live in the homes they formerly lived in, even if they were in the same area as their home, the property still exists, and they can show that they own it. They are regarded as absent by the Israeli government because they were absent from their homes on a particular day, even if they did not intend to leave them for more than a few days, and even if they left involuntarily. The community carries out an annual March of Return to their former villages. There are two categories of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Mandate Palestine. The first type is composed of 384,200 Palestinians who have been internally displaced inside Israel since 1948 while the second category consists of 334,600 internally displaced Palestinians in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1253255199. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “palestinian who fled or was expelled from his home in palestine by jewish or israeli forces”. Today it says “rab internally displaced persons”. Read the current article and compare.
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined between 2010 and 2025.
Then
palestinian who fled or was expelled from his home in palestine by jewish or israeli forces
Now
rab internally displaced persons
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
