Did Israel pay for the original land in 1948?

Answer 1

Partially.

Initially, Jews bought land from the Ottomans in private transactions. Eventually, they pooled their moneys and formed the Jewish National Fund, whose primary objective was the purchase of land in the British Mandate of Palestine. The percentage of land in the British Mandate of Palestine that Jews had purchased individually or through the JNF by 1947 was roughly 10-12 percent of the British Mandate of Palestine, but the UN Partition Plan accorded the Jewish State 56 percent of the British Mandate as territory. When war broke out, the Jews made the conscious decision not to reimburse those who fled in the wake of the armies. As a result, when the armistice was declared in March of 1949, Jews had still not purchased any more land than what they held in 1947, but were now in control of 78% of the British Mandate of Palestine.

There are discussions in Israel today concerning reparation payments owed the Palestinians for some of this land acquisition. Those who support it say that it will help to wipe Israel's slate clean. Those who oppose it say that if the Arabs had been willing to permit a Jewish State, some bargain could have been struck then, but Israel has paid for that land with Israeli lives (both Jews and Non-Jews) lost in battle.