Ahmadinejad never said Israel should be wiped off the map

When the locals were originally forced from their land to allow for Jewish resettlement... was that not violent?

I just realized here that you meant before the revolt. The Haganah didn't expel Arabs until after the war was well underway. I guess what you are talking about is Arabs sharecroppers who were evicted from the land they worked after it was purchased by Jews much earlier than WWII. Right?

The evictions were not examples of massacres if that's what you mean. They were not violent evictions, generally speaking. They just sucked for the Arabs who lost their farms. The purchase of this land resulted in the migration of previously agrarian Arabs to the cities. But Israel is hardly the first place where victims of gentrification had to move and were angry as a result. On a larger scale, the European Jews brought with them advanced farming techniques and the productivity and standard of living for everyone was raised as a result.

Doubtless, for the poorest Arabs, this was a very difficult change. Not only did many lose their land, but their system of farming became obsolete quickly and they had trouble competing as a result. There is no way that such a huge demography shift could happen without friction.

The flip side of this is evident if you look at the huge influx of Arabs to Palestine at this time though, too. It is a fact that land purchased by the Zionists was mostly undeveloped. The Jews brought technology to drain swamps and turn them into farmland. New industries and investment by the zionists also provided jobs and opportunities unrivaled in any other area in the ME. The Arab population swelled along with the Jewish one for this reason.

It is worth noting that many of the most vocal instigators of the Arab revolt were also the same landowners who sold large tracts of land to the Zionists. As the revolt gained steam, land prices skyrocketed. This is one of the first time of millions to come that the Palestinians were sold out by their own. (Who do you suppose the modern Palestinians hate more, the Jews, or Suha Arafat?)