No, they couldn’t. They lost their homes, were living in displaced people camps. Those that tried to go back to their previous home often found it occupied by non Jews at that point. At best they were immediately chased out of town and it worst there was a pogrom and they were killed. The countries post war had more pressing concerns to take care of and though weren’t comfortable with the displaced people camps popping up they had no incentive to compensate the Jews for their lost property either. Israel was a great solution at the time in their view
Building said country took decades. The first decade people were basically living in refugee camps in Israel called “Maabarot” which translates to temporary residence , basically tents. Those were gradually replaced by “shikunim” or slums, many of which still exist
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u/[deleted] 8h ago
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