Stolen as in stolen as a result of the UN partition plan? Or stolen as they stole the land prior to the official partition and declaration of Israel (or after in cases). Because 1948 is a very broad and important line for events.
I'm well aware of the civil war that happened prior and during, and the mass Palestinian exodus / expulsion that occured. Both Haifa and Jaffa were supposed to be part of the Jewish state partition but chaos and violence had completely deteriorated by 1948.
The civil war was most definitely a 2 sided vile event with atrocities and massacres aimed against civilians from both sides.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deir_Yassin_massacre
And there were lots of events prior well before.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920_Nebi_Musa_riots
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1929_Palestine_riots
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interc...tory_Palestine
It was already a colossal mess, but the only way to 'solve' it is by removing the idea of a Jewish state. It was always going to be incredibly ugly and hard to really make it work with such hostilities.
When discussions starts revolving around the creation of Israel or Israel's existence (as opposed to Israel actions and US defending Israel non stop) is where it starts getting ambiguous.
Generally, most people won't know the details behind Haifa / Jaffa (and yes they should).