Today is the anniversary of the 1929 pogrom in Hebron which resulted in 150 Jews killed. Those not killed, fled for their lives never to return. These weren't "Zionists," but were largely Yiddish speaking members of the "old yishuv" who had lived there for centuries. No Israel back then. No "occupation."
The point is that the nakba happened in a context - there was murderous hatred of Jews and the mufti and his supporters were aligned with the Nazis, were sworn to kill all Jews. Many Zionists had been committed to a binational state, but Arab extremism made such a vision untenable.
The nakba was a tragedy - and the Arab nationalists bear much of the responsibility for it. There was hatred on both sides, but black hatred for all Jews was the official policy of the Arab Higher Committee. Had there been no nakba, not only would Israel never have come into existence, but the existing Jewish community faced annihilation. What could have been a cooperative venture became a zero sum game - one side had to win and one had to lose.
Many Jews were protected by Muslims. And many Zionists including Buber, Szold, and Magnes had supported binationalism. Extremism - Jewish but also Arab - made this untenable.
The left wing Hashomer Hatzair advocated a binational state. By 1947, they were the leadership of the Palmach and led the nakba operations. Even then, many within Hashomer Harzair favored the repatriation of those expelled.
The nakba was a tragedy, but one that happened in a context - without the murderous and indiscriminate hatred of Jews openly advanced by the Arab Higher Committee as official policy, I doubt there would have been a nakba.
This isn't a matter of blaming the victim - so much as a realistic assessment that the Arab Palestinians contributed to the culture which caused their own undoing.