Nakba

Ethnic cleansing and displacement of Palestinians since 1948 Not to be confused with the Naksa , the Palestinian exodus of 1967. The Nakba ( Arabic : النَّكْبَة , romanized : an-Nakba , lit. ' the catastrophe ' ) is the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs through their violent displacement and dispossession of land, property, and belongings, along with the destruction of their society and the suppression of their culture , identity , political rights, and national aspirations . The term is used to describe the events of the 1948 Palestine war in Mandatory Palestine as well as the ongoing persecution and displacement of Palestinians by Israel . As a whole, it covers the fracturing of Palestinian society and the long-running rejection of the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants. During the foundational events of the Nakba in 1948, approximately half of Palestine's predominantly Arab population, or around 750,000 people, were expelled from their homes or made to flee through various violent means , at first by Zionist paramilitaries, and after the establishment of the State of Israel, by its military . Dozens of massacres targeted Palestinian Arabs and over 500 Arab-majority towns, villages, and urban neighborhoods were depopulated . Many of the settlements were either completely destroyed or repopulated by Jews and given new Hebrew names . Israel employed biological warfare against Palestinians by poisoning village wells . By the end of the war, 78% of the total land area of the former Mandatory Palestine was controlled by Israel. The Palestinian national narrative views the Nakba as a collective trauma that defines Palestinians' national identity and political aspirations. The Israeli national narrative views the Nakba as a component of the War of Independence that established Israel's statehood and sovereignty . Israel negates or denies the atrocities committed, claiming that many of the expelled Palestinians left willingly or that their expulsion was necessary and unavoidable. Nakba denial has been increasingly challenged since the 1970s in Israeli society, particularly by the New Historians , although the official narrative has not changed. Palestinians observe 15 May as Nakba Day , commemorating the war's events one day after Israel's Independence Day . In 1967, following the Six-Day War , another series of Palestinian exodus occurred; this came to be known as the Naksa ( lit. ' Setback ' ), and also has its own day , 5 June. The Nakba has greatly influenced Palestinian culture and is a foundational symbol of the current Palestinian national identity , together with the political cartoon character Handala , the Palestinian keffiyeh , and the Palestinian 1948 keys . Many books, songs, and poems have been written about the Nakba. Encyclopedia of the Palestinians . "Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in the Gaza Strip, before Operation "Cast Lead" " . "Confirmed figures reveal the true extent of the destruction inflicted upon the Gaza Strip; Israel's offensive resulted in 1,417 dead, including 926 civilians, 255 police officers, and 236 fighters" . 2009. "Report of the detailed findings of the independent commission of inquiry established pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution S-21/1" . "2021 was the deadliest year since 2014, Israel killed 319 Palestinians in oPt 5-year record in house demolitions: 895 Palestinians lost their homes" . UNRWA put the figure at 413 000 Tétrault-Farber, Gabrielle (6 December 2023). The Nakba has thus become, both in Palestinian memory and history, the demarcation line between two qualitatively opposing periods. After 1948, the lives of the Palestinians at the individual, community, and national level were dramatically and irreversibly changed." Khalidi, Rashid I. Two sides of the coin: independence and Nakba, 1948: two narratives of the 1948 War and its outcome . The Palestinians regard the Nakba and its repercussions as a formative trauma defining their identity and their national, moral, and political aspirations. As a result of the 1948 war, the Palestinian people, which to a large degree lost their country to the establishment of a Jewish state for the survivors of the Holocaust, developed a victimized national identity. From their perspective, the Palestinians have been forced to pay for the Jewish Holocaust with their bodies, their property, and their freedom instead of those who were truly responsible. Jewish Israelis, in contrast, see the war and its outcome not merely as an act of historical justice that changed the historical course of the Jewish people, which until that point had been filled with suffering and hardship, but also as a birth – the birth of Israel as an independent Jewish state after two thousand years of exile. As such, it must be pure and untainted, because if a person, a nation, or a state is born in sin, its entire essence is tainted. In this sense, discourse on the war is not at all historical but rather current and extremely sensitive. Its power and intensity is directly influenced by present day events. In the Israeli and the Palestinian cases, therefore, the 1948 war plays a pivotal role in two simple, clear, unequivocal, and harmonious narratives, with both peoples continuing to see the war as a formative event in their respective histories. The New York Times . We are not asking for a lot. We are not asking for the moon. We are asking to close the chapter of nakba once and for all, for the refugees to return and to build an independent Palestinian state on our land, our land, our land, just like other peoples. We want to celebrate in our capital, holy Jerusalem, holy Jerusalem, holy Jerusalem. The New York Times . There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or templates on this page, but the references will not show without a template or template (see the help page ).