Nakba

**Nakba** or **Al Nakba** (Arabic: **النكبة**) (meaning “disaster ” or “catastrophe” in Arabic, and called the **Palestinian Catastrophe** in English) happened in 1948, during the 1947–1949 Palestine war, in the newly founded State of Israel.

During the Nakba, Jewish militia forces (who later became the Israeli army) depopulated over 500 Arab-majority towns and villages. Around 750,000 people - half of Palestine's previous Arab population - fled from their homes or were forced by Zionists out of Mandatory Palestine and the State of Israel. In addition, thousands of Palestinians were killed and injured during the Nakba.

Palestinians who were displaced now live in the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and neighbouring Arab states.

## Historical context

During the early decades of the 20th century, there were major changes in the Middle East. A massive immigration of Jews occurred after the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which was drafted by Great Britain during World War I. They wanted to settle in Palestine and found a Jewish state in the ancient Land of Israel.

The surrounding countries and the indigenous Arab populations of Palestine resisted this mass immigration. This resulted in a heavy dispute between the Zionists and Arabs in Palestine.

After years of conflict, the British government demanded that the United Nations formulate a solution for the situation in Palestine. The plan to divide Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states was rejected by Arab leaders, who refused to compromise.

Throughout the negotiations, the Palestinian Arabs lacked effective leadership. Additionally, the disorder intensified when David Ben-Gurion announced Israel's independence on May 14, 1948. The British ended their mandate over Palestine on May 15, 1948.

## Palestinian vs Israeli point of view

Up to the present day, Palestinian and Israeli people have differing perspectives about the Nakba. Both sides have experienced the historical events differently, which continues to cause conflict.

### Palestinian perspective

Palestinians often see the Nakba as a terrible event in the history of the state of Palestine. From their point of view, Palestinians view themselves as the victims of Israeli aggression in their country. They accuse Israel of forcing the 1948 refugees out of Palestine based on their ethnicity.

Many Palestinians think they have been made to suffer because of the Holocaust, even though they were not involved in this genocide.

### Israeli perspective

The state of Israel and its supporters mostly reject the description of the events of 1948 as a "catastrophe" (the Arabic meaning of the word Nakba). They often view these events as part of a "fight for independence"

Supporters of Israel argue that Palestinians chose to flee the country and that they were not victims of ethnic cleansing by Zionists. They do not acknowledge that Arab villages and Palestinian homes were depopulated. They use terms like "abandoned" property and "population exchange" rather than "confiscated" or "expelled."

## Aftermath

The Nakba resulted in a large number of Palestinian refugees inside Palestine & Israel. Many fled to neigbouring countries. There were 520,000 Palestinian refugees in 1948, according to UNRWA (The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the near East).

The number of refugees from Palestine increased significantly, as shown in the table below.
||West bank|Gaza Strip|Jordan|Syria|Lebanon|Total|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|**% of total RRs**|16|22|42|10|10|100|
|**No. of refugee camps**|19|8|10|10|12|59|
|**RR living in camps(in % of RR)**|179,541   (27)|484,563   (53)|307,785   (18)|120,865   (29)|223,956   (57)|1,316,710    (32)|
|**RR outside of camps**|485,705|438,111|1,432,385|292,962|170,576|2,819,739|
|**Average family size**|4.56|4.66|5.42|4.31|4.06|4.82|

## Related pages

- State of Palestine
- Arab–Israeli conflict
- Zionism
- Anti-Zionism

## Infobox (military conflict)

- **conflict**: Nakba
- **place**: Palestine
- **partof**: Palestinian-Israeli conflict
- **date**: 1948
- **image**: Palestinian refugees 1948.jpg
- **caption**: The Palestinian Catastrophe, the calamity that happened to the Palestinians in 1948
- **result**: 750K Palestinians are expelled and 15K are killed