جنگ ۱۹۴۹–۱۹۴۷ فلسطین و اسرائیل، که در اسرائیل به نام جنگ استقلال () و در عربی به نام نکبت ("به معنای مصیبت،" ) معروف است،Reuven Firestone To Jews, the Jewish-Arab war of 1947–1948 is the War of Independence ("milchemet ha'atzma'ut"). To Arabs, and especially Palestinians, it is the "nakba" or calamity. I therefore refrain from assigning names to wars. I refer to the wars between the State of Israel and its Arab and Palestinian neighbors according to their dates: 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, and 1982.' Reuven Firestone, "Holy War in Judaism: The Fall and Rise of a Controversial Idea", انتشارات دانشگاه آکسفورد، 2012 p.10, cf.p.296Neil Caplan, ‘Perhaps the most famous case of differences over the naming of events is the 1948 war (more accurately, the fighting from December 1947 through January 1949). For Israel it is their “War of Liberation” or “War of Independence” (in Hebrew, "milhemet ha-atzama’ut") full of the joys and overtones of deliverance and redemption. For Palestinians, it is "Al-Nakba", translated as “The Catastrophe” and including in its scope the destruction of their society and the expulsion and flight of some 700,000 refugees.’ "The Israel-Palestine Conflict: Contested Histories", جان وایلی و پسران، Sep 19, 2011 p.17.Neil Caplan Although some historians would cite 14 May 1948 as the start of the war known variously as the Israeli War of Independence, an-Nakba (the (Palestinian) Catastrophe), or the first Palestine war, it would be more accurate to consider that war as beginning on 30 November 1947'. "Futile Diplomacy: The United Nations, the Great Powers, and Middle East Peacemaking 1948–1954", (vol.3) Frank Cass & Co, 1997 p.17 جنگی بود که در سرزمین فلسطین در دوران قیمومت بریتانیا رخ داد. این جنگ نخستین جنگ فلسطین و اسرائیل و ستیز گسترده‌تر اسرائیل و اعراب بود. امپراتوری بریتانیا در دوران این جنگ از قیمومت بر فلسطین، که تا سال ۱۹۱۷ بخشی از امپراتوری عثمانی بود، صرف نظر کرد. با اوج گرفتن جنگ، یهودیان کشور اسرائیل را بنیانگذاری کردند و مهاجرت دسته‌جمعی حدود ۷۰۰٬۰۰۰ عرب فلسطینی و تخریب بیشتر مناطق شهری آن‌ها، تحول جمعیتی قابل توجهی در قلمرو یهودیان پدید آمد.— Benny Morris, 2004. "The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited", pp. 602–604. Cambridge University Press; . "It is impossible to arrive at a definite persuasive estimate. My predilection would be to opt for the loose contemporary British formula, that of 'between 600,000 and 760,000' refugees; but,if pressed, 700,000 is probably a fair estimate";— "Memo US Department of State, 4 May 1949", FRUS, 1949, p. 973. : "One of the most important problems which must be cleared up before a lasting peace can be established in Palestine is the question of the more than 700,000 Arab refugees who during the Palestine conflict fled from their homes in what is now Israeli occupied territory and are at present living as refugees in Arab Palestine and the neighbouring Arab states.";— "Memorandum on the Palestine Refugee Problem, 4 May 1949", FRUS, 1949, p. 984. : "Approximately 700,000 refugees from the Palestine hostilities, now located principally in Arab Palestine, Transjordan, Lebanon and Syria, will require repatriation to Israel or resettlement in the Arab states."سرانجام بسیاری از اعراب فلسطینی بی‌تابعیت شدند و به سرزمین‌های فلسطینی که توسط مصر و اردن گرفته شده بودند، یا به کشورهای همسایه مهاجرت کردند و کمپ‌های پناهندگان بسیاری را پدیدآوردند.