Nakba

Nakba (Arabic: النكبة, "catastrophe") denotes the displacement of roughly 700,000 Palestinian Arabs from their homes during the 1947–1949 period surrounding the creation of the State of Israel and the first Arab-Israeli war. The term was popularized by Syrian historian Constantin Zureiq in his 1948 book Ma'na al-Nakba ("The Meaning of the Catastrophe").

The events unfolded in stages. Following the UN General Assembly's adoption of Resolution 181 (the Partition Plan) on 29 November 1947, civil conflict broke out in Mandate Palestine. After Israel declared independence on 14 May 1948 and neighboring Arab states intervened, fighting continued until armistice agreements were signed in 1949. During this period:

• Hundreds of Palestinian villages were depopulated and many subsequently demolished.
• Major urban Palestinian communities in cities such as Haifa, Jaffa, Lydda (Lod), Ramla, and West Jerusalem were largely emptied of their Arab populations.
• Specific incidents, such as the killings at Deir Yassin in April 1948, became emblematic of the displacement.

Palestinian refugees and their descendants registered with UNRWA (the UN Relief and Works Agency, established by General Assembly Resolution 302 in December 1949) number in the millions today, residing primarily in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (III) of 11 December 1948 called for refugees wishing to return to their homes to be permitted to do so; its interpretation remains a central dispute in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, framed as the "right of return."

The causes and conduct of the displacement remain historiographically contested. Israeli "New Historians" such as Benny Morris, Ilan Pappé, and Avi Shlaim, drawing on declassified archives from the late 1980s onward, produced influential revisionist accounts. Palestinians commemorate Nakba Day annually on 15 May. In November 2023, the UN General Assembly formally commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Nakba for the first time.