What happened during the Nakba?

Nakba is Arabic for “catastrophe.” It is the Palestinian name for the mass displacement and loss of Palestinian homes and land surrounding the creation of Israel in 1948.

War broke out during the end of British rule and the creation of Israel. Fighting took place between Jewish/Zionist forces and Palestinian Arab forces, followed by armies from neighbouring Arab states after Israel declared independence.

During this period, around 700,000–800,000 Palestinians — more than half of the Palestinian Arab population — fled or were expelled from their homes. Hundreds of Palestinian communities were depopulated.

Exactly why people left differed from place to place. Some fled fighting and fear. Others were directly expelled by Israeli forces. There were also killings and attacks on civilians that spread fear among Palestinian communities.

After the war, Israel controlled considerably more territory than had been allocated to the proposed Jewish state under the 1947 UN partition plan. Most displaced Palestinians were not permitted to return to their homes.

For Israelis, 1948 is remembered as the establishment and independence of Israel after centuries of Jewish persecution, including the Holocaust.

For Palestinians, the same period is remembered as the Nakba because it resulted in mass displacement, dispossession and the creation of a refugee population that still exists today.

That difference in memory is fundamental to understanding the conflict.