On November 22, in 2022, the United Nations General Assembly called for the 75th anniversary of the Nakba to be officially recognized in 2023, acknowledging the forced expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinians due to the UN’s Partition Plan. This plan divided Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, leading to widespread displacement.
The term Nakba, which means ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic, refers to the mass displacement of Palestinians in 1948 during the creation of Israel. Over time this word has gained political significance, symbolising the loss and suffering of the Palestinian people.
There is an excellent example of this: apartheid, a word originally from Afrikaans, which became associated with the racial segregation system in South Africa. Similarly, Arabic words like Intifada, which means ‘uprising, and Naksa, which means ‘setback’, also refer to the Arab defeat in the 1967 war, which has gained international recognition, though Naksa is mainly used within the Arab world.
Before 1987, most Western media followed Israel’s version of events, often ignoring the Palestinian perspective. For example, the 1973 Arab Israeli war is commonly referred to in the West as the Yom Kippur War while Arabs call it the October War or Ramadan War. Similarly, for many years, the Palestinian catastrophe of 1948 was overlooked in global discussions, allowing Israel’s narrative to dominate. Through the oral storytelling poetry and academic research, the term Nakba gradually spread, countering the official Israeli version of history.
The Debate Over 1948
There is overwhelming historical evidence that a large portion of the Palestinian population was forcibly removed from their homeland in 1948. Israeli archives reveal that key Zionist leaders actively planned the expulsion of Arabs. For example, Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, wrote in a letter to his son, “We must expel the Arabs and take their places.” Similarly, Yosef Weitz, who is the senior official in the Jewish National Fund. He wrote in his diary that there is no room for both peoples in this land.
Many Palestinians believed they would soon return to their homes, keeping the keys to their houses in hope. However, the Israeli government prevented them from coming back, enforcing policies that permanently displaced them. In June 1948, Ben Gurion approved the destruction of Palestinian villages to ensure their inhabitants could never return. Israeli archives confirm that these policies were intentional rather than an unintended result of war.
Although Palestinians always remembered these events, the word Nakba was rarely used in political discussions for many years. It was not until the late 20th century, when more research and declassified documents became available, that the term gained widespread recognition.
The Nakba as a Political Idea
The first person to use Nakba to describe the events of 1948 was Syrian intellectual Constantin Zureik in his 1948 book The Meaning of the Disaster. He used the term to discuss the broader failure of Arab leaders during the war, though his book was not widely read at the time. Other historians such as Arif al-Arif also used Nakba in their work, but the term did not immediately become central to Palestinian political discussions.
For many years, Palestinians focused more on surviving and resisting than on defining their history. The destruction of their society made it difficult for them to document their own story, leaving Israeli historians to shape the mainstream narrative. Western media generally accepted Israel’s claim that Palestinians left voluntarily or were ordered to leave by Arab leaders despite evidence proving otherwise.
The term Nakba was rarely used in political speeches by Palestinian leaders until the 1990s. Even the major figures like Yasser Arafat did not use the word in his main speeches, including his famous 1974 speech at the United Nations. Similarly, the 1964 Palestinian National Charter and the founding documents of Hamas in 1988 did not mention the word Nakba, even though they addressed the events of 1948. This suggests that while Palestinians always remembered the catastrophe, they did not commonly use Nakba as a political term until much later.
The Reemergence of the Term ‘Nakba’
The Oslo Accords of 1993 brought renewed attention to the 1948 refugees, indirectly legitimizing the term Nakba. Palestinian organizations, including displaced communities within Israel, started holding annual marches to commemorate the Nakba. In 1998, Yasser Arafat officially declared May 15 as Nakba Day, turning the term into a political symbol.
The rise of the New Historians disrupted the dominant Israeli and Western media portrayal of events by comparing official accounts with Israeli military documents. The 1993 Oslo Peace Accords reignited discussions about the events of 1948 because one of the Palestinians key demands was the right of refugees to return. Acknowledging the presence of refugees meant recognizing their forced displacement, which became closely linked to the concept of Nakba. Although the issue of Palestinian refugees resurfaced during negotiations, the Declaration of Principles signed on September 13, 1993, only mentioned refugees once, treating them as just one of many issues to be addressed later.
By pushing for a solution to the refugee crisis, the Palestinian narrative of 1948 gained more visibility. By then, the Israeli New Historians had already lent credibility to Palestinian accounts of expulsion. This also explains why various non-governmental organizations, along with displaced Palestinians in Israel, formed an action committee in March 1995 to reaffirm the right of return. This led to the creation of the Association for the Defense of the Rights of the Displaced and the annual marches to abandoned Palestinian villages on Nakba Day.
In 1998, to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1948 expulsion, Yasser Arafat officially declared May 15 as Nakba Day, transforming the events of 1948 into a recognized political concept. After Arafat’s death in 2004, Mahmoud Abbas took over the Palestinian National Authority.
On November 29, 2012, speaking before the UN General Assembly, Abbas narrated, The Palestinian people who miraculously survived the ashes of the Nakba of 1948, an event meant to erase their existence and drive them from their homeland, endured mass displacement within and beyond their country. They were thrown from their thriving, welcoming land into refugee camps in one of the most tragic instances of ethnic cleansing in modern history.”
By then the term Nakba had firmly entered the political vocabulary of Palestinian leadership. Its growing use in Palestinian and international media, influenced by the New Historians, also impacted some Israeli politicians. Former Israeli foreign minister and historian Shlomo Ben Ami, for example, initially followed the traditional Israeli version of the 1948 events in his 1999 book Israel between War and Peace. However, in his 2005 book Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli vs. Arab Tragedy, he acknowledged the “atrocities and massacres committed against civilians” and used the term Nakba to describe the destruction of Palestinian society in 1948.
Memory as Resistance
While Israel celebrates its Independence Day on May 15, Palestinians and their supporters worldwide observe Nakba Day as a remembrance of the massacres and displacement that took place. For over 75 years, the Palestinian struggle against Israeli denial has centered on preserving the memory of dispossession. Since the First Intifada, some Israeli scholars have begun challenging the official version of history, creating cracks in the dominant narrative. As Israeli activist Eitan Bronstein of Zochrot put it:
“If the Nakba never happened, then how can millions of Palestinians today be refugees fighting for their right to return?”
Efforts to frame the Nakba as a one-time historical event rather than an ongoing process have largely failed. Memory has always played a crucial role in Palestinian resistance. By continuing to use the original names of their cities and villages, generations of Palestinians have kept alive a collective memory that Israel has tried to erase. The term Nakba has no direct translation in other languages that fully captures its depth in Arabic. It is not just a historical concept; it is also tied to cultural, ideological, political, and media narratives. The Nakba does not only refer to the physical destruction of Palestine and the mass displacement of its people. It also reflects the continued struggle of Palestinians who, despite their resistance, could not stop the forced expulsions and massacres of 1948.
The fact that Nakba is now regularly mentioned in mainstream media is a political and public relations success for Palestinians. Today, when Israel’s founding is discussed, major news outlets also address the catastrophe that Palestinians endured, often using the Arabic term Nakba. This means that the event is no longer seen as just another historical tragedy; it is recognized as the Nakba, carrying all the weight of its Arabic meaning. Control over language and media narratives plays a crucial role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinian researcher Amjad Alqasis argues that it is vital for Palestinians to shape their own discourse, which requires using their own terms and language.
For decades, Israel has dominated global discussions about the conflict. However, the Nakba remains an ongoing reality, inspiring various forms of resistance so much so that the Israeli government has even passed laws banning its commemoration. The way language is used, with terms like Nakba and Intifada, reflects major shifts not just in reclaiming Palestinian identity but also in changing the way the story is told in the media. The difference today compared to previous years is that Palestinians are no longer portrayed as refugees who supposedly chose to flee in 1948, as Israel’s narrative once claimed. Instead, it is now widely accepted that they were forcibly expelled. The recognition of this fact in global media has strengthened Palestinian political efforts, whether for statehood or the right of return. The term Nakba, once a personal memory, has become a powerful political tool, reshaping the conversation around the Palestinian struggle.
The term Nakba has evolved from a personal and cultural memory to an internationally recognized political concept. Through research, oral storytelling, and the efforts of both Palestinian and Israeli historians, the true story of 1948 has gained wider acceptance. The increasing use of Nakba challenges Israel’s historical narrative, ensuring that the Palestinian experience is no longer ignored.
