The Nakba of 1948

[Watermelonpower]

Hello everyone
I’m creating this thread because I feel there is not enough awareness about the Nakba of 1948 and the impact this had on the Palestinian people, community and the diaspora that was created as a result. Anyone seeking to understand current events in the Middle East needs to understand The Nakba, what it meant to Palestinians and how the consequences and generational trauma impacts Palestinians to this day. For those who are unaware, 70% of Gaza’s population are Nakba refugees/their descendants.

At the outset I would like to say this thread is about understanding and awareness. Above all, it is about the Palestinian experience and perspective. I would therefore appreciate it if people would keep this in mind and be respectful in their posting, ensuring MN Talk Guidelines are adhered to. I will be also be sharing some personal stories and
suggesting some additional resources and media for those who wish to learn more.

https://www.un.org/unispal/about-the-nakba/

Apologies I need to post a correction - I understand three of the above were in what was Palestine (Meron, Al Burj, Reineh) and the last in Lebanon. Please correct me if I am mistaken.

My first post in the series of quotes therefore needs correcting but I can't edit it.

I suggest you read the basics laws of Israel and you might correct your statement that "The Arabs who stayed, and didn't fight Israel, were indeed not displaced or expelled, and now enjoy equal rights as Israeli citizens".
There is no doubt that Palestinians are Arabs as much as I am European but when I am asked where I am from, I do not reply Europe but France. I am French before being European. They are Palestinians before being Arabs.
To say otherwise is to deny their identity, their culture and their uniqueness.
Finally, history is written by the victors, meaning that those who emerge victorious in conflicts have the power to shape and mold the historical accounts that future generations will come to know. It seems that this applies to your views on the Nakba.

It's impossible for the Palestinians, or any other group who isn't Jewish, to have equal rights in Israel if you pass a law stating only Jewish citizens have a right to self determination, as Israel has.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/19/israel-adopts-controversial-jewish-nation-state-law

Can't wait for the spin on this... an anonymous poll.

There is no divine right in the UK. And the King is leader of the Church of England, which doesn't cover the whole of the UK (clue is in the name). The leadership of the CofE is largely symbolic.

It's not true that everything is equal for Palestinian citizens of Israel though, is it.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/02/israels-apartheid-against-palestinians-a-cruel-system-of-domination-and-a-crime-against-humanity/

Lesser citizens

Palestinian citizens of Israel, who comprise about 19% of the population, face many forms of institutionalized discrimination. In 2018, discrimination against Palestinians was crystallized in a constitutional law which, for the first time, enshrined Israel exclusively as the “nation state of the Jewish people”. The law also promotes the building of Jewish settlements and downgrades Arabic’s status as an official language.

The report documents how Palestinians are effectively blocked from leasing on 80% of Israel’s state land, as a result of racist land seizures and a web of discriminatory laws on land allocation, planning and zoning.

The situation in the Negev/Naqab region of southern Israel is a prime example of how Israel’s planning and building policies intentionally exclude Palestinians. Since 1948 Israeli authorities have adopted various policies to “Judaize” the Negev/Naqab, including designating large areas as nature reserves or military firing zones, and setting targets for increasing the Jewish population. This has had devastating consequences for the tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouins who live in the region.

Thirty-five Bedouin villages, home to about 68,000 people, are currently “unrecognized” by Israel, which means they are cut off from the national electricity and water supply and targeted for repeated demolitions. As the villages have no official status, their residents also face restrictions on political participation and are excluded from the healthcare and education systems. These conditions have coerced many into leaving their homes and villages, in what amounts to forcible transfer.

Decades of deliberately unequal treatment of Palestinian citizens of Israel have left them consistently economically disadvantaged in comparison to Jewish Israelis. This is exacerbated by blatantly discriminatory allocation of state resources: a recent example is the government’s Covid-19 recovery package, of which just 1.7% was given to Palestinian local authorities.

Back to the main OP though, as I think this thread is getting derailed, I found this Nakba info sheet www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/JVP-Nakba-Fact-Sheet.pdf that offers a great summary of what happened.

Few select quotes below and it is worth reading through fully as there is much more.

On April 9, 1948, Deir Yassin village was occupied by the Irgun and Stern Gang (Lechi) Jewish forces. At least ninety three Palestinian villagers were killed in cold blood, their bodies abused while a number of the women were raped and then killed. Of those killed, thirty were babies.(8)

On May 22, 1948, Jewish soldiers from the Alexandroni Brigade occupied Tantura and shot 110-230 Palestinian men. As Pappe documents: The Jews gathered all the women and children, in a place where they dumped all bodies, for them to see their dead husbands, fathers and brothers and terrorize them.(9)

On October 28, 1948, in the village of Dawaymeh, near Hebron, about 145 children, women and men were killed. Over 450 went missing, of which 170 were women and children. On October 29, Jewish and Druze On On October 29, Jewish and Druze soldiers attacked and occupied the village of Safsaf. The next morning, seventy men were shot in cold blood.

Could you, please, give evidence to support your statement " all citizens absolutely have equal rights, both in law and in practice", otherwise it is an opinion, not a fact.

@shareabear
Heartbreaking and appalling.

It is absolutely terrible and apparently celebrating the Nakba is criminalised.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/5/14/israel-continues-to-criminalise-marking-nakba-day

correction for my post above "celebrating" should say "commemorating".

I’m not sure why you continue to try and derail this thread despite being politely asked not to do so. I considered ignoring this post, but I cannot let misinformation stand, particularly when there are others reading the thread who are genuinely interested to understand the Nakba and the Palestinian experience. You and some others seem intent on dogmatically projecting what you want Israel to be, rather than what it actually is.

Israel is a diverse society made up of Jewish and non Jewish people. Even amongst the Jewish population there is significant diversity. There is also inequality in treatment, opportunity and representation within the Jewish community itself, depending on different factors eg whether a person is of European/Ashkenazi Jewish origin or of eg Middle Eastern or African Jewish origin, their religious community and whether they are on the left or right or the political spectrum.

However, without a shadow of a doubt, I can tell you that the Palestinians who remained in what became Israel following the Nakba, and acquired citizenship, absolutely are not treated equally to ANY Jewish citizen of Israel whatever that Jewish citizen’s origin, colour, political belief or religious community. Not even close. Palestinians in Israel suffer systemic institutional direct and indirect discrimination across all walks of life: legal, economic, political and social and cultural. They sit at the very bottom of the totem pole in Israeli society. This is not only discrimination on an individual or societal level such as poorer employment opportunities or educational funding (which can happen in any country). I am also talking about enshrined state level discrimination and racism. Some basic examples (not an exhaustive list):

• The Israel Law of Return grants all Jews, as well as their children, grandchildren, and spouses, the right to move to Israel and automatically gain citizenship. Non-Jews do not have these rights.

*The Nation State law declared Israel the nation-state of the Jewish people, and said the Jewish people have a unique “right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel.” It downgraded Arabic from an official language to one of “special status”.

*Permanent Arab residents of Jerusalem can have their residency revoked and be forcibly transferred at any time by the authorities, including if they authorize consider they have spent “too long away”. Home evictions/seizures are also common.

*Non Jews are prohibited / restricted from buying or leasing certain land owned by the state/JNF

Here are some articles for anyone interested in further reading ( there are plenty more available)

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-know-about-arab-citizens-israel

https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2018/7/19/five-ways-israeli-law-discriminates-against-palestinians

other resources

https://imeu.org/article/the-7-most-racist-israeli-laws

I’d suggest also researching the work of organizations such as Adalah and other organizations working to protect minority rights in Israel.

https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/7189

https://www.english.acri.org.il/arab-minority-rights

I gave a link above to a full article prepared by Amnesty as well as quoted examples in my post and other posters above have also listed sites and information about the routine discrimination against Israeli Arabs, and in the face of this evidence, you still choose to ignore it.

You seem unwilling to accept or recognise this evidence so I am not sure it is worth continuing to engage with your posts on the matter, particularly as it is derailing from discussing the Nakba. And the OP has requested this topic keeps on track.

Please keep on topic, do you have any reflections on the Nakba?

@ER2 do you have any reflections on the Nakba at all?

Have you read the AMA of the Israeli leftist? She speaks about the Nation State laws and how she attempts to speak out about discrimination against Arab Citizens of Israel who supposedly have equal rights. There's no point saying "I can't see anything" if you aren't prepared to read links to the numerous ways Palestinians are treated differently.

It seems the author is keen to perpetuate the idea that Palestinians are victims and Israel is a 'baddie'.
It's sad they don't want to hold their ideas up to scrutiny.

Whatever happened 76 years ago does not excuse the atrocities of the Oct 7th attack.

The world is too complex for "goodies" and "baddies" outside films, all human conflict has nuance and explanatory context. OP has provided some really interesting context in a balanced and fair way so that's really not a fair thing to say at all.

I disagree.

The poster has stated quite clearly that they are putting forward information about the Nakba from a Palestinian point of view and has shut down discussion on any other viewpoint

They say "Above all, it is about the Palestinian experience and perspective."

That isn't either balanced or fair IMO..

As I have said, kindly provide evidence (facts) to support your claims.
I find this from the JFJFP website very informative:
"Supporters of Israel make much of the supposed equality its Palestinian citizens are said to enjoy. And it is true they have the vote, unlike “non-whites” in South Africa. But to focus simply on the vote ignores the many arenas in which Palestinians do not even have formal equality (access to land and housing, or to marry spouses of their choice and live with them in Israel), let alone the substantive discrimination in area after area which blights Palestinian lives, “full citizens” though they are supposed to be. Budget allocations are vastly skewed in favour of Jewish citizens, military service confers wide social and economic privileges on Jewish citizens, the law is implemented unevenly. In 1948, the Palestinian Arab community owned and used most of the land within the area that became the state of Israel. Today it owns less than 3 percent of these lands."

Really? I see many threads on difficult topics discussing events from one perspective or another, and not being particularly welcoming to alternative points of view. OP has at least been polite and respectful, which is not always the case.

I don't know too much about it but the alternative view of the Nakba appears to be "it never happened" which you must see would be pretty offensive to people posting evidence it did happen?

If I've got that wrong please correct me.

Absolutely but there is also a huge difference between excusing and explaining.
Oct 7th was an act of utter horror. There will never be an excuse for it in my opinion.
The explanation for it might reside in the Nakba and the following 75 years of the harsh treatment of the Palestinian people by every single Israeli government in power during those years.