Palestinian-Israeli Conflict 101: What is Nakba? Why do Jews deny Nakba?

Palestinian Refugees on their way to Lebanon, Oct. 1948.

Nakba means catastrophe in Arabic, which describes the event (dispossession and ethnic cleansing) that befell the Palestinian people during and after the 1948 war with Zionist forces in British colonized Palestine. As a result of Nakba, the "Jewish state" was born, where Jews made up 85% of the citizens. To Palestinians (the indigenous population), Nakba proved to be a turning point where three out of four Palestinians (now numbering 14+ million) were dispossessed and ethnically cleansed as a result of the establishment of the "Jewish state." Sadly, before WWII, British colonized Palestine was forced to receive more than its fair share of European Jewish refugees (while the US and Canada closed their doors to Jewish refugees), and over a 20 years period, Zionist Jews demanded independence in 1948 although Jews made up 10% of citizens and owned under 6% of the land. This unattainable situation forced the UN to intervene in late 1947, and it imposed a Partition Plan. Most Palestinians perceived partitioning their country to be as unjust and unfair; thus, they rejected it, and a war broke out soon after (which lasted for 11 months) in what became known as the war of Nakba. We have addressed this subject in depth in another section if you care. That said, in the next paragraph, we shall briefly explain why Palestinians rejected partitioning their country.

Please remind us who shall push who into the sea. The scene at Jaffa harbor, May 1948.

Why Did Palestinians Reject The UN Partition Plan Of Nov. 1947?

Soon after the UN partition plan was voted on in late 1947, Zionist Jews faced a significant mathematical problem in their quest to turn Palestine into a Jewish majority state: the indigenous people (Muslim and Christian Palestinians) made up 90% of citizens who, to this date, still own over 94% of the land, and Zionist Jews were under 10% of the citizens (although they constituted a third of the population). In other words, three out of every four Jews in Palestine, as of 1948, were not citizens of Palestine, and the majority of Jews were either immigrants, refugees, or illegal immigrants.

In layman's terms, from Palestinians' point of view: why should they accept partitioning their country when they made 90% of citizens and owned over 94% of the land?

Why Do Jews Deny Nakba?

A Playlist Of Short Clips Of Jews Sharing Their DNA Test Results

For the "Jewish state" to become a reality (where Jews are the majority of the population), replacing the indigenous majority (in practice, a Nakba) was a necessary sin (Zionists reluctantly executed the crimes, read it from Yitzhak Rabin who admitted it to the NY Times in the late 1979). That is why to this date, the mass majority of Jews fiercely deny Palestinian replacement although Nakba never stopped since 1948. Israeli Jews deny Nakba, although the destroyed Palestinian villages pepper the landscape. Thus, in denial, Jews gain emotional comfort; Jews (including the non-Zionist ones nowadays) cannot bear the thought that Holocaust survivors could do such a thing just three years after the Shoah ended! Although the evidence is overwhelming (especially after the Zionist archives were opened), the mass majority of Jews (especially the so-called liberal ones) cannot fathom the thought that the early Zionists were as fascists as the ones in power now. This explains why Jews (especially those in Israel and America) prefer to escape to the world of cognitive dissonance to comfort their contradictory world view; this explains why so many Jews even deny Palestinians' existence although David Ben-Gurion debunked this myth just before he died! If you have two minutes, we urge you to watch this brave American Jewish girl describing Israeli Jews' cognitive dissonance like no other. Trust us, it will be worth your time but hang on to your seat first and watch her to the last second:

The Zionist Version Of Lebensraum: A Map Of The Great Israel

Notice how when Zionists denying reality as we saw earlier, they are exactly replicating European settlers colonial denialism; yes, birds of a feather flock together. As if Zionists recycled the same script; here are the infamous eight stages of settler colonial denialism. The indigenous peoples of all shades know them by heart! If you want to see Zionists' cognitive dissonance in action, ask a Zionist Jew how Jews managed to bloom the Negev desert? Pull up Google's Satellite View and ask this person where! Remind him or her: that the Dead Sea almost disappeared.

If you are looking for a psychoanalysis of this phenomenon, we highly recommend reading Escape From Freedom by Erich Fromm, who was one of the last ones to leave Germany just before the Holocaust was underway. Mr. Fromm wrote it in the early 1940s to explain how and why Germans surrendered their freedom and allowed fascists to lead them. Here is an interview with Mr. Fromm conducted by Mike Wallace in 1958, and here is a 26-minute summary of his book "Escape From Freedom". Anyhow, in our opinion, many of Mr. Fromm's arguments are also applicable to much of the Jewish community nowadays. Indeed, history has repeated itself in a very odd way.

Albert Einstein's letter dated April 10th, 1948, predicted that the Zionists who committed the massacre at Deir Yassin would bring a Nakba upon Jews

Much to our surprise, Albert Einstein used the word catastrophe (a.k.a Nakba in Arabic) way before it was coined by Arabs a day after the Deir Yassin massacre on April 10^th, 1948. That said, Albert used the word catastrophe not in the Palestinian context, but rather in the Jewish context. YES, Herr Einstein predicted that Zionists would bring a Nakba upon Jews! In other words, Einstein knew that Zionists fomented antisemitism by design! Please allow Einstein's framing of the conflict to sink for a minute and then reflect: when antisemitism was ever bad for Zionism!

How do Palestinians Feel About Their Right of Return?

It should be noted that to this date, the Palestinian people have been demanding to exercise their right to return (which was endorsed by the UN) to their looted homes, farms, businesses, and lands. Sadly, this basic human right has been rejected even by the most so-called liberal Zionists.

We URGE you to watch professor Ilan Pappe's (an Israeli Historians) summarizing Nakba in 90 seconds:
...and watch President Truman explaining the Nakba in plain English and the Americans' role in making it possible in 50 seconds. Pay attention to how Mr. Turman was talking as if he were the Colonial Secretary, as if anything had changed to this date:

...or watch this great View by Mondoweiss explaining Nakba in under 90 seconds:

If you made it down here and still have the energy to learn more about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, we highly recommend visiting our short introductory section on this subject, which contains a brief list of articles about the conflict.

Palestinians Ask: Did Zionist Jews Give a Good Name For Refugees?

Finally, after reviewing all this evidence, we Palestinians have every right to ask: since many in the "civilized West" loves conflating Judaism with Zionism, do you honestly believe [Zionist] Jews gave a good name for refugees? God forbid, if another Jewish refugee crisis occurs in the future, would the "civilized West" refuse to receive Jewish refugees as they did in the 1930s and 40s? God forbid, if such a thing happens again, then who can blame any nation for refusing to take in such refugees? Who would welcome refugees who openly plot to replace them? Thus, was it a mistake to give them refuge? Those are legitimate questions that every Jew and Westerner should contemplate deeply. All we Palestinians ask is just a little empathy, or is that too much to ask?

Related links

• Short Clip: Explaining Nakba and the Palestinian side of the story in under 70 seconds.
• Short Clip: Prof. Ilan Pappe Summarizes Nakba In 90 Seconds  Duration: min 29 sec
• Short Clip: President Truman explaining Nakba and Americans' role in making it possible in 50 Seconds. Duration: 50 sec
• Video: al-Jazeera TV presents an excellent short video about Nakba, highly recommended only 6 minutes
• Facts Not Lies about the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
• Jewish Voices For Peace Short: Israeli-Palestinian conflict explained: an animated introduction to Israel and Palestine (A MUST WATCH 6-minute video)
• Videos: Responding to Zionist Propaganda
• al-Jazeera Video: The Palestinian Catastrophe 48 minutes long
• al-Jazeera: Nakba Day: What happened in Palestine in 1948?
• Jewish Voice For Peace: Nakba Fact Sheet (PDF)