What does Nakba mean?
In Arabic, the word “nakba” means catastrophe or disaster. In reference to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the term Nakba or al-Nakba refers to the Palestinians’ loss of their homeland between 1947 and 1949, before Israel’s declaration of independence, as well as during and after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
It’s thought that around 700,000 people in what is now Israel either fled or were forced from their homes. Many Palestinian refugees remain stateless to this day.
What is Nakba Day?
May 15, 1948, was the beginning of the Arab-Israeli war and has long been a day on which Palestinians take to the streets to protest against their displacement. Many bear Palestinian flags, bring the keys of their former homes or carry banners with the symbols of keys, illustrating the and what the community sees as their right to return.
In the past, some protests have turned into violent clashes. Israel has accused Hamas and other organizations that are categorized by the EU, the US and certain other countries as terror organizations of using the day to further their causes.
The term Nakba Day was coined in 1998 by then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. He set the date as the official day for the commemoration of the homeland.
Why did Palestinians have to leave?
Until the end of World War I, Palestine was ruled by the Ottoman Empire. It then fell under British control and was called the Mandate for Palestine. As antisemitism grew in Europe, an increasing number of Jews moved to what many saw as their ancestral homeland: Eretz Israel, the Promised Land, where Jews had always lived, albeit in much smaller numbers.
After the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, in which 6 million Jews were murdered, a United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was adopted by the UN General Assembly. The Arab League rejected the plan, which allocated less than 50% of what was Mandatory Palestine to the Arab state, but the Jewish Agency for Palestine accepted it. On May 14, 1948, the was proclaimed.
As a reaction, a coalition of five Arab states attacked Israel, which defeated it in 1949. Before this war, between 200,000 and 300,000 Palestinians had already left or been forced out, and during the fighting, a further 300,000 to 400,000 Palestinians were displaced. The overall figure is estimated to be around 700,000 people.
Before and during the war, more than 400 Arab villages were destroyed. The massacre of Deir Yassin — a village on the road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem — is particularly engraved in Palestinian memory to this day.
At least 100 people, including women and children, were killed in the attack, which occurred before the official outbreak of the Arab-Israeli war. The event triggered widespread fear among Palestinians and prompted many to flee their homes. More than a dozen other massacres of Palestinians were carried out by Jewish militias and the Israeli army between 1947 and 1949.
By the end of the war, Israel held around 40% of the area initially earmarked for the Palestinians by the UN partition plan of 1947.
Where did Palestinians go?
Most Palestinians ended up as stateless refugees in the Gaza Strip, the and neighboring . Only a minority moved further abroad.
Until today, only a fraction of the next generation of Palestinians has applied for and received other citizenships. As a result, the vast majority of some 8 million Palestinians in the Middle East have remained stateless into the third and fourth generation.
Where do they live today?
According to the UN’s dedicated Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, most Palestinians in the region live in refugee camps which over time have turned into towns. They are mainly based in the Gaza Strip, in the , Lebanon, , and east Jerusalem.
The Palestinian diaspora is estimated to have increased to some 7.4 million people. If accurate, this would put the total number of Palestinians living in the Middle East and abroad at around 15 million. There is, however, no global body keeping track of the number of Palestinians in the diaspora.
What is the Palestinian right to return?
According to the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 of 1948, as well as the UN Resolution 3236 of 1974, and the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees, Palestinians who are considered Palestinian refugees have the “right of return.”
Israel, however, has rejected the “right of return” for Palestinians, stating this would mean an end to Israel’s identity as a Jewish state. Israel has denied responsibility for the displacement of Palestinians, pointing out that between 1948 and 1972, around 800,000 Jews were expelled or had to flee from Arab countries such as Morocco, Iraq, Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen.
Are there suggestions for solutions?
Over the past 77 years, there have been different approaches to resolving the conflict. The most significant one remains the two-state solution, with Israel and a future Palestine dividing Jerusalem into two capitals. However, there are growing doubts on both sides over .
Critics have pointed to the increasing number of in the occupied West Bank, which could rule out a united Palestinian territory.
Against the backdrop of the ongoing war between Israel and in , which was prompted by the Hamas attacks on Israel on , Israel’s government has repeatedly ruled out a two-state solution.
According to the UN, at least 1.9 million people, or about 90% of the population, across the Gaza Strip have been displaced during the war, many of them repeatedly. More people have fled in search for safer ground since Israel issued more displacement orders recently.
According to Palestinian figures, Israeli attacks have killed more than 50,000 Palestinians since October 2023.
Israel has expressed support for plans that would put the Gaza Strip under and forcibly living there. The UN has called these plans “ethnic cleansing,” and many Palestinians feel that the Nakba is repeating itself.
Edited by: Andreas Illmer; Rob Mudge
This article was first published on May 15, 2023. It was updated on May 13, 2024, to reflect the war in Gaza. It was updated again on May 14, 2025, to include recent figures.
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