Al-Nakba
Nakba Day (
Arabic: يوم النكبة
yawm al-nakba —
15 May) meaning "day of the catastrophe" is a annual day of commemoration for the
Palestinian people of their displacement and dispossession as a result of their defeat in the
1948 Palestine war.
[1][2] While for Israelis, 1948 war gave them independence and this day represents the "fulfilment of a historic ideal of the Jewish people" to establish a
homeland for the Jewish people, for Palestinians the day represents, "the dispossession of hundreds of thousands of their people who were made homeless as Israel was born.”
[3]
Events in Palestine during the British mandate prior to Israel's declaration of independence, as well as the
1948 Arab-Israeli War that erupted following the invasion by neighbouring Arab states, resulted in the
flight or expulsion of an estimated 700,000 Palestinian refugees,
[4] and the destruction and abandonment of
up to 418 Palestinian villages.
[5] Palestinian Arabs call these events
al-Nakba ("the catastrophe").
[6]
Israel declared its independence on the evening of
May 14,
1948. In the ensuing struggle, Israel defeated armies of
Egypt,
Syria,
Transjordan and
Iraq and captured just over fifty per cent of the territory allocated as an Arab state in the
1947 UN Partition Plan, while the remaining was annexed by
Transjordan or controlled by
Egypt. After the end of the War, the vast majority of Palestinian Arab refugees outside the
1949 armistice lines were barred from returning to their homes, many of which had been destroyed, or from reclaiming their property.
[4][5] Every year, on the 5th of
Iyyar of the
Hebrew calendar (which can fall between 15 April and 15 May) Israelis celebrate Independence Day (
Yom Ha'atzma'ut).
[7] While Nakba Day is commemorated on
May 15 in keeping with the
Gregorian calendar instead of the
Islamic calendar, Palestinian Arabs and their supporters around the world coordinate some Nakba Day events to coincide with the Israeli Independence Day celebrations.
[8][9][10] Because of the differences between the Jewish and the Gregorian calendars, Independence Day and the official
May 15 date for Nakba Day usually only coincides every 19 years.
[11] In Israel, there are Nakba day protests which takes place according to the Hebrew date, on the same day when Israelis celebrate Israel's independence day.
The event is often marked by speeches and rallies in the
West Bank,
Gaza and in
Arab states.
[12] In 2006,
Israeli Arab member of the
Knesset Dr.
Azmi Bishara told the Israeli newspaper
Maariv: "Independence Day is your holiday, not ours. We mark this as the day of our Nakba, the tragedy that befell the Palestinian nation in 1948".
[13][14]Israeli politician
Avigdor Lieberman called for Israeli Arab
Knesset members that marked Nakba Day to be tried for treason.
The day was inaugurated in 1998 by
Yasser Arafat,
[15] when over one million people participated in marches and other events.
[16] Nakba Day has been marked each year by protests which at times develop to clashes between Palestinians and the
Israel Defense Forces in the
West Bank and
Gaza Strip,
[17][18][19] and in 2003 and 2004, by demonstrations in
London[20] and
New York City.
[21]
Grandmother cries over grandson, Nakba 1948.
Palestinan mother Nakba 1948.
Palestinian watch over a school in a refugee camp 1948
