May 15, 2007.

What is the Nakbah?

by Gary Keenan

"Nakbah" is the Arabic word for catastrophe.  It is
used to describe the forceful expulsion of
750,000-800,000 Palestinians from their homeland in
1947/48 and the complete destruction of 450 of their
villages when the state of Israel was founded.  It is
important to remember that Jewish forces drove out
approximately 300,000 Palestinians during the five
months preceding the declaration of the state of
Israel on 15 May 1948.  

The UN Partition plan (UN General Assembly Resolution
181, 29 November 1947) recommended granting 56% of
historic Palestine (including its most fertile areas)
to a Jewish State even though Jews owned a mere 5.67%
of the land and made up just over 30% of the
population.  Ninety per cent of the Jewish population
consisted of immigrants, mainly from Poland, Russia
and central Europe along with their offspring born in
Palestine.  The remaining ten per cent of the Jewish
population was comprised of native anti-Zionist
Palestinian/Arab Jews.

The Partition Plan recommended that 42% of Palestine
become an Arab state and the 2% that made up East
Jerusalem (the Old City), West Jerusalem and Bethlehem
be set aside as an international zone (corpus
separatum) under UN jurisdiction. 

Apart from being grossly unfair to the native
Christian, Muslim and Druze Palestinians, the
Partition Plan was recommendatory only with no
standing in law.

Indeed, the impracticality of the Partition Plan soon
became so obvious and pressing that at the behest of
U.S. President Truman the UN General Assembly was in
the midst of shelving it in favour of a UN Trusteeship
when the state of Israel was declared. 

It should be noted that the UN Partition Plan
specified that the Arab or Jewish populations who
inhabited the land allocated to the other were not to
be expelled.  In reality, Israel was created as a
consequence of the premeditated ethnic cleansing of
Palestinians and is thus in violation of the very UNGA
resolution that recommended its creation. 

During the ensuing war precipitated by Jewish forces
driving Palestinians into the Gaza Strip, the West
Bank and neighbouring Arab countries, the outnumbered
and outgunned Arab League armies were easily defeated
and Israel expanded land under its control to 78% of
Palestine, including West Jerusalem. 

During the war it launched on 5 June 1967, Israel
seized the rest of Palestine, including East
Jerusalem/the Old City as well as Egypt's Sinai and
Syria's Golan Heights.  Although it has since returned
Sinai to Egypt, in violation of UN Security Council
Resolution 242, Israel still occupies East Jerusalem,
the West Bank, the Golan Heights and the Shebba Farms.
  Also, despite withdrawing its troops, under
international law Israel still occupies the Gaza Strip
as it controls all entrances and exits along with the
seashore and air space.  The Gaza Strip is now the
world largest outdoor prison.

Bearing in mind Canada's key role regarding solving
the Palestinian refugee crisis, it should not be
forgotten that in 1949, as a precondition for gaining
admittance to the UN, Israel pledged before the
General Assembly and the Lausanne Peace Conference
to comply with Resolution 194 (11 December 1948) and
permit the "return" of the refugees and/or provide
them compensation.  To this day, with impunity, Israel
has failed to live up to its committment.  Israel also
remains in violation of 69 mandatory UN Security
Council resolutions.

(Click here to read other articles by Gary Keenan.)