A brief history of the Palestinian 'Nakba (catastrophe)

David Ben-Gurion, who became Israel’s first prime minister explained to the executive of the Jewish Agency, in November 1947, that a bleak future faced the Palestinians:

 “They can either be mass arrested or expelled - it is better to expel them.”

The state of Israel was founded 60 years ago out of a monstrous crime - the expulsion of nearly a million Palestinians from their homes.

This violence is known to Palestinians as the Nakba - the Arabic word for “catastrophe”. It was followed by a second humanitarian disaster in 1967 when Israel seized the whole of Jerusalem and the entirety of historic Palestine - leading to more than 40 years of military occupation and wave after wave of killings in defence of the Zionist state.

The events surrounding the Nakba and the creation of Israel in 1948 are crucial to understanding the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict today.

Click here to read more from an abridged version of Anne alexander and 
John Rose's pamphlet entitled Nakba. 

The full pamphlet will be on sale for £2.50 at all  the demos. Or from Bookmarks, the Socialist bookshop. Phone 020 7637 1848 or go to» www.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk

See also SW article from todays brand new 4 page Gaza special

Click here for fact sheets from Palestine Solidarity Campaign