Palestine Center Brief No. 293 (May 12, 2016)
By Zeina Azzam
“Nakba is the Arabic word for ‘catastrophe,’ signifying the immense dislocation that unfolded during 1947-49 after the United Nations’ decision to partition Palestine into two states—Jewish and Arab—and the subsequent expulsion of between 750,000 and one million Palestinians from historic Palestine by Zionist paramilitary forces (about a third of them were expelled before the war started with neighboring Arab states). It was only through ethnic cleansing at the hands of these militias—massacres, destruction of villages and homes, expulsion of the Palestinian population—that a Jewish state could be built.”
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This article originally appeared in The Huffington Post.
Zeina Azzam is Executive Director of the Palestine Center.
The views in this brief are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Jerusalem Fund.
