[Blog] Nakba Day

By Rama Valayden, Senior Counsel

What is Nakba?

The word Nakba means “catastrophe” or “disaster”.
The English words are weak to describe Nakba. But the words used above give an indication of what Nakba means.

How did Nakba happen for the Palestinians?

Nakba refers to the 1948 violent displacement, dispossession and ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Palestinians who were expelled from or fled from their homes to make May for the establishment of the fascist state of Israel as from the very first day of its foundation.

When is it observed?

It is observed every year on May 15 to mark the loss of homes and land by the Palestinians. And Nakba Day is in fact the start of ongoing-decades long refugee crisis.

It is apposite to note the cruelty of the Israelis as they destroyed more than 530 villages and towns forcing the unarmed Palestinians to flee towards neighbouring countries, Gaza and the West Bank.

Who coined the word “Nakba” in relation to the genocide of the Palestinians?
The word was coined Constantin Zurayq, a Syrian historian following the defeat of the Arab forces in 1948.

Why is the key symbol of Nakba?

The keys represent the keys left behind in 1948 when the Zionists used sheer forces to expel the Palestinian from their homes in 1948. It is also a symbol of the Palestinian right of return which is recognised by nearly all nations which support the Palestinian struggle.

When was Nakba Day officially launched?

Nakba Day was officially launched by the great Palestinian Leader, Yasser Arafat, in 1998 and every year it is marked by protests of remembrance and resistance since 1949.

How long did the Palestinian war of 1948 last?

It started around May 1948 and lasted until January 1949. Apart from the fact that the Zionist forces destroyed more than 530 Palestinian villages, they also carried out several massacres and killed more than 15,000 people.

More than 75% of Palestine’s historic territory was captured and has now become part of the Israel territory. The remining land is now: The West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

What happened to the abandoned homes of the Palestinians?

Following the victory of the Zionist forces, the abandoned homes were given to the Jewish settlers. The grand children of the Palestinians who forcefully fled in 1948 remain displaced to this day both within Palestine and around the world. There are at today more than 6 million Palestine refugees.

How did we arrive at this inhumane situation?

It is the British who ruled over a territory , known then, as mandatory Palestine from 1920 to May 1948 following an agreement by the league of nations which was superseded by the United Nations after the second world war. After world war two and the holocaust, the British unilaterally announced their intention to end the mandate and the newly created United Nations under the influence of the International Jewish Lobbies began to redraw the boundaries of Palestine to allow the creation of a Jewish state.

There were several partition plans and none of them received support from the Palestinians or the Arab league. The mandate once ended, the establishment of the fascist state of Israel was declared triggering the 1948 Palestine war which some people called the 1948 Arab Israeli war.

What happened after the Nakba of 1948?

The state of Israel is a greedy state which is always thirsty for the Palestinian blood and their lands. Israel has continued unabatedly to encroach into Palestinian territory displacing without any qualm thousands of families and in the same process violating with impunity international laws. It is apposite to note here the six-day war of 1967 saw the Zionist forces occupy all historic Palestine, including Gaza and West Bank expelling in process more than 300,000 people from their homes.

Since Nakba 1948, there have been permanent flare ups orchestrated by the Zionist forces to expel the Palestinians or cause them to flee the Palestinian areas so that the Zionist forces can establish ersatz Israel (land of Israel) which is the traditional Hebrew term for the southern Levant representing biblical and historical rather than modern administrative area. It denotes the promised land to the Jewish People, stretching from River Nile to the Euphrates in ideological “Greater Israel”.

Ersatz Israel found its rooting from the Torah describing a territory promised to Abraham and his descendants.

The Ongoing Nakba

Israel is contravening more than 30 UN security council resolutions dating back to 1968. All the 30 resolutions have been violated without impunity.

Some examples to refresh our minds:

a.    Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
It is apposite here to state that the fourth Geneva conventions bans the planting of settlers on territory under occupation. It is important to note that article 49, Paragraph 6 of the convention states:
“the occupying power shall not deport or transfer part of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”;
b.    The annexation of East Jerusalem;
c.    The annexation of Golan Heights;
d.    Nuclear facilities under international atomic energy authority;
e.    Resolution requesting Israel to abide by the fourth Geneva convention.

One can visit the United Nations site and will see all the resolutions which the Zionist state have flouted without any action by the United States and other European countries.

I have not delved, here, with the following:

a.    Illegal massive transformation of local laws;
b.    Illegality of collective punishment like the NAZIs did in France during second world war;
c.    Massive violations of human rights;
d.    MOST important – Israel apartheid system.

According to Al Jazeera and Blue marble, the United States of America has used its veto over 50 times to block UN security Council resolutions critical of Israel. As of September 2025, the United States of Trump had vetoed six resolutions relating to the ongoing Gaza conflict.

The “second Nakba” (2023 – 48 to now) many human rights experts described the Israeli military actions in Gaza following 07th of October 2023 as a second Nakba or an acceleration of the ongoing one.

Systemic destruction – the massive and deliberate destruction of housing, hospitals and all sorts of infrastructure has rendered areas of Gaza unliveable.

The ongoing Nakba is viewed by scholars and activists as a structure not as a one off event. What does it mean? It is part of a deliberate settler colonial project intended to maximise control in the Palestinian territory, i.e minimising its indigenous population.

This devilish structure involves a combination of legal, administrative and military tactics to enforce the continued marginalisation of Palestinians.

The Nakba is ongoing and the world is hypocritically watching…