Auburn: By Observer5
Today, May 15, is the day that Palestinians commemorate as “Nakba Day,” “Catastrophe Day,” a day to mark the expulsion from homes in Israel during the 1948 war. Arab people throughout the Middle East, are showing their solidarity with the Palestinians in Occupied Israel in peaceful ways on this day, although called to stand peacefully, some have chose otherwise. As the late and great, Professor Howard Zinn wrote, most notably his epic book “People’s History of the United States”, from the perspective of the people whose lives historical events affected, it seemed appropriate to share this short list.
1. Nakba is the Arabic word for catastrophe. It is used to describe the Palestinian loss of land and property during the depopulation of Palestine from 1947-1949 and does not refer simply to the declaration of a state of Israel.
2. 212 localities depopulated and at least half of the refugees created during the Nakba were created prior to May 15th, which is, prior to the entry of armies of other Arab states. The largest Palestinian cities at the time, Yaffa and Haifa, were emptied of the vast majority of their inhabitants before May 15th, 1948. The idea that refugee creation happened only after, or only as a result of, the mobilization of Arab armies is patently false.
3. At every stage of the war, the Yishuv/Israeli forces were superior in training, equipment and numbers to the combined Arab armies.
Categories: Asia, Israel, Middle East, Palestine