Salman Abu Sitta Says Israel’s 1948 Nakba Expelled Palestinians, Demanding Right of Return

In a chronicle published by Chronique de Palestine, Salman Abu Sitta argues that the “droit au retour” is “la question centrale” for Palestinians and says the war against the Palestinian people is “la plus longue et la plus soutenue de l’histoire récente.”

“Par Salman Abu Sitta Israël n’a jamais compris la résilience des Palestiniens”

Chronique de Palestine

Abu Sitta frames the conflict through three “stations” beginning with 1948 (Al Nakba), then 1967 (Al Naksa), and then “l’actuel génocide de 2023-2025.”

Chronique de Palestine

He writes that during Al Nakba in 1948, the Haganah “envahit et conquiert 20 500 km2” and that “En dix mois, 120 000 soldats israéliens” in 9 brigades carried out “31 opérations militaires” and attacked and “dépeuplent 530 villes et villages.”

Abu Sitta adds that on “le 14 mai 1948” Israeli soldiers attacked and destroyed his village, Al Ma’in, and expelled his family, leaving him a refugee “et je le suis toujours.”

He also cites that the United Nations adopted “la célèbre résolution 194, qui appelle au retour des réfugiés,” and created UNRWA to help them.

Orient XXI describes how, for Palestinians, the Nakba is “la catastrophe” that forced exile, while it says that although it was recognized by many Israeli officials and intellectuals early on, it was later “officiellement contesté.”

The outlet says De-Colonizer, founded by Eléonore Merza and Eitan Bronstein in Tel Aviv, works to raise awareness of Israel’s colonial history and the situation of the Palestinian people, including “la catastrophe” that designated the expulsion of “près de 750,000 Palestiniens” and the destruction of “centaines” of localities in 1948.

Haaretz

Orient XXI recounts that in July 1948 the Israeli army addressed Arab inhabitants of Tirat Haifa by leaflet, urging them: “If you want to escape the Nakba, avoid a disaster, an inevitable extermination, surrender yourselves.”

It also notes that in August 1948 the Syrian intellectual Constantin Zureik published “The Meaning of the Disaster,” writing that “le defeat of the Arabs in Palestine is not simply a retreat or a temporary atrocity.”

In parallel, Haaretz presents unpublished soldier testimonies from the Six-Day War and includes a soldier’s statement: “We went through the process of ceasing to see them as human beings.”

Chronique de Palestine argues that the “droit au retour” functions as “le carburant de la survie palestinienne,” and it presents the war as continuing through “l’actuel génocide de 2023-2025.”

“Israel is celebrating its seventieth anniversary”

Orient XXI

In its account of the 1967 station, Abu Sitta says that on the morning of “le 5 juin 1967” he took a flight from Beyrouth to London and learned it was “le dernier avion à quitter l’aéroport de Beyrouth.”

Haaretz, meanwhile, says newly uncovered documents indicate that “300,000 Arabs were expelled or displaced from the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights amid violence, looting and destruction,” and it frames this as a gap between Israel’s collective memory and what happened in 1967.

Orient XXI adds that Palestinian refugees “attendent justice” and “support from Arab nations and the international community,” but it states that “no meaningful aid will come.”

Together, the three pieces emphasize that the question of return and the contested memory of Nakba-era expulsions remain central to how the conflict is understood and what justice is described as needing to follow.