UN Marks 75th Anniversary Of Nakba Displacement Of More Than 700,000 Palestinians

On Monday, the UN commemorated the mass displacement of Palestinians from the land that would become Israel, marking the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, which transformed almost overnight 700,000 Palestinians into refugees.

UN Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo said at a high-level event at the United Nations Headquarters in New York that "The occupation must end," and she urged continued efforts to find a peaceful and durable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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The UN said the General Assembly adopted a resolution in November 2022 to establish this commemorative day, and it described the Nakba as "the world's longest-running refugee crisis."

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a video message that "There is simply no alternative to a political solution for all," and he added that "To this day, there is no alternative to UNRWA."

In France, a May 15, 2023 analysis said the Nakba narrative has become foundational to Palestinian collective memory and identity since 1948, and it described the Nakba as the "catastrophe" in Arabic.

The Conversation traced how Palestinian historians and thinkers helped build transnational solidarities that gained attention from the academic community, the media, and public opinion, and it framed the effort as a "war of memories" in historian Benjamin Stora’s terms.

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It said the narrative’s French reception was shaped by mediation among Israeli, Arab, and Palestinian historians after the Six-Day War, including a 1967 volume edited by Jean-Paul Sartre and Claude Lanzmann in Les Temps modernes.

The article also described the creation of the Review of Palestinian Studies (REP) in 1981, noting that the journal was created by members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in France including Elias Sanbar and Leila Shahid, and it said the first issue included Sanbar signing an article on the "historian-refugees" of Palestine.

A French-language explainer said Palestinians commemorate the Nakba each year on 15 May, describing it as a "grande catastrophe" and linking it to the expulsion of about 800 000 Palestinians from their lands by Israeli forces between 1947 and 1949.

It said the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 181 on 29 novembre 1947 to provide for the partition of Palestine into two states, and it quoted historian Dominique Vidal defining the "guerre d'expulsion des Palestiniens" as beginning with that plan.

The same explainer cited Benny Morris’s archival findings that "au 15 mai 1948, il y a déjà presque 400 000 Palestiniens" who had left the territory, and it reported that Haganah spies said 73% left due to actions of Jewish armed forces and massacres.

It also included a quote from Menahem Begin’s 1973 book The Revolt, saying, "Les Arabes d'Eretz-Israël furent saisis de panique" and began to flee in terror, and it described the exodus becoming massive after Israel’s declaration of independence on 14 May 1948.