THE BIRTH OF PALESTINIAN REFUGEES - THE NAKBA
The inception of the Palestinian refugee question strikes at the very foundation of the establishment of the Israeli state and the culmination of the Zionist project. It reveals the very logic of this project and the mass dislocation it required. After the end of WWII, in 1947, the newly-created United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the partitioning of Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. Partition was the UN’s attempt at an international compromise intended to resolve the future of Palestine, however it was not considered a just path forward by the Palestinians nor the Arab states in the region. To the contrary, it was seen as the legitimation of colonialism. Significant tensions had developed during the British mandate period as the indigenous Palestinian population protested Britain’s support for Zionist Jewish settlement in their land, which they perceived as paving the path for an exclusively Jewish state that would result in their dispossession. The Zionist leadership accepted the partition plan, which fulfilled their dream of creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine, seeing it as the first step in the further conquest of historic Palestine. But the indigenous Palestinians refused the notion of partition, believing in their right to self- determination in the entirety of their
land. The refusal of the international community to grant Palestinians this right, coupled with expansive Jewish settlement throughout Palestine in the preceding years, ultimately sparked what is known as the “1948 War” the most transformative moment in Palestinian history.
Phase one: November 1947 - May 1948: Fighting began almost immediately after the partition resolution was passed. Initially, this took the form of violence between Jewish settlers and Palestinians under British rule. Around 300,000 Palestinians were made refugees as armed Zionist militias carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing, with mass expulsions and massacres. Phase two: From May 1948: As British forces withdrew from Palestine, the Zionist leadership formally declared the establishment of the State of Israel. This declaration of independence prompted seven Arab armies to declare war on the newly-formed Israel, although in most cases the declaration was merely rhetorical and did not entail any significant military action against Israel.
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