News

Palestine commemorates sixty years of the Nakba, the ‘catastrophe’

As Israelis celebrate sixty years of the state of Israel, Palestinian Arabs remember 1948 as the year their land was occupied and armed conflict began · After yet more talks, Israel claims to have reached ‘understandings’ with the Palestinians.

Events taking place this week in the Middle East to commemorate the foundation of the state of Israel are like two sides of the same coin. While Jews celebrate the historic creation of their own state, Palestinians remember the so-called Nakba, or “catastrophe”, that it caused.

Since 1948, the Israelis and Palestinians have fought one war after another, with an average of one major armed conflict per decade. At the end of every conflict Israel has emerged more powerful and with more land than before. Palestinian Arabs want to remind the world of the consequences of decades of conflict: the colonization of Gaza and the West Bank, the destruction of Palestinian villages and towns and the forced migration of inhabitants to refugee camps.

A number of organizations have launched a worldwide campaign calling for the international community to boycott and isolate Israel. Badil, for example, wants sanctions to be imposed on the Jewish state “until it puts a stop to occupation, colonization and apartheid, and respects and promotes Palestinian refugees’ right to return.”

Earlier this week, Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that the US-backed peace talks with the Palestinian National Authority are “serious and significant”, Reuters reported. Palestinians sources, however, are considerably more sceptical about the negotiations which, according to George Bush’s roadmap, could lead to the creation of a Palestinian state before next January.

Publications on Israel and Palestine
Nationalia provides a bibliography dedicated to Israel and Palestine, listing a selection of recent publications on the conflict. Like all the bibliographical information on Nationalia, this bibliography is only possible thanks to the work of Alessandro Michelucci, journalist and author of the Popoli Minacciati resource centre.

Further information: