what is nakba 1948

The Nakba, which means "catastrophe" in Arabic, refers to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. More than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs, about half of prewar Mandatory Palestines Arab population, fled from their homes or were expelled by Zionist militias during the 1948 Palestine war, following the Partition Plan for Palestine. The events of 1948 are commemorated by Palestinians both in the Palestinian territories and elsewhere on 15 May, a date known as Nakba Day. The Nakba had a profound impact on the Palestinian people, who lost their homes, their land, and their way of life. It remains a deeply traumatic event in their collective memory and continues to shape their struggle for justice and for their right to return to their homes. The term Nakba was first applied to the events of 1948 by Constantin Zureiq, a professor of history at the American University of Beirut, in his 1948 book "Mana al-Nakba" (The Meaning of the Disaster) .