Nakba Summary
Deaths
- • Arab deaths (1947–1949): ~12,000
- • Jewish deaths (1947–1949): ~6,000
- • Jewish deaths from blocked emigration (Holocaust): ~350,000
Refugees
- • Arab refugees from Israel (1947–1949): ~700,000
- • Jewish refugees from Arab / Muslim countries (1939–1959): ~425,000
- • Jewish refugees from Arab / Muslim countries: (1960+) ~500,000
Understanding the Nakba
The Nakba, Arabic for "Catastrophe," refers to the mass displacement of approximately 700,000 Palestinian Arabs during the 1947–1949 civil war and the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. This tragic period also witnessed the deaths of approximately 12,000 Palestinian Arabs and 6,000 Jews during the conflict.
Simultaneously, Arab influenced immigration policy enforce by the British — particularly following the 1939 White Paper —systematically blocked the escape of an estimated 400,000 to over 500,000 European Jews who desperately sought refuge, with many hoping to reach Palestine. As historian Louise London meticulously documents in Whitehall and the Jews, this exclusion was deliberate and politically motivated, significantly influenced by Arab nationalist opposition to Jewish immigration.
David S. Wyman, in The Abandonment of the Jews, further demonstrates how this systematic obstruction directly contributed to the deaths of countless individuals who might otherwise have survived the Holocaust. These interconnected tragedies reflect a complex history shaped by competing nationalisms, colonial policy failures, and the international community's failure to prioritize humanitarian rescue when it mattered most.
📜 Timeline: Palestine, Zionism, and Arab Nationalism (1917–1948)
1917
- • Balfour Declaration: Britain expresses support for establishing a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine
- • Palestine comes under British military control following the fall of the Ottoman Empire
1920–1922
- • League of Nations grants Britain the Mandate for Palestine, including responsibility to facilitate Jewish immigration
1920s
- • Major wave of Jewish immigration (Second and Third Aliyot) driven by Zionism and European antisemitism
- • Economic migration of Arabs from Syria, Transjordan, Egypt, and Lebanon begins, attracted by jobs created by British and Zionist development projects (railways, Haifa port)
- • Palestinian Arab nationalism grows in opposition to both Zionism and British rule
1929
- • Hebron Massacre: 67 Jews killed by Arab mobs as part of widespread riots across Palestine
- • British begin implementing more cautious limits on Jewish immigration
1936–1939
- • Arab Revolt: Widespread uprising against British rule and Jewish immigration
- • Arabs demand complete end to immigration and land sales to Jews
- • British Peel Commission proposes partition—rejected by Arab leadership
1939
White Paper of 1939 - Critical Turning Point:
- • Restricts Jewish immigration to only 75,000 over 5 years
- • Future Jewish immigration requires Arab consent
- • Zionist movement views this as a betrayal during rising Nazi persecution
- • World War II begins
- • Jews fleeing Nazi persecution are systematically blocked from entering Palestine
- • Historians estimate 200,000–300,000 Jews who might have escaped Europe were unable to due to British immigration restrictions
1939–1945 (World War II Era)
Immigration Restrictions During Holocaust:
- • British maintain strict immigration quotas despite escalating persecution
- • Jewish refugees from Europe systematically denied entry, including Holocaust survivors
- • Aliyah Bet: Zionist movement organizes dangerous illegal immigration by sea
- • SS Struma Tragedy (1942): Ship carrying 769 Jewish refugees turned away and sinks; only 1 survivor
Historical Impact: Of the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust, historians estimate up to 300,000 could potentially have been saved had immigration to Palestine not been restricted.
1945–1947
- • Holocaust survivors seek to migrate to Palestine; British continue restrictions
- • Zionists intensify Aliyah Bet illegal immigration campaign
- • Tensions between Jews, Arabs, and British reach breaking point
- • Britain refers Palestine question to the United Nations
1947
UN Partition Plan (Resolution 181):
- • Proposes separate Jewish and Arab states
- • International status for Jerusalem
- • Jewish leadership accepts; Arab leadership rejects
Civil War Begins: Violence erupts between Jewish and Arab communities (1947–1948)
1948 - The Nakba Year
May 14-15, 1948:
- • Israel declares independence
- • Arab states invade (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq)
Casualty Estimates:
- • ~12,000 Palestinians killed
- • ~6,000 Jews killed
- • ~700,000 Palestinian refugees
Causes of Palestinian Flight:
- • Arab leaders encouraged Palestinian evacuation as reported by Count Folke Bernadotte
- • Fear of massacres, amplified by propaganda from various sources
- • Direct expulsions by Israeli forces in certain areas
Long-term Consequences:
- • Israeli state bars return of Palestinian refugees (formalized in laws from 1950 onward)
- • UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (December 1948) affirms right of return and/or compensation—Israel rejects implementation
- • Refugees remain in camps across the region; multiple generations remain stateless
- • Jordan annexes West Bank and East Jerusalem; Egypt controls Gaza Strip
- • No independent Palestinian state formed; All-Palestine Government in Gaza remains symbolic and powerless
Historical Sources
• London, Louise. Whitehall and the Jews, 1933-1948: British Immigration Policy, Jewish Refugees, and the Holocaust
• Wyman, David S. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945
• Morris, Benny. The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited
• Segev, Tom. One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate