Palestine, 1948. The Arab-Israeli war and the emergence of the State of Israel forced the expulsion or flight of 750,000 Palestinians from Palestinian land.

This Palestinian exodus is called Nakba. In Arabic it means “disaster” and behind it is much more than those 750,000 refugees. The Israeli army destroyed over 500 Palestinian towns and cities and has been denied the right of return for 75 years. Nur Masalha, Rashid Khalidi and other researchers have called him “disintegration of Palestinian society” and Salman Abu Sitta, Ilan Pappé and others regard him as ethnic cleansing.

The figure of 750,000 is also short. Since then, the number of refugees has been growing steadily, in a few drops, in other more massively, such as the Six-Day War of 1967. Considering all of them and their heirs, Nakba has generated over 4 million “refugees”. And we must use quotation marks, because only a third of the 750,000 imputed in 1948 achieved official refugee status; the rest are “displaced”.

The West denies Nakba in three quarters of a century. Denying the colonial and occupying character of the Israeli regime, they have considered “a Palestinian problem” or, at best, a balanced conflict between two equal parties, which “has greatly influenced the design of the policies of Western governments with occupied Palestine”, Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie, a member of the Middle East Centre, says Nur Arafeh.

The West has depoliticised the Palestinian struggle over these 75 years, which has been clearly reflected in welfare policies. According to Arafehr, “they have looked at the symptoms of the problem, rejecting the root cause, the Israeli occupying regime. With the economic patches of the surface to the problem of deep political roots, Western governments have become accomplices of Israel. Apparently promoting the economic development of the Palestinians, they have promoted their recognition and despair, and have made the management of the alleged conflict easier and cheaper for Israel.”

Turning point?

On May 15 of this year Nakba and the UN celebrated 75 years of their first official memory. The organization took the decision in 2022, but over 30 countries, including the United States, voted against. Israeli diplomats pressured several governments to abandon the act. Finally, the event ended with the participation of several countries such as the USA and the UK. A partial and insignificant gesture has been made even clearer in recent weeks, "continue to deny history," by Frederick Deknatel, a member of DAWN (Democracy for the Zutabe World Now).

Furthermore, coinciding with the anniversary of Nakba, the state of Israel was 75 years old, and there the European Union made its position clear; Ursula Von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said that Israel managed 75 years ago “to literally flourish the desert”, as if it emerged from nowhere, as if Palestine did not exist and as if Nakba had not happened.