by Rich Wiles
During a Nakba commemoration event sponsored by MCC partner Lajee Center, youth from Aida Refugee Camp near Bethlehem hold a kite decorated with a key symbolizing the Palestinian right of return. (photo by Ryan Rodrick Beiler)
The term Nakba (Arabic for ‘Catastrophe’) refers to the first round of massive population transfer undertaken by the Zionist movement and the State of Israel in the period between November 1947 (the issuing of the UN Partition Plan for Palestine) and the cease-fire agreements with Arab states in 1949. The Nakba was an act of forced population transfer (ethnic cleansing) undertaken for the purpose of establishing Israel as a state that would ensure permanent dominance of Jewish settler-immigrants over the indigenous Arab people of Palestine. More than 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homes and lands during these original Nakba years.
The Ongoing Nakba refers to Israel’s ongoing denial of the rights of displaced Palestinians to return to the lands from which they were displaced, as well as the ongoing experience of forced displacement and dispossession of Palestinians from their homelands that has continued since the original Nakba years as a result of Israel’s policies and practices.
Click to view this interactive map from the Ongoing Nakba web site.
This website uses multi-media productions to highlight the Ongoing Nakba that has been perpetuated against the Palestinian people from 1947 until today. The multi-media productions featured on this site include short films, audio recordings (podcasts and oral histories) and photo galleries.
The home page presents a map of Mandate Palestine. By moving the mouse over a district it will become highlighted. Click on the highlighted district and a smaller map of the respective district on which areas that contain multi-media productions are highlighted. By clicking on any highlighted area you are then taken directly to the home page for that area which contains links to the relevant multi-media productions.
This project is a work-in-progress. The multi-media productions available on this website do not cover all examples of the Ongoing Nakba. In fact, given the thousands of examples of displacement in Palestine, only a tiny sample are available at launch time but work is ongoing to document and highlight other areas.
Rich Wiles works with MCC partners Lajee Center and BADIL, both of which focus on the history, rights, and ongoing challenges of Palestinian refugees.
