IMEU Institute for Middle East Understanding
Fact Sheets
The Palestinian “Nakba” (“catastrophe” in Arabic) refers to the mass expulsion of Palestinian Arabs from British Mandate Palestine during Israel’s creation (1947-49). The Nakba was not an unintended result of war. It was a deliberate and systematic act necessary for the creation of a Jewish majority state in historic Palestine, which was overwhelmingly Arab prior to 1948.
on April 5, 2023
There are few clues today at the site of the single worst massacre committed by the Israeli army during the 1948 war that established a Jewish state on the ruins of the Palestinians’ homeland. For Palestinians, Tantura, the name of a coastal village south of Haifa that was once home to 1,700 inhabitants, has become a byword for the darkest episodes of the Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe), the ethnic cleansing of 1948.
on June 3, 2015
A lawyer representing Palestinians attacked on Thursday a ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court that he said could enable confiscation of east Jerusalem property owned by residents of the occupied West Bank. The April 15 decision brings such assets within the scope of the 1950 "Absentee Property Law," which places in state custody all property inside Israel owned by Arabs living outside the state in 1948.
on April 24, 2015
The last deserted pre-1948 Palestinian village in Israel is facing possible destruction. Located on the outskirts of Jerusalem, the village of Lifta is an empty collection of old stone houses that have fallen into neglect. For the past 20 years, the Israeli government has pushed to destroy the remaining buildings to make room for new luxury homes, hotels, a shopping mall and a recreation park.
on November 11, 2014
Israeli officials brag regarding their humanitarian aid to Haiti and the Philippines and to injured Syrian children yet stand by and do nothing for Palestinian refugees despite bearing an immense responsibility for the fact that Palestinian civilians are dying in the Syrian carnage. (Photo: Anne Paq/ActiveStills)
on January 30, 2014
"I noticed that the darkest part of the night is the moment just before the light begins to appear," says Yacoub al-Khayyat, standing in the middle of a meadow with a bouquet of wild plants, including spectacular thorns, delicate white and yellow flowers.
on July 1, 2013
Fact Sheets
The IMEU offers this fact sheet on the Nakba, which led to the displacement of up to one million Palestinians. The Palestinian refugee and displaced person population is the largest and longest-standing in the world.
on May 8, 2013
Fact Sheets
The IMEU offers the following fact sheet on the impact that Israel's creation had on the non-Jewish, Palestinian Arab population living within the borders of what became Israel in 1948.
on April 9, 2013