Thousands of people were driven out of their homeland once and for all; many of them killed, raped, tortured and displaced from their families. Many of them saw their families perishing right in front of their eyes, others never got to know what happened to them. A new set of people, with a tragic history for sure, were settled on the land. But, the struggle of displaced people continues to date, as they struggle to find out what envy fortunes have with them. This is the story of the Palestinian ‘Nakba’, which transpired in 1948 but continues to cast a shadow on the Israel-Palestine conflict even today.

The Early History

I have explained in my earlier articles, that the current Israel-Palestine area, which was a Jewish homeland has been severed under multiple stages of destruction. First, it was destroyed by Babylonians at around 600 BC and then by Romans in 63 BC. But, since 634 BC, the land had been under the Arabs. The Jews lost control of their homeland much back. Finally, the Ottoman Empire took over the area in 1536 AD.

In an interesting episode, in 1799, Napolean Bonaparte attacked Ottoman-ruled Palestine to establish a French presence there. Searching for allies, he asked Jews to rise against their “oppressors” and support him and in return, he would give Palestine to them as a homeland under French protection. But despite all the hue and cry, he lost and the plan never materialised.

40 years later, the Britsh enter the episode (If two fishes in water are fighting, Britishers must have passed by). After gaining control of the region following subsequent wars, they aimed to dilute the Arab control in the area and started paving the way for more Jewish immigration into Palestinian land. The number of Jews, which stood at just 3,000 at that time, started rising rapidly.

The British and other major powers (mainly the West) who had their colonies in different parts of the world, had already started looking at the long-term prospects. They were somehow of the opinion that a ‘Jewish Palestine’ would be better and safer for them as compared to an ‘Arab-ruled Palestine’. A major reason behind the idea was the long encounters between the Christian and Muslim empires over time. Also, the Western powers thought that a Jewish country could act as a ‘buffer’ between the Arab and European worlds. Also, a less-talked reason is Britishers somehow, wanted to place all the displaced Jews there (it was time of the Holocaust), so they didn’t have to suffer from immigration.

The concept of Zionism

At the same time, the ideology of ‘Zionism’ started emerging among a significant section of Jews. A primary reason behind this was the rise in ‘anti-Semitism’ (hostility against Jews) across various parts of Europe. This sentiment, of course, peaked under Adolf Hitler’s Germany where over 6 million Jews were killed in genocide. The dots again reaffirm the thought that “Whenever an innocent dies, the whole of humanity has to bear its brunt”.

The term ‘Zionism’ was first coined in 1885 by Nathan Birnbaum, who called for the Jews to return to their homeland. ‘The Jewish State’ considered one of the most pivotal Jewish writings, was written by Theodor Herzl in 1896, which further promoted the idea of an independent Jewish state. The first Jewish Congress was held in 1897 at Basel, Switzerland. It was convened by Theodor Herzl (father of Zionist ideology), Nathan Birnbaum and Max Nordau and a programme was adopted to establish a Jewish state in Palestine.

The picture depicts Jerusalem in the pre-British era around 1910 (Photo: Al Jazeera)

The Rise of the Jewish Lobby

The Britishers set up a committee in 1907 to look into the prospects of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine. As a small experiment, Heim Weissman, a chemist turned Jewish leader set up a company in Palestine’s Jaffa city by purchasing around 10,000 dunams (measuring units) of land. However, around 60,000 local Palestinians were forcefully evacuated from the land and were replaced by Jews from Europe and Yemen.

Now, at the same time, while Jews were working for a Jewish homeland, they also knew that for them and their cause to survive in the long run, it is important to have a strong influence or ‘lobby’ in big countries. So, the Jewish lobby, comprising scholars and other academicians, started expanding their influence, by persuading the major powers of that time, with the idea of a Jewish state in Palestine. And, things were moving in that direction too.

In a major breakthrough, Britain and France signed the Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916) deciding upon the future of the then-Ottoman Empire. The agreement called for dividing the Arab land into four regions after the First World War. The harshest consequence, came for the Palestinians, as the agreement saw the Palestinian land being allocated for a ‘Jewish settlement.’

The Jewish cause was further strengthened a year later, when Britain, in the ‘Balfour Declaration’ promised a Jewish homeland on the condition of Jewish support in WWI. However, the declaration specifically mentioned, “Nothing will be done that shall prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.” Again, just like almost all other British commitments, this too was going to turn out a farce.

According to an Al Jazeera report, several teams were sent to look into the prospects of establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The teams gave the impression, that the idea should be dropped, however, the reports fell on ‘dead ears.’

The rise in Jewish settlements in Palestine led to riots between Jews and local Arabs (Photo: Al Jazeera)

Jew-Arab riots and crackdown by British

Finally, in December 1917, the British Army established its control in Jerusalem. The British troops were aided by Jewish armed units as well in establishing control. One of the members of the Jewish unit was David Ben-Gurion, who later went on to become the first Prime Minister of Israel. By this time, the demography stood at around 10,000 Jews amongst half a million Arabs, and the coming period was going to be even harsher on the Palestinian people.

The Britishers were extremely biased in favour of Jews. Several developments that followed, further underscored that the British didn’t even want to hide this bias.

Herbert Samuel — a staunch Zionist, was appointed the first British High Commissioner for Palestine in 1920. Hebrew was made the national language in addition to Arabic and English. The British soldiers also started training Jewish paramilitary groups called ‘Haganah’ (meaning Defence in Hebrew), making them capable of defence and resorting to violence if the need arose (everybody knows what the ‘need’ could have been). In 1925, more than 33,000 Jews entered Palestine in just one year — a number thrice the previous year — and 30 new settlements were also built.

On expected lines, these forced changes were not going well with the Palestinians, and it led to repeated clashes between them and the newly brought Jewish immigrants. The clashes were met with a brutal crackdown from the British, however, the Palestinians alleged that the response was biased against them. Many officers were believers of the Jewish cause and reportedly carried out ‘punitive punishment’ against the Palestinians. This resulted in the Palestinians forming more coordinated uprising groups, leading to violent clashes and riots.

As the cases of violence rose, the British adopted even harsher punishments for Palestinians. Now, they started resorting to collective punishment. The Palestinians even found themselves under surveillance. People were rounded up, their fields were burned, and some were made to walk on coal. Reports say around 200 houses were demolished at the time (Seems so relatable in the Indian context today).

As these conflicts took a more violent turn, reports say, around 5000 Palestinians were killed and 14000 were wounded, during the revolt between 1936-39. Some reports even claim that one in every 10 Palestinians was either killed or jailed. In addition to this, around 100 British soldiers and 400 Jews were also killed.

This phase also marked the start of two distinct ideologies fighting for the Palestinian cause. While one ideology still believes in peaceful resistance, the other ideology believes that only the use of force and violence can help them achieve their aim.

These harsh and punitive punishments were aimed at completely crushing the morale of Palestinians and any resistance against the settlement of Jews there. The Palestinians lacked any proper leadership, which further exacerbated the situation for them. It is said that the Palestinians lost the battle not in 1948 but in this period.

A subtle yet powerful picture from a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan (Photo: Al Jazeera)

Palestine after World War II

World War II was definitely going to be the deciding point of Palestine’s future. It was believed that if the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, Japan) won, it could pave the way for Palestine’s freedom. However, the exact opposite happened. Notably, the Jewish Haganah group fought for the British in WWII for obvious reasons.

After the war, Britain, despite being on the winning side, was struggling to maintain its colonies across the world. As the situation in Palestine was nowhere near settled, Britain found bringing a resolution to the conflict a ‘tedious’ task. Finally, it decided to let the solution be found by the United Nations.

At this point in time, the United States of America (USA) too entered the decision-making group. US President Harry Truman, too was no different than the British leadership. In fact, he turned out to be even staunch supporter of a Jewish state. He allowed around 1,00,000 displaced Jews to be settled in Palestine. Truman, being the leader of the most powerful country in the world, was easily able to sway global opinion towards the desirable target. The result was clearly visible in the UN Resolution.

The UN Resolution, 181, in 1947, gave 55% of land to Jews, and around 45% to Palestinians. The religiously significant Jerusalem was kept under international control. While the Jewish side was glad with the decision, the Arabs were left fuming. Just after the resolution, the Arab nation announced a war against Israel. Despite being attacked by five forces, Israel came out victorious and even gained control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), Shebaa farms, and the Golan Heights — basically, much more than what the UN had given to it.

However, there are some counter-arguments too from the Palestinian side. They claim that despite the Arab fighters, the Palestinian fighters were a meagre 7000-8000 with minimal training and ammunition, up against the robust Jewish force, comprising mainly the Haganah group, and other fighters swelling their number to around 40,000.

European Jews celebrating after being settled in Palestine under the British mandate (Photo: Al Jazeera)

The End of British Mandate in Palestine

The British mandate in Palestine had to end on May 15, 1948. As the date started nearing, also started the final chapter of this bloody and treacherous story…the ‘Nakba’, which translates to catastrophe in Arabic. During this phase, Israeli troops killed, raped and tortured Palestinian villagers and drove them out of their homes, completely establishing the control given by the UN, on the ground level.

February 15, 1948, a group of Haganah fighters marched into the Palestinian village of Caesarea, expelled thousands of Palestinians and torched down the whole village.

This horrific episode paved the way for many similar episodes across the whole region, with Palestinians left at the mercy of destiny, which hardly believes in being by their side. It is pertinent to note that at this point in time, Britishers were present in Palestine, but hardly did anything to stop it from happening.

In another horrendous episode, Haganah troops marched into Tiberias and drove as many as 5000 Palestinians out of their homes and the area came under the control of Haganah fighters. A dreaded episode is from Al-Bassa village, where Haganh fighters opened fire on the villagers from three directions, leaving the one side, only for the Palestinians to flee.

Ben Gurion, the Haganah fighter who would go on to become the first PM of Israel, had clearly stated, “Cleanse and expel as many Arabs as you can.”

“In each attack, a decisive blow must be struck resulting in the destruction of homes and the expulsion of the population,” he said.

As the British troops withdrew, the Haganah troops took complete control of these villages. A total of 530 villages are believed to have been destroyed.

David Ben Gurion reading the Declaration of Independence of Israel (Photo: Al Jazeera)

Real Accounts from Nakba

All this while, Palestinian villagers were left struggling for food, water and shelter. Many saw their family perishing in front of their eyes, others never got to know what happened to their loved ones. The accounts of Palestinian people are enough to make any ‘human’ eyes moist.

“We lived under trees. No food, no water,” an expelled villager said.

“We tasted starvation like nobody before,” another added.

Several Israeli army veterans have themselves admitted to butchering Palestinian people, just like that, while they evicted out of the villages. A report by Middle East Monitor presented the admissions by Israeli veterans.

Several estimates say over 700,000 Palestinians were evicted from their houses during ‘Nakba’ (Photo: Haaretz)

Amnon Neumann (82), an Israeli army veteran from Haifa, says there were “no real battles” due to Palestinian poverty and lack of organisation, training and arms, and the official Israeli account of that period claims that the displacement and killing of Palestinians was the “normal result of a war.”

Neumann admitted that he took part in displacing Palestinians from the villages of Simism, Najd, Kawkaba, Burayr and other places which were fully inhabited by their owners. He also confessed to participating in the massacre against the people of Burayr during the priod of Nakba, and noted that they used Czech-made guns to expel the local inhabitants towards the Gaza Strip.

The Haganah forces were surrounding the village on three sides, he recalls, and firing in the air before entering and expelling its people forcefully. The houses were burnt down, as per the orders the armed forces had received. According to the veteran, he heard a confession by a Haganah officer after the occupation of Burayr that he had shot a Palestinian girl in the head after raping her. It was later revealed, said Neumann, that the girl had indeed been raped.

Arhamel Khnovitc (83), another Israeli veteran who now lives in the settlement of Daghania, confessed that he took part in the massacre in the Dahmash Mosque in Al-Lydd in July 1948 during the period of Nakba. He also admitted to taking part in the “ethnic cleansing” of the villages of Jamzu and Dan’el.

“I headed to the mosque, as per an order from the command, and I kept my ears and eyes open after I quietly opened the door,” the report quoted Khnovitc as saying. “Then I fired a Fiat missile, following orders. Many corpses flew and got stuck to the walls due to the severity of the blast.”

Photo depicting Palestinian villagers driven out of their homes by the Israeli troops (Photo: Middle East Monitor)

The Eventual Fate: Israel-Palestine

Finally, the British mandate ended in May 1948 and Ben Gurion declared the formation of the state of Israel. Even before the mandate ended, 3.5 lakh Palestinians were forced out. The overall number of people displaced during Nakba is well beyond 7 lakh. On the other hand, during the three-decade British mandate (1917-1948), the number of Jews in the region had multiplied 10 times to cross 1.5 million.

The Armistice Agreement (1949) between Israel and Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria, formally ended the hostilities of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Ralph Bunch, the American diplomat and architect of the Armistice Agreement was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1949, Israel was made a member of the United Nations Security Council, with a resolution that called Israel a “peace-loving state” and “willing to carry out the obligations of the UN Charter”.

So, when you look at the whole history of Israel-Palestine, you find that the land that belonged to Palestinians for years was snatched away and given to Israel, based on religious belief and old association of Jews from the land. While Israel got the full support of the West and other big lobbies around the world, Palestinians slowly found themselves abandoned, with even the Muslim world slowly backing off from the cause after initially being quite aggressive (even to the extent of fighting multiple wars with Israel.)

While Israel prospered as a country with a robust defence system and strong scientific infrastructure, Palestine was left divided into a West Bank —where Israeli occupation and forces continue to run havoc; carry brutal bloody raids, encroach with violent settlements and strip people naked on the road in the name of ‘checks’; and the Gaza Strip — which is nothing less than an open-air prison, with not even basic amenities entering or leaving without Israel’s approval.

Today, over 6 million Palestinians live in exile, people who were driven out of their homes and made to believe, that this episode is as normal as anything else. I hope this ‘6 million‘ number does make you remember something else as well. The only bloody irony is the persecuted then are the oppressors now. I had thought ‘Never Again’ meant never again for everyone and not just for selected few.

Nakba remains one of the darkest episodes in History

One conclusion, we all can draw from this whole story is Israel has “zero regard” for human lives. All it wants is to achieve its military and survival target, at whatever collateral damage has to be incurred. And we saw ample examples of this during the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, where Israel has not even hesitated to attack innocent civilians carrying white flags, UN food trucks, people collecting food, refugee camps, and even hospitals. Israel can continue to blame the situation on Hamas’ use of the civilian population as a human shield, but its own act of blocking humanitarian aid and showing no regard for innocent lives shows a different story.

Today, the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his ministers, the International Court of Justice has criticised Israeli actions in Gaza and even the United Nations has called for an ‘immediate ceasefire.’ But, when you have the back of the US, no order or ruling matters, what matters is money and power. All this while, Palestinian people, including women and children continue to suffer, in what several humanitarian organisations continue to call a ‘humanitarian catastrophe.’ With over 39,000 Palestinians already dead, as per Gaza Ministry, the question for the world remains, where and when will it stop.

As I conclude this article, I would not like anyone to get the impression that I am supportive of violent attacks against Israel or am calling for the destruction of Israel (which many Palestine supporters do). October 7 was a horrific horrific act of terror and nothing can justify it. I have written a detailed blog on it and want people to read it. Also, I wouldn’t delve much deeper into Israel-Palestine history after 1948 time, as I have discussed in several of my previous blogs.

Today, there is a whole section that just doesn’t want to call Hamas or any other Palestinian militia a ‘terror organisation’ on the simple logic that they are fighting for their independence, and ‘if they are terrorists, so were Subhash Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh.’ However, I don’t buy this argument to advocate violence against innocent people, but yes, there can be no denying that what has been inflicted against Palestinians for the last 56 years, is no less than torture.

So, the next time someone has the “audacity” to call October 7 or any other Palestinian attack “unprovoked”, just make him read this article or tell the story of the 1948 Nakba. This episode will always be listed in world history as one of the most tragic and deplorable episodes. However, the sad part remains, little to no acceptance or remorse for what happened. The West, especially the US, which considers itself the guardian of democracy, along with its iron brother the UK, don’t have the guts to even speak on the issue for a minute. Even the Arab world seems to have forgotten Palestine for their business interests. Today, as my heart goes out to the people of Gaza, while they are being butchered by Israel under its monstrous Prime Minister ‘Bibi’ Benjamin Netanyahu, this less-talked-about story can help us take a deeper look at the conflict and understand where and how it started.

“It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them…They did not exist”: Former Israeli PM Golda Meir