Nakba, Al- ("Catastrophe" or "Disaster," in Arabic)
NAKBA, AL- ("catastrophe" or "disaster," in Arabic)
Word used by Palestinians for the consequences of the 1948 War, which included the disappearance of their country and the dispossession, expulsion, and exile of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. From 700,000 to 750,000 Palestinians became refugees outside the 78 percent of Palestine that became Israel, living in temporary camps that soon became permanent, surviving on relief supplied by the United Nations through the Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East; another 150,000 were displaced within the territory that became Israel: more than 400 Palestinian villages were physically destroyed—bulldozed out of existence, their names disappearing from the map.
SEE ALSO Arab-Israel War (1948);United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.