Palestinian Narrative

PALESTINIAN NARRATIVE

The Catastrophe lAn-Nakbehl 1948

Co nte nts* Historical background: Formative stages of the

Catastrophe* Events of the 1 948 Catastrophe, including eye-witness reports

* Results of the Catastrophe, including eyewitnessreports

1-his chapter includes:* Drawings of NajiAl-'Ali* Partition map of November 29,1947* Ghassan Kanafani: The Land of Sad Orange

Trees (a story)* Mahmoud Mufleh: Palestine: Thyme and Bullets

(a poem)* Photographs of destroyed villages

G lossaryRefe re nces

H i sto ric a I b ackg roun d :Formative stages of the CatastropheCn November 29, 1947, the United Nations GeneralAssembly passed Resolution 181, which calls for thepartition of Palestine into two states, Arab and Jew-ish. This was the start of the countdown for the es-lablishment of the state of lsrael on May 1 5, 1 948and the 1 948 Catastrophe, which uprooted and dis-persed the Palestinian people.The Catastrophe was: 1 ) the defeat of the Arab ar-mies in the 1948 Palestine War; 2) their acceptanceof the truce; 3) the displacement of most of the Pal-estinian people from their cities and villages; and 4)the emergence of the refugee problem and the Pal-estinian Diaspora.


First and foremost, Britain bears responsibility forthe defeat of the Palestinian Arab people in I 948. ltreceived the mandate for Palestine from the Leagueof Nations in 19'17, and from the beginning of itsoccupation of Palestine until it relinquished the ter-ritory on May 1 5, 1 948, Britain did all it could tosuppress the Palestinian people and to arrest anddeport their leaders. The British did not allow pales-tinians to exercise their right to defend themselvesand their land against the Zionist movement. lt sup-pressed the popular uprisings (intifadas) which fol-lowed one after another beginning in 1 920 (includ-ing those of 1921, 1929,1 930, 1 935 and I 936).The rulers considered all forms of Palestinian resist-ance to be illegal acts of terrorism, extremism andfanaticism, and issued unjust laws against every pal-estinian who carried arms or ammunition. Punish-ments included: "Six years in prison for possessing arevolver, twelve years for a grenade, five years ofhard labor for possessing twelve bullets and eight-een months for giving false information to a groupof soldiers asking for directions."lHowever, Britain did allow Zionist immigration to Pal-estine, which led to an economic crisis because ofthe increasing number of Jews in the land. Britainpermitted the Zionist movement to form militaryforces, such as the Haganah and Etzel and others.Members carried out bombings in Jerusalem, fired onBritish soldiers and smuggled arms, immigrants, andmore.But that wasn't the end of the story. The British al-lowed the Zionist movement to have its own armedbrigade attached to the British Army. lt took part inbattles of World War ll, thereby acquiring training andexperience in the techniques of war. ln 1 939 ten de-tachments of Zionist settlement police were formed,each led by a British officer - altogether 14,411 men.There were 700 policemen in Tel Aviv and i 00 inHaifa, all of whom were members of the Haganah. By1948 most Jews over the age of 14 had already un-


dergone military training.z For these reasons theywere militarily superior to the Palestinians during the'48 war.ln 1946 one British commander in Palestine told anAmerican journalist that: "lf we withdraw Britishforces, the Haganah will control all of Palestine to-morrow." The journalist asked him if the Haganahcould maintain its control of Palestine under suchcircumstances. He replied: "Certainly, they could doso even if they had to confront the entire Arabworld."3Before the war broke out and just before they with-drew, the British either turned a blind eye' or actuallyconspired with the Zionists who seized British armsand equipment. This strengthened the Zionist move-ment's superiority over the Palestinians.

It is worth mentioning that when Britain relinquishedits Palestinian Mandate to the UN, it was a very influ-ential member of the international organization. Thepa'rtition resolution 1 Bl was a revival of the partitionplar!proposed by Britain in the aftermath of the 1 936Revolution.After Britain, the Arabs and their leaders had the li-on's share of responsibility for the defeat. Their warwas like a heroic drama, whose hero was a Britishmilitary officer - Glubb Pasha - who commanded theTransjordanian Arab troops in the war' The Arabarmies did not take up their roles in the theater ofwar until the strength of the Palestinian people wasvirtually exhausted.

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PALESTINIAN NARRA] IVI

Palestinian landJewish land

PALESTINIAN NARRATIVEPALESTINIAN NARRATIVE

Arab armies which entered the war on May 1 5, 1 948.The armed forces of five Arab countries totaled some21 ,000 soldiers, plus 1 0,000 volunteers of the RescueArmy and the Holy Jihad, against 65,000 Jewishsoldiers.

Events of the 1 948 Catastrophe,including eyewitness reportsThe results of the catastrophe, from whichPalestinians still suffer, are not simple at all. Theword "catastrophe" (nakba) actually expresses whathappened to this nation, which was subjected to mas-sacres about which only a little is known. There arestill facts which are so dreadful that pens cannotwrite them. What happened to the Palestinian peo-ple is the assassination of rights, murder of the landand uprooting of human beings. This did not occurby chance.The catastrophe was the result of continualsubjugation, killing, executions, arrests,'exile, andconspiracy - international and Arab - againstPalestiniarts; it was the accumulation of ignorance,weakness and anarchy within Palestinian society whichrad to contend with Zionist bands supported by the3ritish. On April I 9, I948, while attacking the)alestinian village Zir'in, north of Jenin, Palmachfor-;es [part of the Haganah], issued a command: "With.he occupation of Zir'in most of the houses should belestroyed; however several houses should be left;tanding as bivouac areas"a)avid Ben-Gurion said: "We should destroy Arabrockets (in Jewish areas), such as Lod, Ramlah, Beisanrnd Zir'in, which will constitute a danger when wervade and thus may keep our forces engaged."s'he destruction of 41 B Palestinian villages inside thereen line [pre-67 lsraeli border], concealing therndmarks of Palestinian life and the massacres againstne Palestinian people are the best evidence for therutality to which Palestinians were exposed. Theyrere dispersed throughout the world.

From the Drawings of Naji Al-'AliA Palestinian (Pat) questions Arab Leaders (AL)

Pal: lsrael took the land"'AL: Never mind-Pat: lt humiliated the PeoPle"'AL: Never mind-Pal: Does this mean you don't intend to do any-

thing about it?AL: lt's God's will"

Pal: Then, twish God would take you! [i'e' Then'

go to hellllAL: What's the matter with you' you dope' can't'yiu

r"" t'm having fun? l'm celebrating the anni-

Grt"i of the Hittin victory' [in which Saladin

defeated the Crusadersl

IJN Resolution 181in tne Partition of Palestine' 1947

The situation in Palestine before partitionPalestinian population 1,364'330 9?V"fi;h'poputuiion 608,230 31o/o

Palestinian Arab land 25'100 kmz 94'5o/o

Jewish land 1,470 km2 5'5%

Resolution 181 called for division of theland as follows:

Fighting and clashes between the Jews and thepa-iestiiians began after UN Resolution 181 waspurt"O by the Gleneral Assembly, on November 29'\g+t.ThL situation deteriorated into an unequal con-

frontation. Zionist forces were organized' armed and

trained. Not only were they superior to thepaiestinians, who for over 30 years had been

"rt"ruurt"O by unjust British policy and Zionist

terrorism, buithese gangs were also superior to the42.88o/o57.12o/o

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ffo Ufl partition plan as approved on November 29'

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One of the most notorious massacres was the onethat occurred in Deir Yassin on April 9, 1948; morethan 100 martyrs were killed and dozens werewounded. The remaining inhabitants were forced toleave the villages after they had been exposed to themost barbaric kinds of torture and immoral andinhuman practices. One of the young men of DeirYassin village reported what he had been told by hismother:

My mother escaPed with mY two smallbrothers, one-year old and two-years old' Myaunts and their small children were also withher. When the Jews met them on the road,they wanted to kill my small brothers and myaunts' children. My mother and my auntsstarted to beg them and said: 'We will give youaltthe gold and the money we have, but do notkitl our children.' The Jews did not respond tothem and they killed my brothers and mycousins. They said: 'Now, go away and telleveryone what You have seen.'6

The behavior of the Zionist gangs was meant to spreadterror and fear among Arabs and to force them toleave their villages - especially after the Deir Yassinmassacre. When Zionist gangs attacked the village ofZir'in on the night of Apdl 20,1948, as they chargedthey scream ed: " Kadima, kadirm (go ahead, go ahead)Deir Yassin, Deir Yassin."7

Such expressions provoked frightening nightmares forevery citizen who heard them; they caused manyp"opt" to fear for their honor and their children andthus to depart.Concerning the exodus, the Palestinians did not havethe least doubt that it would be for few days, afterwhich they would return to their houses: "We thoughtthat we would return after one or two weeks' Welocked the house and we kept the key, waiting toreturn."


From the drawings of Naji Al-'Ali

Some 1 ,400,000 people inhabited Palestine in 1948.After the catastrophe about 750,000 Palestinianswandered with nowhere to go. Families wereseparated. The elderly died; children carried youngerchildren; nursing children died of thirst. Suddenly theyfound themselves exiled from their homes, in a alienworld that regarded them as a different kind offrightening human being - Refugees!! The internatio-nal community did not focus on learning the reasonsfor the refugee problem and finding a remedy. Ratherthan investigating the reasons for the forced migra-tion and displacement, all they did was to providethem with humanitarian assistance.Ghassan Kanafanidescribes the departure in his story:Lan'd of the Sad Orange Trees

When we left Jaffa for Acre there was no senseof tragedy. We were like those who go awayevery year to spend the holidays in another city.Our days in Acre passed - there was nothingunusual about them; quite the contrary,perhaps because I was young at the time, Ienjoyed them because I didn't go to school. lnany case, on the night of the big attack onAcre, the picture became clearer.,. That harshnight was marked by the gloom of men and the


supplications of women... you and t, that is allthose of our generation, were too young tounderstand what the story meant frombeginning to end... However that night thethreads began to be clear, and in the momingwhen the Jews withdrew, threatening andfoaming with anger, a large truck was parked atthe gate of our house.... Hurried, frantically - asimple collection of sleeping things was throwninto it from here and there... lwas leaningagainst the old wall of the house when I sawyour mother climb into the truck, then youraunt and then the young ones. your fatherstarted to throw you and your brothers into thecar, on top of our belongings. Then he pultedme up, out of the corner, raised me above hishead to the iron cage on the roof of thedriver's cabin, where I saw my mother and Riadwere sitting quietly. Before lcould steady myselfproperly, the truck moved. The beloved city ofAcre was disappearing littte by tittte in thecurves of the road leading up to Ras Al-Naquora.

Resu/ts of the Catastrophe and eyewitnessreports

Jewish villages were built on the remains ofArab villages. You don't even know the namesof these Arab villages and I don't blame youbecause the geography books no longer exist.It is not only geography books that no longerexist, but also the Arab villages themselvesdisappeared. For Nahalalwas established on thesite of Ma'loul, Kibbutz G'vat on the site ofJebbata, Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Khneifes,and Kfar Yehoshua on the site of Tel Shoman.There is not one place built in this country thatdid not have a former Arab population.

Moshe DayanFrom a speech he delivered at Technion (lsrael

lnstitute of Technology) in Haifa, as reportedby Ha'aretz newspaper, April 4, 1969

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PALES;MAN]tdRRATIVE

Because of the expulsion and forced migration of thePalestinians their suffering increased and the patternsof Palestinian family life were shattered. A man fromthe Naher Al-Bared refugee camp in Lebanon recallswhat happened to his small daughter:

I had a daughter - she was three and half yearsold, and was separated from her mother duringthe fighting. Some people told me they hadseen her going towards the Druze village ofYarka, so I went to look for her. I searched untilmorning but I couldn't find her. ln the morning Iwent up to Yarka. Some children played in thecourtyard. I saw my daughter standing in frontof a boy who was eating a piece of bread. Shewas hungry and asked the boy: 'Give me apiece.'The boy did not pay any attention toher. I came up behind her, hugged and cradledher in my arms. lcouldn't utter a word becauseof my tears. ln just twelve hours our conditionchanged from honor to humiliation.s

Another man from the Naher Al-Bared camp recalledthe suffering in the first years of the Diaspora:

I had a small brother, seven years old who diedat Al-Qar'oun at the beginning of winter. Manyother children died as well. They put us in metalbarracks with 20 or 30 families in each section.I remember one child went to the toilet at nightand the next moming was found frozen to death.s

Palestinians describe their first days in the camps usingexpressions such as "death," "paralysis," "We don'texist," "We lost the way," "We lost all that we had,""We lost the dearest things in life."The poem of an lraqi poet, written in colloquial Arabic,describes Palestinian deprivation:

He who lost goldWill find it in the marketThe one who said farewell to a loved oneMay forget him after a year.But he who lost a homelandWhere will be find it?


Article 1 1 of UN Resolution i 94 (December '1948)

stipulated that refugees wishing to return to theirhomes and live peacefully should be allowed to do soas soon as possible and that compensation should bepaid for the property of those who decide not toreturn. According to international law and justice, theresponsible government and/or authorities must paycompensation for loss and damage.Despite these recommendations, Palestinianscontinued to suffer in their camps in Lebanon, Jor-dan, Syria and everywhere in the Diaspora. ln occupiedPalestine of 1 948, which had been inhabited by900,000 Palestinians, all were expelled or killed exceptfor 1 60,000 who remained, languishing underthe yokeof lsraeli military rule until 1 966. The West Bank wastaken over by the Jordanians, while the Gaza Stripcame under Egyptian authoritY


The period after the catastrophe was characterizedby a political vacuum; there was no Palestinian lea-dership to take charge of affairs, organize thestruggle, achieve demands for return, self-determination and defens of peoples' rights. This ledto the blossoming of nationalism, which led to therise of the PLO as the sole and legitimaterepresentative of the Palestinian people in 1964.However, it seemed that Arab leaders were not ableto cope with the challenge and responsibility. Perhapssome of them were part of a conspiracy aimed atshredding the remnants of Palestine. The Arabcountries stood up to the Zionist occupation army forno more than six days during the June 1 967 war.What remained of Palestine was lost, in addition toSinai and the Golan. However, the refugee problemwill remain the alarm bell that peals in Arab and inter-national arenas, especially since now the numbers ofrefugees and displaced people have increased to aboutfour million.ln theirturn,-(hey describe their suffering in a poemby the Palesti\ian poet Mahmoud Mufleh: Palestine:Thyme and Bulletslo

We once were young and tender shootsThen our green stems turned dry;

How can Karbala' compare with our agony?Our age is the age of catastrophe; it took us

by surprise;

An age of aspirations, then stumbling,then awesome adversity;

An age of aching thirst and stubborn patience.

An age of standing by the bankswith an eye staring at the horizon -

Oh, if only Acre knew -And old men stunned by disasterAnd women unlike any othersWorry blossomed from worryAnd misery followed misery.

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A deserted house in Byar Al-Adas (Jaffa)

A ruined house in Jamzo (Ramtah)

Houses in the ruins at Al-Mansoura (Acre)

Deserted houses in Kufr Lam (Haifa)

A deserted house in the ruins of Al-Tannour (Jerusalem)

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Palestinian Narrative

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