Al-Nabka

What is Al-Nakba?

Al-Nakba means 'The Catastrophe'. This is what the Palestinian Arabs called the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-49.

Why is Al-Nakba called that?

For Arabs the Arab-Israeli War was a disaster because of several reasons:

• ❖ There were now 700,000 Palestinian refugees in neighbouring Arab nations. 400,000 more Arabs had fled during the war and joined the 300,000 that had already fled as refugees.
• ❖ Much of the land assigned to Palestine in the Partition Plan was now under Israeli, Transjordan or Egyptian control.