The Nakba: Looking back on a traumatic event

The Nakba (which means “catastrophe” in Arabic) was the moment when, upon the founding of their state, the Israelis expelled over three-quarters of the Palestinians living in the territories designated by the United Nations as part of the Jewish state. This dossier consists of three articles concerning this event.
The first article, by a historian of Lebanese origin, presents an overview of the development of Palestinian historiography before and after this defining event. For a long time the preserve of chroniclers (including in the immediate aftermath of the Nakba), the writing of Palestinian history then took a militant turn, and was subsequently professionalized through contact with European and American universities, which welcomed refugee intellectuals. Fueled by the revelations of Israeli historians, the final stage in the development of Palestinian historiography has been characterized by the rise of oral history based on the collection of personal testimonies, particularly from women.
The second article is by Ilan Pappé, one of Israel’s “New Historians.” Published in French in 2005, it explains that the Nakba was an “ethnic cleansing” operation carefully planned by Israeli leaders. Each army brigade was given a list of villages to occupy and destroy, and any Palestinians who refused to leave were massacred. Pappé shows how Israeli propagandists then orchestrated the denial of these events, with the support of the pro-Israel lobby in the United States.
The third article is written by a former Israeli intelligence analyst…