New history of the Palestinians who didn’t flee during the Nakba

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Published: 23 September 2017

Last updated: 4 March 2024

Historian Adel Manna tells the story of the 120,000 Palestinians who remained in Israel in 1948 while 750,000 were driven out. The issue is fiercely debated in reviews by Benny Morris and Daniel Blatman

The Palestinians who didn't flee during the Nakba (Haaretz)
When he was in the fourth grade in elementary school in the Arab town of Majd al-Krum in Upper Galilee, Adel Manna took part in the preparations to celebrate Israel’s 10th Independence Day. At home, he told his father, Hussein, about how thrilled he was to be in a play about the achievements of the Zionist movement and the young state. His father’s face clouded over. Sitting his firstborn child by his side, he explained with much forbearance why the event was not a cause for celebration for the Arabs, rather a day of grief and trauma. “It is not a day of istiqlal [independence] but of istakhlal [conquest, occupation],” he said.

AND SEE:
Benny Morris: Israel Had No 'Expulsion Policy' Against the Palestinians in 1948 (Haaretz)
Yes, Benny Morris, Israel Did Perpetrate Ethnic Cleansing in 1948 (Haaretz)

Photo: Arab refugees stream from Palestine on the Lebanon Road in November, 1948. Credit: AP/Jim Pringle