Today is Nakba Day. It is a day in which social media is flooded with a tsunami of posts about the Arab losses in the 1948/1949 war. If you read one article today related to Nakba Day – I suggest you read this one.

In many left-wing circles, the Palestinian Nakba has reached the level of a religious belief. To question it is seen as blasphemy. Some even go as far as suggesting that doubting the historicity of the elaborate stories that they tell is as bad as Holocaust denial:

This is Holocaust inversion.

• By suggesting that the ‘Nakba’ and the Holocaust were equally factual and horrific, it implies that the Jews did to the Arabs – what the Nazis had done to the Jews.
• Equating the Holocaust to a small civil war disgracefully downplays an industrial genocide.
• It contains the seeds of Holocaust denial because it makes the assertion that the Holocaust is only as true as the myth of the Nakba.

The pillars of Nakba Day

Let me be clear – there are two ‘Nakbas’ and there will be no myths peddled here. A very real conflict took place between 1947 and 1949. There is the actual Arab ‘catastrophe’ (that certainly happened) when the Arabs failed in their attempt to wipe out the Jewish state. And then there is the ‘innocent Palestinian Nakba’ that never happened – which is the one they remember on Nakba Day.

These are six key elements to the myth of the Nakba:

1. Jews were welcomed by the Palestinian Arabs before they turned on them in 1948.
2. Palestinians were innocent victims of violent Jewish militia.
3. The Jews pre-planned to cleanse the land of Arabs and then carried it out.
4. What took place was a one-sided slaughter.
5. The Jews had to expel Arabs because they were outnumbered.
6. In May, the Arab states needed to invade

These are the foundation blocks of the anti-Israel narrative. Upon these their entire case is built. Here are some social media examples:

And we can therefore prove that Nakba Day is based on nothing more than fiction – because each and every one is a lie.

1 – that Jews were welcomed by the Palestinian Arabs

For their myth to be true, the Palestinian Arabs must be presented as innocent and passive victims prior to 1948. Yet we know this is not true. Even before Zionism, the Jews had a torrid time in the region, but it became progressively worse under British rule. There were frequent attacks by armed Arabs against civilian Jewish communities. Some of these massacres are well known, such as the events of Hebron, Tzfat and Jerusalem in 1929, or Tiberias in 1938:

The British felt forced to stop Jewish immigration because the Arabs were so violently opposed to it. The partition itself only came about because Arab violence towards Jews could not be contained.

We can say without reservation that the founding pillar of the Nakba Day narrative is a lie.

2 – After the partition vote Palestinians were innocent victims of violent Jewish militia

Within hours of the partition vote, Arabs had bombed Jewish buses. They called a general strike to put everyone on the street and violent Arab mobs began to attack Jewish communities. This headline about Arab burning and looting Jewish shops is from the 3rd December 1947:

And nothing was left to chance. In the early months of the civil conflict, the Arabs had the upper hand – and by January 10,000s of irregular Arab forces began to cross into British Palestine:

Anyone who knows the actual history of the civil conflict is aware that for much of the first few months the Jews were on the defensive. They lost control of the roads, convoys were frequently attacked, losses were unsustainable, and there were frequent massacres of Jews across British Palestine. This attack in Jerusalem took place on 22 Feb 1948:

It is clear that the Arabs were not passive innocent victims at all, but rather Palestinian Arab forces were trying to kill as many Jews as they could. The second pillar of the Nakba narrative is a lie.

3. – The Jews carried had pre-planned the expulsion of the Palestinian Arabs – and then carried it out

The idea of all powerful Jews plotting away in secret to expel all the Palestinian Arabs goes against everything we know about the conflict. Arab Palestinians began to flee even before the conflict had started – like families always do in civil war. The idea is also rooted in antisemitic ideas of exaggerated Jewish power and underhand Jewish evil-doing. What unfolded was a civil conflict the Jews did not even want – and for the first few months of the civil conflict, there were serious doubts that the Jews would survive. But don’t take it from me, take it from the ‘British Commanders in Chiefs for the Chief of Staff’ in April 1948:

The pillar of all powerful Jewish forces able to do as they pleased – is also a lie.

4 – What took place was a one-sided slaughter

There is one clear statistic that highlights the truth about the civil conflict and that is that before May 1948 casualty figures on both sides were roughly equal. This from the British Archives listing casualty figures until the 26th April 1948 shows that there was nothing one sided about this conflict (file FCO 141/8742):

The pillar of the one-sided slaughter is just another lie.

5 – The Jews had to expel Arabs because they would be outnumbered in their new state

This one is just grasping at straws. The Jewish leadership knew that there were 100,000s of Jews trapped in DP camps in Cyprus or Western Europe who were just waiting for Israel to open its doors. The ‘demographic threat’ is a made-up motive that never existed.

The ‘demographic threat’ is just another lie in the Nakba myth.

6 – The Arab states needed to invade to save the Arab Palestinians

The mythical pillars build on each other, and this is the last. Their stories suggest that because the Jews were running riot and massacring and expelling Arabs – the Arab armies decided that they needed to invade to ‘save’ the Arab Palestinians. Except we already know that none of that is true. In addition the Arabs publicly said they were going to invade as soon as the partition was announced. Which means they have since revised the story to fit their new (and false narrative). This newspaper report from 7 Dec 1947:

The final pillar upon which the Nakba Day myth is built is also a lie.

The Nakba Day myth

The current Nakba narrative is a masterpiece of deception and antisemitic propaganda.

The conflict of 1947 – 1949 happened just like we say it did. It was an unnecessary conflict that the Arabs wanted and started because they could not accept Jewish self-rule in any part of British Palestine. Casualties were high on both sides and the fighting was brutal. The Jews declared independence, fought off the invading armies and won the war.

It was a war of extermination launched by Arabs to destroy the world’s only Jewish state. The Arab ‘catastrophe’ is that the Jews survived. This is really what their Nakba Day is all about.

Nobody should mourn the Arab failure to eradicate the Jews.

Everything that they say about the Nakba today – changed as they needed it to evolve. In reality the Nakba myth only expanded in the last few decades, as extremists wanted to make it more difficult to negotiate a settlement over the refugees.

This simple explanation – that the Nakba was the Arab failure to destroy Israel – is how the Nakba story was being reported in 1975:

That is the advantage with myths – you can just make it all up as you go along.

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