Nakba

The mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, and the enduring catastrophe associated with it.

1948 Palestine war: The war fought in former Mandatory Palestine between Jewish and Arab forces from 1947 to 1949. The Nakba unfolded amid this war and the creation of Israel.
Palestinian refugees: Palestinians displaced from their homes, and their descendants, who retain refugee status under UNRWA's definition. They are the people whose displacement gives the Nakba its continuing social reality.
Nakba Day: An annual Palestinian commemoration of the displacement and dispossession associated with 1948, held on May 15. It marks the Nakba publicly on the day after Israel's Independence Day.
Israeli War of Independence: The Israeli name for the 1948 war that established Israel and secured its survival against opposing forces. It frames the same period through statehood and survival rather than Palestinian loss.
1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine: The first phase of the 1948 Palestine war, fought between Jewish and Arab communities before Israel's establishment. Fighting and displacement began before the British Mandate ended.
Right of return: A proposed right for displaced people and their descendants to return to their homes or homeland. Palestinian claims to return remain a central unresolved consequence of the Nakba.
Key of return: A symbol, often an oversized key, representing Palestinian homes lost during the 1948 displacement and the claim to return. Keys preserve the memory of specific homes and the continuing demand to return.
1948 Palestinian depopulation of towns and villages: The emptying of hundreds of Palestinian towns and villages during and after the 1948 war. Village-level histories show the geographic scale behind the Nakba's broader name.
United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine: A 1947 UN proposal to divide Mandatory Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem under international administration. Its adoption and rejection sharpened the conflict preceding the mass displacement.
UNRWA: The United Nations agency established in 1949 to provide assistance and protection to Palestinian refugees. Its mandate institutionalized international support for refugees displaced in 1948 and afterward.

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