Nakba denial

Photos of Palestinian refugees displayed at the entrance to the Joint Nakba Remembrance Ceremony in Beit Jala, the West Bank, May 14, 2025. (Combatants for Peace)

Remembering the Nakba while witnessing a genocide

As Israel destroys Gaza, Israelis and Palestinians gathered in Beit Jala not only to mark the catastrophe of 1948, but to elevate living Palestinian testimonies.

By Dikla Taylor-Sheinman May 19, 2025

Palestinians participate in a rally marking the 69th anniversary of the Nakba, Nablus, May 15, 2017. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

When will the Israeli Left accept the occupation started in ’48, not ’67?

Only when the Israeli Left accepts that the occupation began in 1948 — and remains an open wound for Palestinians — can Arabs and Jews truly refuse to be enemies. One of the negative characteristics of the Israeli “Left” is how it terms the military rule over the West Bank and Gaza “The Occupation.” Part of…

By Rami Younis June 6, 2017

Screenshot from Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs hasbara video.

For Israelis, Palestinian refugees are a constant, lurking threat

A new government public relations clip shows Israeli Jews as the perpetual victims of history. But once upon a time Israeli leaders were able to consider the pain of others, too. The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs managed to out-do itself on Thursday when it released its latest hasbara (state-sponsored PR) video of Jews as…

By Edo Konrad October 7, 2016

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Screenshot of an 'Eretz Nehederet' skit on the Nakba.

Shhhh, the Nakba made it to prime time

Israel’s top satire program takes on the Nakba. Sometimes humor can succeed in places where activism or advocacy fall short. The tortured road of the Nakba towards a legitimate place in the Israeli historical memory has some unexpected twists. Eitan Bronstein Aparicio and Dr. Eléonore Merza Bronstein recently explained that at first, it was mainly Palestinians…

By Dahlia Scheindlin May 16, 2015

An ultra-orthodox Jewish man walks in the depopulated Palestinian village of Lifta, located on the edge of West Jerusalem, Israel, March 4, 2014. During the Nakba, the residents of Lifta fled attacks by Zionist militias beginning in December 1947, resulting in the complete evacuation of the village by February 1948. (photo: Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)

The road out of the occupation runs through the Nakba

As long as Israelis deny, distort and repress the expulsion of over 750,000 Palestinians, we will never truly accept and absorb the end of the occupation. It is difficult to find a view in Lifta that isn’t marred by the words ‘death to Arabs’ graffitied in Hebrew on its hollow buildings. Someone even took the…

By Natasha Soffer-Roth April 11, 2015

Palestinian Nakba village Qula, 2010 (photo: Deborah Bright / Zochrot.org)

Between anger and denial: Israeli collective memory and the Nakba

A new documentary aims to decipher some of the anxiety that accompanies the Israeli debate over the events of 1948. A strange thing regarding the debate on the Nakba: the responses it generates in Israeli society are becoming more and more hostile, while at the same time, the Nakba is mentioned more and more often. Those contradicting…

By Noam Sheizaf October 16, 2012

Palestinian refugees flee to Lebanon, late 1948 (Photo: Gnuckx, CC license)

Nakba: Why did Israeli historians whitewash an artillery attack?

“Nakba Harta?” Historical facts are a stubborn thing, not as malleable as the right-wing propagandists would like Well, at least one good thing came out of Im Tirzu’s latest propaganda pamphlet, written by convicted explosives thief Erez Tadmor and Arel Segal: A re-examination of the flight of Palestinians from Haifa, which the two pointed to…

By Yossi Gurvitz May 27, 2011

Im Tirzu campaign: deciphering a wink

Many of us here in Israel were exposed last week to a new campaign from the notorious Im Tirzu, the right wing movement that bashes anything left of the Likud. This time they did their best to attack the term “Nakba”, not with much success. It was easily taken apart by many on the web,…

By Ami Kaufman May 19, 2011

Im Tirzu supporters trying to shout down a leftist demonstration (photo: Yossi Gurvitz)

Rightwing group publishes Nakba denial booklet

Reheating old propaganda myths and taking historical facts out of context, Im Tirzu’s latest publication claims Nakba is “bullshit” Right wing group Im Tirzu published a new propaganda document (Hebrew PDF) earlier this week, which refreshingly does not claim to be anything else. It is called “Nakba Harta,” literally “Nakba Bullshit,” and is written jointly…

By Yossi Gurvitz May 14, 2011