DM Monitoring
JERUSALEM: On May 15, 1948, Israel was established as a Jewish-majority state at the expense of the forced expulsion of about 750,000 Palestinians. The day has subsequently been commemorated annually as Nakba Day.
The word “Nakba” means “catastrophe” in Arabic, and refers to the systematic ethnic cleansing of two-thirds of the Palestinian population at the time by Zionist paramilitaries between 1947-1949 and the near-total destruction of Palestinian society.
Zionist forces had taken more than 78 percent of historic Palestine, ethnically cleansed and destroyed about 530 villages and cities, and killed about 15,000 Palestinians in a series of mass atrocities, including more than 70 massacres.
This year marks 74 years of Al-Nakba, or the Palestinian experience of dispossession and loss of a homeland. The anniversary comes at a time where many are angered by the killing of prominent Al Jazeera veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
Between 1947 and 1949, Zionist military forces attacked major Palestinian cities and destroyed some 530 villages. About 15,000 Palestinians were killed in a series of mass atrocities, including dozens of massacres.
On April 9, 1948, Zionist forces committed one of the most infamous massacres of the war in the village of Deir Yassin on the western outskirts of Jerusalem.
More than 110 men, women and children were killed by members of the pre-Israeli-state Irgun and Stern Gang Zionist militias.
