1948 NAKBA in the Failure to Create a Palestinian State - Essay Example

Running Head: 1948 NAKBA The Importance of 1948 NAKBA in the Failure to Create a Palestinian State [Client’s Name] [Affiliation] Palestine and its people have existed for so long already. Palestine as a political entity has been defined and thoroughly described even during the Biblical period. However, a great contradiction exists knowing that Palestine has been mentioned since antiquity and yet it was still unable to form an independent socio-political system that would allow it to govern its own people, implement its own rules, and define its national boundaries. More confusing is the fact that a nation that has existed long before the time of the Biblical Moses, albeit informally, is still unable to gain its dependence form the grasp of the political groups controlling it. The result of this centuries-old struggle for freedom and independence involve countless fighting and numerous idealisms that are gone to waste because of the hundreds of thousands dead fighting for them. Understanding why the Palestinians were unable to create their own socio-political state lies on the long-stretching history of these people and their often unhealthy interactions with their neighbours, the Israelis. Since the Biblical periods, Palestine has been at war with the Jews with a skewed depiction of the Palestinians as the ungodly and the unholy race (Morris 182). During the modern era, the desire of Palestinians to have a separate state came as late as 1923 with the British Mandate of Palestine, aiming to enclose the territories within West Bank and Gaza Strip (Sachar 221). However, the constant and consistent struggle of the Palestinians with its neighbour makes it hard for the Palestinians to strengthen its claims. One of the most compelling reasons why Palestinians were up to now unable to form their own governance is because of the strong negative impact brought about by the displacement of Palestinians from Israeli controlled lands in 1948 during the Palestinian Nakba. In 1948, when the world has seen the nearing end of the Second World War, where the world expected that every nation has learned the lessons of war that brought numerous suffering and strife to humanity. However, the world was shocked when the Biblically acclaimed ‘people of God’, who were depicted as holy and deprived of their internal freedom from all oppressions looming around them, massacred and drove over 700,000 Palestinians away from their homes during the period when Israel and Jewish nations aimed to establish their political territories. This period in Israeli history is known as the Palestinian Nakba. The Palestinian ‘Nakba’ comes from the Arabic word which means ‘catastrophe’. The Nakba is characterized by brutal killing and oppression of the Jewish race against non-Jewish settlers within the Jewish territories (Karsh 108). The Jewish leaders are in strong favour of the transfer of the minority groups from their political domains to the neighbouring areas; the Jewish force on the other hand performed the order to displace minority groups in a gruesome and ruthless way, favouring massive killing of both the armed Palestinians and the innocent ones. For a span of less than two years, the Zionist group launched indiscriminate attacks against the settlers, mainly Palestinians, killing armed and unarmed men alike, and seriously threatened the rest of the Palestinian populace (Morris 239). The series of brutal attacks disabled the leadership of Palestinian societies, eventually forcing Palestinian individuals and families to leave the area in panic. Community leaders become vulnerable targets to these killings and assaults. Grenades were thrown in public places like bus and plazas to discourage the Palestinian inhabitants from continuously living in their houses. Terrorist attacks were launched by Israeli army towards unsuspecting civilians, killing people even if they did not show any resistance. As a result, more than 700,000 Palestinians were displaced as they seek refuge from these brutalities aimed towards them. More and more Palestinians were killed in the conflict the longer they stayed in the borders claimed by Jews. As the Palestinians were scattered across the world from the plight to get away from the dangers posed by being within the Israeli borders, the need to gather and form a stronger nation weakened significantly over the years that followed. The most dominant reason for these brutal and inhumane treatments is the strong belief that the social formation of the Jewish communities would be unsuccessful unless Palestinian minorities leave the ancestral domains of the Israeli nation. Instead of settling the issues in a more humane and rational manner, Israeli troops led an armed dispersal of the Palestinian civilians. Although the international government has intensified the campaign against any violations of human rights, they were unable to impose their rules in the Pakistani situation. The international law in 1948 pertaining to the rules of war proves to be inappropriate and ineffective in the case of Israel’s armed and forceful dispersal of the Arab and Palestinian civilians, as it is now. Nakba occurred during the time in history where the global community is prepared to make amends and institute reforms that would end war and promote global peace. With the desire of the Jews to consolidate its territories, it has instituted a series of political and social policies, urging Palestinians settlers to move out from the territorial domain of the Jews. The reactions of the Palestinians were slow at first but when massive killing and genocide began, Palestinians panicked and dispersed immediately, leaving Palestinians scattered in various nations either as refugees or as immigrants. Although there are various socio-political conflicts that occurred after the 1948 Nakba, like the Arab-Israeli War of 1967, there was nothing that compares to the socio-political implications of the 1948 Nakba. In the most general sense, Nakba not only reminds Palestinians about the terrors they face brought about by their displacement from Jewish lands in the 1940s but also underscore their being an isolated entity with no physical country nor permanent dwelling places. The 1948 Nakba underscores direct violation of the International Human Rights and the failure to exercise respect to the civil rights of the Palestinians. Israel’s push towards its exclusion at the expense of the Palestinians through ruthless killing and scaring them away from their places violates many international standards for peaceful processes. Lives have been destroyed, properties have been damaged and not rebuild, dreams ceased to exist as chaos and confusion marked the Israeli dominion over the Palestinians. And yet the Israelis got away with it at the same time doing the things all over again even during the modern times as can be noted in the conflict in Gaza Strip (Plaut 26) and the minor collisions between Israeli soldiers and the armed forces led by the Palistinian armed group, Hamas. The displacement of the Palestinian people eventually led to the massive discrimination aimed against them coming from Israelis in general (Childers 1198). Generally speaking, the Palestinians were unable to fully exercise their rights and privileges as free people and as a nation without terrestrial domains. Provisions were given to them to stay in certain locations or to form their own forms of government but still, they were unable to bond themselves strongly and create a Palestinian State. The restless attempts of the Palestinians to liberate themselves from the discrimination and suffering are bound to continue for so long as they are unable to form a stronger national identity that would represent their goals, ambitions, and ideals and protect their general interests. In a way, it can be argued that the 1948 Nakba has greatly influenced the socio-political situation of Palestinians and their inability to create their own state government. Prior the 1948 Nakba, Palestinian has operated as an informal state with an informal yet very effective and politically powerful government (Karsh 102). With the massive killing and displacement that took place in 1940s, political leaders became the primary target of the Israeli hostility, leaving Palestinians leaderless and disoriented. Their exodus from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank during the 1940s is characterized by confusion and self-preservation as they panicked all their way out from the Israeli-controlled domain. Because of the massive killing that took place during the Nakba and because of the widespread dispersal of the Palestinian people, working together as a nation becomes very difficult, if not impossible. Leaders have had a hard time convincing themselves to lead while followers have been afraid to follow their leaders and their ideals given the possible consequences of their actions. Because of the lack of unity and the lack of communal strength, the Palestinian community never got a chance to rebuild itself despite many attempts. In the next 60 years or so, the attempt of the Palestinian people to create a self-sufficient and self-governing sovereignty have met various resistances in various forms, either by economic sanctions or armed conflict. The inability of the Palestinian people to stand up for their ideals is brought by various social and psychological factors, as well as real-world reminders from the Jewish people that have harassed them since the beginning of time. The more likely it is that the Palestinian people focus on rebuilding and affirming their socio-political identities, the more likely they will be reminded of the 1948 Nakba where they are all led away by force into unknown territories. The 1948 Nakba gives a strong feeling of resentment to the Palestinian people towards the Jewish community but at the same time, the event that took place in 1948 as well as the horrors brought about by this event remained a constant reminder for the Palestinians to keep their place. Unless the Palestinian people as a whole work together to forget what happened during the disastrous date of their lives, and unless they stand together against the oppressions brought to them by the so-called people of God, there is no way for the Palestinian State to be established and there is no way for Palestine to become one again. References Erskine Childers, "The Other Exodus", The Spectator, 12 May 1961 Karsh, E. "Nakbat Haifa: Collapse and Dispersion of a Major Palestinian Community" in Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 37, Number 4/ 1 October 2001 Morris, Benny. The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press, 2004. Plaut, Steven. How ‘Nakba Proves there is no Palestinian Nation. Jewish Press, 30 April 2008 Sachar, Howard M. A History of Israel from the Rise of Zionism to Our Time, New York: Knopf, 1976.  Read More