The Struggle

The history of the Nakba, the “catastrophe,” is a painful memory for Palestinians and a difficult confrontation for Israelis. It is also at the center of the debate of the right of return for Palestinians, who wish to go back to the lands of their ancestors who lived there prior to the founding of the state of Israel. The acknowledgement of the suffering of Palestinians during and in the aftermath of the Nakba is necessary to create healing dialogue in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Just as essential, is the learning of the centuries-old persecution of the Jewish peoples, and of the Holocaust, in order to understand the reasons behind establishing a Jewish nation-state. If there is to be any reconciliation between the two nations, the affirmation of suffering undergone by both Jews and Palestinians, must first commence.   The difficulties in reconciliation are not just felt between governing bodies of the Israelis and the Palestinians, but between the peoples themselves. Ghassan Kanafani gives a good insight in those difficulties in Returning to Haifa, by describing the meeting between a dispossessed Palestinian couple and the new Jewish residents of their old apartment. Significant pain and loss are portrayed in examining the lives of Said S. and his wife Safiyya, who not only were driven out of the country in the chaos of the Nakba, but also lost their 5-month-old son Khalid during the terror. (Kanafani p.157) After twenty years, the couple returned to their home to discover Miriam, a Polish, Jewish woman, who had moved into the apartment with her husband Iphrat, after being traumatized by the Nazis during World War II.   Miriam herself lost her father in a concentration camp and witnessed her 10-year-old younger brother being shot down for being a Jew. (Kanafani p.169) Miriam exhibits empathy for Said and Safiyya, knowing how painful the loss of their country, home, and child must have been for them. She recounts how seeing what was happening to the Palestinians was reminiscent of the immense destruction she had experienced as a Jew in Poland. However, Said and Safiyya meet their son, who was now grown, who had been raised Jewish, and who had been named Dov. Instead of being happy that Dov was raised by someone so welcoming and empathetic, Said is disturbed by this knowledge, and accuses Miriam and Iphrat of stealing him from them. (Kanafani p.184) The inability and unwillingness of Said and Safiyya to connect with Miriam and accept the knowledge of her own past sufferings are an important example of why reconciliation is so difficult to be had. The refusal of Palestinians to comprehend the pain of the Jews, and vice-versa, is the greatest barrier to moving forward.  

In examining the Nakba, it can be found that Jewish Israelis who were born and raised long after the events in 1948 that led to the displacement of millions of Palestinians, were not brought up learning about its true details. Aluf Ben who writes for Haaretz, explains in his article Jewish Israelis Should Stop Being Afraid of the Nakba, that when he was growing up, he had been taught that the Palestinians had been ordered to “leave their homes for a few weeks, until they would return like victors with the Arab armies” by the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee. Aluf instead, finds no evidence of this ever happening, stating that Palestinian researcher Whalid Khalidi discovered in 1959 that the story had been created by “a Jewish American supporter of the right-wing Revisionists” to be used as propaganda. Aluf Ben presents this information, not because he wishes to prove who is right or wrong in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, but because it is essential to learn in order for the citizens of Israel to understand the anger and pain of the Palestinians. Without recognizing past grievances and by trying to conceal or ignore historical data, there cannot be understanding between the two nations. As Ibrahim Abu-Lughod believed, the struggle of the Palestinians must be one of academia and intellectualism. (Abu-Lughod p.101) That same struggle of knowledge must also be taken on by Jewish Israelis, if reconciliation is ever to be achieved.  Citations: Ben, A. (2021, May 1). Jewish Israelis Should Stop Being Afraid of the Nakba. Haaretz.com. Retrieved from https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/jewish-israelis-should-stop-being-afraid-of-the-nakba-1.9761766.  Ghassan Kanafani, Returning to Haifa (2000).pdf  Lila Abu-Lughod, “Return to Half-Ruins: Memory, Postmemory, and Living History in Palestine,” in Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the Claims of Memory, eds. Ahmad H. Sa’di & Lila Abu-Lughod (2007), 77-106  #justsolution. UNRWA. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2021, from https://www.unrwa.org/campaign/%C2%A0justsolution.