Empty the Land · Episode 5 of 12 · 24 min
1948: The Nakba and the Birth of the Law Against It
In December 1948 the United Nations adopted the Genocide Convention on the 9th and Resolution 194, calling for the return of Palestine's refugees, on the 11th. By then some 700,000 to 750,000 Palestinians had been displaced. The episode walks the historiography of the Nakba across its full spectrum, because the dispute is the content, and notes how Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention gave later arguments their vocabulary.
Who's who
- David Ben-GurionIsrael's first prime minister, who declared independence in May 1948
- Folke BernadotteUN mediator who urged refugee return and was assassinated in 1948
- Benny MorrisIsraeli historian who finds displacement born of war, not design
- Ilan PappéIsraeli historian who argues deliberate ethnic cleansing
- Walid KhalidiPalestinian historian who documented 418 destroyed villages
- Rashid KhalidiHistorian who frames 1948 as a settler-colonial war
- Efraim KarshHistorian who defends the older account blaming Arab leadership
- Raphael Lemkin+2 more episodesJurist who coined 'genocide'
Where it happens
- Lydda and Ramle, PalestineLargest single expulsion of the war, July 1948
- Haifa and Jaffa, PalestineMixed cities that emptied in spring 1948
- Deir Yassin, near JerusalemApril 1948 massacre that accelerated flight
- JerusalemOld City Jewish Quarter surrendered May 1948
Timeline
- November 1947UN General Assembly votes to partition Palestine
- March 1948Haganah adopts Plan Dalet
- May 1948Israel declares independence; five Arab armies invade
- September 1948Bernadotte assassinated after urging refugees' right of return
- December 1948Genocide Convention adopted; Resolution 194 passed
- August 1949Fourth Geneva Convention signed, Article 49 banning forcible transfer
Still debated
Historians dispute whether the displacement was a deliberate plan, a product of war, or a collapse of Palestinian society from within. Plan Dalet's meaning is contested, and counts of depopulated villages (369, 418 or about 530) differ by definition.
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