Exposing the Nakba Myth

Palestine Betrayed, by Efraim Karsh, Yale University Press, 2010,
Reviewed by Asaf Romirowsky

Asaf Romirowsky
Institute for Global Jewish Affairs
Jewish Political Studies Review
Published November '10

Efraim Karsh is head of Mediterranean Studies at King's College, University of London, and one of the preeminent historians of the Arab-Israeli conflict. This author has had the privilege to be one of his students and to be exposed to his research and teachings.

In this, his latest book, Karsh tackles one of the core narratives that continue to fuel the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - the Nakba, the Arabic term for catastrophe. The Nakba represents much more than just the physical creation of the modern state of Israel in 1948, which Palestinians decree as the cataclysmic disaster, but also the Palestinian process of refusing to accept the fact that a sovereign Jewish state could be allowed to come into being.

The greatest irony is that of all places, Arab Members of Knesset proposed establishing a "Nakba Day." Although the Knesset's Ministerial Committee on Legislative Affairs eventually banned this from coming to fruition, it does indicate the challenges of Israel in 2010, which is still debating Israel of 1948. To the Knesset's credit there was an understanding that marking the Nakba is harmful and propagates the notion that Israel's birth as illegitimate.

But what was this "Nakba" all about? On the one hand, it highlights the extent and openness of Israeli society that such ideas, even ludicrous ones, could be raised in its parliament. On the other, such a proposal would require Israeli society to forget what Zionism is all about.

By examining the historical record in detail, Karsh is able to test Abba Eban's observation that the Palestinians and the Arab world at large never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Karsh clearly shows how the Yishuv (the prestatehood community) under the leadership of David Ben-Gurion sought ways to come to terms with the Arabs, and how Arab rejectionism has favored the Nakba mentality over a cooperative relationship. Just three days after the second ceasefire during Israel's War of Independence, Ben-Gurion told the Knesset that Israel needed actively to seek peace with its Arab neighbors. He explained: "only through an alliance with the State of Israel and the Jewish People will the Arab world be able to free itself from its overt and covert subservience and reliance on oppressive and exploitative foreign forces, and only through collaboration with the neighboring [Arab] states will we be able to stabilize peace in our state and country."

Moreover, Karsh describes the reasons for the Arab states effectively sending the Arabs of Haifa into exile:

(Read full review)

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