Originally, Nakba Referred To The Disaster Caused By The Arabs Themselves

The fact that there are these refugees is the direct consequence of the act of the Arab states in opposing partition and the Jewish state. The Arab states agreed upon this policy unanimously and they must share in the solution of the problem.
Emile Ghoury, secretary of the Palestinian Arab Higher Committee, in an interview with the Beirut Telegraph September 6, 1948 and The London Telegraph, August 1948

It has become a regular feature at the UN, a further sign--as if any were needed--of the corruption and hypocrisy of the UN: Nakba Day being celebrated at the UN.

Barry Rubin notes that while these days, we are told that Nakba Day commemorates The Catastrophe: the creation of Israel and the displacement of the Arabs, in point of fact Nakba Day actually commemorates the catastrophe of the desertion of Palestinian Arabs by the surrounding Arab countries:

But the man who coined the use of the word "nakba" in this context had views quite different from Lewis, the Times, the PA, the campus anti-Israel demonstrators, and the revolutionary Islamists.

Constantine Zurayk was vice-president of the American University of Beirut. His book was entitled The Meaning of the Disaster. Here's the key passage:

Seven Arab states declare war on Zionism in Palestine, stop impotent before it and turn on their heels. The representatives of the Arabs deliver fiery speeches in the highest government forums, warning what the Arab states and peoples will do if this or that decision be enacted. Declarations fall like bombs from the mouths of officials at the meetings of the Arab League, but when action becomes necessary, the fire is still and quiet, and steel and iron are rusted and twisted, quick to bend and disintegrate.

This is the old style of Arab discourse. Zurayk openly acknowledged the Arab states rejected all compromise, made ferocious threats, and invaded the new state of Israel to destroy it. For him, the "nakba" taught that they needed to modernize and democratize their system. Only thoroughgoing reform could fix the shortcomings of the Arabic-speaking world. What happened instead was another 55 years of the same thing, followed by this new era opening last year which will probably also bring a half-century of the same thing. Nakba has become the opposite of what Zurayk wanted it to be: Blaming your opponent rather than acknowledging your own shortcomings and fixing them."

Read the whole thing.

Come May, we will again be treated to the propaganda and the lies.

The meaning of "Nakba" has become distorted--much as has the meaning of "Arab Spring," which originated as a call for democracy, but has resulted in anything but.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Palestine and Nakba Day.