Catastrophe, Memory and Identity: Al-Nakbah as a Component of Palestinian Identity

THE 1948 WAR RESULTED IN Al-Nakbah-the immense catastrophefor the Palestinian people and changed their life beyond recognition. First and foremost, Al-Nakbah engendered the dispersion [Shatat]. Between 77 and 83 percent of the Palestinians who lived in the part of Palestine that later became Israel-i.e., 78 percent of Mandatory Palestine-were turned into refugees. Thus, for Palestinians, Al-Nakbah represents, among many other things, the loss of the homeland, the disintegration of society, the frustration of national aspirations, and the beginning of a hasty process of destruction of their culture. Rabinowitz has observed that Palestinian identity hinges on the experience of dispossession and exile [Ghurba] as well as mis-recognition international of Palestinian rights and suffering.1 In a similar vein, Elias Sanbar, a Palestinian historian, essayist, and novelist, argues that: