Palestinian Historian Abdel Razzaq Takriti on the 1948 Nakba, Zionism, and U.S. Policy

Democracy Now!, May 15, 2024

Palestinians across the globe are marking the 76th anniversary of the Nakba — which means “catastrophe” in Arabic — when those establishing the state of Israel violently expelled over 700,000 Palestinians.

Palestinian historian Abdel Razzaq Takriti says closer to 900,000 Palestinians were forced out or massacred during Israel’s founding, which is being celebrated inside Israel with calls to ethnically cleanse and settle the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.

“The Nakba is continuing. This is a colonial continuum,” says Takriti. “It’s not enough to commemorate. It’s not enough to talk about it. We have to stop it right now. … The first step to doing that is to stop the genocide in Gaza.”

Takriti lays out four principles for Nakba education: refuting Nakba denialism, recognizing the Nakba is part of an ongoing process of settler colonialism, stopping that process, and then reversing it by restoring Palestinian national rights.