The "Israeli Arabs"

Almost non public information exists referring to the Palestinian Arabs that were made Israeli citizens in 1948. A paradoxical situation under a military administration, that made them simultaneously "citizens of a liberal nation-state and subjects of colonial administration" in Shira Robinson's words. Those that would hold and Israeli passport automatically became "persona non grata" in the rest of the Arab countries, where most of the families of the Arab-Israeli flew.

Tenths of thousands of Arabs refugees attempted to re enter the country and were redefined as "infiltrators". Thousands were killed by the Israeli army. Others succeeded in crossing the border. The State demanded that its Arab citizens turned these "newcomers". Facing this dilema some acceded to this demand, others, helped to hide them. In the middle were many others; those that helped their own family, those that exploited the situation asking for profit, those that had close ties with the authorities and used their connections to help the refugees back. This was the law passed in 1954 to prevent Arab population to return, issued under the government of Moshe Sharet. Today, a name of a street in Tel Aviv...

The reminding Arab population in the villages were mostly displaced to other villages, a huge amount of homes were expropriated under a clause of "Present Absentee". Meaning, the person was in the territory of Israel but could not access to his village. He could pass his house by but not go to his house. These emptied properties became the home of Jewish refugees coming from Arab countries such as Yemen or European countries. 

AL NAKBA

“The Nakba - the catastrophe for the Palestine people- did not begin in 1948. Its origins lie over two centuries ago….”

So begins this four-part series on the ‘nakba’, meaning the ‘catastrophe’, about the history of the Palestinian exodus that led to the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948 and the establishment of the state of Israel.

This sweeping history starts back in 1799 with Napoleon’s attempted advance into Palestine to check British expansion and his appeal to the Jews of the world to reclaim their land in league with France.

The narrative moves through the 19th century and into the 20th century with the British Mandate in Palestine and comes right up to date in the 21st century and the ongoing ‘nakba’ on the ground.

Arab, Israeli and Western intellectuals, historians and eye-witnesses provide the central narrative which is accompanied by archive material and documents, many only recently released for the first time.

Editor's note: Since first running on Al Jazeera Arabic in 2008, this series has won Arab and international awards and has been well received at festivals throughout the world. 

LINK TO THE VIDEOS