Each year, on May 15, Palestinians mark the day of the Nakba as they remember the events leading up to the creation of Israel in 1948 that would claim hundreds of lives and affect many generations in the years that followed.
The already divisive anniversary was officially recognised by the UN General Assembly which passed a landmark resolution last year to commemorate Nakba Day, despite Israel's vehement opposition.
Israel celebrates its creation a day earlier on May 14.
In 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced to leave their homes, hundreds of villages were destroyed and millions of their descendants now live scattered outside their former homeland, many as refugees.
The Nakba “all but wiped out the Arab character” of the land, says Michael Fischbach, a professor specialising in Palestinian history. Many other authors and experts describe the Nakba as an “ongoing trauma” for Palestinians.
Why is it called Nakba Day?
Nakba means "catastrophe" in Arabic, as the day is named to mark the effect it had on the Palestinians and the ensuing diaspora. It is considered the biggest tragedy in Palestine’s history.
What led to the Nakba?
In 1948, Palestine was controlled by a British mandate that included Transjordan, after the Ottomans lost both territories following the First World War.
For several years before the Nakba, the international community had treated the future of Palestine as a political hot potato, with discussions held at the UN, at high-level international conferences and in the British parliament.
In 1947, the UN passed Resolution 181, known as the Partition Plan, to split Palestine into two states — a move that was largely rejected by Arabs. The UN sought to allocate 43 per cent of Palestine to the Arabs and 56 per cent to the Jews.
According the UN, Arabs made up at least 1.1 million of the population in 1945 while Jews were about 407,000.
The UN plan did not come to fruition. After the British mandate expired at midnight on May 14, 1948, Jewish forces annexed 77 per cent of Palestine, including East Jerusalem during the 1967 war.
In preparation for the end of the mandate and the expected Arab mobilisation of forces, the Jewish authorities came up with Plan Dalet (or Plan D), to drive Palestinians and Arabs from land it either already had control over or wanted to control.
Drawn up on March 10, 1948, the plan focused on the Arab League’s Liberation Army, state armies from neighbouring countries and paramilitary groups seeking to fight Israeli forces.
The plan’s objectives also included measures to protect Israeli settlements and vital infrastructure, and attack “enemy” supply lines. It spoke of “controlling and occupying” territories.
However, none of the terminology would reflect the atrocities it would later become associated with.
“The goal of the Arabs was initially to block the Partition Resolution and to prevent the establishment of the Jewish state. The Jews, on the other hand, hoped to gain control over the territory allotted to them under the Partition Plan,” the US State Department says.
Five Arab nations — Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq — sent troops into the country shortly after the British mandate ended. Jewish forces soon made gains until a UN-brokered ceasefire took effect in 1949.
The Nakba in numbers
After atrocities committed by Jewish forces, dozens of massacres were carried out, with hundreds of civilians — including women and children — killed, and 70 per cent of Palestinians expelled or compelled to leave their homes.
That means, an estimated 750 to 1 million Palestinians were made refugees between 1947 and 1949. That number stands at 7.1 million refugees and displaced persons as of 2009, including descendants of the victims of the Nakba.
Only 150,000 Palestinians remained inside the 1948 borders. At least 24 known massacres were conducted by Jewish forces - with at least 100 people, including women and children, killed in the Deir Yassin massacre alone on April 9, 1948. Over 400 Palestinian cities and towns were destroyed by Jewish forces between 1948 and 1950.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz published some findings from declassified documents detailing some of the war crimes.
A soldier who witnessed events in the village of Dawayima, now called Moshav Amatzia, says at least 100 people were killed.
“There was no battle and no resistance. The first conquerors killed 80 to 100 Arab men, women and children. The children were killed by smashing their skulls with sticks. There wasn’t a house without people killed in it,” the soldier says.
Jewish author and scholar Ilan Pappe has famously called the Nakba an “ethnic cleansing” while Israeli historian Benny Morris's book, The Birthplace of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, documents many of the accusations levelled against the Israelis during that period.
Speaking to Haaretz in 2004 about a newer version of his book, Mr Morris said: “The revised book is a double-edged sword. It is based on many documents that were not available to me when I wrote the original book, most of them from the Israel Defence Forces' archives. What the new material shows is that there were far more Israeli acts of massacre than I had previously thought. To my surprise, there were also many cases of rape.”
He also spoke about the role of the Haganah, the predecessor of Israel’s Defence Forces today.
“In the months of April to May 1948, units of the Haganah were given operational orders that stated explicitly that they were to uproot the villagers, expel them and destroy the villages themselves.”
He also says the Palestinians and their supporting Arab neighbours issued orders for women and children to evacuate, presumably to protect the more vulnerable members of the Palestinian community.
“So that on the one hand, the book reinforces the accusation against the Zionist side, but on the other hand it also proves that many of those who left the villages did so with the encouragement of the Palestinian leadership itself.”
The Nakba’s impact on Palestinians
The world will never know the true extent of the catastrophe that occurred in 1948.
“Millions of documents from the state’s founding are stored in government archives and banned from publication,” a Haaretz article said in December 2021.
“On top of this, there is active censorship. In recent years, personnel of the Malmab unit [Hebrew acronym for director of security of the defence establishment] have been scouring archives around the country and removing evidence of war crimes, as an investigative report by Hagar Shezaf in Haaretz revealed in 2019.
“However, despite the efforts at concealment, the accounts of about massacres continue to accumulate.”
Federer's 11 Wimbledon finals
2003 Beat Mark Philippoussis
2004 Beat Andy Roddick
2005 Beat Andy Roddick
2006 Beat Rafael Nadal
2007 Beat Rafael Nadal
2008 Lost to Rafael Nadal
2009 Beat Andy Roddick
2012 Beat Andy Murray
2014 Lost to Novak Djokovic
2015 Lost to Novak Djokovic
2017 Beat Marin Cilic
Recent winners
2002 Giselle Khoury (Colombia)
2004 Nathalie Nasralla (France)
2005 Catherine Abboud (Oceania)
2007 Grace Bijjani (Mexico)
2008 Carina El-Keddissi (Brazil)
2009 Sara Mansour (Brazil)
2010 Daniella Rahme (Australia)
2011 Maria Farah (Canada)
2012 Cynthia Moukarzel (Kuwait)
2013 Layla Yarak (Australia)
2014 Lia Saad (UAE)
2015 Cynthia Farah (Australia)
2016 Yosmely Massaad (Venezuela)
2017 Dima Safi (Ivory Coast)
2018 Rachel Younan (Australia)
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Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
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The Ashes
Results
First Test, Brisbane: Australia won by 10 wickets
Second Test, Adelaide: Australia won by 120 runs
Third Test, Perth: Australia won by an innings and 41 runs
Fourth Test: Melbourne: Drawn
Fifth Test: Australia won by an innings and 123 runs
The specs: 2019 Cadillac XT4
Price, base: Dh145,000
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged in-line four-cylinder engine
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Power: 237hp @ 5,000rpm
Torque: 350Nm @ 1,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.7L / 100km
Temple numbers
Expected completion: 2022
Height: 24 meters
Ground floor banquet hall: 370 square metres to accommodate about 750 people
Ground floor multipurpose hall: 92 square metres for up to 200 people
First floor main Prayer Hall: 465 square metres to hold 1,500 people at a time
First floor terrace areas: 2,30 square metres
Temple will be spread over 6,900 square metres
Structure includes two basements, ground and first floor
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- August 29 – UAE v Saudi Arabia, Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
- September 5 – Iraq v UAE, Amman, Jordan (venue TBC)
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3.5/5 stars
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The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
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1. Rafael Nadal (ESP) 9,585 pts ( 1)
2. Novak Djokovic (SRB) 8,945 (-1)
3. Roger Federer (SUI) 6,190
4. Daniil Medvedev (RUS) 5,705
5. Dominic Thiem (AUT) 5,025
6. Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) 4,000 ( 1)
7. Alexander Zverev (GER) 2,945 (-1)
8. Matteo Berrettini (ITA) 2,670 ( 1)
9. Roberto Bautista (ESP) 2,540 ( 1)
10. Gaël Monfils (FRA) 2,530 ( 3)
11. David Goffin (BEL) 2,335 ( 3)
12. Fabio Fognini (ITA) 2,290
13. Kei Nishikori (JPN) 2,180 (-2)
14. Diego Schwartzman (ARG) 2,125 ( 1)
15. Denis Shapovalov (CAN) 2,050 ( 13)
16. Stan Wawrinka (SUI) 2,000
17. Karen Khachanov (RUS) 1,840 (-9)
18. Alex De Minaur (AUS) 1,775
19. John Isner (USA) 1,770 (-2)
20. Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) 1,747 ( 7)
Anna and the Apocalypse
Director: John McPhail
Starring: Ella Hunt, Malcolm Cumming, Mark Benton
Three stars
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The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
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RESULT
Manchester City 1 Sheffield United 0
Man City: Jesus (9')
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Founders: Michele Ferrario, Nino Ulsamer and Freddy Lim
Started: established in 2016 and launched in July 2017
Based: Singapore, with offices in the UAE, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand
Sector: FinTech, wealth management
Initial investment: $500,000 in seed round 1 in 2016; $2.2m in seed round 2 in 2017; $5m in series A round in 2018; $12m in series B round in 2019; $16m in series C round in 2020 and $25m in series D round in 2021
Current staff: more than 160 employees
Stage: series D
Investors: EightRoads Ventures, Square Peg Capital, Sequoia Capital India
