The Palestinian Nakba - Facets of Palestinian Identity Change - Shift in Population Demographics

Jewish Migration

In 1839, according to the Jewish Montefiore, the number of Jews did not exceed 6,000, approximately 2% of the more than 300,000 Arab Palestinians at that time.

The year 1880 witnessed the arrival of the first wave of Jewish immigrants, numbering around 25,000. In 1914, the Ottoman authorities conducted the first census of Palestine, revealing a total population of about 289,000, including 634,000 Arabs and 55,000 Jews, constituting only 8%.

When the United Nations issued the resolution to partition Palestine in November 1947, the population of Palestine was 1.97 million. Two-thirds of them (1.36 million) were Arabs, and the remaining third (614,000) were Jews. The majority of the Arabs were predominantly Muslim (86,000), with the rest mostly Christians. By the end of the British Mandate in 1948, the Jewish population was estimated at around 650,000, representing 31.5%.

This table illustrates the population dynamics of Palestine from 1914 to 1948.

The table shows the population of Arabs and Jews in Palestine from 1914 to 1948. The data is from the Ottoman government, the British Mandate government, and censuses.

As you can see, the Arab population grew steadily over the period, while the Jewish population grew more rapidly. In 1914, there were about 634,000 Arabs and 55,000 Jews in Palestine. By 1948, there were about 1.4 million Arabs and 650,000 Jews.

The growth of the Jewish population was due to immigration. In the early 20th century, many Jews immigrated to Palestine from Europe, fleeing persecution and seeking a homeland. The arrival of these immigrants led to conflict between Jews and Arabs, which eventually culminated in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Under British mandate, Jewish ownership of Palestinian land became more facilitated due to laws imposed by the mandate, negatively impacting the land areas that Arab farmers were allowed to own.

At the end of the mandate and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the Jewish-owned land in Palestinian territories amounted to 2.075 million dunams. (a measure of land area used in parts of the former Turkish empire, including Israel (where it is equal to about 900 square meters).

The massacres and displacement BEFORE the Declaration

The Israeli massacres against Palestinians began before the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel by about 11 years. This was during the period when Palestine was under the British Mandate's supervision, responsible for protecting the lives of Palestinian citizens. Throughout this time, Jewish gangs (such as Etzel, Lehi, Haganah, the Palmach Brigade, and Stern Gang) committed more than 57 massacres, resulting in the deaths of over 5,000 Palestinians and thousands of injuries.

As for the Israeli army, its role in the massacres became evident since May 14, 1948, one day before the declaration of the State of Israel, when the Givati Brigade, part of the Israeli army, besieged the Arab village of Abu Shusha. They attacked it using gunfire and mortar bombs, leading to the martyrdom of 60 Palestinians and injuring others.

It is worth mentioning that among the 57 massacres that preceded the declaration of the State of Israel, 37 occurred in 1948. Sometimes multiple massacres took place in a single day, while in other instances, only one or two days separated one massacre from another. This led to the displacement or killing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

The International Laws

The United Nations, through the issuance of Resolution 181, contributed to the division of Palestine into two states, Israeli and Arab, resulting in the loss of the Palestinian people's right to their lands, which had been seized by Jewish immigrants with the assistance of Jewish gangs and the British Mandate government.

With the issuance of this resolution, Israel became a recognized state on the world map, obtained membership rights in the United Nations, and, as a consequence, the Palestinians, the rightful owners of the land, were transformed into refugees. Despite all the laws issued by the United Nations to date, they have failed to secure their right to return to their lands, cities, and villages.

Renaming of Palestinians’ Cities

The Zionist movement began assigning Hebrew names inspired by the Torah to the settlements it established since the start of its activities on the land. In 1878, the first settlement, Petah Tikva (Gate of Hope), was founded in the Jezreel Valley north of Galilee, and Rosh Pina (Cornerstone) was established.

The Jewish Agency formed a committee to select names for the settlements, changing the names of 216 locations until 1984. Later, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion incorporated this committee directly into his office, consisting of 24 members, experts in geography, history, Torah, archaeology, and representatives from ministries and the military.

One of the committee's initial tasks was to assign Hebrew names to the depopulated Palestinian villages. To date, it has designated more than 8,000 names for Palestinian sites, including 5,000 geographical locations, a few hundred historical names, and 1,000 settlement names. Most of these names were coined or translated, as the Torah originally encompasses only 550 names for various places in Palestinian territories, and these are originally Canaanite names. Therefore, Zionist movements and later Israeli authorities sought to alter or replace the original names of Palestinian locations.

According to historians, only about 50 Hebrew names existed in Palestine before 1948. Examples of Arabic name distortions for Palestinian cities include:

Acre – Akko

 Safed – Tsfat

 Jaffa – Yafo

 Kfar Mand – Kfar Manda

Tel al-Rabi – Tel Aviv

 Al-Abassiyeh – Jerusalem

 Um al-Rashrash – Eilat

 Beersheba – Be'er Sheva

 Khudeira – Hadera

 Askelan – Ashkelon

 Nazareth – Natzrat

 Jordan Valley – Emek Bet She'an

 Ras al-Naqab - Ma'ale Akhbariyya

 Iksal – Kisalon

 Um Dumanah – Dimona

 Tufaniyya – Hivla Tzifin.

The wiping of more than 500 villages

In the process of erasing the Palestinian identity, Zionist militias and the Israeli army carried out the complete destruction of 428 Palestinian villages. This obliteration involved either killing all of their inhabitants or a significant portion of them, forcing the remaining residents to leave. No trace of these villages remains, as successive Israeli governments often opted to establish new towns for Jewish immigrants with purely Jewish names.

The change of currency

After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1984, the Israeli pound became the currency in use. Before this date, the Palestinian pound was the currency traded in the Palestinian territories.