1948: one war, two memories

A civil war, then a regional war

Both sides committed terrible crimes against civilians. In April 1948 Jewish militias massacred more than 100 villagers at Deir Yassin, near Jerusalem; days later Arab fighters killed 78 people in an attack on a Jewish medical convoy.

On 14 May 1948, as the British left, Jewish leader David Ben-Gurion declared the State of Israel. The next day the armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon invaded. Israel held on, then pushed back. By 1949 it controlled about 78% of the land; Jordan held the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Egypt held Gaza. No Palestinian state was created.

The refugees

During the war, about 700,000–750,000Palestinians who fled or were driven out in 1947–49✕about 700,000–750,000As of 1949Estimates range from about 520,000 (early Israeli figures) to over 900,000 (some Palestinian figures). UN bodies counted 711,000–726,000. About 160,000 Arabs stayed in what became Israel and became citizens.Sources: Wikipedia (summary of historians' and UN estimates) — List of estimates of the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flightBenny Morris (Israeli historian) — The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited (Cambridge University Press) (2004) Palestinians — more than half of the Arab population — fled or were driven out, hundreds of thousands of them before the Arab armies invaded. Most fled as Jewish, then Israeli, forces attacked or captured their towns and villages; many fled in fear after massacres such as Deir Yassin; tens of thousands were expelled, for example from Lydda and Ramle. About 400 to 500Palestinian villages emptied in 1948✕about 400–500As of 1948Counts differ by method: Israeli historian Benny Morris counts about 370–390; Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi counts 418 villages; others count over 500 when towns and Bedouin areas are included. Most were later destroyed.Sources: Walid Khalidi, ed. (Palestinian historian) — All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948 (Institute for Palestine Studies) (1992)Benny Morris (Israeli historian) — The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited (Cambridge University Press) (2004) villages were emptied, and most were later destroyed. Israel did not let the refugees return and took over their land and houses: the NakbaNakba✕Arabic for 'catastrophe'. Palestinians use it for the loss of their homeland in 1948, when about 700,000 fled or were driven out and were not allowed to return. Palestinians mark it every year on 15 May.Palestinians: the central injustice of their history — an expulsion that, they say, has never ended.Many Israelis: a tragedy caused mainly by the war the Arab side started, not by a plan to expel; some Israeli historians disagree.All words explained →. Nearly a third of their descendants still live in refugee camps.

Meanwhile, life became dangerous for Jews in many Arab countries. Over the following decades, about 850,000Jews who left Arab countries and Iran, 1948–1970s✕about 850,000As of 1948–1970sAbout 600,000–650,000 settled in Israel; others went to France, the US and elsewhere. Some were expelled, many left under pressure or after violence, some chose to move. Their property was mostly lost.Source: Wikipedia (summary of historians' and Israeli government figures) — Jewish exodus from the Muslim worldIsrael's official figure is about 850,000 from Arab countries and Iran. Historians debate how much of this movement was expulsion and how much was emigration under pressure. Jews left Arab countries and Iran, most of them for Israel. Many Israelis see this as the other side of 1948; many Palestinians answer that they were not responsible for what Arab governments did.

Go deeper · optionalMore: the cost of the war, the UN resolution on refugees, and Jews from Arab countries▾

The cost. About 6,000 IsraelisDeaths in the 1948 war✕about 6,000 Israelis; Arab deaths uncertain (roughly 5,000–20,000)As of 1947–1949Israel lost about 1% of its Jewish population. Arab losses (Palestinians and soldiers of Arab armies) are much less certain.Source: Benny Morris (Israeli historian) — 1948: A History of the First Arab–Israeli War (Yale University Press) (2008) died — roughly 1% of the Jewish population. Arab losses are less certain but were probably higher.

The UN resolution. In December 1948 the UN General Assembly recommended that refugees who wished to return home and live at peace with their neighbours should be allowed to (Resolution 194). Such resolutions are not binding. Israel refused, and the Arab states at first voted against the resolution, which implied accepting Israel. The right of returnRight of return✕The Palestinian demand that refugees from 1948 and their descendants may return to their former homes, now in Israel.Palestinians: a basic right, supported by UN Resolution 194 (1948).Most Israelis: impossible to accept, because millions of returnees would end Israel's Jewish majority; refugees should settle in a Palestinian state or where they live now.All words explained → is still one of the hardest issues. A UN agency, UNRWAUNRWA✕The UN agency created in 1949 to help Palestine refugees. It runs schools, clinics and aid in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. A UN inquiry found that nine of its staff may have taken part in the 7 October attack, and they were fired. Israel says Hamas infiltrated the agency and banned it in 2025; the US stopped funding it. The UN and most other donors say its work is essential.All words explained →, was created in 1949 to help the refugees, who live in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. In Gaza, the refugees outnumbered the people already living there.

Jews from Arab countries. Many of these communities were very old — some more than 2,000 years. After 1948 there were riots against Jews, and some governments took their property or citizenship. Today, Jews whose families came from the Middle East and North Africa are about half of Israel's Jewish population.

Two views

One war, two names

For Palestinians: the Nakba

A people lost its homeland. Families were scattered and villages wiped off the map; refugees still keep the keys of houses they were never allowed to return to. Many see it as a loss that has never ended.

For Israelis: the War of Independence

Three years after the Holocaust, a small Jewish community fought five armies — and survived. Most Israelis see the refugee problem as a tragic result of a war the Arab side started, not of an Israeli plan.

These are widely held views, not the views of every Israeli or every Palestinian. Both societies argue about these questions among themselves.