(Arabic for “the catastrophe) Refers to the uprooting and displacement of 700,000-800,000 Palestinians concurrently with the establishment of the State of Israel on 78% of pre-1948 Palestine, and the subsequent War of 1948. During the War of 1948, many Palestinian villages and properties were appropriated or destroyed by Israeli forces and the remaining territories were seized by Jordanian and Egyptian forces. The majority of displaced Palestinians became part of a diaspora community throughout the Arab World, either as refugees or residents. These events lead to the coining of the term Al-Nakba. Israel considers these same events to be its War of Independence, rejects the term Al-Nakba, and maintains that Israel acted in self-defense and that Palestinians were not expelled. United Nations Resolution 194 stipulated that refugees be allowed to return to their homes and lands and that the responsible governments should compensate all refugees for any destroyed property or for properties the refugees do not choose to return to; for the most part, Israel has ignored this resolution. Al-Nakba Day is commemorated annually on the 15th of May. See also 1948, Independence Day and War of 1948. See Morris, Benny. The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004; Pappe Ilan. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2006; Khalidi, Walid. All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington, DC: Institute for Palestine Studies, 2006; and The Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center’s website on Al-Nakba at http://www.alnakba.org.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/al-nakba