1998 Salman Abu Sitta Map of Palestine and the Nakba

This is a 1998 Salman Abu Sitta map of Palestine and the Nakba in 1948 - a rare cartographic look at the Palestinian side of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. The Nakba (meaning 'disaster', 'catastrophe', or 'cataclysm' in Arabic) refers to the dispossession of the Palestinians of their land and homes, the destruction of Palestinian society, and the permanent displacement of most of the Palestinian population in 1948. Composed entirely in Arabic, colors highlight regions within Palestine depopulated by the Israelis. The blue triangles mark Jewish colonies in Palestine prior to 1948, and the yellow squares mark Palestinian cities now inhabited by Israelis. The information to the left of Palestine lists where the Palestinians were forced to leave, how many villages were depopulated, and the dispossessed population, along with the countries where Palestinian refugees lived in 1998. This data also includes a list of all the towns and villages that suffered terrorism or massacres at the hands of the Israelis and on what date those attacks happened.

The Nakba

The Nakba has its roots in the 1947 - 1949 Palestine War, when an estimated 700,000 Palestinians either fled their homes or were expelled. This is approximately eighty percent of the Palestinian Arab population living in what is today Israel. Between 250,000 and 300,000 had done so before Israel declared independence, which the Arab League viewed as a justifiable cause for war. This led to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. During the 1947 - 1949 war, the Israelis depopulated and destroyed hundreds of Palestinian villages, some claim up to 500. The Palestinian names for these locations were immediately erased and replaced with Hebrew names. Numerous non-Jewish historical sites were also destroyed in the subsequent decades - including the destruction of over eighty percent of village mosques. The Nakba also rendered the Palestinians stateless, following an Israeli law voiding Palestinian citizenship as 'devoid of substance'. The Nakba also fractured Palestinian society, leading to a Palestinian diaspora.

Publication History and Census

This map was created by Salman Abu Sitta, published by the Palestine Land Society, and distributed by the Right of Return Congress in 1998. This map is not cataloged in OCLC and we have been unable to locate any other examples.