The word “Nakba” (Arabic for “catastrophe” or “calamity”) is used to describe the massacres, atrocities, and ethnic cleansing through which the state of Israel was established. Between 1947-1948, Zionist militias carried out wide-scale atrocities against thousands of Palestinians (including civilian women, children, and the elderly), destroyed thousands of homes and around 530 Palestinian villages (effectively wiping them off of the map), and forcing over 700,000 Palestinians into exile–amounting to what was then around 85% of the total population of ethnically cleansed territories.
Many also describe Israel’s actions as an ongoing Nakba (Arabic: nakba mustamirra) given that Zionist state and vigilante/settler violence, active theft and occupation of Palestinian lands and resources, and discriminatory apartheid rule persist through the present-day.