The Nakba Continues: The Palestinian Crisis from the Past to the Present

Abstract

Drawing on postcolonial and settler-colonial studies, this article accounts for the settler-colonial nature of the Jewish state, which is founded on the cadastral displacement and effacement of Palestinians, who are dehumanized by Israel, an apartheid state par excellence. We delineate the colonial practices of the Israeli military occupation and its racial discrimination and exclusion as manifested in the construction of the Separation/apartheid Wall and of roads that link settlements in the West Bank, which is under the threat of annexation. This article further illustrates the resilience of the Nakba as a memory and experience in the life of Palestinians. We argue that today’s Israeli war against Palestinians takes the same shape that it took when it established itself in 1948. As this article shows, Israel continues its practices of displacing and replacing Palestinians with Jewish citizens while destroying their homes. This article also argues that Palestinians have felt that the deterioration of the Palestinian political leadership has affected their collective struggle for their self-determination.