The Naksa, Explained
How the West Bank and Gaza fell to Israel's occupation
What is Al-Naksa?
The term Al-Naksa (meaning "the setback") has been used to reference Israel's invasion and subsequent military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, and the Syrian Golan Heights, which occurred as a result of the Six-day War in June of 1967.
The term was first used by then-President of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, in his resignation speech on June 9th, just five days after the war began, in which he stated:
"We cannot hide from ourselves the fact that we have met with a grave setback [naksa] in the last few days"
The "setback" that Abdel Nasser references is the overwhelming loss of land and life at the hands of the Israeli forces. The war resulted in the destruction of the Egyptian Air Force, the loss of the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza, and the national humiliation of such a catastrophic defeat to the much smaller Israeli military.
While this term may be appropriate for the Egyptian state, to whom the Sinai was eventually returned, it is a far cry from the reality for the indigenous Palestinians.
For the Palestinians, the events of 1967 were not that of warfare, but a continuation of the ethnic cleansing and settler colonialist project that began with the events of Al-Nakba ("the catastrophe") of 1948 and continues to this day.
Establishing the Jewish State
There are two fundamental conditions to a "Jewish State", according to the Zionist ideology.
- Complete ownership of the land
- A Jewish-majority population within said land
As Zionism is a project that began in the late 1800s, their work in establishing a Jewish Majority was well underway by the end of the British Mandate. According to the Ottoman census, the Jewish population in Palestine accounted for less than 6% of the total population.
In an effort to bolster their numbers, the Zionist leadership began to encourage Jews from around the world to immigrate to Palestine. By the end of the British Mandate era, the Jewish population accounted for roughly 31% of the total population.
By the time 1947 had rolled around and the British had proposed their plan to partition Palestine between the Zionists and the Palestinians, it was clear that the Zionists would not be able to meet their objective of establishing a Jewish majority in Palestine. Additionally, they had only acquired 7% of the total land area of Palestine.
Interestingly, despite their failure to meet either goal of establishing a Jewish majority or establishing complete control of the land, the Zionists managed to land a deal with the British in the 1947 Plan of Partition in which they would be given 54% of Palestine, despite making up less than a third of the population. The Zionist leadership took this "deal" without a second thought.
The Palestinians, who made up most of the population and were promised less than half of the land, saw this as an obvious land grab and immediately objected. Their objections, however, fell on deaf ears. The Zionists "declared independence" the day before the British withdrew from Palestine on May 15th, 1948, leaving the Palestinians at the mercy of the well-armed, highly-trained Zionist militant groups.
The war that followed over the next year between the newly formed Zionist Israeli state and its neighboring Arab states provided Israel with both the opportunity and the justification for the expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinians from their lands, and the destruction of over 500 Palestinian villages.
By the end of the war, Israel had captured 78% of historic Palestine, leaving the remaining 22% in the hands of the Egyptian and Jordanian governments. These remaining lands are what we now call the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, in new borders formed under the 1949 Armistice Agreements.
Leading up to the war
In the aftermath of Al-Nakba, and the subsequent 1949 Armistice Agreements, Egypt took a hard stance against the newly formed Zionist Israeli state. Along with its refusal to recognize Israel, Egypt blocked all passage through the Suez Canal and the Straits of Tiran, resulting in a buildup of tensions between Israel and Egypt.
These tensions, along with Egypt's decision to close off the airspace above the Straits of Tiran and to nationalize the Suez Canal Company, triggered the 1956 Suez Crisis. Israel, along with the UK and France, responded to these actions by invading and annexing the Sinai Peninsula. The conflict resulted in heavy casualties on the Egyptian side, and after international intervention, the Sinai was declared a demilitarized zone.
The conflict of narratives
To the casual observer, the Six-Day War is a confusing mess that often ends in throwing one's hands in the air and exclaiming "it's complicated."
In the context of Al-Nakba, however, it's clear as day: The Six-Day War was an opportunity for Israel to move the needle forward in the mission it had set out on since the start of the century: capturing Palestine in its entirety and establishing a Zionist Jewish majority.