The 'Nakba',The Palestinian catastrophe, started in 1947 and continues to this day.

The "Nakba" day (or “catastrophe”) is commemorated on every 15 May by Palestinians and their families who were ethnically cleansed by Israel from their ancestral lands and homes in 1948. The ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians was accompanied by widespread massacres and looting. The biggest misconception about the “Nakba” was that it was due to the fighting that broke out in 1948 between the Zionist/Israeli forces and the Palestinians/Arab armies. This has been proven by many historian to be false. In reality the ethnic cleansing was not due to the 1948 war, but was actually a well planned Zionist operation to insure that the newly independent state of Israel would have a Jewish majority.

Palestinian refugees fleeing from their homes.

This ethnic cleansing of Palestinian started already in 1947, long before the Israeli - Arab war of 1948 was even declared. In 1947, The Zionist leadership implemented their secret "plan Dalet", which called for the ethnic cleansing of the majority of the Palestinian Arab populations from Israel in order to make sure that the Jewish population would enjoy a clear ethnic and religious majority in the newly established Zionist state of Israel. Between 30 of March and 15 of May 1948, 200 Palestinian villages were occupied by Zionist armed forces and their inhabitants expelled.

In some villages, such as Deir Yassin and Ayn Al-Zaytun, horrible massacres were perpetuated. The towns of Tiberius, Haifa, Safed, Beisan, Jaffa, and Acre fell into Zionist hands. As a result more than 250,000 Palestinians were expelled.

All of this took place before the 1948 war between the Arab states and Israel even started, and even before the state of Israel was proclaimed. The ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians by Zionist forces was actually one of the reasons why the Arab states declared war on Israel.

By the end of 1948, approximately 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their land and homes, and were forced to leave everything behind as they fled for their lives.

Former Israeli soldier Amnon Noyman speak about the ethnic cleansing that was perpetuated in 1948 against the civilian Palestinian population.

A Palestinian rfugee holds the key to his home which was stolen by Israel in 1948.

To this day, Israel does not officially recognize the "Nakba" and Israeli propaganda claims the Palestinians left "willingly", despite the overwhelming historical evidences and testimonies both from Palestinians and Former Israeli soldiers who took part in the 1948 massacres and ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The “Nakba” has been historically documented and verified by international history professors and academics from the US, UK, France, Israel and across the world, but Israel still refuses to officially recognize or admit it ever happened or that it was planned, and persecutes anyone in Israel who dares to commemorate it publicly and officially. Any academic or historian who researchers the “Nakba” is automatically labeled an “anti Semite” by Israel, its cronies in the media and Zionist groups worldwide. Israel refuses to acknowledge any Palestinian claims to the lands and property it stole since 1948 and until this day, property and lands estimated to be worth at least tens of billions of dollars.

Israeli soldiers patrol the illigeal West Bank settlement of "Beitar Illit". Israel continues the "Nakba" to this very day, in the form of illegal settlements in the west bank that steals the remaining land the Palestinians managed to keep, and military attacks on the Palestinian population in Gaza.

While it's true that Palestinians have chosen terror as their way to resist and fight the Israeli occupation of their lands, this conflict is not symmetrical in any sense. Since 1947 and until this very day tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed by Israel, and many more contine to die by Israeli hands almost on a daily basis. Israel has nuclear bombs, F35s, one of the most powerful armies in the world and the complete backing of the world's only superpower, while Palestinians have home made rockets, AK47s and stones. While Israel demands from the Palestinians to recognize it has a right to exist as a state, which it does just like any other state in the world, Israel refuses to recognize that Palestinians have the same right to exist as a free and unoppressed nation, free from occupation and constant military attacks.

Bibliography: Martin Bunton and William L. Cleveland , "A History of the Modern Middle East." Illan Pepe, "the ethnic cleansing of Palestine." Charles Smith, "Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A History with Documents."