On May 14, 1948, Israel declared its independence. The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq invaded the young state to destroy it. Israel, however, prevailed, and has thrived ever since.
On that day, Israel took its cue from Resolution 181 of the UN General Assembly, which approved the partition of Palestine into as Arab state as well as a Jewish one. May 14, 1948 could have been a Palestinian independence day too, but the Palestinian Arabs refused to accept the existence of a Jewish State, no matter the size, in Palestine.
For that reason, on May 15 each year, rather than celebrating their independence, the Palestinians observe “Nakba Day.” Nakba is Arabic for catastrophe, which is how Palestinians describe the founding of the State of Israel, and Israel’s victory against those invading Arab forces during the 1948-1949 war.
Indeed, that war led to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian being displaced and becoming refugees. Of course, those refugees suffered personal and collective trauma, which has become a cornerstone of Palestinian identity. Their suffering has been exacerbated by the refusal of neighbouring Arab states to which many fled to integrate the Palestinians, often denying them citizenship and other privileges, and continuing to regard them and their descendants as “refugees” many decades after their arrival. Palestinians who were displaced to other areas within the Palestinian territories are also considered “refugees” in the Palestinian narrative.
Many thousands of Arabs accepted Israeli sovereignty in 1948, and are today Israeli citizens. They mark Independence Day as Israeli Arabs, who celebrate full social and legal equality and citizenship in the Middle East’s only democracy.