Nakba narrative: What is a "Palestinian"? The origins of an identity

Part One of a Six Part series

On May 15, as has been done for decades, Palestinian Arabs, their supporters and Israel detractors observed the “Nakba” or the catastrophe of Israel’s birth in 1948. In order to understand the veracity of that narrative and how it’s been conflated in modern dialogue and reporting, it’s important to understand what lies behind that.

A name with a history

My father was a Palestinian. A Palestinian Jew. He was born in Palestine in 1937, at a time when the only people commonly referred to as “Palestinians” were the Jewish population. The Arabs of Palestine, some of wh...