The Palestine Nakba: Decolonising History, Narrating the Subaltern, Reclaiming Memory

In 2009, Palestinians commemorated the 60th anniversary of the Nakba - the most traumatic catastrophe that ever befell them. The Palestine Nakba explores ways of remembering and commemorating the Nakba, dealing with the issue within the context of Palestinian oral history, "social history from below," narratives of memory, and the formation of collective identity. Masalha argues that to write more truthfully about the Nakba is not just to practice a professional historiography but a moral imperative. The struggles of the ordinary refugees to publicize the truth about the Nakba is a vital way of protecting the refugees' rights and keeping the hope for peace with justice alive. With the history, rights, and needs of the Palestinian refugees being excluded from recent Middle East peacemaking efforts and with the failure of both the Israeli state and international community to acknowledge the Nakba, "1948" as an "ethnic cleansing" continues to underpin the Palestine-Israel conflict. This book is vital for a real understanding of the Israel-Palestine conflict.